How We Spent Our Summer Vacation – The Sixth Week

Moving day came again on Sunday. This time we are off to Meadows of Dan, Virginia. (Yes, that’s the name of the town, also the name of the campground.) It was about 240 miles from Knoxville. It rained off and on all day – pretty hard at times – but we had good roads and no problems getting there.

And what a beautiful place it was! Our site was up on a hill with great views in every direction.

It was so peaceful there. We sat outside in the evenings and enjoyed the nature around us.

This was a beautiful place to be and very quiet. We were very appreciative of these facts while staying here.

We were once again right near the Blue Ridge Parkway. So on Monday we drove a portion of it to the northeast of where we stayed. Our fist stop was at the Mabry Mill. It was built in the early 1900’s and was used to cut wood and grind corn for many years. It was very interesting to see the workings of it – inside and out.

Julian found time to do a little fishing in the pond at the campground. He even caught two pretty good sized fish. Finally, some fishing success. Unfortunately, he didn’t get any photos before releasing them back into the pond. But we believe he caught them!

Heidi got into something under the picnic table on the first night we were there. Whatever it was did not agree with her. She developed the hives and general allergic reaction that she had displayed before until we changed her diet. We got Benedryl and had her on that.

And so began Tuesday, the day from hell! We took off at a reasonable hour. We had a lot of miles to cover to get to Gasburg, VA, where we planned our next stay. We went as far as Stuart where we stopped at a vet to get meds for Heidi. We ended up spending most of the morning there before we got everything handled. It wasn’t even noon and our patience was being tested. But Heidi would be alright.

Then we drove as far as New Boston where we found a Wal-Mart, but it was way off the main highway, on the other side of town. We got all of our paper products and shopping needs handled since we knew our next park was pretty much in the boonies. We also finally ate lunch. The bad news was when we left to get back to the highway. We didn’t make the turn we should have and the one we took to get back on track turned out to be nearly a dead-end. There was a through street, just like the computer map said. However, there was also a closed gate across it. It was hot and miserable. We finally had to unhook the car and eventually got turned around and back on the way. And we still had half the drive ahead of us.

The rest of the drive proved uneventful. And at first the park didn’t look too bad. But when we tried to pick a spot and get settled the trouble began. We made the mistake of not having me outside when Julian was adjusting our setting on the site. In the end, he backed into a stump. Fortunately it was pretty rotted out and didn’t destroy the back of the coach. But the ladder was broken, the tow hitch was buried, and the bumper was scratched (but not dented). It looked like we managed to escape serious damage, but time would tell. In any case, we were leaving the next morning for sure. We got everything cleaned up and set up as minimally as possible. There was no phone coverage, no internet, no cable, no antenna TV. We didn’t want to be here under any circumstances. (We had originally planned a full week!)

We got out the books and looked and looked for an RV park to spend the next six nights. Finally, we decided on Tranter’s Creek in Washington, NC. But we’d have to wait for tomorrow to find out if they could take us. We had dinner and went to bed very early. Neither one of us slept much, though.

I wish now that I had taken a photo of the stump with our motor home sticking out of it. However, at the time, it didn’t seem like anything we’d ever want to see again in our lives. So there is no record, you just have to take my word for it.

Things definitely got better the next day. We were up early and got ready to go pretty quickly – though very carefully. Everything seemed OK until we tested the lights on the tow vehicle. The turn signals worked, but not the brake lights. Julian looked at lots of things. He fixed a broken wire and still had problems. He decided it was a burned out fuse, but we couldn’t find the right fuse box. So we started out and decided to stop as soon as we had cell phone coverage.

We stopped in Roanoke Rapids, NC, and started making calls. We made sure that Gasburg only charged us for one night. We made reservations in Tranter’s Creek. They even agreed to give us the 6^th night for free! What a deal. Julian called an RV repair place we found in Woodall’s and he referred us to another place, closer to where we were. So we drove on to Rocky Mount. They were able to find the fuse and change it, re-attached the wires and wrapped them, all for $35. Whew! There was still a problem with the car getting the signal to brake. Julian found the switch and wrapped it so that it was working.

As we stopped to have lunch (Japanese hibachi – yum), Julian called the guy who installed the hitch and found out how to set the switch properly. He was able to do that and we were off again.

Tranter’s Creek turned out to be a wonderful place. We had a site on the end, near the creek, with lots of tall trees on the left side. We were back on track! We could stay here for the remaining six days till our next reservation. This is what it should be! We’ll have afternoon shade on the awning side and we love it. All seems to be right with the world – finally.

And here’s a picture of the actual Tranter’s Creek, just a few yards away. It looks more like a river to me, but what do I know.

We loved being there. We both slept better that first night there than we probably had since leaving home. We took our morning walks. We even played Bingo on Friday night with a bunch of folks. We both won money – more than we paid to get our cards. They also had lots of little “trinket” gifts for other wins. We got several of those too. It was really fun.

We went into the town of Washington and went through some shops and then had lunch at a place called Down on Main Street. That was some really good food.

Julian spent time polishing the coach. He’d gotten some great stuff from another camper at Creekwood Farm and took this time to put it on. It’s like a wax, but much easier to deal with. And there’s lots of area to cover on a coach, so anything to be easier is really good. He also put RainX on the windshield. That’s a huge area too, so he worked pretty hard while at Tranter’s Creek.

We groomed Heidi on Saturday morning. She didn’t like it any better outdoors than she does when we do it at home. But we got through it and she looked pretty good once it was all over.

Week Six was full of highs and lows, but we came through it all just fine. We’ll learn and get better at the RV process.