The Trip Back to Florida

  Well it is November 9 and it has been over a month since my last post. We are back home in Florida so I have a lot of catching up to do. We left PA on October 4 and drove to Colonial Beach, VA to start our trek home. We stayed at Harbor View Campground which was in the middle of nowhere. The closest city was Fredericksburg, VA about 45 minutes away. The park was virtually empty and the leaves were falling. We were close to a small pond

We were very close to George Washington's birthplace so we did a tour there.

As you can see there is a scale replica of the Washington Monument that was erected for the bicentennial of Washington's birth. There are no surviving structures of the Washington homestead and replicas of the house and out buildings were constructed for the centennial based on scholars ideas of what they would look like. Unfortunately they couldn't have been more wrong. After the home was built:

archaeologists uncovered the original home's foundation here:

They realized their idea was more grandiose than what the humble Washington's actually lived in. Their original structure was quite small with only a few rooms and over the years several additions were added. George lived here for only the first three years of his life until his family moved to the area of what is now known as Mount Vernon. There is a short film chronicling the arrival of the Washington's and their lifestyle here. The park is a working replica of what their daily lives were like with livestock and crops such as tobacco and corn being grown. Tobacco was the money crop and everything else was used as food crops.

 A short drive down the road is the family graveyard:

Even though everything is a reproduction  the park is very informative and it was a nice side visit. 

Afterwards we also stumbled upon a local winery and stopped by for a taste:

We left Virginia four days later and headed to Lake Gaston RV Resort in Littleton, NC:

This was a very nice park and would be an ideal place for a summer on the lake with a boat. They had numerous boat slips and a pier to buy gasoline and boating supplies. Great views of the water and plenty of places to fish.

We didn't do much at Lake Gaston other than get a good fire going and relax.

We were fairly secluded with nothing but woods behind us. There were sites closer to the water but sometimes you just want to get away from it all. The only drawback was no cable; no over the air TV; and no satellite. After four days it was time to pack up and head to Forest Lake RV resort in Advance, NC:

Once again, another fabulous resort. We had a huge site with good views of the southwest horizon for the satellite. A nice sized lake for some fishing:

Forest Lake was very convenient to the interstate and was close to stores and restaurants so I didn't need to drive 35 miles to see the Steeler game like I did in Virginia. Once again we didn't do much. At this point I think we had had enough sightseeing and just wanted to get home. We were still several hundred miles from home though and had two more stops. Next was The Oaks at Point South in South Carolina:

This is probably the most rustic of all the parks we have stayed in. Nothing fancy here. A small park with perhaps 80 sites. A small lodge and a pool, that is it. The Oaks is on the opposite side of the lake from the KOA we stayed at last year on our down to Florida so we were familiar with the area. 

Our final stop we decided to stay for a week at the Orlando RV Resort. We would be only about 30 miles from home but I wanted to see this place because I heard so many good things about it. Plus we could take our time transferring all of our stuff we brought back with us and do a thorough unhurried cleaning before putting the trailer into storage. We could also open the house and get the cable and water turned back on. First let me tell you about the park: it is fabulous! By far the nicest place we have been. A huge selection of sites to start with. You can have a site close to the two pools and clubhouses or you can go to the wooded side with lush foliage and shade; or you can have a pull through site awning to awning if you have friends staying there too. Our site was a huge one on the corner with a nice big live oak providing shade.

Two pools; one an activity pool the other a relaxation pool. Nice comfortable lounge chairs and spacious decks.

A gardening area:

Shuffleboard and horseshoes:

A bonfire area:

A nice lake:

If I ever had to pick a park to stay at full time this would be it. 

Thus brings us to the end of our six month adventure. A quick glance at some numbers:

Miles from Gettysburg to Colonial Beach- 170.8

Miles to Lake Gaston- 180.7

Miles to Forest Lake- 174

Miles to Point South- 277

Miles to Orlando- 353.9

Total miles in 2014- 6420.7

Total miles RV'ing- 8162.9

15 states camped in.

27 setups and breakdowns.

25 different campgrounds.

1 backyard stay.

25 weeks on the road.

Many, many, many, many, many memories and photographs.

Last Stops in PA

  This has been on of the longest gaps in my blog posts that I recall due to being in Pennsylvania for 43 days. Not that there isn't anything to see in PA but living here most of my life I have done many of the PA sights. My last post had us leaving Mercer, PA and going to Lancaster. After leaving Mercer we took the Turnpike east. Circle M was our campground for two weeks and we scored a roomy corner site.

