Author: thetinyhousetravelers

The trip from Myrtle Beach to Savannah was one of our longest moves ever at 4 and a half hours but the drive went smoothly and the time passed quickly. We drove through some beautiful marshes and then pulled into Skidaway Island State Park. The drive into the park is a long and winding path surrounded by trees covered in Spanish moss. It was absolutely stunning.

Our site is spacious and looks out into a beautiful forested area. We were disappointed to find that we don’t have sewer connections but we are a short distance to the shower house which also has laundry facilities so it isn’t too bad. There’s lots of shade and a large flat area for our gazebo, grill and firepit.

Just before leaving Myrtle Beach, we realized that our license plates on the truck were about to expire. We had renewed everything last fall before we left and thought that we had everything covered through 2025 but somehow, even though the car and the house have expirations for 2025, the truck was only renewed through 2023. Because we are headed even further away from Ohio and wouldn’t be back in that area until after the plates expired, John decided to head back to Ohio for a few days to get them renewed and take some things to storage. He left on Sunday morning, arrived in our home town Sunday evening, ran errands on Monday, then came back to Georgia on Tuesday. He did manage to bring back a dozen donuts from one of our favorite bakeries so that made his return even sweeter!

Even though we have been together for over 20 years and spend almost every single day together, we still miss each other like crazy when we are apart. Harley also doesn’t take the separation well so it was a rough few days but we all survived. Harley and I spent a lot of time snuggling on the couch and also visited a nearby boat ramp area for a walk. We ate a bunch of junk food and watched some old movies but we were more than ready to end our single lady lifestyle when John walked back through the door Tuesday night.

We spent the better part of the week just recovering and taking it easy. John had done over 20 hours of driving in three days and Harley and I hadn’t slept well while he was away so it was nice to just relax and get back into our regular routine.

On Saturday, we were ready to explore again. We drove into town and had breakfast at Treylor Park Double Wide Diner. It was okay – nothing to write home about. We wanted to walk off some of the heavy food we had at breakfast so we strolled the neighborhood for a little bit. We were fortunate to be visiting during the Savannah Pride Festival so we checked out the vendor stands and made a few fun purchases. We also found a Byrd’s Cookies location and made a few purchases there as well. So delicious! I really enjoyed the peach cookies so we made sure to take some of those home.

In the afternoon, we drove over to Bonaventure Cemetery. We spent a few hours walking through the cemetery admiring all of the old headstones and monuments. The whole area was so quiet and serene. It was a warm afternoon but we were mostly shaded by the giant oak trees that were full of Spanish moss.

We had spent a ton of time at the beach during our stops in Virginia and South Carolina so we probably didn’t appreciate Tybee Island as much as we should have but we did drive over one evening just to say we had been there.

We visited an Eco Fair at our campground and enjoyed walking around the park often. The campground area was beautiful and we were also able to enjoy a few programs provided by the park rangers during our stay. John participated in a mushroom walk where they learned about various fungi in the region while exploring the trails and we both enjoyed a program about bats. While Harley did not attend any of the formal programs, she did have a few encounters with the small deer in the park.

Let me share my favorite story where we encounter a deer on our walk. I noticed it from pretty far away but Harley remained completely oblivious until we were basically on top of it. The deer stopped eating and stared at us. Just when I started to wonder if Harley had actually seen the deer or if we were going to pass by peacefully, Harley starts barking and growling and lunging at it. The hair on her back stood up and I was afraid that the whole damn campground was going to come after us for making such a ruckus. The deer, however, was completely unfazed by this ridiculous display of nonsense and went right back to eating grass. It continued to graze calmly while Harley simmered down to a constant, low rumble and I took some photos. Eventually, Harley turned and looked at me like “Mooooooom! Why isn’t this thing terrified of my big scary bork? That’s not fair! It’s supposed to cower before my ferocious roar!” We stood like this for several minutes with Harley looking back and forth between me and the deer and then I finally managed to drag her away so we could finish our walk.

We also spent a few evenings just driving around looking at Halloween decorations and admiring some of the beautiful old neighborhoods around town. We found some really cool decorations and John actually ended up ordering me a inflatable cat that I liked as an anniversary present since our wedding anniversary was coming up.

We had a ton of things we wanted to do in Savannah but, with John’s unscheduled road trip, we just didn’t find the time. Hopefully we will make our way back someday – for now, it’s off to Florida.

