Concord to Home

When we closed the blog on April 16 we fully expected to be leaving Concord by early afternoon on Thursday. That was not to be; we pulled away from Tom Johnson's at 6:10 PM.

With a later than planned start we revised our destination plans and looked for a Wal-Mart about 100 miles from Concord. We found one at Hillsborough convenient to I-85 and very pleasant. We called the store for permission and it was given. We were the only RV there that night.

Getting to Virginia Beach on Friday was an easy trip although it did get a little tense as we negotiated the roads around Chesapeake, Portsmouth and Norfolk. We found we had to go through a tunnel; that required us to stop and turn off the propane tank under supervision of an inspector. More significantly, Ms. Garmin chose this point in the trip to go off-satellite. Fortunately, we were not totally dependent on GPS. We still had a map, road signs, and some common sense.

Holiday Trav-L-RV park is very nice. It is adjacent to Oceana Naval Air Station and that means jet aircraft going overhead loudly and frequently. As one of our ODC members said, "Hey, that's just a price we pay for freedom." We ended up having 14 rigs attend the weekend. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. It was fun to catch up with each other after our winter separation.

Halsteads, Tolsons, Settles, and Parsons departed Virginia Beach together on Sunday. This was a dry run caravan for our later trips to West Virginia and Missouri. We did run into rain en route to I-95, but significantly for us, we discovered that we had no headlights. It was not dark, but in VA headlights are required driving in rain. We ended up driving with fog and parking lights on and got home without incident. Halsteads and Settles followed I-64 west of I-95 since they were going to Louisa. We should have followed them. Tolsons and we encountered major traffic at I-95. We crept along at a snail-pace for nearly an hour as the two interstate highways merged.

Rain was still falling when we arrived home so we made quick work of emptying the refrigerator and disconnecting the car. The coach was parked in its storage site before dark and we were wandering around our home getting use to so much space after four months in the motor home.

The days since our return stay busy. We are working with Richard at Tom Johnson's to get the headlights and other items on the coach repaired. All that was done during the four long days we spent in Concord was not done correctly. Therefore, we are frustrated at having to have re-work on our schedule. A decision will have to be made about going back to Tom Johnson or going to Elkhart, IN to the factory service center. Right now it seems like we are Indiana bound.

Florida is nice and we plan to return there next year, but Virginia is home, and we are very happy to be here. Today is a rainy day. Azaleas are in bloom, grass is green, and temperatures are mild. It is Spring and life is Good!