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!

Mike and I didn’t do anything even remotely exciting today, just hung out, walked Tal-y and got ready for tomorrow. We have a long drive tomorrow and so we got as much done this afternoon as we could so we can leave early in the morning, including cleaning the loo and disconnecting the sewer.

Mike: Ah! The life of Riley! Just hanging around pumping shit!

I managed to talk Mike into coming for a walk with Tal-y and me this morning around the park and we got to talk to some nice people that are staying here for the weekend. After we left Tal-y home and headed to Atlantic City. I was expecting something like Vegas, maybe not on such a scale but something similar none the less. I was very disappointed, Atlantic City is like a really poor mans Las Vegas. They hotels were just regular and the casinos were smoky, quite disappointing. Donald Trump seems to like this place though as his name is on almost every building. We did have a stroll along the boardwalk, among the rolling chairs, and there weren’t too many people there so it was quite nice. We ate lunch on the boardwalk at Johnny Rockets and the whole wait staff entertained us by dancing and singing along with the jukebox music – Mike went right back to his youth!

Mike: I wanted to get up and dance but Becc would'nt let me!

Took a drive south along the Jersey shore today towards Cape May. It was a nice drive through a number of different neighbourhoods, most of them really well kept with some lovely huge houses. We got to the southern tip at Cape May and took a nice wind swept stroll along the beach. It was a little bit cold but running around with Tal-y soon warmed me up, and she had a blast racing around and digging in the sand. Afterwards we took a drive past the WWII’s lookout tower and to Cape May’s state park , past the lighthouse and a huge nunnery that sits tight on the ocean.
On the way back we had a little disagreement about lunch and ended up eating nothing – I enjoyed dinner a lot tonight as I was starving! We are off to Atlantic City tomorrow to put it all on black, or maybe red.

Mike: Serves you right! How come on my day to pick the restaurant it only works if you want to eat there also?

We had to break out the ponchos this morning as it was raining when we woke up and it didn’t ease off very much throughout the morning. They are actually quite useful and help keep Mike especially dry when we have to pack up in the rain. We got hitched up without any trouble and took off to New Jersey early this morning. It rained for most of the drive but traffic was light and we made good time getting to Ocean View which is just south of Atlantic City.
The campsite is nice, it sits right on the edge of a huge lake, and even though there are quite a few people here it’s quite quiet. It should be a nice place to stay for the next few days, and there are lots of places to go visit from here.

Mike: I look very sexy in my poncho!

I took Tal-y for a walk early this morning and saw two deer just hanging out in amongst the trees. The one had a huge set of horns and when they saw us and took of running he had a long bright white tail; they are so beautiful, very gentle looking. There were also bunches of geese who are not so beautiful since they poop everywhere.
Mike and I spent today getting the trailer and the truck straight and doing lots of laundry. The bed of the truck and the storage side of the trailer has had everything just wedged into them for the past few weeks so we spent a few hours today putting everything back where it belongs. While the washing was doing I tidied the inside of the trailer, and although I got some done there’s still lots to do. At least when we pack up tomorrow morning I won’t have quite so much stuff laying around.

Mike: Ah, peace and quiet! Heading south for the winter!