Winter Excursion 2, Day 170 (Final Day....HOME!)

The drive home today was not as bad as we expected. Temps never got out of the 30s and we went through a few snow squalls, but the roads were fine. When we got to Tug Hill (west of Lowville) this is what greeted us!
There is 6+ inches in the fields.

View out of the truck!

The trees are coated!

 

And yes; it really is the middle of April! We will not come home next year until 1 May!

So here are the stats for this year's trip.

We stayed at 19 different campgrounds.

We drove a total of 12397.2 miles.

We put 3337.3 miles on the camper.

Average mpg was 10.7. We get about 8.0 mpg when towing and around 13.0 when not.

Here's a pic of our route for this year.

This will be the last post from this trip. Next post will be 1 Jun 18, our first day of the Family Reunion Trip.

Winter Excursion 2, Day 169

We are glad we made the decision to stay an extra day here. The rain started last night around 0200. By 0400 the wind was so strong it was rocking the camper, A tree blew down in the campsite across from us. The wind finally calmed down around 0900, but it rained on and off all day. Temps never got much above 40.
Watched North & South again almost all day.
Got some KFC for dinner as Cath has been craving their crispy chicken.
Snow is in the forecast for the drive home tomorrow, but temps should be in the mid 30s. What a winter this has been!😞

Winter Excursion 2, Day 168

Spent the day hanging out at camp and watching the other campers leave. There are only four of us left and one of them is the host.
The weather at home is not good as they are in the middle of an ice storm. Forecast here is terrible! We are going to get high winds (30 - 50 mph) and up to two inches of rain tonight and tomorrow. The storm is moving northeast and that is our way home. Based on all of this we have extended our stay here for another night. I'm not towing in winds like that.
TV reception here is lousy, so we spent the day watching the mini series North & South on DVD. We got about 1/3 of the way through it and will watch the rest tomorrow.
Other than the weather all is good in the Boss Camp.

Winter Excursion 2, Day 167

Got an early start and arrived at Frances Slocum SP around 1400. Temps were in the 80s and the locals act like it's summer. The park is crowded with fisherman, families, dogs, and swimmers! The campground is about half full.
Here's a pic of our site. Electric hookup, but no water.

We are spending two nights here. The weather is going to turn bad tomorrow with lots of rain, thunderstorms, and high winds. The weather at home is worse as they are calling for an ice storm. The drive tomorrow should be fun as winds are forecast to be 20 - 30 mph with gusts to 50! We are not looking forward to this trip.
We are having our first issue with the camper. The cabinet over the couch started separating from the wall and ceiling.
Here's a few pics.

We called the dealer in Syracuse and will stop by on the way home tomorrow to get it repaired. It is warranty work.

Winter Excursion 2, Day 166

We spent the entire day at camp relaxing and watching the other campers come and go.
Took Kaylee for a nice walk. Temps got into the low 80s, we haven't seen that kind of weather for a long time.
Spent the afternoon and evening packing up. We are off to Frances Slocum State Park near Wilkes-Barre, PA tomorrow. That will be our last stop before we get home.

Winter Excursion 2, Day 165

We got out of Warrior Path SP on time this morning. We were out of there by 0930. Hate to say it but we hit the Interstate (81) and headed north. The drive was easy, not too much traffic, and was uneventful, which is good.😊
We got to our new campground around 1500. We are totally jazzed with this new campground. Normally we are in a State Park, but our reservations got canceled due to the cold weather in the northeast, so we got a site at this Good Sam Park. It is great! Here's a few pics.
From the small lake looking up the hill you can see our camper.

Here's a closer look.

This is the view from the camper looking down to the campground.

Here's from our site looking down to the lake. We feel like the Overlords watching over everything...LOL.

Here's another looking at our site on the hill.

We really like this campground. The price is right and we may use this for a stop-over point when we head south on some of our trips. The place is clean and really taken care of. It is also close to town.
More pics tomorrow when we take a long walk.
All is well! 😩

Winter Excursion 2, Day 164

Today was pack up day. We spent the day around camp cleaning up and doing the packing. We are off to Walnut Hills RV Park tomorrow. It is near Harrisonburg, VA.
Weather today was perfect and we spent the afternoon basking in the sun, watching all the other campers coming and going.
Went out to a Mexican joint for dinner. It was really good and the Margaritas were the best!
Watched a quick movie and then off to bed.

Winter Excursion 2, Day 163

We explored the Cherokee National Forest today. It was a fun drive with some beautiful scenery. The weather was perfect. We drove Rt 421, better know to locals as the "Snake", as it has many, many switchbacks and hairpin turns.

