Our last night in Florida we took Lyn and Don out to Applebee's restaurant in Brooksville. I could tell the strain of looking after our father had eased but she still felt responsible for his welfare more than she needed to. Thankfully she still looked forward to looking after Brenna during the week and was still riding. We had a chance to spend some time with Shawn and Lauren as well. Brenna was her usual delightful self and a pleasure to be around. Her and I went swimming one afternoon, summer like weather securely established in central Florida! But the north beckoned so we set out early the next morning, driving over to Spring Hill one last time to say goodbye to Dad. Marie had him sign some tax forms before we left, the last sight of him slowly and painfully making his way to breakfast. From Spring Hill we took SR19 to Otter Creek then the 24 to Gainesville where we caught the 301 and headed north to Starke, picking up the I-10 to Jacksonville. We had hoped to get into South Carolina and look for a campground there our first night but as we had not got away from seeing Dad until almost noon we were still in Florida when we finally stopped around 6pm, pulling into the Big Tree RV Park in Jacksonville, just south of the Georgia border.
After hooking up to the power and water we prepared our first dinner in our new camper! A/C was the order of the day but we slept well our first night in the new bed. The sun was setting when we stopped late near Florence, South Carolina, the next day at the Swamp Fox campground. It was closed, being after 6, but we found a nice open spot near the washrooms and parked for the night.
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| Big Tree RV Park, Jacksonville, Florida |
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| Swamp Fox Campground, Florence, South Carolina |
So far we were enjoying life in our new small home, finding a few problems we hadn't been aware of before - the toilet pump wouldn't flush, the catch on the door wouldn't hold and would blow closed in a wind, and the heater - which we would need in the coming days - was blowing cold air! It was still lovely weather though and we had no problems with the truck handling 3000 plus pounds. Passing through Virginia the next day we stopped at the Good Earth Peanut Co. in the small town of Skippers and picked up some chocolate covered peanut brittle, butter toasted pecans and a big bag of Cajun roasted peanuts in the shell! Stopping for our third night in Bowling Green, Virginia at the Hidden Acres Campground we were already noticing a cooling of the air, especially at night. It was always strange travelling north this time of year to see spring in reverse - lush green leafed trees of the Carolinas receding to less foliage in Virginia to light green buds as we entered Maryland. And then the bare branches of Pennsylvania, New York and Vermont where we encountered snow still along the ditches and ice columns still clinging to northerly exposed rock faces!
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| The Good Earth Peanut Company, Skippers, Virginia |
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| Hidden Acres Campground, Bowling Green, Virginia |
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| Maryland Welcome Center |
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| Allentown, Pennsylvania |
Our last night on the road we stayed on the banks of the Delaware River at the Tri-State RV Park in Matamoros, Philadelphia, nestled in the Pocono mountains at the junction of three states : Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. It was a fairly cold night but the little furnace ran fine after fiddling with the thermostat. The noise from the nearby interstate was terrible and at 6am the construction company next door began loading a constant stream of dump trucks with rock. Why we chose to go through Pennsylvania is beyond me but we will avoid this place in the future - the roads are bad and hilly and full of semis. The amount of road construction in this state was worse than Montréal! We eventually got back on the I-91 in Vermont and crossed the border where we came through, at Derby Station. We had no problems with bringing in the camper - they never asked about it - and we were home before dark. While we were gone a violent wind storm had come through our region and we lost another 20 odd shingles from the roof, my firewood shelter, tree branches and god knows what else. Welcome to spring on the Domaine! And now we will get back to work, start to look forward to some warm weather and ...plan for our next trip!
gws
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| early morning, Tri-State RV Park, Matamoras, Pennsylvania |
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| almost home! Vermont Welcome Station |
