Renee and Jim Visit, 19 - 24 June 2013

We visited our brother and sister in New Hampshire, staying in the Quechee KOA in the city of White River Junction, Vermont.  The CG is only about 7 miles from Renee and Jim's house in the city of Lebanon, NH.  What a great visit let me tell you.

The states of Vermont and New Hampshire are awesome.  The photo above is on our drive north in Vermont on I91.

This is spot 43 at Quechee KOA CG.  This CG has great reviews by everyone.  It is set in a beautiful country, but some things left me wanting.  The hookups were on the wrong side of the sites.  We had to break out the second 50A cord and run the water/cable under the fifth wheel.  The cable was very grainy and there were so many trees, Dish wasn't an option.  Even the main dump site located near the office was on the wrong side requiring me to pull up into a drive that intersected a one-way route.  Then, I had to back up and go around.  The back-in sites are also really small.  The one in the pic was the longest one and the truck wouldn't fit.  The host did say we could park at another site which was great.  The WiFi was really good.  We didn't stay at the CG much, so it wasn't too bad.  Pretty CG, but could use some re-work.

The 4 pics above are at Ray's Lobster Pound.  This was our second time here on two visits to New Hampshire.  Ray's is located near Hampton Beach on coast of New Hampshire.  This will be a regular stop on all future visits I do believe.  Great food at a great location.

An old church in Kennebunk, ME.  This was part of the coastal drive Jim took us on.  We went to see George H. W. Bush's house next, then off to a cool biker bar called Bentley's in Arundel, ME.

In the pic back to front--Brent and Jim, Gina and Renee, &amp, Gary and Marti.  Gary and Marti are from Oregon.  We met them at the church you see above.

Above is Quechee Gorge.  The gorge is the deepest in Vermont, formed by glacial activity approximately 13,000 years ago. You can look down at the Ottauquechee River, flowing 165 feet below viewing points along Route 4.

Jeff and his family own Sugarbush Farm, known for their very tasty Maple syrup.  Jeff is good friends with Renee and Jim and a really nice guy.  We got to meet him and several other good buds at a BBQ Renee and Jim threw the day before we left.

Pine Grove, PA, Chicopee, MA & The Roughest Part Yet

Left Champs traveling up I17 to I81 stopping overnight in Twin Grove CG (formerly a KOA) about 5 miles off highway near Pine Grove, PA.  Not much there at Pine Grove, but the CG had a pretty good restaurant, pool, and some kiddie rides.

The next leg of the trip was nerve-wracking.  We had bad roads, construction, rain, and lots of traffic.  Leaving Pine Grove, the roads were bad enough that one pothole caused the truck to die.  I pulled over and it started thank goodness.  But, there was a check engine light so about 15 minutes later, I stopped and used the OBDII tool along with my laptop to read the code and clear it.  Something about the fuel rail pressure.  I notched the H&S tuner down to the stock tune and the rest of the trip went fine.  We headed north to catch I84 E in Scranton, PA.  Rain and traffic...traffic and rain.  Oh, and construction.  Geez.  And this was the longest stretch of the trip yet.  We arrived at Westover ARB Famcamp (military campground) at Chicopee, MA tuckered and right at dark.  Hit Walmart for some stuff, had some food and drink at 99 Bar and Grill (very good food), and back to the CG for the night.  Yep, it was raining the whole time.  The highlight was the first good seafood at the 99 for some time for us.

Fayettville, Fredericksburg, and Alexandria

We headed north and stopped at Smith Lake Army RV Campground, a park maintained by Fort Bragg in Fayettville, North Carolina.  When we arrived, it was raining.  Gina was tuckered and I headed back out for some groceries and diesel since this was an overnighter only.  The CG seemed ok enough the next morning as we were leaving.  Lake was small, but scenic enough settled in the surrounding woods.  No pics here.

The next day we headed north to see some friends in Alexandria.  The route we wanted to take was I81 to skip the bigger cities so we stopped further south in Fredericksburg, Virginia as I17 cutoff to I81 was right there.  Fort A.P. Hill's CG is called Champs.  It's about 10 miles off I95.  It was rather small and the post was a training facility with little traffic and CG residents that did not move the 3 days we were there.  We went to see the movie Man of Steel.  It's a really, really good movie.  Great special effects and a very good depiction of Superman's story.

