Off to New England!

We took a three week RV trip in September to New England and back. I'll divide the story into several blog posts. This one is about the trip out east.

August 30th to Fondulac, WI

Just a long day of driving. I drove from 11:45 to 3 with one stop for gas because Lee needed to work. It was fine, but my hip gets sore when I sit for a long time. Old age! (Later in the trip I discovered that if I sat on a pillow my hip was a lot happier). My toe liked the lack of activity though. We’ll see how it is when I run tomorrow morning.

This is a very big KOA Campground. We’ve had some trouble, as usual. First we pulled into the wrong campsite because I misheard the woman in the office. Then Lee couldn’t find the right one, then the breaker kept tripping. He changed to the outlet for the site next to us and now we seem to be ok.

Aug 31-Sep 1

Yesterday we took the SS Badger car ferry across Lake Michigan, from Manitowoc WI to Ludington MI. It was pretty neat, relaxing, and a nice reprieve from driving. It departed at 2 pm, so we had a lazy morning, leaving the KOA around 11, making several stops for supplies and such, and getting to the ferry around 12:30. We were supposed to get there by 1 but we wanted a little extra time to walk the dogs and feed them lunch.

Before we left the KOA I went for a real run, the first one since I broke my right little toe almost 2 weeks ago. It was ok, but I still need to be careful. I bumped my toe this morning and it really really hurt, but I took some ibuprofen and it’s feeling much better now.

We left the dogs in the car with the windows cracked on the boat. It’s a 4 hour crossing so that’s a long time for them to sit in the car without a break. They loaded the RV on to the ferry at the very last, which made us one of the first vehicles off the boat. I think that’s because of the dogs, so a definite win for us!

The Badger is the only remaining steam powered ship in the US. We could see them loading coal onto the ship as it was getting ready to depart. It was built in 1953 so it’s the same age as Lee! It was completely retro fitted in 1991.

We sat out on deck, in a sheltered space on one side of the boat. The wind was blowing furiously on one side, so we sat on the other side! 

We were out of sight of land for about 2 hours of the 4 hour trip. It was a calm day, but you could still feel the ship moving. I crocheted, and read mostly. We didn’t bother to pay for wifi. Periodically I would get up and walk around the boat a bit, because my hip starts to bother me if I sit around too long. Old age, ugh!

I’m currently making two afghans from a striped afghan kit from Annie’s kit club, the same company that I bought the block of the month afghan kit from last year. I’m all caught up right now however, so while I wait for the next kit I’m making a baby sweater.  It’s lots of fun. I’ve never made anything like this before but I already know almost all the stitches and techniques, thanks to the afghan kits. I like watching it slowly come together, and it’s going quickly since it’s small! I going to need another extra project soon, butI already know what it’s going to be!

I ate a lot of junk food on the boat. A hot dog, a Dr. pepper, an ice cream sandwich, and later some coffee and a soft pretzel.

We pulled into Ludington at 7 pm, right on time. We’re on EST now, so we lost an hour. Ludington is a really pretty little town, and it was fascinating to watch the boat pull up to the dock.  Out came the truck and the RV, right away. The dogs were no worse for wear, although they were pretty happy to get out of the truck when we got to our campsite for the night.

We stayed at a park called Vacation Station right in Ludington, only ten minutes from the dock. It was a beautiful campground with a lot of very green grass, but we were only there for the night and now we’re on our way again, driving through Michigan, on our way to Ohio.

Sept 2 To River View RV, Vermillion OH

It seemed like a long day but maybe I was just tired. I drove first, for a change. That part of Michigan was very rural and empty, easy driving. When things got congested it was Lee’s turn to drive.  No fun hauling the RV in heavy traffic.

A few detours for coffee and supplies in Ann Arbor then before you know it we’re in Ohio, along Lake Erie. Wetlands and long bridges, an interesting area. We also drive right by a nuclear reactor. Haven’t seen one of those in awhile.

We pass an awful accident on the highway, a sports car smashed and burnt. Don’t like to think what that was like. The RV park has a gate, and it’s locked. The owners aren’t there, even though we called them 20 minutes before our ETA like they asked. Turned out they were stuck in the traffic from the accident, so she sent her husband to let us in and show us our site.

It was a very ratty RV park, gravel roads, small sites, no sewer. But along a little river, so kind of picturesque too. We don’t want to unhook since we’re only there for the night, but the truck is sticking out into the road. “Oh no matter,” she says airily. “Nobody else is checking in tonight anyway".

I decide I want to try setting up our new screen tent. We also put our new vinyl tablecloth on the picnic table and put the screen tent up around it, so we can eat dinner outside. The only problem is the ground is hard and rocky and I can’t get most of the stakes into the ground. It’s windy too but it doesn’t blow away! We put the dogs in it with us. They can get out by wriggling underneath the edge, but they’re not very interested in doing that. We wouldn’t leave them out there by themselves however. Cosmo does end up outside it once, but it was purely an accident, he was following his nose and it lead him away. I said, “Hey! Where do you think you’re going?” And then he tried to get back into the tent but couldn’t figure out how to get back in. He started hurling himself randomly against the screen, trying to be a good dog. It was pretty funny. 

After dinner we took a little walk to look at the river. it was pretty, but the park is still ratty. 

In the morning I went for a short run. 15 minutes warm up, then 8x1 minutes going as hard as I can, with 2 minutes of recovery between each repeat. It was hard, but it also felt good to go fast and get my heart rate up. My toe hurt at first and then felt ok, better than yesterday.

Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York today. A shorter day of driving, and we’ve been to the park we’re going to before, although I don’t remember it.

Sept 3 Long Day of Driving and Now New Hampshire

We stayed at Southwoods RV in Byron NY last night. It’s a very nice park and we've stayed there before, in 2016, but we both have only the vaguest memories of it. We were on the road by 9 am. We had a long day of driving in front of us, almost 7 hours, which is a lot more than we usually do. At first we were on I-90 but instead of dropping down and heading through Mass, we continued north. Hmmm. Up toward Albany and off the interstate at Troy. Into Vermont and country roads with speed limits between 45 and 50 mph. Why? We trusted Google but we’re puzzled too.

The drive through Vermont was  mountainous, and spectacular. Up up up, down down down. Classic little country towns, rushing streams, winding roads. Eventually we entered New Hampshire. At Keene we turned north yet again, up to I-89 above Manchester and then finally south on I-93. 

The minute we hit 93 the reason became clear. Labor Day weekend and all of Massachusetts was heading north to the lakes and the mountains. Thank goodness for Google, it probably saved us hours of driving time.

After a short stop at the grocery store we arrived at our campground, at about 6:30. Rustic, and the campsite is anything but level but it will do. It’s nice to be in New Hampshire and I can’t wait to see everyone again tomorrow!