December 2, 3, 4, 2014

December 2, 3, 4 2014

Our annual trek to California started very late this year. Building the new home took longer than even our direst predictions. We’re not complaining though, it turned out awesome. We moved in Nov. 12^th, at least I (Mary) did, Henk was on a business trip. He got back just before Thanksgiving, which we celebrated with all the East Coast kids and grandkids. Celebrated the new house while we were at it.

Immediately after the movers left I had to winterize the RV thanks to that nasty cold front, you remember. I did the best I could with help from the carpenters and a little ceramic heater. But we can’t leave the RV in New Hampshire all winter, they’re not built for the cold. So after Thanksgiving we started packing the bus and kept an eye on the forecast. Wednesday morning was our planned departure date.

Monday rain, OK, Wednesday snow, not OK. Or rain. No, ice. Snow. Or not. Starting Tuesday evening. Tuesday morning the shower glass was finally getting installed. Now what?

The shower glass boys came early and were done by 1:30 PM. Excellent! Meanwhile we finished packing and Henk activated the security system. Tuesday, 2:20 PM we were on our way. Yeay! We had planned to go secondary roads via Henniker and Keene to rt 91 in Vermont (cold and hilly), south to Hartford CT, then (inland, therefore cold) north around New York City to Scranton PA (very hilly and cold), and then south to Gettysburg. We changed that a little, went to 91 via Claremont (better road, less hilly, even if a little longer), in case snow started early; and from Hartford south to the coast via 84 and 95 (less cold). The forecast there was for only rain. We parked overnight at WalMart, and went to bed nice and early. Rain during the night but no snow. We got up at 4, Henk still has a bit of jetlag anyway, and got through New York well before the morning traffic. This worked really well. It worked so well that we were in Gettysburg by 10:30 AM. (Rtes 95, 287, 78, 81, 15).

Gettysburg has a year-round campground. There are very few of those, hence the WalMart stops, but also, the fun part of Gettysburg is that it’s only an hour from Baltimore, where a niece (once or twice removed) of Henk lives with hubby and little girl. So we enjoyed the rest of the day with them.

This morning we took it easy. Caught up on sleep, had hot showers, did laundry, and threw enzymes in the grey tank, so it will slosh itself nice and clean the next few days. Today is almost all day rt. 81, then 40 near Knoxville TN and 75 until we’re at the WalMart in Sweetwater, TN.

Today we saw a few other RVs for the first time since New Hampshire. Mostly all the other RVs are long since in warmer parts of the country ;)