On Father's day, we drove into Alexandria to see Raul and Angela, friends of ours we haven't seen in about 2 years.  We had a great visit--wonderful meal, good convo, a little drink, and even dessert.  

Tybee Island

We visited Tybee Island for an afternoon hitting the beach just for a little while then stopped at Sting Ray's for some seafood.  It's a very nice small place to visit, but it was 96 degrees while there and a little hot to our taste.  The beach wasn't Gulf Shores quality and water was warmer than expected too, but anytime you can get to a beach is a good thing, huh?  We were still at Skidaway State Park.  I'll tell you something about that park.  It was scenic and beautiful, yet creepy at the same time with the old Live Oaks and Spanish Moss.  Gave an almost swampy feeling to it all like an alligator could come walking up.  We stayed in the back at site 71 and no one was next to us during our stay.  No discounts available there.

Savannah

Savannah is pretty awesome southern city in every way but two very minor, yet annoying things:  1.  It is HUMID here.  With the warm weather especially, the humidity is kicking our butts.  2.  No-see-ums.  Crap, the skeeters are bad.

We can definitely get past that for the rest of what this city has to offer.  In a word, Savannah is "historical."  Man, there's a lot of old history here.  And, a lot of firsts for our country.  The Spanish moss all over the extremely elegant and old Live Oak trees was spectacular!  By-the-way, Spanish Moss is not actually a moss, it's in the bromeliads family which also includes the Pineapple believe it or not.  So, let's get on with this show starting with some pics and a few comments on them.  Just remember, there is no way this will sum up Savannah at all.  We need to stay at least a couple weeks here alone.

The pic above is Skidaway park entrance.

The 3 pics above are the riverwalk along the Savannah River.

 

Savannah made many folks rich with the Cotton market.  It was a hub of commerce.

The stone and brick roads are everywhere and add to the mystique of Savannah.

Took two tours while here.  First was the Ghost tour in the evening and the next day, a city tour.  Recommend both.  With the day tours, you can get off and explore, then another "trolly" vehicle will pick you up and go to the next of 16 stops in the city.  The pirate came on at the Pirate House where we had dinner.  He was very funny.

This oak is the oldest Live Oak in Savannah dating back more than 500 years.

C3 Garden Update Video - 5 Jun 13

Took this last video the day we left on our trip and I just got around to processing it.  It shows how my gardening techniques are working out.  So far so good.  I wonder about when temps get 95 and up.  Maybe next year, I'll use the tops and either cut holes in them or use the tops to secure black plastic as I've seen done many times.  Jessie is taking care of the house for us and even attempting to maintain the garden for me.  It would be nice to have it 2 months from now still going strong, but I know that the peak will be long over anyway naturally.

Stone Mountain Laser Show

Just a short video.  I recorded the whole thing, but most of it is dark.  The fireworks in it are cool.

Stone Mountain - Day 3

Today, we hit the park and all of her glory.  A shuttle took us to "Crossroads", the central point of the park.  It was a pretty busy day with lots of folks.  You can expect that on the weekends I figure.  It was lunch time so the first thing we did was hit the Campfire Grill for some grub.

The Campfire grill, shown above, was ok.  The menu was limited, but hey, it's in a theme park.  I had fried chicken with sides and Gina had a BBQ chicken salad.

The only movie ride they had was Journey 2 in what they call a "4D Experience".  It's for kids of course.  We sat in stadium seating and watched clips of the movie while our chairs vibrated and spit water in our faces.

Yes, there was a butterfly feeding tent too.  One above had a huge landing spot it couldn't resist.  Below pics include the Antebellum plantation.  Not a real plantation of course.  These are real remnants from all over the state brought here and restored for our viewing pleasure.  It's pretty good stuff.  Got tons of pics on this one.

Probably my favorite part was the Laser Show Dinner.  Nice BBQ sandwiches with sides and a 45 minute laser show afterwards at dark.  Ladies and gents, this is Stone Mountain Park for the most part.  There is a train that goes around the rock as well as a sky lift.  We chose not to ride those.  I've got lots of pics, but the blog would get too long.  You get the abbreviated version.