VA Trip Days 3-10
Posted 12-13-2019 at 04:54 PM by MEWright
11/24/2019
Day 3
Well I called it pretty spot on in the last blog. We got out at 9am not 10 as predicted. Hit the road with absolutely no intentions of stopping other than to pee. We have to stop since I am the only driver. Drove straight into VA without incident until…… The traffic in this state is ridiculous and the drivers are bizarre. We got stuck in 3, no lie, 3, count them 1 , 2 , 3 wrecks that caused the entire freeway to be SHUT DOWN. Seriously I lost my mind at the 3rd one. No way to navigate around them. Each worse than the previous all totaling more than 4 hours stopped on the highway. At least I could pee
Silver lining. Sat next to a lady in a med sized car for 2 hours. I got up, got a drink, got up got a sandwich, got up to pee and looked over to see her face
. She was staring at us like she was upset. I told my wife that if the lady asked if she could use the bathroom, I was going to let her….
Our planned 6-hour trip that I knew would take 8 ended up taking between 9 and 10
. I am wrecked but we made it. We are staying at Candy Land RV park and I will do a post on it later once I can see it during the day. So far, the operators are friendly, and the sites are big. Tomorrow we site see DC and VA.
Day 4 11/25/2019
At Candy Hill RV Park they have premium sites. Large concrete pull through sites with large areas around each site for more privacy. What they don’t tell you is the “premium sites” are right next to the darn highway
and I mean right next to. About 50 yards with some small trees to block from sight but NOT FROM SOUND … So apparently there is an OK street racing scene here and they used this as the go to spot last night. I heard two good races, then PD. Then apparently rush hours starts at 5am and goes solid till 8:45a. All of which sounded like it was 1 foot from my head. I will sleep in ear plugs tonight and will probably move into a smaller gravel pad sight tomorrow. This is BS….I cant really imagine how they haven’t built a small sound wall. It is so freaking loud as I sit here and type this.. The map shows a large green area by the site, a short 25 yard walk to the fenced dog park, all the amenities but NOWHERE does it show the HIGHWAY right outside our RV door….
Learning lesson from this stay, google earth the RV park to see where the major roads are in relation to the site you chose
. The premium sites may not be so premium once you factor in that the noise.
Day 5 After a LOUD night we spent the day in Winchester VA seeing the sites. This place is amazing. The history here is hard to comprehend. The cemetery we visited listed the oldest legible marker to death in the 1700’s. It is just amazing that they have an entire civil war area behind the revolutionary war area. It was awe inspiring to walk through history, to see it everywhere.
Day 6 was DC and if you haven’t been there, just GO…We were in DC for about 6 hours and it was about 40 hours to short…I could write an entire blog about this 6 hours. It was so amazing
Day 7 was thanksgiving so we enjoyed an amazing dinner with old and new friends cut out early since we were leaving VA at 7A to head home so we could try to beat some holiday traffic… LOL
Day 8 BLACK FRIDAY—We left as planned out 7a on the road. We would drive to Tennessee trying to get to Knoxville. We made it almost to Nashville. We had 2 OOOPPPSSSEESS I forgot what freaking day it was. Pulled off the highway to get fuel, exit was for a shopping area, traffic was crazy but polite, back on the hwy and 5 hours later I saw a Cabela’s (FORGOT AGAIN it was BLACK FRIDAY) pulled in actually found a place to park the coach and we shopped for a while (bought nothing----WINNER
), ate in parking the lot, traffic police guided us out and we got back on the road. We found a CG right OFF the highway for 23 dollars a night if we did not hook up to water or pump out. We did as asked and had the best night sleep of the trip to this point.
Day 9
The next morning, we were out by 6a. DW did not reset her alarm for central so it went off an hour early, we were up so we jetted. Drove all the way into TX, since we left early we made it farther than expected and stayed at another CG in Mt Vernon TX . Again 20 something a night. Transient sites late arrival, concrete huge pads, easy in and out and super quiet and another great night sleep.
Day 10
Again, we are getting better at leaving early (for us). On I30 by 7a and at Buccees by 8 to top off for the last time. We made it through Dallas well before traffic and were home by 1P. The last 100 or so mile the traffic got crazy. I am thankful we left early and decided to NOT take I35 from Dallas S to Austin. Instead we took 281, 2 lane hwy but much better traffic flow.
The trip home took almost 10 hours less than the drive to VA.
