While 2020 was a crazy year all around, we were fortunate to remain healthy and maintain employment as desired (retirement for me has been much quieter than anticipated, but there have been many masks to sew and no shortage of yarn for knitting!). Since the wildfires in the west put a kibosh on our road trip to CA last fall, we thought we’d make another attempt in the new year. Unfortunately, the virus is still too rampant to make that long trip. It’s now been over a year since we’ve seen Matt and Meghna, and even the 4 months since seeing Katherine feels like a long time – fingers crossed that we’ll start to see improvements and the possibility for a safe trip west.
Our compromise was to make a shorter trip to our beach house in NC. We picked up the scamp from storage on a cold January morning. Hooking up took a bit longer than usual, because we had removed the battery and propane tank for storage. After re-installing those, removing the winter cover, and attaching the new license plate – barely feeling our fingers at the end – we were on the road in an hour.
We have done the drive to NC in a straight shot a few times, but pulling the camper adds time to the trip. Luckily, we are traveling with our self-contained house, so we just need to find a spot to park and sleep for the night. We were thinking about trying out the free overnight parking at Walmart (or one of the other large chains that offer this), but the temps weren’t improving as we drove south. A little google searching led us to Pocahontas State Park near Richmond, VA. That would give us a place to spend the night with an electrical hookup – but we didn’t have a heater! A few miles before our exit, we pulled into a Walmart and grabbed a little ceramic heater for $29.
We arrived at the campground after dark, but the check-in board at the entrance had our name with instructions on choosing a site and campground rules. There were quite a few campers, but plenty of open sites to choose from. Sites are well separated and we didn’t have any close neighbors. Once parked and leveled, we plugged in and fired up the heater. Within a few minutes, the chill was gone and we were warming up nicely. Dinner was homemade soup (what didn’t spill all over the fridge and leak onto the floor – lesson learned to secure everything in the fridge for travel!). The heater kept us toasty warm all night, and we woke up to a 28 degree morning! Hot tea, more muffins, a walk around the campground, and we were back on the road.
By that afternoon, we had the scamp tucked in under the house and we were on the beach! Not exactly “warm” weather, but it’s nice to be down here for a while.
