Friendly visits and then we are home!!

September 2 we traveled to Stafford, VA to visit friends that we had not seen in along time.  We last spent time together in Germany in 2012 when John and I visited their home for several days in the middle of our Europe adventure.  It is always great to hang out with Nikki and Stephen!  Finally our kids met too!

We also did a short half day trip into DC since we were so close and had not yet been there.  

Last selfie of the trip...why do I look angry?

Graham took this gem with my phone while we were hanging out.

Thank you Nikki for hosting when you were not feeling 100%!  We had a blast!! Not so much time between visits next time, I hope!

Lastly our drive home!!  We had to pick up our dog from my sister's house in Milwaukee, so that was our first destination.  After DC traffic, time zone change, about $115 in tolls, and about 16 hours in the car...we made it to Cudhay and stayed with our friends Dan and Liesl.  

Drove through this peach of a thing through Ohio as well.

Kids are surviving the long day of driving.

Blasted through Chicago around 10 pm.

We visited my sister as well and had some fun with the hose!

And....after 10 weeks and 2 nights away...we are home.

Last few days of biking

August 30 - September 1

Finally I am sitting down to finish this blog!!  About 6 weeks late. :(

We left Raleigh and went to Enfield, NC (KOA).  It was pretty uneventful!   After Enfield we stayed in Suffolk, VA.  At a really nice resort campground.  It would have been great if it didn't rain most of the day!!  John wanted to ride the whole way...100 miles or so, but he found out the stretch of road he was on had something like 5 bicycle deaths in the last few years.  With the insistent rain and his phone battery dying as well he called me (from a restaurant phone) to pick him up near the end.  Here is his bike after the day.

Finally the last day of riding to VA Beach. We camped at the KOA only 3 miles from the beach.  I would revisit this place!!  Really nice beach area and not as insane as Florida.

We met John at a restaurant on the beach.  He made it!!!  

We are lunch and then got to hang out on the beach for a little while.

I am so proud of John's persistence!  There are so many things that he/we could have considered an excuse to pack it up and head home, but we stayed the course!  What an epic adventure!!!

Family Fun in Apex/Raleigh, NC (Aug 27-29)

PAugust 27: Arrived in Raleigh, NC.  We were able to spend Graham's birthday with Grandma Ross (Great Grandma to the kids)!  We took a cake over to her apartment in Apex.  We got to see where she lives and visit for a few hours.  Her apartment complex is very nice!  Aunt Jenny and Cousins Molly and Lexi stopped in for a while as well.  

August 28: Lunch in Apex with the troops.  We went to the Salem Street Pub.

It is worth mentioning that I had the Sunny on my Hammy burger which was amazing.  Burger with ham and sunny side up egg on it!

After lunch we went to Jenny and Bill's house to hang out and go swimming...laundry was necessary also.  It was a nice relaxing day catching up with family!  

Molly (age 9...almost 10) painted Charlotte's face and did a great job!  Charlotte didn't want to go.

We had a little adventure getting back into the fairgrounds at 10 pm.  Gates 4 and 5 were locked.  We had used those previously.  We finally were directed to gate 11...on the complete opposite side of the grounds.  Just glad we weren't locked out!

August 29: We got to sleep in a little and hang out at the camper in the morning.  We were staying at the state fairgrounds where the NC RV Expo was going on that weekend.  SO...when in Rome...as they say.  We enjoyed touring through all of the RVs, Fifth Wheels, etc and dreaming.  I think we picked out our next camper...haha...we are only on season 2 with this one.  However after this trip I think we have put in enough time with this camper to call it 5 seasons!  In any case we aren't in the market for a new camper yet.  It was really fun looking them over.  Here is a family selfie at the Expo.

After the Expo we spent the afternoon/evening hanging out at Jenny and Bill's again.  It was a great visit.  The kids had a blast and we hope to see them more regularly going forward.

I have to through in a photo of Charlotte our expert Gray tank lever puller.  Since it is under one of the slide outs, it is difficult for John and I to reach it...so she does it for us.  In case you are wondering, she doesn't handle the Black tank at all.  The lever is too stiff for her manuver.

Here is an updated map...the middle has filled out!

I am so glad that we altered our plans and route to visit family in NC!!  It was absolutely worth the adjustment in our plans!!

Almost to Apex, NC (Aug 26-27)

August 26: Boone, NC to Forest River Campground need Lexington, NC.  Getting out of the campground at the KOA in Boone was challenging.  I couldn't just turn onto the path from our site because of the large tree situated at the corner and the large enbankment right on the other side of the path.  So...I went through our site and through the one directly in front of ours.  That site also had a large tree in almost the same place, but it was not as close to the corner and the embankment was not as big.  Haha...it was very close (inches) but I did manuver the camper around it.  

While I was packing up the camper and manuvering my way out of the site there was an older gentleman watching my every move from about 5 sites away.  He wasn't trying to hide it either.  He was just standing there watching everything I was doing.  I should have waved on my way out, so that he knew I "knew."  

