It was cool and overcast when we headed down our driveway Monday April 18th. We were off to Florida for a few weeks to shake the winter blahs and rejuvenate our bodies before resuming work on the house. Accompanying us was Ben our new puppy. We would find out for the first time how well he would travel. As it turned out he was a good companion and well behaved, sleeping all night wherever we stopped and seeming to enjoy the swaying of the truck and camper. We had planned on driving only 7 or 8 hours each day, winding our way south towards Lyn and Don's home in Brooksville. We began our trip crossing into Maine, taking SR27 south to Massachusetts. We drove down the I-95 towards Boston but to avoid going through the city we followed the I-495 to the I-90 and I-84 west, stopping in Sturbridge for the night where we stayed at a Thousand Trails campground next to a small lake under a canopy of pine trees. We were up early for breakfast and on the road, looking for warmer weather, passing through Hartford, Connecticut, Scranton, Pennsylvania to White Haven. Here, situated along the scenic Lehigh River, nestled at the doorstep of Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountain, we stayed the night at the Lehigh Gorge campground.
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| Sturbridge, Massachusetts |
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| Lehigh Gorge Campground, Pennsylvania |
Having successfully bypassed NY City, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington our third day found us on the I-81 driving south before cutting over to the SR340 to Waynesboro, Virginia where our trusty travel guide indicated a nearby campground. Waynesboro is located in the Shenandoah Valley, near many important historical markers of the Civil War and close to the Shenandoah National Park. Driving through this beautiful area we had seen a lot of smoke covering the mountains to the east of us and it thickened as we got further south. After driving through the smoky haze for half an hour it thankfully cleared, the beautiful rolling Blue Ridge mountains now in view. By now it was noticeably warmer and blossoms and new leaves on the trees gave us heart when we stopped at the thoughtfully named Waynesboro North 340 Campground.
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| Me and Ben, Waynesboro North 340 Campground |
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| pee break, somewhere in North Carolina |
We took the SR 29 out of Virginia to Danville and entered North Carolina, just north of Greensboro. We picked up the I-85 to Charlotte crossing over to South Carolina to stop for the night. We found a nice KOA in Fort Mill, just outside Charlotte that was relaxing and very clean. The next morning we got on the I-77 directly south to the capital Columbia. Traffic was less hectic here as we caught the I-26 towards Charleston. As it thickened up though we decided to follow the SR 21 through typical back country South Carolina, churches dominating the landscape on the quiet rural roads. Catching the I-95 again just north of Savannah we were soon feeling the heat of Georgia. Deciding to stop early for the first time since we left and Brooksville still 5 hours away, we found an RV Resort in Brunswick, Georgia. We relaxed in the cold pool, the only ones brave enough, and walked around the large pond nearby. The next morning we crossed the St. Mary's river and entered Florida, taking the I-10 west to the SR 301, a two lane highway that cuts diagonally southwest across the state and saves 50 miles of driving. As we do every time we come to Florida we stopped just outside Starke at a roadside stand that was selling boiled peanuts. We found a quiet but very beautiful lake, Lochloosa, to pull up next to and eat them, chatting with some of the boaters under some big oaks. We stayed on this road till we met up with the I-75 in Ocala, driving another hour to the Brooksville exit. It had been a year since the last time we pulled into Lyn and Don's driveway....
gws
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| Charlotte/Fort Mill KOA, Fort Mill, South Carolina |
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| Coastal RV Campground, Brunswick, Georgia |
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| stopping for boiled peanuts outside Starke, Florida |
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| Lake Lochloosa, Florida |
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| Brooksville, Florida |
