Dang RV

Back in Spotsylvania in the Wilderness Resort again to try and finish up touring the Smithsonian. I saw all the memorials, etc. last time but had no time to see the Smithsonian museums. I wasn’t all that crazy about staying at the Wilderness Resort last time due to issues with a neighbor and a poor site. This time, I got a much better site in a different section down by the lake. It was level, well defined, good utilities in the RIGHT places, and nicer neighbors around me. I had to stop at the local Walmart on the way to kill some time before check-in time but I needed to get groceries anyway.

I was somewhat shocked when a guard at the gate recognized me and asked how the trip up North was. He was the one I called numerous times last time on the bad neighbor. A big problem with membership parks is members and full-timers that live in them tend to be a bit snooty and see you as an invader. Many also think they can act like they do at home with no consideration that RV walls are very thin and let all noises in (or out). This time there was also a neighbor problem though it was not as in my face this time. One of the owners in the next glen allows her grandkids to come to the park and use her RV without her there which is against the rules but apparently not enforced. They party loudly long into the night. Guards are called on them constantly but management does absolutely nothing to stop it. Some of the nearby site owners no longer use their sites but are stuck paying for them. They don’t want to come here to be tortured by the jerks. It’s a sad situation that will only be resolved in a court.

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I needed somewhere to go for a couple days that was cheap and had electric as well as Sprint aircard signal so I ended up in my first regional park. The signage stinks, I passed right by it after first turning the wrong way into the park across the street. It took me 2 days and 3 tries to pay them because of the office hours and you would not know where to pay by any signs unless, like me, you called them. The office is hidden way at the back of that park across the street. To say the spaces are not at all level would be an understatement though everything else about the space was fine. The road through the campground is extremely narrow. Naturally, while I was there, the inconsiderate neighbors kept it blocked quite a lot. I ended up in space #1 solely because they had the road blocked and would not move. Must be nice to have an entire planet revolve around you. :-(  I was able to work from there but I doubt I will ever go back there.

This is it! The last east coast state on my map is now conquered. I just couldn’t bear to leave a hole in my map so I had to come. I had 2 choices on getting here from New Jersey. I could either go way around the waterway which would have taken an additional 30-60 minutes plus the cost of gas and tolls, or I could bite the bullet and pay an outrageous fare to cross the waterway at Cape May by ferry. At $55, to me that is an awful lot of money to cross compared to $35 for the long crossing across Lake Champlain in New York. I decided to opt for the ferry anyway to save time and enjoy the adventure of crossing my trailer over again.

When we arrived at the terminal, I had my internet reservation in hand, You save a couple bucks booking online. I put the cat in the trailer when we parked in the ferry lane since it was cooler than the car, I had cooled it down special before I left the campground just for this. They offered to let me depart immediately on a ferry that still had room but I chose to wait until my appointed time so I could check out the ferry terminal and because leaving earlier would have dropped me into the next resort too soon prior to their check-in time. I have to say the Cape May ferry is a real class act. It is ultra comfortable inside the lounge areas which have comfy seating and TVs everywhere. It has a nice gift shop, arcade, food, and restrooms on board. After touring the entire ship, I went back down to the car deck, opened my trailer door, closed the screen door, popped a soda, and kicked back on my couch with the dang cat. Now that’s the way to travel! We both enjoyed it very much and I could see the folks in the motorhome behind me doing the same thing.

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Had to see the Jersey shore. I got tired of hearing about how great it is in movies and TV so I had to check it out for myself. I can now report that it is everything they say it is and more!

I planned this trip out very carefully to make sure I didn’t end up driving through New York City with my trailer. That would have been insane. Skirting around it wasn’t that bad at all except for the traffic jam at the Connecticut-New York border. Driving down the Garden State Parkway was very easy except they like to toll you to death every few miles just like lower Maine. Aaargh! They don’t make it easy either since they don’t post the prices anywhere though I did finally see one sign with tiny writing right smack in the middle of the toll lanes and of course with my trailer I had to be in the far right lane. A couple of other things you should be aware of as well. The parkway has numerous arched bridges over it about 13′6″ high and it is best to be in the middle lane while going under them. Gas stations are few and far between off the highway but they do have numerous gas stations and food places on the parkway. To get to them you actually have to be in the left high-speed lane (brilliant planning, huh?). Be prepared to pay a premium price for gas at these but they are still considerably cheaper than gas up north.They may also snooker you with a cheap price shown but that price is only for those who pay cash. People still carry cash?

I stayed at an RPI (Resort Parks International) park in Port Republic which is just outside Atlantic City, NJ. I finally got to try out my RPI membership. I’ll get into the details of that in another post. Chestnut Lakes Resort is a NACO affiliated park. It was nice to have a pull-through site for a change. There’s nothing particularly fancy about it but who cares. With this park, it is entirely about location, location, location. The park was plenty nice enough and I enjoyed it.

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Hallelujah! I started my trek back to civilization and managed to grab a couple states easily for my RV travel map. Rhode Island is easy to drive through with great scenery, good roads, and it is not very big.  It was an easy hop through it to Connecticutt. I stayed at Stateline Camping Resort which really is on the state line between Rhode Island  and Connecticutt. It is a C2C park and very nice. I warn you, as soon as you see the “Welcome to Connecticutt” sign on the right coming east on the 101, look to the left because it is right there! I am told that if you play on their playground, you are actually in Rhode Island though the park in in Connecticutt. LOL. I had a little fun walking back and forth between the two state “Welcome” signs one evening. Hey, I had to exercise anyway.

Stateline has a wonderful looking pool in an unusual design and I liked that they play music from the radio at the pool until closing. The restrooms were okay. It is only the second time in my travels that I have had not full sewer but rather a grey water only hookup which requires a garden hose and special holding tank cap. Better than nothing. Luckily, I picked those up at the last one in Michigan. They have a lake though it is for fishing or row boating only. The sites are poorly signed and my site definitely did not match the map they provided so I had to get them to send someone down to show me how I was supposed to park my rig. Ah well, as a C2C park it was cheap to stay there and close enough to what I wanted to see in Groton, CT.

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Coming through lower Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts on I95 requires a LOT of change or an EZPass. They absolutely love their toll roads. Thank goodness I had picked up some extra cash before starting the trek down from Maine. I had little of my $30 left when I finally got past the tolls.

I found the coastal area of Massachusetts to be rather expensive for camping and you need reservations far in advance to catch the popular places like Salisbury, Cape Cod, and Martha’s Vineyard. I ended up staying in Wompatuck and Massasoit State Parks below Boston.

Wompatuck used to be a munitions storage facility for the Navy with numerous bunkers built into the forest and hidden. One bunker still stands though you can only see the outside of it and it is well hidden. I only found it because there is a geocache there and in many other places in the park.

The park is very large with lots of camping spaces and something always available for the night. I liked the geocaching there but there are so many trees that you can’t see the sky so it is rather depressing at times. They need to prune it out a bit and the back camping areas are overgrown so driving can be an adventure. The restrooms are also in serious need of repair, You can get a shower but don’t expect a stream. It is more like a dribble from the shower head. Be sure to carry lots of water on board too since they supply electricity but no water at the sites other than a communal fixture here and there. Forget about getting satellite TV there through all those trees but I was getting a couple of local stations through the air. Wompatuck puts you close enough to tour Boston and Plymouth if you have a mind to. I didn’t get around to them due to personal business I had to take care of.

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