Learning lessons from this trip,
1. Google Earth your campgrounds
2. Plan your stops when it’s a holiday
3. Transient RV parks are awesome and IMO way better than a Walmart.
Day 3
Well I called it pretty spot on in the last blog. We got out at 9am not 10 as predicted. Hit the road with absolutely no intentions of stopping other than to pee. We have to stop since I am the only driver. Drove straight into VA without incident until…… The traffic in this state is ridiculous and the drivers are bizarre. We got stuck in 3, no lie, 3, count them 1 , 2 , 3 wrecks that caused the entire freeway to be SHUT DOWN. Seriously I lost my mind at the 3rd one. No way to navigate around them. Each worse than the previous all totaling more than 4 hours stopped on the highway. At least I could pee
Silver lining. Sat next to a lady in a med sized car for 2 hours. I got up, got a drink, got up got a sandwich, got up to pee and looked over to see her face. She was staring at us like she was upset. I told my wife that if the lady asked if she could use the bathroom, I was going to let her….Our planned 6-hour trip that I knew would take 8 ended up taking between 9 and 10
. I am wrecked but we made it. We are staying at Candy Land RV park and I will do a post on it later once I can see it during the day. So far, the operators are friendly, and the sites are big. Tomorrow we site see DC and VA. Day 4 11/25/2019
At Candy Hill RV Park they have premium sites. Large concrete pull through sites with large areas around each site for more privacy. What they don’t tell you is the “premium sites” are right next to the darn highway
and I mean right next to. About 50 yards with some small trees to block from sight but NOT FROM SOUND … So apparently there is an OK street racing scene here and they used this as the go to spot last night. I heard two good races, then PD. Then apparently rush hours starts at 5am and goes solid till 8:45a. All of which sounded like it was 1 foot from my head. I will sleep in ear plugs tonight and will probably move into a smaller gravel pad sight tomorrow. This is BS….I cant really imagine how they haven’t built a small sound wall. It is so freaking loud as I sit here and type this.. The map shows a large green area by the site, a short 25 yard walk to the fenced dog park, all the amenities but NOWHERE does it show the HIGHWAY right outside our RV door…. Learning lesson from this stay, google earth the RV park to see where the major roads are in relation to the site you chose
. The premium sites may not be so premium once you factor in that the noise. Day 5 After a LOUD night we spent the day in Winchester VA seeing the sites. This place is amazing. The history here is hard to comprehend. The cemetery we visited listed the oldest legible marker to death in the 1700’s. It is just amazing that they have an entire civil war area behind the revolutionary war area. It was awe inspiring to walk through history, to see it everywhere.
Day 6 was DC and if you haven’t been there, just GO…We were in DC for about 6 hours and it was about 40 hours to short…I could write an entire blog about this 6 hours. It was so amazing
Day 7 was thanksgiving so we enjoyed an amazing dinner with old and new friends cut out early since we were leaving VA at 7A to head home so we could try to beat some holiday traffic… LOL
Day 8 BLACK FRIDAY—We left as planned out 7a on the road. We would drive to Tennessee trying to get to Knoxville. We made it almost to Nashville. We had 2 OOOPPPSSSEESS I forgot what freaking day it was. Pulled off the highway to get fuel, exit was for a shopping area, traffic was crazy but polite, back on the hwy and 5 hours later I saw a Cabela’s (FORGOT AGAIN it was BLACK FRIDAY) pulled in actually found a place to park the coach and we shopped for a while (bought nothing----WINNER
), ate in parking the lot, traffic police guided us out and we got back on the road. We found a CG right OFF the highway for 23 dollars a night if we did not hook up to water or pump out. We did as asked and had the best night sleep of the trip to this point.Day 9
The next morning, we were out by 6a. DW did not reset her alarm for central so it went off an hour early, we were up so we jetted. Drove all the way into TX, since we left early we made it farther than expected and stayed at another CG in Mt Vernon TX . Again 20 something a night. Transient sites late arrival, concrete huge pads, easy in and out and super quiet and another great night sleep.
Day 10
Again, we are getting better at leaving early (for us). On I30 by 7a and at Buccees by 8 to top off for the last time. We made it through Dallas well before traffic and were home by 1P. The last 100 or so mile the traffic got crazy. I am thankful we left early and decided to NOT take I35 from Dallas S to Austin. Instead we took 281, 2 lane hwy but much better traffic flow.
The trip home took almost 10 hours less than the drive to VA.
Learning lessons from this trip,
1. Google Earth your campgrounds
2. Plan your stops when it’s a holiday
3. Transient RV parks are awesome and IMO way better than a Walmart.
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