Slowly moving Northeast

Yesterday was a moving day. It's too bad, because there was a Beltane Festival all weekend. Probably would have been quite interesting. Here is a picture of Tasha going for a walk, rather reluctantly because we were going AWAY from the coach. She happily walked all the way back with no trouble.We only needed to move less than 200 miles to Haymarket, VA, and it was red roads all the way until our campground which was a working farm 200 years old and lots of cows. Ahh, the smell of a farm. These were TINY roads that we needed to maneuver twice because a couple from NJ was trying to recharge their electric mini-cooper with 50 amp service in our spot. To make a long story short, we ended up parking in another spot and he left the CG uncharged and unhappy. Here's a view from our 'sunny' campsite. But a funny thing happened as we started out for a walk in the early evening. A lady came up to us and asked us if we had just been in Small Country CG in Louisa, VA and we said yes. Well, she said, we were the DutchStar next to you! Well, we spent the evening talking in their pretty rig and learned about traveling to Alaska which was their favorite destination. We exchanged names and emails and walked home under a starlit sky. Small world. Today was moving day, too, but we left an hour later than we had planned because we started talking with the couple next to us. They are fulltimers, too, and have worked at Disney for the last four years! Well, we had to get the scoop, don't ya know, and they were so helpful, giving us all kinds of brochures and insider info. But they had to go, and so did we, so we squeezed our way out safely. We drove a whole 127 miles - ALL red road - to our new CG - Round Top in Gettysburg, PA! I was a happy camper until a caught my thumb in a locking pin. Ouch. It's always something. Gary's making hummus and iced tea, and we'll be leaving again tomorrow headed for Kutztown, PA - land of the Amish. We'll do day trips after we are settled at my brother, Bob's place in Stockton, NJ, hopefully arriving on Sunday. We're going for a walk now on this beautiful day - well, it's always a beautiful day.

Monticello, VA

A diesel truck woke us up at 5:15 this morning, leaving, we assumed, for work. So we went back to sleep but the sun woke us up at 6:45 am. We had our morning coffee until 7:15 then got up to a glorious day. Finding Walmart was easy, and we dropped off our prescriptions, found some mosquito and TICK spray, picked up our prescriptions, swallowed our capsule and went on to Monticello, right down the road a bit.
The entrance fee was steep at 44 dollars, so we decided to do all that it covered. Our house tour was great. I had that ‘connected’ feeling again realizing that Thomas Jefferson walked right on this very floor. It was the only thing we were allowed to ‘touch’. The house went into disrepair after his death on July 4, 1826 (exactly 50 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence – which he wrote when he was 33!), but it is all still original glass, door frames and floors. The grounds were beautiful as you can see, and the garden tour revealed that he had even tried to grow figs and sugarcane. He was a great governor, congressmen, secretary of state, VP and president for two terms, but was in such great debt from all his purchases and rebuilding of his home, he needed to sell his personal library to the Library of Congress. It made him so sad, he told his good friend, James Madison, “I cannot live without books”, so Madison helped him replenish some of his library. [I bought a coffee cup during a Library of Congress visit with those words on it because I feel the same way, and it has been so hard to leave my books at home. Not to worry: many CGs have trading libraries where you leave one and take one, which will make me feel better.] Most of the sold-off furnishings in the house have found their way back through the generosity of patrons, such as bookcases that were built on the plantation and items he purchase in Europe during his diplomatic service in France for five years. Sorry this is so lengthy. We’re home now and going down to Ruth Ann Lake to see if we should stay one more day to kayak. I hope we make it to New Jersey before September. There is SO MUCH to see in this great country of ours!

Off to See Louisa

This morning was warm and cloudless, so we were up and on the road by 9:30. However, getting dressed, Gary noticed a 3 inch inflammation where I removed a tick about a week ago. I looked at my spot - it was a small red dot. A quick call to our favorite nurse confirmed we needed to make a trip to a medic. Our drive to our new campground, Small Country Camping was in Louisa, just east of Charlottesville. We arrived around 12:20, unhitched, jumped in the jeep and drove the few miles back to find an Urgent Care whose brochure I just happened to pick up at check in. We hadn't eaten since breakfast, so getting gas (we already got diesel (ouch)) we stopped in McDonald's and I noticed an Ambulance parked in the lot. Looking around, I found two paramedics in a booth. They were sweet and gave me directions to the exact brochure location. Fifteen minutes later we were in the waiting room of the UC office, and waiting room was the operative word here. We did wait - over an hour, but we both walked out with the same prescription for Doxycycline, twice a day for three weeks. This antibiotic makes you very sun-sensitive, so we need to cover and use sunscreen for the next three weeks - bummer.
We like our campsite- although out in the open we have free internet, 50 amp, water, sewer and Direct TV - all for a great low price. I sound like a salesman, but it is really a good deal. The only drawback was the 7 miles from the interstate to our site on teeny-tiny roads again. I'm telling you, I love only RED ROADS. This is a RED ROAD. Nice, huh?
Tomorrow we are going to do some sight-seeing - Monticello, Michie Tavern and Ash-Lawn Highland.