Since we have all means of communication available to us here Mike took advantage of it and spent most of today taking care of business, 401(k) business and the like. I’m not sure what all I did other than walking with Tal-y, but the day sure went fast, and now it’s time for bed.

Mike:We ate too!

We moved on today to Williamsburg where we are going to spend the next four days. We didn’t get too early a start and packed up at a nice leisurely pace since our drive today was only 50 minutes. Mike’s been having a little trouble with hitching and unhitching the trailer as he can’t seem to get the trailer high enough to get it on and off the tow bar so today I took matters into my own hands and hitched up all by myself. Okay, they previous statement isn’t entirely true, but I did back the truck onto the trailer today for the first time – I was awesome! Okay, Mike backed the truck up almost the whole way, then because he weighs more than me he stood on the bumper while I backed the truck up the last 2½ inches. You thought I was going to say feet didn’t you, anyway I was still awesome.
The drive down here was uneventful and really, really short. This is a really nice park too, not as big as the last one but very open, and with very few people. We did have a visitor come chat to us while we were getting set up, a round bellied bloke from the other side of the road who didn’t seem to have all his teeth – you meet all sorts in these places, he was actually ex military and very nice. This park is a little different than most of the Thousand Trail parks as instead of being in the middle of nowhere, this one is right beside the freeway; we can hear the traffic noise from the park but at least we have easy access to everything. We took a drive just down the road this afternoon and there are some good restaurant and shops about 5 minutes away from us.
Mike is happy, super fast internet, all the local TV channels, and phone service, - you just don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone!

Mike: Can I still make lots of noise?

Had a little lie in this morning before getting ready to out. We drove to Newport News to meet Alan and Dana at a mexican restaurant for lunch, only problem was the restaurant was no longer there so we ended up at Red Robin. It was all good though and it was great to see them both, and Jake who came with them. It’s been forever since we saw Alan, although he hasn’t changed a bit, and Dana looked fantastic after the icky year she’s had. It was nice to catch up with them and to hear about their family, and I am looking forward to visiting them again while we are in this area.
On the way home we stopped at about 400 grocery stores looking for curry paste and couldn’t find any anywhere, don’t they eat curry out here?

Mike: They don't eat Indian food here? I thought this is where the first settlements were and the Indians taught them how to cook their food!

Left fairly early this morning and had a really beautiful drive down through Virginia; this really is a gorgeous state, especially at this time of the year. I think the colours of the trees here are more amazing than in New England, the colours are just so much more deep and vibrant.
The drive down here wasn’t too bad, and not too long and we got to the park around mid afternoon; it seemed to take a lot out of Tal-y however as she needed a long nap after we arrived. It’s a nice place, quite big with maybe 150 sites, but they are quite spread out and there are not too many people here this time of the year. The park is right alongside the Plankatank River, which looks more like a lake than a river. We looked for a space along the river but most were taken, and apparently we don’t get internet along the river bank. We ended up parking smack dab in the middle of the park, on a row where we are the only trailer so we can make all the noise we want.
This afternoon we took a quick trip into Gloucester, which is not actually that quick as it’s about half an hour to the town. We went to get our mail at the Post Office, and this was the first time Jazmin had mailed it so we weren’t sure if it would actually be there, but hooray it was. Seriously, thanks Jazmin you really are awesome, and if you weren’t so old we’d adopt you as our own!
Mike’s a little gutted at the moment as he’s trying to tune in the TV, and no matter how he turns the antenna we still get a funky picture that comes and goes. And, on top of that we have absolutely no cell phone service in this place, none. The map of the park has a ‘cell stump' on it that we went in search off this evening; I’m not sure whether we found it or not but we didn’t find any cell service. I thought AT&T covered 99% of the country - it could be a long few days, although Tal-y is happy as there’s a bark park here.

Mike: No TV, no cell service, wow, I'll be surfing the web and making a lot of noise!

