Hollywood, MD to Morgantown, WV
Stats
280 miles, 7 hours (including stops and detours!)
Loaded up and ready to go!
Dusk through the Cumberland Gap
Kids in their traveling positions-and happy!
Dashboard Central
First day of the trip! We can’t believe that we are actually
gone! It kind of seems surreal-all of this planning, packing, cleaning,
preparing, and more planning and the day finally came. We spent the morning
making final preparations-and found that we needed to make a change. The bike
rack that we were putting on the hitch on the back of the Subaru was not
looking like it was going to make it the
entire trip. So we ditched the idea of bringing all of the bikes. We still left
Dennis’ and Eric’s mountain bikes on the top of the car, but decided against
the extra bulk and chance that something would probably go wrong with the bike
rack. Then we hooked the car up to the RV, had a time of family prayer for the
trip, and loaded everyone in. Just about the time that the engine was started
and Dennis was putting it into “drive”, he got a phone call from his nephew who
just happened to be about 15 minutes away and wondered if he could swing by! So
we hung out and waited to have a quick visit with Johnathan-so glad that we
did! He decided to go next door to Heather’s parents and get some oysters to
take back home with him to Virginia after seeing us off.
We got about 20 minutes down the road-all was well, and I
realized that the last thing I had packed, the computer, I had left at home! So
Johnathan came to the rescue-he was just getting ready to leave next door and
brought our computer to where we had stopped to wait. Needless to say, we
weren’t making good time, but perhaps God was reminding us from the start that
this trip is not just about the places we’ll get to, but the getting there is
just as important!
No more issues except Labor Day traffic, which we expected.
The kids settled in watching movies until we stopped for dinner in Hagerstown
at Cracker Barrel for dinner. After that stop, it was one more stop for gas,
then on to Morgantown, WV to spend the night parked at Aunt Jeanne’s. We did
have one small snafu on the way-we turned off at an exit where we thought there
was a gas station, and there was nothing. Because we cannot back the RV with
the car attached, we had to do quite the detour to get back on the highway-but
it all worked out!
We arrived at Jeannie’s, detached the car and backed into a
vacant lot that is just across from her house and also from the house that
Dennis’ mom lived in for several years. Turned off the generator, hoping that
it will cool down in the night, and ready for our first night of dry camping!
Hopefully the partyers that are gathering for the big WVU football game won’t
keep us up all night long!
Yay!!! Sounds like just the right start to a trip like this!! Can't wait to read more about the trip. John is jealous of the cracker barrel stop!
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to reading your blog, Heather! I just got started with it today, the 10th of September. I'm wondering what prompted this trip at this particular time; how long you think it will take, how Dennis was able to take off work for that long; what is dry camping?; did you study all the sites before you left, etc. (thinking about school stuff)...
ReplyDeleteToo many silly questions from someone who knows nothing about travel. I hope you all have a GRAND adventure!
Paula
DeleteI'm glad you are going to be able to read the blog :) We have wanted to take this trip for many years-but always there have been things that have prevented it, as you can imagine. Of course we did want to wait until all of the kids were old enough to enjoy and remember the trip, but we did not want to wait too long before they might not be able to go due to school or other obligatons either! Dennis has been saving vacation at work for some time, and God provided a lapse in work schedule so that he was able to take off a big chunk of time like this :) Dry camping is nothing more than camping without hooking up to water/electric/sewer. We did not study all of the sites before we left-we basically mapped out the major points of interest that we thought we could fit into our time frame and planned our route based on that. We are more flexible with an RV that we do not have to make reservations at hotels, etc. and so we can just decide as we go how long we want to stay or move on. That has been VERY nice. The kids did not study the locations we are going prior to this-we are learning about them as we go. They have a geography journal that they are keeping as we go,and adding to it from sites that have lots to learn. I don't want to make it super intensive school work heavy-but they are certainly learning a lot about the geography of the different parts of the country in a way they would not otherwise understand. me too of course on that topic-I have never done anything like this in my life either, so for Dennis and I it is certainly a GRAND adventure too!