~Wednesday, October 27, 2021-
Day 500‼️ (Travel Day)
Packing up in the rain is no fun, especially for Jeff since he tends to the outside stuff mostly. We managed to leave by 10:30 which was a little later than planned since we had an 8-hour drive day. We stopped by the office to let them know that 2 of their machines were not working properly and politely asked for a refund. Not a problem.
Jeff took the first 5 hours of the drive. I’m always a little sad when leaving a state I’ve really come to like. Vermont was certainly one of them. For nearly 3 weeks we packed a lot in, but the best part of all was fully enjoying the magic of peak foliage in New England. We would absolutely consider moving there if it weren’t for the harsh winters.
Having a 400-mile drive day has certainly not been missed. Our sweet spot is no more than 300. But it looks like as we slowly make our way to California for the holidays, we’ll have quite a few of these lengthy drives in the coming weeks. Today, we headed to a new state that neither of us have ever visited. Pennsylvania...here we come. We only have 3 full days to explore Gettysburg so I know we’ll be packing in a great deal. We can’t wait to finally see the most important engagement of the American Civil War.
We packed in 4 states in 1 day….Vermont, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Kind of strange to be driving back through urban areas again with billboards, overhead highway signs, aggressive drivers. We’ve been in the countryside for quite a while, so getting back into city life is a bit jolting. About 5 hours into the drive, I took over driving duties. I had no idea how challenging it would be due to all of the highway construction when we crossed into Pennsylvania. The 4-lane highway narrowed down to 2 with 20 miles of K-Rails snuggly placed on either side. The nerve racking part was controlling the trailer in the confines of the 20-miles of K-rails on either side. Having a semi whizzing by you at 70 mph with inches to spare on the left, was quite unnerving. Once the construction zone was over, I realized just how tight I was gripping onto the steering wheel.
As we drove through the town of Gettysburg to get to our campground, we noticed we were among new grocery stores and gas stations. Gone are the Hannaford grocery stores and hello to GIANT food stores. I will miss those Vermont grocery stores. When we finally arrived at Granite Hill Camping Resort around 7:45 p.m. I phoned earlier in the day to let them know that we wouldn’t be arriving until after hours. So our map and welcome packet were waiting for us outside the office. Finding the site was not a problem, but backing the trailer in was. I hadn’t done it in a while, and it was dark; one unfortunate combination. It appeared we were the only ones at the campground…..again. I guess we’re the odd one’s camping this late in the season. Perhaps by Friday, we’ll have some company. We’ll have to find out the gist tomorrow morning. After about 30 minutes, I managed to get the trailer in with quite a few attempts, even with my helper. There’s just too many things to worry about in the dark…...hitting a tree, “pinching the trailer”, rolling over rocks, etc. Practice, practice, practice is really what it’s all about.