We passed under the Blue Ridge Parkway today!  I wish we would have traveled on that for a day or so, but with the camper that would not have been a good move.  Right after the parkway the road began to descend.  I think we went from about 3500 ft down to about 800 ft in only 4-5 miles.  It was an intense but controllable downhill.  John rode the same stretch on his bike!  Weeee!

I didn't call ahead for the campground, but was able to see that they had space on their website that morning.  It turns our that they do not very often take campers for short periods of time.  Most of their very full resort is being filled with annual "members."  This was the longest check in process yet.  I got past the gated entrance, then had to go to the office...parking the vehicle and getting the kids out, then we paid for our site (way too expensive BTW at $60/night), then the "ranger" (not a real ranger because this is a campground resort not a state or national park) showed me all of the available 3 sites via golf cart and let me pick one.  The kids got to ride around in a golf cart, so that was fun.  All in, it probably took over an hour just to check in.  For $60 I was expecting something special since the location was nothing special...it was not worth the price.  We didn't even get to use the pool.  The neighbor said hello thinking that I was a new resident.  This shows how ofter they take overnight guests.

At least the set up and was fairly easy.

August 27: Graham's Birthday!!  Two Years Old!!

Forest River Campground to Raleigh, NC.  We debated about where to stay.  Jordan Lake looked lovely, but there were no sewer hook ups and their gates close at 9 pm with no entry after that.  Given that we were going to be visiting with family most of the time, I didn't want to risk being locked out.  Instead we chose the State Park Fairgrounds in Raleigh.  Only about 10 miles from the family in Apex.  

Before we arrived we met John for lunch.  He had already biked a long way by that point in the day, so he packed it up for the day at that point.

Off to Raleigh!  The fairgrounds were actually pretty straight forward.  Full hookups, but no other amenities.  No bath house, pool, or laundry...totally fine with us!  The security folks met us at the site to settle up and we were set.  Super easy!

I will continue the rest of Raleigh/Apex in another post.

3 days, 4 states (August 23-25)

Kentucky August 22 additional note for previous day...

This morning after dropping off John at his starting point, I saw something interesting.  In Iowa this would really surprise me, but nothing is that surprising in KY anymore.  As I was pulling out of the gas station a women in her large SUV pulled in past me.  Her young son was on her lap in the driver's seat.  He looked to be just a little younger than Graham.  I didn't see anyone else in the vehicle nor did it appear to be an emergency.  There are some things that just wouldn't fly where I am from and this is one of them!  Deep down I was angry, but I had to laugh at the cultural differences within one country.

Virginia August 23: Traveled from Sheltowee Trace Outfitters to the Cumberland Gap National Historic Park Campground in VA.  We spent most of the day driving in KY and ended the drive with a long tunnel into TN, then 1 mile stretch in TN before reaching our campground just barely into VA.  We escaped KY!!!

We drove around the National Historic park area and up to the overlook where you can see 3 states.  KY, TN, VA

VA (rainbow), TN, KY

Selfie failure 

Better

Deer on our drive

There was a heavy down pour while we were out driving around.  The bathroom ceiling vent was open on the camper and Charlotte thought that someone had peed all over the toilet seat.  Haha!!  Just rain water.

In this site we were unable to get the camper level from front to back because of the size of the incline, so we are nose down...so much so that John and I slept the "wrong" way on our bed so that our feet wouldn't be higher than our heads.  It was an awkward night of sleep.

Happy to be out of KY!!

Tennessee August 24: From Cumberland Gap to Kingsport, TN KOA.  Once again we have a pool and we can do laundry!!  This is the longest we have gone without doing laundry...a week.  Doesn't sound like much, but we packed light for the summer, so laundry is necessary at least every 4-5 days.

Getting into the site was "fun."  You would expect that a KOA would have easy to access sites and so forth, but this place has some really steep driveways...the sites are mostly level, but the roads around them were not.  The trailer once again ate ground on the way into the pull thru site, however no damage done.  Also, I discovered that I had forgotten the spring bar tool for the new hitch at the last campground...boo!!  I found the old one, which worked just as well.  I couldn't make the camper level because the hitch would not come off once again.  I really wish that we had locked the old hitch.  There were several times before it was stolen that I thought maybe we should get a lock for it, but we had gone through most of our trip without an issue, so I figured we were in the clear.  Now I KNOW!!

Swimming was great!! 

Biking today was a mix. The first 40 miles were excellent as I rode on a multi divided highway out of the gap and there was a huge shoulder! I stopped at a great little diner for breakfast customer and spent a long time talking with the lady who owned it. I met up with Rebecca and the kids just at the right time. My huge highway had become a very narrow very busy 2 Lane Rd. with no shoulder. I decided to take a break in the middle of the ride and hop in the truck until the road conditions got better. About 20 miles from our campsite the road was supposed to break off to a small country road so I decided it would be worth a try. This road was absolutely gorgeous for about 3 miles until it turned into gravel and very hilly. The last 10 miles of the trip was probably the heaviest hardest urban riding I've ever done. I was super happy to get to the KOA!

