Yellow Comes to Vermont, and Trip Statistics

Daffodils are blooming, and forsythia; I don’t have a photo because the one I’m currently looking at is also in pouring rain! Again.

At the end of a trip I like to wrap up the numbers – this year (not counting the eclipse part) saw the Roadtrek driven 4,897 miles, through parts of 18 states, over 33 days – although many of those the camper didn’t move. Longest day: 696 miles. (There were many days when the camper didn’t move, as I was focused on visiting.) Five of my driving days I was able to keep it under my ideal of 300 – 350 miles a day, but four days were well over 500. $1148.65 spent on fuel. $0.00 spent on lodging – the one time I stayed in a campground where one is supposed to pay (a whopping $10) the employee waved away my money, saying I couldn’t have used that much electricity!! Well, no, I didn’t even plug in – but I was willing to pay that modest amount for a quiet, level and safe place to park for the night. Mostly I was moochdocking – parked with friends and relations. MPG: only 13.7, not as well as I traditionally have done with the Roadtrek, but probably trying to push it and make time hurt the fuel efficiency. I spent too much time going 65 this trip; it’s happier at 55 – 60. I often track what I spend on food, but didn’t this time. I ate a few meals out – and took some of my hosts out for dinner – but mostly I ate food from the refrigerator and cabinets.

If there is anything else you want to know, feel free to ask!

Daffodil at our Quaker Meetinghouse

Spring Roadtrip 2024 – on to the ECLIPSE!!

Does it count as the end of the trip, when I only spend one night in my own bed? No, I guess not! I got home Saturday, went to Quaker worship Sunday morning, then left for Jericho, Vermont where my sister and brother-in-law live – and which was on the path of totality for the eclipse. I was not the first to arrive, or the last. The table was set for twelve for dinner.

I think my aunt will be pleased to note that the tablecloth was hers, as were the beautiful oil lamps. And when I arrived, one of her sons and his wife were there; another, with wife and son arrived shortly after I did. And then a family of four, parents from California and son and wife from Montreal. Ahhh – the advantage of carrying my house with me! The cousins took the spare bedrooms and the couch, the old friends stayed in a nearby motel, and I had my own bed in the Roadtrek.

Then April 8 – and the eclipse. Bruce, from California, is an eclipse follower; this was his third. We had a delicious breakfast of blueberry (from the yard) pancakes with maple syrup and jams, also produced here, and fruit salad. People visited, and early in the afternoon we went to a neighbor’s house where the party was happening. They have a large field, for excellent viewing – and the only clouds were high cirrus, so the view was unobstructed. Our hosts had decorated t-shirts for all of their family – I wish I’d gotten a photo of one of them! There were lots of pot-luck nibbles, and lots of pairs of eclipse glasses, and lots of friendly and mooching dogs. (Mooch pooches?) In addition to our group, there were probably 25 others – all in a celebratory mood. Only one couple miscalculated – they got stuck in traffic about 30 miles short, and went and found a bar with outdoor deck from which to watch, before coming on to the house.

I don’t have good enough camera equipment to actually get a photo of the event, but here is what it looked like otherwise.

These were taken during totality:

And then the sun returned!

That rock was the viewing platform for several people.

And someone had made eclipse cupcakes, too –

Then it was back to the house, and more visiting, and a light supper of a wonderful mushroom soup and bread, and four flavors of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. One family was planning to leave right after the eclipse – but watching all the red on all the route planners, and seeing that it was going to take at least half again as long, they opted to leave early this morning, instead. Wise choice! By late morning all the visitors had left, and now I’m about to.

April Waterfall

Spring Roadtrip, 2024: Baltimore to Vermont, and HOME! (For a minute, or two)

Parked in the parking lot of my cousin’s Baltimore condo, I started a trend! When I first arrived, I was the only one backing into a parking space (because my bumper can overhang the end of the sidewalk, and the nose doesn’t stick out as far); by the next evening the next several cars were aimed the same way. I spent a couple of days visiting with my cousin; my nephew and my aunt also came by to say hello. Good to see everyone. I mostly knitted, cooked some – and we binge-watched Bridgerton. On April 5 I went to Towson, where I had parked the kayak, picked that up, and admired the blooming flowers in the yard.

