Yesterday was another one of those marathon driving days that RVers are not supposed to do, but that we find ourselves doing quite often. We do this sometimes when we have to get from Point A to Point B, and don’t have time to stop and play along the way. It’s not our preferred mode of travel, but what can I say? I enjoy driving my motorhome.  If it’s a good day, and the Winnebago is running smooth, and we’re having a good time, why stop until we’re tired?

We left the Chesapeake Bay Thousand Trails campground at Gloucester, Virginia a little after 9 a.m., headed west on State Route 33, crossed the York River, and got onto Interstate 64 about 25 miles outside of Richmond. Once on I-64, we pointed the nose of the coach west and just let her roll.

We had never been in this part of Virginia before, and as we climbed up into the mountains, we started to see some nice fall colors. Maybe not as dramatic as we’ve seen in northern Michigan, but pretty none the less.

We passed several very nice little farms along the way.

Looks like somebody needs a new roof on their barn.

Now that’s a steep bridge! I wonder what percent that is at? I sure wouldn’t want to come down it on an icy day!

And what’s a road trip without road construction?

Just before we crossed into West Virginia, we had five miles of 5%  downhill grade. We crossed the state line at 2 p.m., and Miss Terry got some pictures of the rocky hillsides alongside the highway.

West Virginia is pretty, but it’s not a place to do a lot of rubbernecking if you’re the driver. I don’t think there’s one mile of straight highway in the entire state. It’s either uphill or downhill, and you’re always winding around the side of a mountain. 

At one point, near the New River Gorge,  we had four miles of 7% downhill grade before we climbed back up the other side.

Interstate 64 joined the West Virginia Turnpike and followed it north to Charleston. Most of the way was winding roadway with a lot of potholes to keep us awake. Traffic in Charleston was light, and before we knew it we had passed the gold domed state capitol building and I-64 had turned back west again.

A little over an hour later, we crossed into Kentucky and pulled into the Flying J at Catlettsburg, a little after 5 p.m. We fueled up, and then pulled into one of their designated RV parking spaces.

We had not eaten all day and were famished, so we headed for the truck stop’s restaurant. Usually I’ll just order a burger at Flying J, but the buffet had a very good looking selection, so we both chose that instead. I’m not sure if it was because we were so hungry or what, but our dinner was outstanding. Much better than what we’ve come to expect for a truck stop buffet.

It was a long day, and I was ready to stop driving, so we spent the night at the Flying J, with 435 miles behind us. Yes, I know that’s a lot of miles for retired RVers. But we’re not retired, we’re still working folks who just happen to live the fulltime RV lifestyle as we run our business. We could had stopped sooner and had more miles to drive today, but as it is, we’re less than 120 miles from Kentucky Horse Park. So we can get in early today, get settled in, and then relax the rest of the day.

Thought For The Day – A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.

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Yesterday was our last full day in Virginia, and like much of our time here, it started out gray and chilly. We drove into Gloucester Courthouse and picked up the new issue of the Gypsy Journal from the printer and got it loaded into the van. They did a pretty good job, and we’ll use them again when we’re back in this area.

Since it was my birthday, I decided we needed a treat. So we had lunch at Anna’s Pizza, a few blocks from the newspaper office. It was an above average pizza, and the price was very reasonable. Another one to put on our list of places we’d go back to again.

By the time we picked up the new issue, finished lunch, and drove back to the Thousand Trails campground, it was about 3 p.m., and the rain had stopped.

It has been almost two years since we’ve done any geocaching, and I really can’t tell you why we have gotten away from it, since we always enjoyed it so much. Yesterday I was looking at the Geocaching.com website, and noticed that there was a cache hidden right at the entrance of the Thousand Trails campground, so we decided to go find it.

It was an easy find, in fact it was mostly uncovered. The lid had not been secured properly, so there was water inside. I didn’t take any of the goodies inside the cache, I just signed the log book, poured out the water, and hid it for the next cacher to find.

Terry and I agree that we need to to get back into geocaching. It’s the perfect RV hobby, as I wrote in a story about geocaching for RVers. I’m too lazy to go for a walk, but if you tell me there’s a Tupperware container hidden in the woods someplace and stick a GPS in my hand, I’ll walk ten miles to find it.

After we found the geocache, we drove to Urbanna to drop off a bundle of sample papers at Bethpage Camping Resort. But along the way, we stopped to take a picture of this old abandoned house. There are places like this on the back roads, all over this area.

Bethpage is a huge place, and it was packed. They have hundreds of sites that will handle any size RV, and a fleet of rental golf carts that would put Hertz or Avis to shame. It’s not our kind of place, we prefer quieter surroundings, but I’m sure families love it.

Urbanna was settled in the late 1600s, so there is a lot of history there. At one time it as a major tobacco shipping port, but today tourism seems to be the big activity.

Driving back to the Thousand Trails, we stopped to take more pictures from the more recent past.

We have enjoyed our stay in this part of Virginia, even though the combination of bad weather and getting the new issue ready to print have not allowed us to do as much exploring as we would have liked to. We’ll definitely return some day.

Today we’re headed west toward Lexington, Kentucky. It’s about 560 miles from here to Kentucky Horse Park, so we’ll make it a two day trip. I’m not sure where we’ll spend the night, but there’s always something along the way. It may be an Elks or Moose lodge, an RV friendly WalMart or truck stop, or wherever we find ourselves when we’re tired of traveling for the day.

Bad Nick had a few things to say before we hit the road, so he posted a new Bad Nick Blog titled Bubba For President! Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – Without geography, you’re nowhere.

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