Once Again We Head North

The Journey Begins

We finally got on the road for our next adventure on Monday, June 12th.  Although we were planning to leave Fisherman’s Cove in Florida a week earlier, our plans got changed due to a defective inverter/charger on our RV.  Fortunately this piece of equipment broke down before we got on the road.  Our original plan included our first stop being at the Orlando Freightliner dealer on June 7th for an oil change and some filters. We kept that 8:00 AM appointment but after waiting 6 hours we decided they really didn’t want our money so we left and went back to the RV park.  This was the worst service we’ve ever received from any Freightliner dealer.  Very disappointing.  

On Monday, June 12th the new inverter was installed and we were finally on the road by noon.

Let’s Go!

Back at Carolina Trace

Our first major stop was with friends Colleen and Charles Holder in our North Carolina community of Carolina Trace for 4 nights.  

The Holder RV Park, hotel, and restaurant in Sanford, NC, is a great place to stay. On our 1st night Colleen made some great pizza, cooked on the grill, and we enjoyed an extended Happy Hour by Lake Trace. 

Our second night in NC, we did a Burgers & Beer Night at the country club CTCC with friends. 

The following evening we enjoyed dinner at the Carolina Hotel in Pinehurst, compliments of our dear friends, Jacqui & Joe Danek, who hosted the Holders, Bermans, and Nuzzolos with an amazing celebration of friendship: Champagne toast, appetizers, main course, and desserts. As anyone who reads this blog has learned, our Trace and RV friends are like family. Jacqui planned this amazing gift with the help of Barbara Berman.

The beautiful entrance of the Carolina Hotel

A wonderful night with great friends

Our final night at Trace was spent at the Berman’s house for Happy Hour, with the addition of friends from Fisherman’s Cove RV Park, Trish and her granddaughter Nyah. We also had time to get together with another friend, Doug, whom we had not seen in quite a while.  

Although we didn’t get to see some other friends we were hoping to see, we had an amazing time at Carolina Trace and are looking forward to visiting again in the future.

Williamsburg & Yorktown

When we left NC we headed to Williamsburg, VA for a week.  We’ve been to Colonial Williamsburg, Yorktown, and Jamestown many times and love the area and the history.  Our 1st day we enjoyed a driving tour of Newport News, with descriptions available on our phone. But, since it was Sunday, most of the museums and exhibits were closed. The Southernmost stop was the Monitor-Merrimac Overlook Park where civilians had watched the deadly exchange between these revolutionary warships.

Day 2 was spent visiting Colonial Williamsburg which is a great place to see what life was like in early America.  

The Governor’s Palace 

We listened to reenactors explain how difficult it was to print a newspaper, how a silversmith collected silver and made various items, and we had a tour of Raleigh Tavern which was utilized by many of our Founding Fathers prior to and during the birth of our country. 

We also listened to a talk concerning the life of Elizabeth Maloney who was a white woman living in Williamsburg during the 1770s, who wanted to marry an enslaved man.  Birth records indicate she had 2 children by the enslaved man, but no marriage records have been found!

Re-enactor of Elizabeth Maloney’s story

Tuesday was a day to relax and clean up the RV a little and make some minor repairs.  We also did a driving tour of Newport News which was very uneventful.

Wednesday was a rainy day and also the day to get the oil changed in the RV since we were unable to get this service as originally planned in Florida.  We found a Cummins service center whose main service was fire trucks.  We figured if fire departments trusted this service center then we could also.  

Lot’s of fire trucks at Atlantic Emergency

Rain from Florida to Virginia

While they were working on the RV, we went to the Yorktown Battlefield Visitor Center.  We were unable to drive around the Battlefield because the Park Service had closed all the driving tours due to down trees.  We explored the Visitor Center and then drove into Norfolk for lunch.  

We had an excellent lunch at The Stockpot; Ray had a Turkish Breakfast and Lalia a Burrata Toast!

Turkish Breakfast above-Burrata Toast below

After surviving a torrential downpour, we drove around the city.  It rained most of the day so we didn’t get to see much of Norfolk but it was interesting anyways.  We also had time to visit two of our favorite stores - Lidl and Aldi.  

When the RV was ready we drove back to the RV park in the rain and Ray got soaked hooking up the electric and water.  Once we dried off, we took the car to an Amazon pickup location to get an order we placed.  

If you haven’t used this service from Amazon, you should try it.  When I got to the Amazon locker location I opened an email they had sent to me and it opened one of the lock boxes with my package.  Amazing!

We finally got to drive the Yorktown Battlefield Tour on Thursday and it was well worth the ride.  The park service has a wonderful app to download that directs you from site to site.  Fortunately it didn’t start raining again until we finished the driving tour.

The pond above was here during the Battle of Yorktown

The ‘modern’ dam in the bottom picture replaced a beaver dam

Our last day in this area was spent mainly in the RV.  It rained most of the day so we were able to get the inside organized for our trip tomorrow to the Gardiner Brewery, a Harvest Host location in Maryland.