Summer 2020 RVing: From Tennessee to Maine to Delaware

In my last blog post, which was almost 3 months ago, Karen and I were getting ready to leave Florida and start our next RVing journey by heading up to Tennessee, where our RV was having roof work done on it.  Our RV was ready for us when we got up there on July 18^th.  The roof looked great…as we had expected it to, given the significant amount of money we paid to have it replaced.  I may not have mentioned this before, but one day last Fall, Karen went out to our RV while it was in storage in Minnesota and when she went to get some clothes out of our bedroom closest at the back of the RV, she found they were wet and that it was due to a leak in our roof.  After having multiple people inspect our roof, all of them came to the conclusion that the issue couldn’t be resolved by simply “patching” the roof – there was enough evidence of other squishy areas on the roof, so there were likely more serious issues going on with it. 😞 When the work was being done to replace our roof, we got to see photos of what our roof looked like when they took off the top layer.  You could see deterioration of the roof plywood and also the lack of structural support that the original manufacturer should have provided.  Apparently, RV makers can be notorious for using shortcuts when constructing roofs in order to save money.  Thankfully, the roof is now in great condition and guaranteed for many years to come.

So, with a fresh roof on the RV, we were ready to begin our journey northeast, both curious and nervous as to how our travels would go with COVID-19 always on our minds.  Our first stop was to head to southwestern North Carolina, where we would stay at Walnut Hollow Ranch for a couple of weeks.  The ranch is in a small town in the mountains of NC, so we knew that we’d be able to enjoy being there without having to worry very much about being near crowds of people.  We had been to this ranch a couple of years ago when we initially left MD to travel to Austin TX and knew that we’d want to come back if our travels took us near this part of the country again.  As you’ll see from the photos I’ve included, it really is a small piece of paradise…and the perfect place for Karen and I to get our “RV legs” on again after having not RVed in ¾ of a year.  Since it is up in the mountains, it also allowed us to escape the summer heat, which was very refreshing.  In fact, that was one of our goals for our entire journey – to try and pick a route that would allow us to stay away from 90-degree summer weather.

When it was time for us to leave NC, we used the next five days to work our way through North Carolina and Virginia, finally landing in Maryland.  As much as we would have liked to have made time to see many of our family and friends during our stay in MD, we kept our visit very limited, socially, so that we could feel comfortable visiting with my mom and stepmom, both in their upper 80s.  After several days of being in MD, which we also used to get in some doctor and dentist appointments (something else you need to think about a little differently when you’re an RVer), we next traveled over to the Delaware shore area to visit Jillian, who escaped the crowds of Boston once COVID came along.  This was the first time that we had gotten to spend significant time with her since early March, just as the COVID stuff was starting to ramp-up.

The next leg of our journey took us into Pennsylvania, to a small town just a little east of Harrisburg.  Karen had discovered that she could use AirBnb to find unique places that permitted RVs, so as part of our goal to stay away from crowds as much as possible, she found a farm in Pine Grove PA that had hook-ups for an RV.  Other than a very dicey drive on a narrow dirt/gravel road to the farm, it was really great…as you’ll see in the photos.  We had the place pretty much to ourselves and there were hundreds of acres of grass and trees all around us.  Also, because we were far from city lights, the nights were perfect for campfires and watching for shooting stars.  Those are the times when, despite some of the headaches associated with RVing, you get to look at each other and say “This is why we chose this lifestyle.”

Initially, our journey plan was to go from PA up to NY to visit with Karen’s family, but various circumstances led to a decision that we’d wait to make that visit until the COVID vaccine is developed.  With that decision made, we went to Plan B, which was to work our way through Vermont and New Hampshire as we headed toward our ultimate destination of Bar Harbor, Maine.  Karen and I had not been there since 1991, which was surprising to us because of how much we enjoyed it way back then.  It amazes us that we let 29 years pass before making our way back there!  The drive through Vermont and New Hampshire gave us a renewed appreciation for the beauty and quaint old look of the New England area.  Karen found some wonderful RV parks along the way, which allowed us to enjoy the beauty of the area…as well as night-time temps that got down into the 40s!

As we were approaching Maine and knew that we expected to be there for ten days, as well as knew that we did plan to leave our RV to go exploring, we needed to do some research to figure out what Maine’s rules were around visitors coming in from out-of-state. It can be challenging to figure out how the rules apply to you when you’re an RVer who is traveling between states somewhat quickly. We found out that Maine requires visitors to hotels, RV parks, inns, etc., to complete a form in which you either agree to self-quarantine for 14 days or provide negative test results for a COVID-19 test taken within the past 72 hours. With that information in hand, when we arrived in New Hampshire a couple of days before crossing into Maine, we were able to get tested. We drove to a clinic, waited in our car, and then a medical tech came out to our car and swished around swabs in our nostrils. We were relieved to find out that their testing methodology only required them to put the swab an inch into our nostrils. It was really nothing. Two days later, we got back our results, which were negative, as we expected. We would be free to leave our RV when we got into Maine — yay!!!

