The Mysterious South

Today we drove through the low mountains and mists of West Virginia, with tendrils of fog rising out of the hollers to join with the clouds even through the rain. The scenery was eerily beautiful, and even more evocative as we listened to Ishiguro's The Buried Giant on Audible. In Ishiguro's new novel, the mist carries forgetfulness, and it did seem as though time had stopped still in the landscape surrounding us. However, if anything, the scenery brought back memories rather than obscuring them. Maybe 15 or 20 years ago I spent time in remote West Virginia at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory during two summers, and that quiet and dark (literally) time came back full force. It's so beautiful here, but there's still that mysterious sense that the social landscape of Deliverance is hiding out there in the physical landscape that is so reminiscent. Because of the rain, I didn't get any photos of the drive or of the campsite at Fort Boonesboro State Park in Kentucky, but maybe this one of the camper in the dark is a good representation of my mindset, if nothing else.

 

Because we got here in the midst of a rainstorm, we decided to go out to dinner rather than try to cook out or do a reprise of each course needing to be cooked separately. We took a chance on Hall's Restaurant, which is right on the river. The food was OK, but the setting was very special and the service was outstanding.

I don't really understand how the photo makes it seem sunny, given that it was pouring rain just on the other side of the railing. But they are clearly set up for rain and we were able to eat outside in spite of the weather. Here, the husband is sitting about 25 feet above the water level, and the restaurant has photos inside of 2003 when the water was flooding the restaurant above this level. YIKES! We thought we had it bad in Eldred. There are marks on the wall inside the restaurant showing the height of all the various floods, and the highest (in the 70s) is just a couple of feet below the ceiling! However, since the restaurant was originally opened in 1783 as Holder's Tavern, there is history to uphold and the restaurant has been rebuilt again and again.

In spite of driving through nasty weather for the entire day today, we managed to have an interesting and enjoyable day. Traveling is always a surprise!

Rocky Gap State Park

Wow, this park rivals Maumee Bay State Park in Ohio for fanciest, although the sites here are a bit more rustic -- no paved pads and more woods. When we drove in, it was hard to imagine it was a campground! There is a golf course right at the entrance, and even a casino! We found an aviary inside the campground with rescue birds and several rangers. The bald eagles were beautiful, as were all the different owls. These are birds who were hit by cars and can no longer fly, all except for the horned owl which someone had shot. The birds were getting a health check while we were there, and the ranger talked about how they keep them eating a healthy amount and how having another of their kind to share their enclosure makes them healthier. This was all completely unexpected in a state park campground! There are biking and hiking trails, a swimming beach, kayaks and canoes. This is definitely somewhere to stay for more than a day. There are multiples campsite loops, and not all have electric. But our spot tonight does, and we are very comfortable.

The drive down to Maryland from New Jersey was one of the easiest we've had, although there was a strange spot where everyone just stopped for no apparent reason. There was no road construction and no accident...maybe an animal crossed the road too far ahead for us to see. The views were beautiful as we drove the last 50 miles or so along the top of Maryland.

Poor Chester got his claw caught in a tread on the steps to the trailer and cried out in pain. We will definitely be covering the treads with a towel on this trip and then finding a more permanent solution when we get home. Fortunately, there was no lasting damage. The campground puts all the dog sites in a couple of loops, so we have many, many dogs around us. That makes our crazy cockers even crazier, so they are mostly resting inside where they won't be bothered by outside sounds. Not all of the sites are occupied tonight, but we're pretty sure the place fills up completely on a summer weekend.

Oh, and a follow-up to the trailer tire issue. We were able to get the tire replaced and the new tire mounted at Jefferson Tire in Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey. They were extremely helpful, and we'd recommend them to anyone staying at Mahlon Dickerson. The husband also enjoyed revisiting his memories at Home Depot, since we don't have any in Steamboat. He got himself a flat jack, and will now be able to change a tire in nothing flat (no pun intended). When we went to our friends' house fro dinner, the husband and our friend welded some plugs onto the hitch that made it fit better in the receptor, so it was a good day for the trailer. The only bad thing is that the dinette seat back is pretty much broken. It's a very shoddy piece of work and will need to be completely rebuilt when we return home.