 

 

We were very busy during our stay between dentist appointments and errands to Doreen's credit union, plus visits from friends and getting some of our belongings from Dan's basement. We had some good fires and 'smores. We also had some lousy fires due to wet wood.

Circle M is a beautiful campground close to Millersville and Lancaster. It even sports a nine hole chip and putt which I took advantage of.

 Well mostly chipping since the "greens" weren't really puttable. The campground is nestled on a peninsula around which the Conestoga River flows.

 

After Lancaster we made our way back up to NEPA for a week for Doreen's sister's 50'th surprise birthday party. We stayed at Clayton Park Recreation Area on Lake Henry.

We had a pull through site that was very narrow. The good thing was that anytime someone took the site next to us it was only for the night.

When we left Lancaster on September 23 there was barely a noticeable change to the color of the leaves on the trees but up here fall foliage was in full swing in some areas.

Clayton Park is convienently located to Jessup just ten miles over Archbald Mountian near Mt. Cobb and Hamlin. We had to avoid Doreen's sister for three days while roaming around the Scranton area before the surprise party but she was genuinely surprised to see us. She thought that we were long on our way back to Florida since last seeing us during our visit while at Scotrun.
The party was a good time and it was a chance to see everyone before returning to Florida. All of the Emmett siblings and their spouses:

 

On the last day we attended a JV football game to watch Doreen's nephew Nick who is the star quarterback for the team.

Due to several injuries on the offensive line many a play resulted in a roll out left or right.

 

A rare throw from the pocket

 

He finished with three TD throws to seal the victory.

 

We left Clayton Park on September 30 and drove to Gettysburg Farm.

I would say it is located about halfway between York and Gettysburg. I was impressed with the place as it was very well maintained, clean, and the seasonals were well kept. Sometimes the seasonal campers are unsightly. They have too much stuff on their site but not here. Like Circle M,  Gettysburg Farm is situated on a river, the Conewego.

The campground is huge with about 700 sites, many along the river. We found a nice pull through with lots of room. This is a great place for the family with a huge pool, big game room, and a petting zoo with llamas, goats, pigs, turkeys, ducks, and rabbits.

 

Some of the goats think they run the place!

 

 

After four days at Gettysburg Farm it was finally time to leave Pennsylvania in the rear view mirror. The nights were getting cold and we had to run the furnace overnight for the past week or so, so I am glad to be making way for warmer weather.

 

The time spent in PA was nice and it was great seeing everyone we did. For those of you we didn't get a chance to see I hope to do so on our next visit. I don't know when that will be, maybe next year. Now it is time to return to Florida.

 

 

Miles Mercer to Lancaster: 308.6

Miles to Clayton Park: 160

Miles to Gettysburg Farm: 189.5

Total miles: 7006.5

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

Return to the Keystone State

  Our New England odyssey came to an end when we left New Hampshire on August 22. We made camp at Scotrun RV Resort in the Poconos for 11 days. Scotrun is on Rt. 611 near Tannersville and south of Mt. Pocono.

  We arrived on a Friday and I don't care to find a site on a Friday or Saturday because all the good ones are usually taken. All of the Outdoor World/ Thousand Trails are first come/ first pick of sites so what happens is that you have to cruise around the park looking for a site. Sometimes luck is on your side though. We saw there were only three sites available and one was a pull through with a an opening through the trees to the southwest sky- my satellite dish would work! I had to run about 100 feet of cable and set the dish near the edge of the site on a corner near the neighbors dish. The view of the lake wasn't too bad either.

 

 

 

The only down side to the site was the lack of a sewer connection. The park provided a pump out service free of charge though so it worked out.

The park was quite nice and I was glad to be out of New England, especially Massachusetts. The two parks we stayed at there were crummy compared to Scotrun. Here I was able to do some fishing and relax by one of the quiet pools.

 

 

There was a water slide also but I did not venture onto that. My time here was spent just relaxing. No sight seeing, no attractions.

 

This part of our trip would be for reconnecting with family and friends. Doreen and I went up to her hometown of Jessup, just outside of Scranton where we went to the annual Jessup Hose Company wine tasting event.

 

Nothing fancy here in spite of the fresh lobster. A dozen or so local wineries serving up samples along with some food vendors. Mainly it was a chance to see Doreen's family and hang out. I ended up leaving her at her mother's house for a few days and the next day got some golf in for the first time since leaving Florida on May 4. I played Hideaway Hills with Barry, Doreen's brother Mark, and his son Ryan. Since I hadn't touched a club in four months I didn't have high expectations. Good thing because I played lousy!

