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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There is an interesting thread on the RV.Net forum discussing a Forbes magazine article on America’s Scariest Highways. Since we are considering taking US Highway 50 across Nevada in a few weeks, I found it interesting that this route, known as “The Loneliest Road in America,” was among those listed.

The article says US 50 gets its “scary” designation because it crosses miles of open desert, where you may not see another vehicle for 30 minutes or more. Okay, so how does that make it scary? I love lightly traveled roads, don’t you?

We’ve driven many of the highways listed, and while some were not much fun (Interstate 70 through Colorado), others left me wondering why the authors of the article find them problematic.

For example, US 1 though the Florida Keys was listed. Except for the Seven Mile Bridge, which I drove over several times and didn’t find to be a problem, most of the drive is delightful. Slow, if there is a lot of traffic maybe, but far from scary.

I’ve been on some scary stretches of road in my time, though I think one man’s terror ride may well be a piece of cake for someone else. Many years ago we took the advice of some locals (never a good idea) and took a “short cut” on our way to an Escapade rally in Lancaster, California that took us across State Route 138 from Cajon Junction to Palmdale. The road was a narrow two lane route that climbed and wound around a mountain side, with a steep drop off on one side and solid rock cliff on the other. Now throw in crazed Friday night drivers headed out to party, coming the another way, crossing over the  centerline as they sped around the curves. By the time we got to the Elks lodge in Palmdale, I was a bundle of screaming, frayed nerves.

US Highway 60 through Arizona’s Salt River Canyon used to intimidate me with its hairpin turns and steep drop offs, but I have driven it so many times over the years that I don’t even notice it any more.

Some of my least favorite roads include the above mentioned State Route 138 in California, and Interstate 70 in Colorado as it heads downhill into Denver, along with Interstate 75 through Atlanta, and any highway anywhere around Los Angeles or Houston. 

My fear of bridges has gotten a lot better, but it’s still a very real issue for me. A lifetime ago, I lived on the Washington coast and owned newspapers in Long Beach, Washington and Astoria, Oregon. I have crossed the Astoria Bridge over the Columbia River in everything from cars and pickup trucks to motorcycles and vans, but the first time I approached that bridge in a motorhome, I took one look and drove 75 miles upriver to cross on a lower bridge, and then drove 75 miles back to the coast!

I have driven Interstate 75 across the Mackinac Bridge in northern Michigan, and it scares the hell out of me every time. The last few times, Miss Terry drove over the bridge, but I was still just as scared.

One (actually two) bridge crossings that I’ll never do again are the two narrow, high bridges on US Highway 60 that cross the Mississippi, and then the Ohio River, within just a 1/2 mile or so near Cairo, Illinois. Miss Terry did that driving, but I was still a basket case by the time we got to the other side.

Don’t even mention me traveling over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Virginia. It’s just not going to happen!

What about you? What are some of the highways you find scary, and why? Come on, fess up. I can’t be the only neurotic wimp out there!

Thought For The Day – Don’t simply seek interesting surroundings, but be continually interested in whatever surrounds you.

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After a chilly night in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart in Gallipolis, Ohio, we were up bright and early yesterday morning. There were several things we wanted to see locally, so I went inside the store and obtained permission to leave our motorhome there for a couple of hours while we went exploring in the van.

Gallipolis was settled in the late 1700s by French aristocrats who fled the old country to escape the guillotine. It is the hometown of Bob Evans, founder of the Bob Evans Restaurant chain, and the family farm is now a tourist attraction that includes an RV park offering water and electric hookups and a dump station for $15/night.

While exploring the friendly community, we noticed several back in RV sites with water and electric hookups at a Public Access boat launch on the bank of the Ohio River downtown. I stopped at City Hall to ask about the sites, and learned that RVers passing through the area can stay either for free, for $10 a night, or for $25 a night, depending on which secretary you want to believe. For free or $10 a night, I’d stay a while just to watch the riverboats going by, but for $25 a night, I’d pass.

This trip it didn’t matter, because we had a lot of miles to cover yet. We crossed the river on the Silver Memorial Bridge, and I think I may be getting over my bridge phobia, because I didn’t snivel once. The original Silver Bridge here collapsed in 1967, throwing 70 cars into the river below and claiming 46 lives. Maybe I’m not over my phobia after all, and I just figured lighting wouldn’t strike twice in the same place.

On the West Virginia side of the river, Point Pleasant is a charming little town with enough to see and do to keep visitors busy for several days. In 1774, a force of Virginia militia was ambushed here by Shawnee and Mingo Indians and the fierce battle lasted for hours. In the end, 75 militiamen were killed, along with an estimated 33 Indians. Many consider this to be the first battle of the American Revolution. Today a small park on the riverfront where the battle took place includes an 84 foot high granite obelisk honoring the men who fought and died here.

Point Pleasant also has a place in paranormal history. Here, in 1966, a strange winged man-like creature that became known as Mothman was reportedly sighted. Since then there have been several reported sightings of the creature, usually before disasters. Several people claimed to see Mothman perched high in the girders of the original Silver Bridge before it collapsed. Since then, Mothman has become a worldwide phenomenon, with mention in documentary films, movies and television specials.

Sure, it’s probably just the figment of imaginations gone wild, but the folks in Point Pleasant took it serious enough to erect a state of Mothman on Main Street downtown, and there is a Mothman Museum just across the street.

With our sightseeing over, we returned to Gallipolis, picked up the motorhome, and crossed the river again. On the Ohio side of the river, U.S. Highway 35 had been a very nice divided four lane, but  a couple of miles into West Virginia, it dropped down to a two lane road with no shoulders, and lots of curves for maybe 25 miles, and then it became divided four lane again.

Before long we joined Interstate 64 and followed it east a few miles into Charleston, where we picked up Interstate 77 south past the gold domed State Capitol building. Traffic was pretty heavy in Charleston, but before long we put the city behind us, and Interstate 77 became the West Virginia Turnpike.

For the next hundred miles we climbed up and around one mountain after another, the Winnebago doing just fine. I can’t believe the power this thing has! The constant climbing did affect our fuel mileage, though. The day before, we averaged 8.1 miles per gallon across relatively flat Indiana and Ohio, according to the Silverleaf, and yesterday our average was right at 7 miles per gallon.

It cost $10.50 in tolls to travel from Charleston to the state line, but I don’t think they spend much of that money on highway improvements, because that was one rough road in many places!

We crossed into Virginia, stopped for fuel at the T/A truck stop in Wytheville, and in less than an hour we arrived at Mayberry Campground in Mount Airy, North Carolina.  

Mount Airy is the hometown of television star Andy Griffith, and the picturesque town was the inspiration for the fictional town of Mayberry in the old Andy Griffith show.

Andy and his trusty deputy Barney Fife probably wouldn’t recognize the old town these days. It has a Wal-Mart Super Center, Staples Office Supply, Golden Corral Buffet, Lowes, and other major stores and restaurants.  Unfortunately, crime has come to Mayberry. The day before we arrived, a gunman killed four men in a shooting a few blocks from Main Street.

This is a beautiful area, with a lot to see and do, and we’ll be here a few days before we head on down the road. I’ll have a lot to share with you in tomorrow’s blog, so stay tuned. 

Thought For The Day – Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark, professionals built the Titanic.

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