The lake is nice, clean, and full of fish.

This is one of the overlooks we stopped at.

Another view.

This stream is full of native trout. I sure wanted to get the fly rod out!

Here's a  public boat launch. What a view!

This hot dog joint is in Bristol, TN.

Bristol is getting ready for the NASCAR race this weekend.

It is an old town.

We drove Rt 321 on the way home and went through the town of Mountain City. We were in three states today; TN, VA, & NC.
Back at camp we had an all afternoon and evening campfire, a few toddies, and a nice dinner. Tomorrow is pack-up day.

Winter Excursion 2, Day 162

Our favorite...Laundry Day! The laundromat was close by and we had everything finished by 1330.
The weather today was still a little chilly, it never got out of the 40s. Close to freezing again tonight.
Watched the tube for awhile and Cath made a nice dinner.
We plan to go exploring tomorrow in the Cherokee National Forest, so off to bed tonight.

Winter Excursion 2, Day 161

It was 28 deg when we woke up this morning!
Cath made a nice breakfast and we watched the Master's. It was an exciting match.
It warmed up a little as the day went on and we had a nice fire after dinner. We stayed outside until it was dark.

The campground is almost empty, but there was a lot of "snooping" traffic today. It's fun to see the snoopers mouth the words "New York".
Off to bed, tomorrow is laundry day.

Winter Excursion 2, Day 160

Another lazy day. It rained almost all night. Had a little break this morning, but we hung at camp all day. I drove to the local market and got a steak for dinner this evening. We played a little cribbage and then watched it snow for awhile (it's April..right?). This has been a really weird winter.  It is going to be below freezing tonight. We filled up the fresh water tank and will disconnect the fresh water hose from the campsite tonight (don't want it to freeze). We hope we don't get any more of these winters.
Best thing we accomplished today was finishing all the reservations for the Family Reunion Trip. We will be staying at 25 different campgrounds and traveling at least 7500 miles. I don't even want to think about the gas bill!
All is well in the Boss camp. Thank goodness for SAT TV and Aerial America.

Winter Excursion 2, Day 159

We decided to have a down day. We hung out at the campground and took a nice walk in the afternoon.
These are pics of the walk around Duck Island, which is part of the park.

If you look close on this one you can see our camper. It's near the center a little to the right under the pine tree.

We got camp ready for all the rain we are going to get tonight. Dinner and a movie then off to dream land.

Winter Excursion 2, Day 158

We drove the Wilderness Road (Daniel Boone Highway) RT 58 to Cumberland Gap National Historical Park today.

In the late 1700s hundreds of thousands of settlers passed through the Cumberland Gap on the westward movement.

This water wheel is in the small town of Cumberland Gap. This was the last place for the settlers to get supplies.

This overlook is a favorite visitors stop. The road to get up here is narrow with lots of hairpin turns.

The view is worth it.

You can see three states from up here. On a clear day you can see Lookout Mountain near Chattanooga, TN 200 miles away. 

The campground is really nice and hardly anyone was there. We will stay here next year.

A replica cabin.

Stopped at another State Park on the way home

Zoom in and you'll see the buffalo.

Last stop was Natural Tunnel State Park in Virginia. Nice park with a nice campground. We may do some time here next year also.
Back at camp we got the fire going and had a few toddies. The neighbors invited us over for an evening campfire chat. We hope to hook up with them next year at Cumberland Gap. We plan to take a small hike at the park we are in now tomorrow and then hunker down for two days of rain and snow. We are hoping this winter weather breaks before we get home.

Winter Excursion 2, Day 157

It rained hard last night and early this morning. We were glad we put the awning in as the wind really got to howling. We had no damage, but some of our neighbors had some minor damage and lots of things left out got blown around.
We left camp around 1000 to visit Sycamore Shoals State Historic Park near Elizabethton, TN. One the way we stopped to get some subs for lunch and saw this joint. Had to have the pic just for Liz!

The park is the site of some fierce Cherokee Indian fighting during the Revolutionary War. The Cherokee were armed by the British.  It is also the mustering site of the "Overmountain Men", famous for the battle at Kings Mountain.

There is a replica fort and we could not imagine 150 people holed up here for weeks at a time. Talk about some crowded camping.

My favorite building in the fort!

The river the park is on is really pretty. The park brochure says it is good fly fishing and there are three types of trout. We might have to visit again next year. 

Back at camp we chopped/split some firewood. The temps are dropping and it is supposed to freeze tonight. The fire felt good.

And here's Kaylee in her normal cold weather position.

Tomorrow we are off to Cumberland Gap National Park in Virginia, so early to bed tonight.