Monday, 10 June
Americamps KOA — Ashland, Virginia
TEMPS: LO 69F / HI 81F (20.5C / 27C)
Notice that I didn’t say I drove us back to Virginia. But, in addition to “nag”givating us here, I did take over the wheel for a while, and under Mui’s watchful eye, brought us to the Virginia Welcome Center just over the stateline from North Carolina.
We are safely off the road now. Heavy rain is drumming on the roof, and thunder claps are renting the air somewhere off in the distance. There is a wide-spread tornado watch in place until 10:00p. Our go-bag is ready by the door, as are our rain jackets — just in case we need to make a dash for the bathhouse. Be prepared and alert — that’s about all one can do in such situations.
Anyways, on with the story …
After breakfast on the deck of our site at Lake Greenwood in South Carolina, we got on the road yesterday morning to head north. With a 441-mile (706 km) drive ahead of us, we broke the trip into two segments.
Our route was mostly on I-85, making for easy freeway driving.
2 days and 441 miles (706 km) later we’re just a short distance from
where we started our fulltime RV’ing adventure last December (see inset).
Campgrounds with easy freeway access are practically non-existent along certain stretches of I-85. In fact, we found only two at the halfway point of our drive: one in Greensboro, North Carolina; and one in Durham … also in NC. We debated staying in a Wal-Mart parking lot, or even a rest area. But it was simply too hot to be without a 50A pedestal overnight. Yes, we have a generator, but I refuse to run it when we’re asleep. So we pulled into the only campground off I-85 in the Greensboro area — the Greensboro Campground ($36/night for 50A FHU after a 10% military discount). This is not a destination stop by any stretch of the imagination, but it served our purpose for one night — even if we were unable to get level. In the end, after trying two sites, we decided to just drive the front wheels onto wood blocks and call it done. (My campground reviews are here.)
Despite our proximity to I-85, and on/off rain beating a tattoo on the roof, we got a good night’s rest. Shortly after 7:00a this morning, we were off on the final leg of our drive. Light rain dogged us here and there, but otherwise we had an uneventful drive. The highlight of the day — filling up at the Pilot truck stop in Colonial Heights, VA with the cheapest diesel since getting on the road six months ago … $3.46/gallon (~.99 cents/liter).
We pulled into the Americamps KOA in Ashland around 1:00p. Visions of quickly settling into our site and having a leisurely lunch were dashed when Mui went to disconnect the toad and found the battery dead. He’d been thinking that the time for getting a new battery was at hand, so now we had proof. Parking the coach, we asked the campground escort to give the CR-V a jump, and drove 8 miles (13 km) to the nearest Costco to buy a new battery. Mui made short work of swapping out the old battery right there in the parking lot, thus eliminating the need to return to Costco in order to drop off the old battery for proper disposal. (Costco charges a refundable $9 when you buy a new battery; if you return the old one to them for disposal, you get the money back on the spot … a good re-cycling incentive).
After cleaning off the battery terminal clamps …
… Mui removes the old battery.
sorry, no photos of the rest of the job … he installed the new battery
while I was off returning the old one for proper disposal.
With the car purring like a satisfied cat, we left Costco and headed off to find a restaurant so that we could recharge our own batteries with a bit of sustenance. Tripps Restaurant turned out to be an OK choice; we wouldn’t go back a second time. To treat ourselves, we then detoured to the nearby Coldstone Creamery before returning to the campground.
The Americamps KOA in Ashland is another one of those “only game in town” campgrounds. We’re in Ashland to have solar panels installed, 
The campground is a decent one. The front section has concrete pads and few trees, but it is also close to the freeway. We’re in site “lucky” 13 in row E (switched from site E-9). It’s a long gravel site that is fairly level. The trees block the satellite signal, but there is free cable; sufficient for our needs for a short stay. Besides, there’s less freeway noise back here. The sites are generally close together, although we seem to have lucked out with a reasonable amount of space on either side. The free wi-fi not only works, but is quite fast as well. We’d return to stay here should we someday come back to explore the immediate area.
E-13 is a fairly level long site …
there’s plenty of room behind the coach for the toad (not pictured).
Well, the rain has stopped; and I’ve come to the end of my post. Time to wrap this up and go finish my leftover ice cream from Coldstone Creamery ;-)
Glad to hear the rain has stopped for you. We aren't so lucky but they say tomorrow is only a 20% chance of rain. Glad you weren't in harm's way during the storm. We haven't had anything severe yet but it's predicted for Thursday which is the day we'll be going up I 81 of course. I too have found that in North Carolina and Virginia there are few campgrounds anywhere near the interstates. Not sure why. after over 400 miles in two days you deserve a double dose of Coldstone for sure.
ReplyDeletesure sounds like it was a long travel day for you both! nice job on the 'nag'-ivating!
ReplyDeletehope the 'go-bags' don't need to be used in the near future!
Hope all goes well with your solar panels:)
ReplyDeleteAnything over 400 miles is a long day to us. Congrats on getting behind the wheel to help out, something I keep intending to do but it seems like there is always too much traffic, road construction, or high winds.
ReplyDeleteI keep seeing a long path of storms on the East Coast. Hope it clears up soon for you. At least you seem to take it in stride. Having lived in the Northwest for so long, we are both quite jittery with T-storms and the threat of tornadoes. At least tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic explosions are less prevalent!
That KOA doesn't look too bad. We stay in them from time to time and have a membership card which gives us a discount on every stay. Enjoy that leftover Cold Stone treat (and save a bite for Poppy!!).
ReplyDeleteyep I replaced our two house batteries yesterday, must be that time of year...
ReplyDeleteYou scored on that diesel price. We did almost as good at $3.49/gal, also in VA a few days ago. That was the cheapest in 2 years for us!
ReplyDeleteHope that rain stays away from you two for a long while.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read your title I thought that we may be close by. Dang, we are on cruising along East VA by Blue Ridge Parkway. As for the rain, well we were cabin bound for two days, rain and wind were relentless. Hopefully it should be out of our harmsway.
ReplyDeleteWow 400 miles a day is something we have never done and may not even consider especially that I have not driven Betsy ever.:)
We did the 400+ miles in two days this time ... but when we were on limited time bringing the coach back from Oregon to Virginia we did do that much and more in one day ... now ... well don't want to say never, but for us to do anything over 300+ per day would probably require an emergency or something going wrong with our plans.
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