Nashville to Virginia

For those who read the previous post, you may have wondered about one of the impersonated celebrities we saw on the Showboat: I referred to him as "Blank". When writing that, I drew a blank and could not recall the name "Elton John". The impersonator was excellent in his outrageous costumes and over sized eye glasses.

We were on the road about 8:30 AM Thursday morning. Chuck led the way, and we made good time getting to a Wal-Mart in Dublin, VA about 6:00 PM. We parked easily and settled in for the night. A semi pulled in about 11:00 PM. He parked close to both coaches and ran his generator all night long. At 4:00 AM, he cranked his engine and left. We didn't get much sleep.

Friday was another beautiful travel day. When we left I-81 and turned east on I-64, we were in the final stretch. We took a rest stop at a roadside park just after driving over Afton Mountain. It was time to say so long to Chuck and Donna. They would be turning north for home on US-29; we would continue east on I-64. After being in a caravan for almost three weeks, it was strange to travel alone. Chuck and Larry are excellent "lead-dawgs" and easy to follow.

We made it to King's Dominion Campground in mid-afternoon. Several of our ODC friends were there and helped us find our camp site. Larry and Mem arrived soon after we did. They spent the night at the same Wal-Mart in Charleston, WV that we had used going to Missouri. They had gone to Indianapolis to see grandchildren after Branson. We all were setup by Happy Hour.

Ralph had symptoms of a head cold when he awoke on Saturday. By Saturday evening the cold was developing rapidly, and was full-blown by Sunday. Fortunately, we had no responsibilities for the weekend, and we decided to rest and relax. Good weather made that easy. Saturday night we had a campfire which added to our enjoyment because we didn't have to fix it or tend it.

The only downside of this campground and the weekend was rude and inconsiderate nearby campers. Too many of them traipsed through our sites passing under our windows en route to the bath house or some other destination. More disturbing was the loud noise made Friday night until 4:00 AM Saturday morning, and again Saturday night to 2:00 AM Sunday morning.

This was our last chapter camp out of the year, and it was a good one. We had 15 rigs there and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Many will be together again at the Maryland Samboree in October, and we hope for a large turn out at the Christmas party in December.

Around noon Sunday we headed north on I-95 for home. When we arrived, we realized how very tired we were. We did the minimum work to get the coach ready for storage, we put it away, and then we collapsed. It had been a wonderful trip, and we were happy to be home for two weeks before heading out again.