We discovered that Mahlon Dickerson was the Secretary of the Navy in the 1830s when we took a walk on the trails on our full day in NJ. There's a great nature trail at the park (although we didn't have the guide so didn't know what the numbers referred to) that hooks up to miles of hiking and biking trails there. Our friends met us there for a campground brunch and then a walk, and Chester made friends with Vincent.

All in all, our NJ stay was terrific and our trip to Maryland smooth. We're off to Kentucky tomorrow morning!

Remembering the East Coast

The last few days have taken us through and around East Coast locales, and we have to admit to having forgotten what the right coast is all about! A refrain kept playing through my mind..."Give me space, give me space...don't fence me in!" It's kind of amazing that after only four years of living in the West we can be so spoiled by the far reaching views. But spoiled we are!

Heading east from Ohio we traveled to Hills Creek State Park, in Pennsylvania. Making tight turns in the small towns surrounding it, we took a chunk out of a tire, which we have yet to get replaced. Fortunately, the folks who pulled into the spot we ended up in (more about that in a minute) were really helpful. They have been at this trailer camping a lot longer than us and had a flat jack to share with us. We replaced the tire and have been carrying it around in the back of the truck, waiting for  spot to get a new tire. No blow out -- but we don't want to be without a spare.

As we headed into the park, we crossed over a lovely small dam; here's the view of it from inside the park.

Speaking of inside the park, we headed to our reserved spot and HATED it! There was a girl scout group camping right next to us, so lots and lots of active kids, and our spot had virtually no separation from their site. Fortunately, this was not a weekend, so we were able to swap the site for a handcapped site that hadn't been chosen yet. We ended up with a fairly private spot, paved and flat, and we were right next door to the nicest folks who helped with the tire swap. This was one of those times where we thought we might have made friends if we had been staying longer. As it was, we just appreciated how much campers help one another. While we were setting up, some folks who have been coming to same park for 40 years came by on a walk with their adopted grandson. Jason, who was 3, had a lot of fun chasing Bailey around!

 The next morning, we were on our way for the last leg east, to Wells State Park in Sturbridge, MA. Oh my goodness...how can folks drive on these roads every day! The trip that was supposed to be around five hours took almost eight -- and every one of those miles was grueling! The roads were horrible, the drivers even worse, and accidents and road construction delayed us over and over again. I can say with some confidence that we will not travel this far east with the trailer again. A whole bunch of things came loose -- our awning, and even our indoor heater was jarred loose from its moorings. A gravel road in the West is so much smoother than these paved highways. We arrived at Wells State Park much later than expected, and exhausted. We knew we wouldn't have any hook-ups here, so it wasn't a surprise, but we did miss air conditioning as the humidity made sleeping difficult.

 Our site(#2)  was HUGE, and it had a great view of the pond. 

It would have been a great place to have a vacation, since it had the swimming beach and lots of trails. However, we were in Massachusetts for the family reunion, so we didn't do much but sleep (damply) there. Scott and DJ came out to see it as we were leaving, but otherwise it was just a stopping place. Since we arrived so much later than expected, we decided to go out to dinner rather than cooking. We ate at the Center Street Grill, and we'd highly recommend it. The food was amazing, as was the service. You have the choice of tapas style food or main dishes (or both), and everything we had justified the rather high cost.

After the reunion, during which it was fantastic to see family, we headed of on our first leg west. We traveled to Mahlon Dickerson Reservation in NJ, and we'll meet up with friends here tomorrow. The trip was less stressful than we expected, basing our expectations on traveling in Massachusetts two days ago. The site is really quite private, although we did see one of the campers baring his bottom to the entire campground as we drove in. We are at the end of the loop, right next to a hiking trail and relatively distant from other campers. This seems to be a kind of hidden gem. There is lots of mountain biking, and the husband is ready to head out on the trails first thing in the morning. We've got water and electric hookups again, so we can knock some of that humidity out of the air tonight and get a good night's sleep. Looking forward to it!