  The following week I played Lederach on Labor Day. Once again lousy. It didn't help that we were partying the day before until the wee hours of the morning at Doreen's sister's house in Phoenixville, and that the temperature and humidity were in the 80's. Anyway a good time was had by all and it was nice to see everyone at Michele and Jimmy's. We ate, drank, played can jam, and Mark and I defended our boccie ball championship title. We finally lost a game when darkness descended on the court. Here is a shot of what I call Mark's terminator grouping that usually seals the deal:

 

As I said earlier I was not prone to sightseeing or anything like that even though we were close to the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. We had visits from Doreen's brother and his family for an afternoon and buddy-boy, Dan another night. Before you knew it our stay was over and it was time to head to Northwest PA for my longtime friend T.C's wedding. He and his fiancee' Christine were getting married on Sunday September 9.

 

We headed west across I-80 and drove through a pounding rain storm. Visibility was so poor traffic slowed to a 20 mph crawl as we passed the DuBois area. We arrived at our destination which was T.C.'s house in Jackson Center, Mercer County where we set up the trailer along the tree line of the farm.

 

It was a lovely bucolic and rural setting

 

 

After getting all set up, which was made a little difficult because of the rainy weather, we headed to his sister and brother-in-law's restaurant in Mercer for some dinner.

 

 

Jimmy still makes a great fish sandwich which I remember from his days down on Spring Garden Ave. in Pittsburgh running his parent's restaurant. Doreen had the wings which are also good.

 

  Some back story might be in order here: T.C. and I went to the same grade school and high school and a group of us started hanging out together somewhere around the mid 1970's. Our core consisted of six or seven guys and gals growing up in Pittsburgh on the Northside in the Brighton Heights/ Woods Run area. We were constantly together, mostly getting into trouble, but mainly having fun and learning life lessons. None of us landed in jail, well kind of, T.C. and I both did working for the DOC, but everyone turned out as upstanding citizens. We might not see each other but once every five or ten years but when we do it is party time. On this particular occasion, T.C.'s wedding, there were five of us plus T.C: me, Joe L. and his wife Judy, Ron N. and his wife Torrie, Mike R. and his wife Sue, and Dave Z. the perennial bachelor. We did a little Village People YMCA for T.C. and I wish I had pics. If I can find someone that has them I will put them up. I think it is great that we still are together after all these years. I am so glad they came to the wedding and we all had a chance to get caught up.

  The days leading up to the wedding I was helping T.C. get things prepared. I manned the tractor and he did all the grunt work;



 

 

I became proficient with the scoop fetching mulch for T.C. to spread. We would work all day until sundown and then order a pizza and crack a cold one. Of course no home improvement job is done without a trip to the local hardware store which in this case was a feed store too:

I love the old wood floors and items crammed in every available space.

 

Since we were only hours drive from Pittsburgh we made a trip down to see my mom a couple times and my sister Lori and her kids Ryan and Megan. One night we had dinner at her house and now that the kids are grown it was odd realizing they were adults and did adult things such as drink wine or beer. Another night I was surprised my mom wanted to go to dinner at an Irish Pub:

 

 

T.C. and Chris' wedding day was perfect and came off without a hitch. All though my OCD kicked in when T.C.'s sister insisted on setting up the tables in a diagonal pattern. Well it wasn't a pattern until she conceded to make it a pattern.

Monday was spent nursing a hangover and a broken middle toe. Don't ask me how but my toe was painful and then turned black and blue. Doreen said I keeled over off the sofa. Oh well, not much you can do for it except tape it up. Once I was mobile enough we took a trip down to the Grove City Premium Outlets. I wanted to hit two stores there: Steelers Sideline Store and Sports Obsession. I picked up some small items and a cool door mat. 

After walking around on my broken toe with a hangover it was time to eat some classic Pittsburgh grub: Primanti Brothers. Primanti's is a Pittsburgh institution that started with a restaurant in the Strip District. It was the place to go after a hard night drinking on the Northside back in the day. After last call you would drive there at 2 AM and soak up all the booze with the No.2 best seller cheesesteak. (which beats a Pat's or Geno's back in Philly).

Over the decades Primatis has opened franchises including Grove City:

 

I love all of their sandwiches including the kielbasa which is what I had this time:

 

For the uninitiated the sandwiches are "almost famous" due to the oven fresh Italian bread, and the hand cut French fries and slaw being placed right on the sandwich. I doubled the meat and added an egg and I was in sandwich heaven. I usually wash it down with an IC Light but instead opted for a spicy bloody mary. Doreen had the pastrami and a Guinness, add a slice of their new pizza as an appetizer and the bill was about $26. What a bargain!

 

Miles to Scotrun: 325.1

Miles to Mercer: 290

Total miles: 6348.4