One of my favorite routes is up through the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area; as I progressed north, there were few leaves on trees, and the forsythia were blooming.

I arrived at my friends’ in Bennington at about bedtime; I did nothing more than remove the kayak and crawl into bed. The next morning was for visiting; one couple in the family compound has purchased an Airstream trailer, for horse shows and camping and eventual retirement; we had to talk about that. Then breakfast with my architect friend, and of course interesting discussions of architecture! But she had things to do in the afternoon, and I needed to get home.

I’d been warned that my driveway might not be driveable, because of the recent heavy wet snow, and I wanted to be sure I was home well before dark. Leaving Bennington, I went out past the airport; they have a very large bird.

Because the neighbor had driven up the driveway, it was mostly melted under the wheels when I drove the camper in, and I was able to drive all the way up. But this is what the car looked like!

Spring Roadtrip, 2024: Errands around Richmond

Easter Ape? Bigfoot Bunny? This character was hanging around the neighborhood where we went to pick up a stool. Today’s April 1st, and it was a busy one. I spent the morning doing laundry and showering, and then we went out running errands through the afternoon. Picking up the stool mentioned was the first. We also went to the stall my friend runs with another fabric artist in an antique mall (Buckingham Antique Mall, so they are JAM at the BAM). There is a variety of collectibles, especially antique sewing machines and old quilts. We met a customer there, who bought a solid, simple machine for her elderly mother, who wants to do quilting.

Then we went a little way down the road to The Thrifty Quaker, a second hand shop run by the Quaker Meeting we worshiped with yesterday; all profits go to local non-religious charities. I found a long sleeve cotton shirt in my favorite buttery yellow; we also walked out with a pile of 10 cent books. After that we headed to Aldi, so I could do a little grocery restocking of the camper. Then back to the house, where I trimmed my friend’s hair, loaded some things into the camper in preparation for leaving in the morning, and cooked dinner (salmon, white and sweet potatoes, asparagus, avocado). In between other things, I worked on knitting the current sweater.

I will pull out in the morning, after I pull in my electric cord, load the kayak, eat something. But tomorrow is another day – cloudy and warm, which will be fine for driving.

Spring Roadtrip, 2024: Richmond Area Easter

Sunday, March 31: In the Richmond area, the leaves are greening up – It’s about mid-way up my route, and I’ve gone from very green trees, to this. When I get home in another week or so, I expect the trees will mostly still be naked. I get to see lots of springs this way!

My friend here and I went to worship this morning at Midlothian Quaker meeting, then stayed and visited for a while. They have five acres in a wildlife sanctuary area, and have gently landscaped walking paths, a meditation circle,

a fire circle,

and a memorial garden, which I did not photograph. Then it was back to the house (with a stop at a grocery for supplies), picking up dog and significant other, and a drive about an hour south to have Easter dinner with friends – and their sons, a girlfriend, their three dogs, seven (?) cats, ferrets, turtle, fish; one set of grandparents and their dog. I must have missed something – chaos reigned. There was plenty of excellent food, and when we’d polished off the first batch of deviled eggs, one of the sons made another, using the already hard boiled Easter eggs. I love seeing a teen boy cook!

Some of the animals:

These are not small dogs!

Foot added for scale. It made it hard to walk through, when a large dog chose to sprawl across the floor!

Spring Roadtrip, 2024: Conway, South Carolina to Richmond, Virginia

Friday, March 29: It was hard to leave Amber, the four-legged companion of the house. She nearly always has something in her mouth – and if it squeaks, it’s better! After I’d mostly loaded the camper, I went out to throw balls for her (she has about a half dozen outside) before we ate breakfast. It was about 10:00 before I was on the road, headed north – stopping at the post office to mail my ballot for local school budget voting. On into North Carolina, all on secondary highways, and then into Virginia on I-95; the lizard below was at the Virginia Welcome Center. Then up the highway to Richmond, and to the very friendly, relatively quiet neighborhood where friends live. It was a beautiful day for a drive, sunny and comfortably warm; only at the very end as I turned west did I have sun in my eyes. People were very polite driving – every time I put my turn signal on to move into another lane, drivers slowed to let me have lots of space to pull in. Am I looking particularly scary??

