We're home

From Cordele, GA we stayed south on I-75 for 315 miles in almost 6 hours and arrived home safely on Wednesday afternoon.  We traveled a total of 4,758 miles in 4 weeks and I took over 1,000 pictures.

Georgia

We left North Carolina about 8:30 this morning and had a little slowdown with Charlotte's rush hour traffic. We avoided Atlanta by using 441 & 129 to Macon and I-75. At that time another driver got our attention pointing to the tires on the camper. One of them had blown out. We got to a gas station, bought gas & pulled off where there was room for Paul to change the tire. We saw a tire store & went there to replace the bad tire. So we were in Macon about an hour. Then it was about 5 when we got to the campground in Cordele.  Paul went ahead and took off the spare and put the new tire on. It has been a good trip but we'll be glad to get home.  We passed the 4,000 miles traveled mark yesterday.  It seems campground fees were higher but gas was lower this year than last year.

Heading South

We traveled about 300 miles today in about 6 1/2 hours from Luray, VA to Statesville, NC.  There were still some fall colors along the way but less and less the further south we go. Because of the tremendous flooding in South Carolina, we have eliminated our last stop which was Congaree National Park near Columbia which is still under water.  Maybe in the spring we'll return to the area for that and Shenandoah on clearer days. We have adjusted our route home from I-95 to I-75 and will avoid going through South Carolina.  We have a long day ahead tomorrow of a little more than 400 miles to Cordele, GA and then head for home on Wednesday.

Shenandoah

The rain continues...mostly a drizzle with fog.  We drove on Skyline Drive in Shanandoah National Park Sunday but with the gray skies and fog we couldn't see much. Then we went back to Walmart for a few supplies and bought a pizza ready for the oven. We baked our pizza and watched football - a typical Sunday afternoon for us during football season.  I was snapping pictures from the truck - you tell it was rainy and foggy.  The last 2 show the mountains from our campsite yesterday and then this morning the sun actually rose. Of course as we left we could see there were still clouds on the mountains so visibility probably wasn't much better.

Luray Virginia

Yesterday was a rain-out kind of day.  It was also cool for us in the 50's with a breeze.  We brought out the heavier jackets for the first time (thought we would need them in Maine not Virginia!). We went into town and restocked some supplies and pretty much stayed in most of the day.  The campground is in the mountains and the sites are up a hill so we weren't concerned about any flooding.
It's still raining today but most of it has passed over and the visibility is improving but temperature in the high 40's and not expected to go much higher.  We went to Luray Caverns and Luray Car and Carriage Museum this morning. TV reception is good even without cable and there's football today.  If it clears more we may go out again and check visibility on Skyline Drive.  It should be clearer tomorrow so we'll go there then.

NY to VA

We traveled about 400 miles today from Florida, New York to Luray, Virginia in about 8 hours. It's probably the longest day on the road on this trip but we have done several days lately that were 200 miles in 4 hours so we decided to do it.  We saw some beautiful fall colors mostly on I-84 across and I-81 southwest through Pennsylvania. It was pretty cool all day; jeans and sweatshirt weather in the 50s with some rain. There is more rain forecast some of it from Hurricane Joaquin even though it is farther east than originally forecast.  Most of the morning I was just snapping pictures; it seemed when I put the camera down more fall colors appeared.  Thankfully I could delete the bad ones.

Hyde Park, New York

Today we went to Hyde Park to see FDR's home and museum/library. It rained some but nothing heavy and of course the temperature dropped since a front is coming through the area. It was interesting to go through the museum and presidential library and learn more about his presidency. His was the first presidential library and the only one dedicated while the president was still in office. Some things there of course were the same information as presented at his summer home on Campobello Island when we were there a couple weeks ago. The house was also interesting and his grave is in his mother's rose garden; his mother and Eleanor are also buried there.  The property on the Hudson River is beautiful.  We saw more fall colors on the road. There is a group of students in front of the house but I took the picture anyway. The other building is the museum and library. The other picture is the bridge we crossed over the Hudson River.
We hear that there is a hurricane in the Atlantic so our timing is good since we leave here tomorrow headed southwest through Pennsylvania to Luray, Virginia near I-81 for a few days.

New York

After a full day yesterday we moved slower today.  We went to the Brotherhood Winery in Washingtonville, NY and the Harness Racing Museum in Goshen, NY.  Both were within 20 miles of the campground.  We arrived at the winery between tours but were able to do the wine tasting. The winery claims to be the oldest in the country. The Harness Racing Museum was interesting.  It is also a training facility for the horses and riders.  There are several hands-on types of exhibits including a 3-D simulator of driving the harness racer which we declined.  It was warm enough for shorts today but rain is forecast for tonight and tomorrow bringing cooler temperatures.

New York City

Monday we took a bus tour into New York City from  the campground. It was over an hour ride each way and made for a long day.  Our guide was great at pointing our things along the way and talking about the history.  Our first stop was for 15 minutes in Times Square near Broadway which wasn't enough time to see very much.  Next was the historic area of Wall Street and Ground Zero. Our guide led 33 of us on a walking tour through the crowd for over an hour. We saw the building where Washington took the oath of office as our first president, TrumpTower, Tiffany's and Ground Zero including the reflecting ponds with all the names.  Then it was on to Liberty State Park in NJ for the ferry ride to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty which was over 2 hours.  We saw a lot in the short time we had before the bus brought us back to campground.  We went through the Lincoln Tunnel going and the Holland Tunnel returning. We met for the bus at 7:45 and returned about 6:30 all worn out.

On to New York

Today we traveled about 4 hours to a town named Florida in the state of New York. We saw some fall colors.  Most of the drive was on I-84 in Connecticut. We crossed the Hudson River.  It seems a little warmer here; maybe we won't need the heater tonight.

On to New York

Massachusetts

We have a better connection now. On Friday we left Conway N. H. and arrived in Sutton, Massachusetts in the afternoon. We drove on a covered bridge to our campsite. It was a nice family campground with swimming, fishing, boating, etc for the summer season. They close Oct 1st so we were at the end of season.  The nights cooled into the 40's so we used the heater; days warmed to about 70 (like fall). We have seen more fall colors although it is still early.  Saturday we found an apple orchard and picked a small bag of apples. We also bought an apple pie which was very good. We also found a Walmart.

Sutton Mass

We have a weak signal at campground. I will post more tomorrow.

Conway, New Hampshire

Today we rode the Conway Scenic Railroad train in the White Mountains valley.  It was a pleasant ride with nice scenery - it crossed over 2 rivers and we could see the mountains in the distance. On the ride I got a picture with some yellow leaves on a tree.  The campground is bordered by the Saco River and also we spotted a maple tree with red leaves so the fall colors are beginning to show.  We've used our heater at night here and days are sunny with bright blue skies and temperatures in the 70s.

Mt Washington

We took the cog train up to the top of Mt Washington today. We mistakenly thought we left in time but didn't account for the mountain roads and slower speeds. Paul dropped me off with about 2 minutes before departure. I told them he was parking the truck and they waited; he really hustled from the parking lot and we got on the train.  It really was a good way to get up the mountain - beautiful scenery along the way. It was an hour up, an hour at the top and an hour back down. OOPS I downloaded one picture twice Sorry!