Headed South

I think I'll dream of this flight for a long time, it was visually stunning and filled me with a warm happy feeling of satisfaction.

The last week or so has flown by again and here we are in the middle of October already! Better catch up on the blog!

We were in New Hampshire to meet Barbara's brother Stu and his wife Linda who were visiting New England from OLD England to do some “Leaf Peeping”. They chose the perfect time to do so as the leaves peaked as they arrived and we enjoyed a glorious show of fall color.

Kancamagus Highway NH

We met up in Lincoln, they had a hotel downtown (if there is a downtown in little Lincoln) and we had a nice campground just down the road in Woodstock, in fact we closed down the campsite as their season ended for the year the day we were leaving!

Campground scarecrow

Lincoln is a vacation town, nice in the spring, summer and autumn as well as a ski resort for the winter season. Close to the White Mountains, Franconia Notch, Mount Washington and the Kancamagus Highway it's a good central spot to see the pretty countryside.

From the window of the Robert Frost house in Franconia NH

Stu and Linda like train rides and Lincoln has 3 of them. We chose the 1 ½ hr Hobo Train with lunch. At the depot they had a display of Halloween Presidential Scarecrows that we thought were hilarious.

Linda (L) and Barbara enjoying the train ride

Abraham Lin CORN and Linda

After a couple of days together catching up on news from UK and eating out every night we had to part ways. They moved on to Vermont, Mass and Rhode Island and we packed up and headed south.

Linda, Stu and Barbara at the Lincoln Craft Fair

 It was our ambition to chase the autumn leaves down the East coast but instead we decided the autumn temperatures were getting too low and overtook the leaves by breaking one of our “rules” and driving Interstates for a couple of days thru New York and PA to see our son Fred and his wife Cori, and our old Gambrills neighbors Doug and Lynn.

Lake Sqam NY

We did a whole week of Walmarts and Elks Lodges to get back to our $25 a night camping budget ($25 a night LINK), and stretched our holding tank use to do so. Our choice of Elks Lodge near Gambrills was the Lodge in Severna Park MD. That Lodge never stopped spoiling us the whole time we were there with Italian Night and spaghetti the first night followed by a full turkey dinner the next! Their Happy Hour stretched from 5 until 7pm and draft Yingling was $1!

Nice Model A at the Elks Lodge

With a sense of humor too

Reluctantly we moved further south again into the Northern Neck of Virginia where we had reservations for 3 nights at the Gloucester Thousand Trails CG. Being members of Thousand Trails (TT), has been one of our ploys in getting to the $25 a night cost for camping. Although you have to buy a membership (Get a “Used” one don't buy it new from a TT Park), and there is annual maintenance, you get 30 nights a year free and all nights after that cost $3. There are restrictions on how long you can stay and how long you have to be out between visits. But we can easily get the average cost including the maintenance fee down to $15 a night.

Rappahanock River

Thousand Trails Gloucester VA

The Gloucester park is right on the Rappahanock River and in addition has 3 private lakes to fish in without needing a license. Well away from major roads, it's a very pretty place with lots of facilities for families. For October it was surprisingly busy, but not too noisy. In fact we're liking it so much we're considering extending our stay for a few more days.