Category: Pennsylvania

  • Southern US Trip Summary

    This morning at home we feel as though we are living between two worlds. Before we enter back into our everyday life with all its responsibilities we look back on six and a half weeks of excitement and adventure. We’re happy we did write the blog so that we don’t forget all the things we saw and experienced. It definitely is a trip to remember and does rival our Route 66 trip from two years ago.

    What worked well:

    WIND Mobile’s Unlimited US Roaming. We’ve been WIND Mobile customers for a number of years now and their price just can’t be beat. For $15 a month we had unlimited voice calling, texting and 1GB of data while in the US. This allowed us to keep in touch and look up things on the road.

    Good Sam Membership: This RV club membership cost $25 a year and give you 10% discount at member campsites.  It definitely paid for itself.

    America the Beautiful Pass: This $80/year pass gives you free entrance to US Parks and other recreation sites. It paid for itself as well.

    Garmin GPS: We love our Garmin GPS system. At the start of the trip we had the RV/Trucking dezl 760 model but it was stolen in Albuquerque so we bought a nuvi 2689LMT to replace it. These GPS units have campground locations pre-installed and provide lots of information on arrival times, traffic conditions, etc.

    Allstays Camp and RV App: We use this app on our iPads all the time to look for campgrounds. It shows the location of campgrounds and gives information about their rating, facilities and distance from your current location.

    NOAA Weather Pro App: This app for the iPad and iPhone shows a map with weather conditions. It also has the ability to send alerts to your phone when severe weather is nearby.

    Visitor Centres, Park Rangers and Bureau of Land Management offices: These are always a source of great information and have invaluable knowledge of local conditions and opportunities.

    Frugal RV Travel Guides: These guides have great route information as well as tips on inexpensive places to stay overnight.

    Here’s a map of the entire trip. This is an image grab from Google Maps as it wasn’t possible to use the entire GPS track on a live map, probably because of its size.

    SouthernUS

  • Allegany State Park, NY to Staunton, Virginia

    We had a great sleep, the black bears we had been warned about didn’t attack us, and we were sad to leave.

    Today was driving day. We drove through the beautiful park and saw the sign “Quaker Area” and wondered whether this was an old Quaker settlement or whether the pretty green wooden cabins were specific ground for Quaker families.

    After leaving the park we continued on smaller roads through lush hilly areas. It was a bit sad to leave the coutry roads and get on the Interstate, but the Interstate is definitely faster.

    Before we got on I-70, we had a late lunch at a Classic Denny’s. It was a replica but it definitely reminded us of Route 66 with its red seats and black and white tiled floors.

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    In Winchester, Virginia we stopped at a farmer’s market, sampled some delicious peaches and cherry-apple cider and left with fresh tomatoes, peaches, a half gallon of cherry-apple cider and a mouth watering peach pie which was to become part of dinner tonight.

    After 575kms, we were done for the day. Tonight there is no beautiful park but a friendly Walmart with RV and truck friends.