North Carolina August 25:  From Kingsport KOA to Boone, NC also a KOA.  It turns out that Boone is a college town and looks like it.  Today we spend way too much time traveling.  We were in and out of the truck from 11 am - 5 pm.  We did stop for lunch and shopping, but it was just a long day of traveling.  The kids don't do very well on those days.  This was John's last mountain climbing day of the trip.  It is all down hill from here.

The KOA was at about 3600 ft elevation and Boone was at about 3000 ft.  Those last 4 miles were up, up, up.  Once again the KOA was very interesting to maneuver.  This time in addition to steep driveways, they were also narrow and full of trees.  It was a lovely spot to camp, but not easy to get into or out of.  This time I did have to level the camper from left to right...it was necessary.  So...to do this I took off the stabilizer bars and then put it up on blocks.  Not the order of operations that I'm used to, but it worked.  As I was getting set up I also noticed how difficult it was going to be to get out of the site in the manor that they would suggest.  I ended up asking the KOA staff to hold the spot directly in front of us so that we can go through that one to leave in the morning.  They agreed.

The temp here was only 72F sounds nice, but it actually felt a little cold at the pool.  They also had roosters, goats and donkeys to see.  The kids enjoyed that.  The animals actually came running to us because they are so used to being fed by people.

John ended up stopping before Boone because of the traffic and people honking at him.  This was one of the least hospitable biking roads and coincidentally one of the few that I saw signs for "share the road."  I guess they don't really want to share.

John found this outside of our campsite while looking for a stick.

We are getting really close to the end.  John has only 5 days ir so of biking left!!

Still in KY...(August 21-22)

August 21: We started the day unsure of the next campground, but at least a route.  I called the first campground and they only offer annual camping sites...even though their website has nightly rates.  I luckily found another one nearby.  It has been interesting working with some of these places.  They are very casual about the process.  Getting paid doesn't even seem to be a focus for most of them.  

As usual I got the kids and the camper packed up in the later morning.  This should have been like any other day except we have a new hitch system.  While this one is generally the same idea as the old one, it is not broken in and is a little more complicated of a design.  After grunting and struggling with it for several minutes in the hot sun, I called John and explained that I might be stuck in place.  I was unable to move the stabilizer bars back and forth.  A hammer used like a baseball bat didn't even make it budge.  After discussing this with John, he recommended using the broken WD40.  It worked just enough to get the bars to move with all of my body weight.  Shortly after this I found a new can of WD40.  Finally...we are off to the Wolf River Resort Marina and campground...very little emphasis on the campground portion of this.

This happened on the car ride:

The resort marina was a nice spot, no phone service, but usable Wifi.  They rent houseboats!!  Who's in for next year?  A week on a houseboat?

August 22: Albany KY to Corbin KY (west of Corbin in the Daniel Boone Forest).

We again didn't have a reservation for the night.  Seems to be a trend this half of the trip.  We found the Sheltowee Trace Outfitters campground.  They have zip lining, river adventures, etc.  Sounds like fun, when the kids are older.  

We are now in eastern time!!!  Lost my lunch hour today.  We also found that the new hitch is not easy to unhook when the campsite isn't level from side to side. Our solution...don't unhook it! :)  

I think we are getting a little feisty after 8 weeks on the road.  We are definitely ready to leave KY...tomorrow!!  No phone service again tonight.  The wifi is ok.  It is odd though, we have phone service while traveling and then right before we arrive at the campground POOF gone.

We are looking forward to the next campground with an "h2o containment unit"...our secret parent lingo for pool.  

Mammoth Cave & Jellystone Park (Aug 19 - 20)

August 19:  After our new hitch was installed we visited the Aviation Heritage Park in Bowling Green, KY.  They have several planes on display and you can go right up to them, walk under them, etc.  While there we ran into Arnie...who was cleaning up and pulling weeds.  He is one of the pilots of one of the planes on display.  He told us all about the park.

About Arnie...

Arnie's plane is on the far left.  All of the planes are somehow tied to local aviators.

All of the astronauts who have walked on the moon have flown in this plane.

Finally we arrived at Jellystone!!  We took a swim, used the splash area and Charlotte had fun on the water slide!!

August 20: Rest Day!!  We visited the jumping pillow at Jellystone.

We saw some ducks/geese...not sure exactly.

Lastly we visited Mammoth Cave NP.  We picked the shortest, easiest tour but Graham was still a pill.  We weren't allowed to bring the stroller or the backpack carrier...so he walked or was reluctantly carried...while screaming.  It was great for Charlotte!  She even became a Junior Ranger!!

Junior Ranger!!