You can’t see me, right? Oh, only the tail is camouflaged??

Spring Roadtrip, 2024: South Carolina Flowers

Spring is definitely here in Conway, South Carolina! I love the above yellow begonia. There are a lot of other flowers blooming – wisteria climbing wildly through the trees, azaleas in many colors in many yards, tulips, dogwood and redbud trees.

This rose is just waiting for me to leave to bloom.

Spring Roadtrip, 2024: Dinner Out

Saturday, March 23: I think it was that no one wanted to cook, so we decided to go out for dinner in Myrtle Beach. Seafood was on everyone’s minds, and this was what we decided; the cousins had been here before and liked it. Like other Japanese steak houses, it’s all about the show. It is also a highly effective way to keep people moving through. We were early, and were seated with six or seven others at a long table with the griddle right in front of me, before our official seating time. Immediately our server came through for drink orders, and reappeared with drinks within minutes. He rapidly and efficiently took food orders, and very soon returned with soup, and as we were finishing that, our salads. Meanwhile our chef had appeared, and started the veggies and the fried rice that are part of the meal. There was much flashing of utensils and flaming oil to make a big show, along with a stream of patter keeping us entertained.

And then I was too busy eating to keep up with the cooking of shrimp, scallops and beef as ordered by those at our table! As we started on the fried rice, he was cooking the veggies to add to our well piled plates; as we dug in to the vegetables and fried rice, our choice of protein was put on top. It was all very rapid, and the knife work lightning fast. As he started cooking beef for those who ordered it, he asked how each wanted it cooked – and then proceeded to do it perfectly for each individual. My scallops were perfectly cooked, too. More entertainment, as we were eating: a tower was made with thickly sliced rings of onion, oil and maybe alcohol poured in the center, a fire lit, and the chef pushed it around the griddle making train noises!

Then he cleaned up, making the cooking surface spotless again. We were about half done with our plates when our server came with take-out boxes, and then sherbet; that was served in bowls fresh from the dishwasher, so if you wanted your desert cold, you had to stop eating the main meal and move on to that! And at the same time, the checks came, and people paid, and that was that. There was a generous quantity of food; each of us had a very adequate meal to take home for the next day. Which by now was yesterday…

Spring Roadtrip 2024, Florida to South Carolina

Thursday, March 21, 2024: I took advantage of stop and go traffic driving up through Florida to show the roadside color. It was more brilliant when not taken through a dirty windshield with reflections! Leaving the family after loading up and breakfast, I headed northeast, planning to stay at Barrington County Park, in southeastern Georgia. I had tried to stay here on a previous trip, but, arriving after dark, was unable to find the road. This time it had clear, and unfortunate, signage!

What the heck – I might as well drive down and see what I’m missing!

That’s the boat launch. It didn’t look like flooding extended into the campground itself, but it was all barricaded off with orange plastic fencing, so it was hard to tell. I really want to camp here now, though, with that convenient launch right there. It is remote enough to be quiet, and probably dark. I’ve done this general route enough so that I knew the next camping area on public land in a remote and quiet spot was in the Francis Marion National Forest, so that’s where I headed, turning what would have been about a 300 mile day into a 500 mile day. So on up to South Carolina and Honey Hill I went.

This campground has only eight official sites – but the center area is where you can just pull in among the trees, and that’s where I ended up.

Friday, March 22: I got a slow start to the day, eating a healthy breakfast of cereal and fruit, knitting some. As I wasn’t expected until later in the day – and I knew my cousin was suffering allergies and not feeling great – I wasn’t in a hurry. It was 11:30 before I loaded up and headed north, to Conway, South Carolina. It’s a pretty drive on secondary highways, just in from the coast, with lots of rivers to cross, and swamps. Spring has sprung, dogwood and azaleas blooming in the woods and yards, and feral wisteria climbing trees everywhere. No photos yet, though – I was too busy driving with no good places to pull off.