Today we headed off into West Virginia. We went directly west from where we are in Front Royal (or as directly as is possible when we are in the middle of nowhere) and headed towards Petersburg which is probably about 40 miles or so from the West Virginia border. It was a pretty drive although it became a little more bleak as we headed further into West Virginia. We stopped along the route at a roadside park that was really well kept right on the river, and Tal-y got to run a little. There were some guys there putting up Christmas decorations; they do know it’s only just November right?
Well there’s not a whole lot going on between Front Royal and Petersburg along highway 55, just lots of wide-open space. We ate lunch in Petersburg at a Subway since that was the only ‘restaurant’ for miles in any direction, and then decided to head south down the 220 to take a different route home. As we were leaving Petersburg Mike saw a sign that pointed in the opposite direction from what Nell was telling that said 'Historic Petersburg’, and decided he needed to see it. Turns out that just because there’s a sign doesn’t mean there’s going to be anything to see of historic value (or any other value for that matter). Nell recalculated and took us over a rickety bridge and off up a hill. Mike was going to do a U-turn but I told him it wasn’t necessary so up the hill we headed – we should have done the U-turn! We went up the hill forever, past some houses until the paved road came to an end, then we just kept going; it was like one of those places you see on Criminal Minds where the killer keeps people in his basement and eats them. The road was gravelly and rutted with drives off it, with no houses or people in sight; we didn’t pass a car on the way up or on the way down and the drive was about 25 minutes. Mike was kind and drove slowly for me, but I was very happy when we found civilization again. After heading south for a while longer we then turned east back into Virginia over the Appalachian Mountains. The road over the mountains that we took was super steep and super windy – good job we weren’t pulling the trailer today. The views from them were amazing as we went up the west side of them; unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures as we couldn’t really stop in the middle of the road.
When we got home we took Tal-y for a walk around the campsite and she made a new four legged friend, only this one had horns; she seems to be really taken with a white goat that lives here. She didn’t take too kindly to the horse or the other goat, she only had eyes for the white one.
We are heading south tomorrow to Gloucester, hopefully we’ll be a little closer to some other folks!

Mike:Some people have just lived a sheltered life!

Wow it was windy last night. I stayed up late to finish ‘The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’ (can’t decide whether I like it or not, but I’m reading the next book) and the wind was just howling through here. It was calm for long periods at a time and then suddenly the wind would just scream; Tal-y got up out of bed on several occasions cos she was scared. It didn’t even cause Mike to stir however. This morning though when I got up it was gorgeous, sunny and calm and quite warm, lovely.
Today we had to go buy food so we headed for Winchester which is about half an hour to the north of us. Tal-y came with us but I’m sure she wishes she had stayed at home. It was time for her to get her bordatella vaccine and she also needed to have her butt checked. We finally found a Petsmart that had a vet inside it and today they had clinic hours, perfect; we saw the vet and got her vaccination updated. She had to get her anal sacs squeezed (gross) and apparently she had a little infection so she’s now on antibiotics. In this part of the country Lyme disease caused by ticks, is prevalent; the vet told us that he sees about a 33% positive test in dogs. Before she could get the vaccine she had to have a heartworm test, which thankfully was negative, but then she had to get another shot. She wasn’t a happy camper but at least she’s all upto date with her shots and she’s in pretty good shape. She feels better tonight, although a little violated and slightly mad at us for putting her through an hour of hell, she has also stopped biting her behind which I guess she was doing cause she had full sacs!
After having excellent Mexican food we headed home for the evening.

Mike: Tal-y came close! I have a $200 rule, if an animals vet fees exceed $200 I just shoot them! The bill was $193.00.

We left super early this morning and hit four states in five hours, not bad going at all. The trip was about 6 hours all together but didn’t seem that long as the roads were fairly quiet and easy going. We put the address into Nell before we left the park and I’m glad I checked the directions as she had us heading south and taking the ferry – I can only imagine how happy Mike would have been if we’d have ended up going in the wrong direction. We ended up heading northwest through New Jersey into Delaware, then through Maryland and into northern Virginia; the drive went well except for one little point at one of the tunnels. The signs said no hazmat and had another sign saying no propane tanks. We did a detour but still ended up going through another tunnel just down the road from the first one. I’m still not sure whether we were supposed to use the tunnels but we didn’t get pulled over, not even by the nice toll lady who took $8.00 of our money. The toll system here is crazy, you seem to have to pay to get on a road, and then to get off a road, and to use any bridge or tunnel, and any other time they feel like taking our money. We paid almost $20.00 today in tolls; people that live here must have an extra line in their budgets just for this cost. We got to the park mid afternoon after getting off the freeway and driving through some country lanes for a while. It’s nice here, it seems to be horse country, and we are right close to the Shenendoah Valley – it’s very pretty country. We got all set up and everything was fine; it’s normal for the water at these places to run brown for a few seconds when its first turned on, but this was brown, and then a light yellow for most of the night. The lady at the office informed us that they had had a water leak but also that the water table is low so it’s kinda normal – whatever I guess!
As I was finishing up inside the trailer I heard a bit of a thunk outside. It turns out that a tree jumped right in Mikes path as he was reversing Serena and now she has a lovely dent in her backside. Mike has promised her that he’ll get it fixed and give her a new paint job to go with the repair. I’m just glad I didn’t bump the truck or I might never hear the end of it.
Today is exactly 6 months since we left San Diego; we’ve traveled right across the country and covered over 19,000 miles. We are both still having a blast and looking forward to spending loads more time on the road.

Mike: I was just giving Serena a little character, like a sexy scar!