On August 29^th, we finally made it to Maine.  Our first RV site was on a parcel of land on which the owner had put RV hook-ups (electric, water, sewage) for just one RV, so we had the lot entirely to ourselves, which is not something you normally get at your average RV park.  You are often sharing the space with many other RVers. The owner was also in the midst of building a cottage on the lot (see the photos below), so Karen and I both had visions of future visits here where we come in our RV and the rest of our family can stay in the cottage.  The lot is about 15 minutes away from Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park, so it’s a more affordable way to do RVing in the area and we get the bonus of more privacy.  If you stay at an RV park closer to Bar Harbor, you’ll pay a premium for it.  We stayed here for 6 nights.

Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park were just as beautiful as we had remembered it from all those years ago.  We drove to the top of Cadillac Mountain, we hiked around part of Jordan Pond, we checked out Thunder Hole, and we drove the entire perimeter of Mt. Desert Island, getting a view of water from the east, south, and west.  We also kayaked in a small lake called Seal Cove Pond, we explored around Southwest Harbor, had steamed lobster, lobster roll, and fried clams (whole belly) multiple times, and I had the best blueberry ice cream I ever remember having.  We let the rest of the family know that this definitely had to be the destination for one of our next family vacations!

We left the Bar Harbor area to head a little south to stay in Belfast ME, at an RV park that provided us with a site overlooking Penobscot Bay.  The sadness of leaving the Bar Harbor area was quickly replaced by the awe of the incredible view we had of the bay.  Even better, we could walk with our kayak from our site and get down to the shore of the bay in a couple of minutes.  For the first two and a half days there, we had very little wind, so kayaking in the calm bay was quite fun.  Karen is always on the watch for wildlife, so while sitting at our RV site, she’d bring out her binoculars and look for bald eagles and gray seals.  One day she saw some splashing out in the bay and realized that it was a seal that was probably trying to catch fish, so she called to me in the RV, telling me to bring out my drone.  Never one to miss an excuse to fly my drone, I put the drone up and flew it out over the bay to where she saw the seal.  The show we captured on video from the drone was a bit like what you might see on a PBS or Nat Geo program.  The seal would be at a distance from the school of fish (which looks like a brown ball constantly changing its shape) and then the seal would dive under the school and come up through it.  The seal would do this multiple times before needing to take a rest by swimming a short distance away.  I’ve included a link to the video.  If the idea of seeing a seal as a predator and fish as its prey is something you find disturbing, then I recommend you skip this video. If it doesn’t bother you, take a look — I think you’ll find it pretty cool.

Our final stop in New England was at an RV park that was a bit south and west of Boston.  This was not a “scenic” stop as much as it was the beginning of our trek back south.  That being said, we did take one full day to explore a good part of Cape Cod, starting with Falmouth, driving along the coast to Hyannis, and ending up at Chatham.  We didn’t have enough time to make it up to Provincetown, so we’ll just have to save that for our next trip up here.  Oh, I almost forgot to mention that we made a spontaneous decision to try and catch the ferry (with our car and the dogs) to Martha’s Vineyard from Falmouth since we’d never been there before, but it was a Saturday, so they said we’d have to stay on the island overnight because they couldn’t get us a spot on a ferry returning to the mainland later that day.  We hadn’t come prepared for that possibility, so we had to pass up the opportunity.  Maybe next time.  This area is so beautiful, so we fully understand why people love to live and vacation in this area.  If it wasn’t for how long this area remains cold during many months of the year, it would have appeal to us as an area to live, too, but it’ll just have to remain high on our list of places to visit during the summer.

After leaving Massachusetts, we stopped for a few days in Pennsylvania, staying at the RV park we used to stay at when Gabe was attending Lafayette College.  Our stay was nice, but it was tinged with a little bit of sadness, since it comes with memories of Gabe’s final days of pitching.  We then hopped back over to the Delaware shore to get another visit in with Jillian, which was really nice.  During the visit, we took part of a day to explore some of Cape Henlopen and another day to drive along the coast down Rt 1 from Rehoboth Beach to Assateague Island.  That drive was truly a trip down memory lane for me.  In the summers of 1983 through 1988, I was part of a couple of beach houses, where the group of us would head to either north Bethany or Dewey Beach most weekends, playing tons of beach volleyball, eating some great food, enjoying adult beverages, listening to music of the 80s, and, eventually, meeting my lovely wife.  For many people, some of their favorite summer memories are associated with being children or young teens.  For me, I’d have to say mine are tied to those beach house summers!

As always, thank you for taking the time to read my blog post. Wishing you all an uneventful and healthy Fall, with hopes for COVID to become a lesser factor in all of our lives.