On October 7th we made the drive from Cliffs of the Neuse State Park in North Carolina to Myrtle Beach State Park in South Carolina. The drive was supposed to take about 3 hours and 20 minutes but with gas stops it ended up taking about 3 hours and 45 minutes…but somehow it went really fast and was actually really fun. I usually use travel days to catch up on phone calls and then listen to “The Office Ladies” podcast but I just felt like some music therapy was needed so Harley and I enjoyed blaring our favorite songs and singing along for most of the trip. Well, I enjoyed it. I don’t think Harley was impressed with my singing.

We got to our spot and John backed the house in on the first try. The site is very narrow and extremely close to our neighbors but the park is really pretty, our site is shady and cool, and we have full hook ups, 50 amp electric, and great phone/internet signal. We did discover pretty quickly after arrival that there is a biker rally in town this weekend so the park was absolutely packed full but we figured (and were right) that it cleared out a lot after Monday morning.

After getting set up, we headed out for a bite to eat. We found a nice little bar called The Goat and enjoyed some simple bar food in a really casual environment. It was a really nice time, pretty tasty, and CHEAP! We also visited one of the many candy stores around town and stocked up on pink, blue and purple Frooties and a wide variety of gummy bears and taffy.

After dinner and candy shopping, we decided to head back to the park and check out the beach. Myrtle Beach State Park is right on the coast and has a huge beach, a fishing pier, walking trails, and the camp ground where we are staying. It’s less than $40 per night and we couldn’t be happier with the location.

We had been told by several people that shark teeth often wash up on shore so we set about looking for some. While we didn’t find any teeth, we did find some really pretty shells and sea glass and started a little collection of treasures for this trip. John wandered off (which is pretty normal for us) and brought me back a dead jellyfish that he had found and picked up with a stick. After giving the poor corpse a burial at sea (after poking it several times and taking some photos), it’s ghost put a curse on John and took revenge by making John drop his cellphone in the ocean while he was wading. Thankfully, he was able to catch it before it washed away and it seems to be working fine after drying out.

On Sunday we drove to a small village called Murrell’s Inlet and walked a small boardwalk along the marsh. Once upon a time, pirates like Blackbeard and Stede Bonnet were supposedly active in this area and would sail in and out of the waterways along the coast. Now, it’s full of bars and restaurants – which the pirates would probably still enjoy.

We drove back into Myrtle Beach and down to the main strip and visited the boardwalk. We grabbed some ice cream from Mad Myrtle’s and browsed the – “unique” – souvenirs at the Gay Dolphin. We also found a section with multiple volleyball courts and watched a few games. We found a large arcade and decided to play a few games. We had a blast! My favorite arcade game is Skee-Ball and they had a couple different styles and we played all of them! I also really like the basketball shooting games so we played those a few times, too. I also had my fortune told by a Zoltar machine!

John watches a guy on YouTube that is insanely good at arcade games so he tested out a few of that guy’s methods and did pretty well at this game that drops 50 balls into rotating buckets and you have to catch as many as you can. He ended up catching more than 45 each time he played but couldn’t quite hit all 50. He also found this baseball game that was like a pinball machine but not quite- you hit a button and the ball released like it was being pitched and you moved the bumper to hit it like a bat. In the “field” there were holes for Single, Double, Out, Sacrifice, etc. and there was a little diorama where players would move around the bases according to whatever you scored. You played until you got three outs – I got outs on my first three balls but John ran up 9 runs on his best game.

We ended up with a little over 250 tickets and went to the prize counter to redeem them for a fabulous, life-changing prize. We had earned enough to get a bag of Skittles. We decided that it wasn’t worth it for us so we gave the tickets to a kid who was playing one of the video games nearby so he could add that to his total and we left smiling and feeling pretty good.

We spent the evening at the beach again- but this time we took Harley. She absolutely LOVES ponds and streams and lakes as you may remember from previous entries. We weren’t sure how she would like the sand and the waves, though, so we were excited to have this new experience with her. She was really into it at first- running in the sand and chasing after pigeons and seagulls. We ran along the edge of the water but she kept trying to drink it. We tried to get her out into the waves a little bit but she didn’t seem to like the changing water levels and every time a wave hit she would run back up the beach to safety. After a while, John took her back to the house and then the two of us enjoyed the rest of the night picking up shells and playing in the water.

I also got some great photos of some of the local birds including a great shot of one flying overhead. I watched an osprey dive down to the water and come up with fish. It was such a beautiful evening.

On Monday night after John got off work, we decided to head back over to the main part of the park and visit the fishing pier. Another person staying in the park told us that they saw sharks and dolphins swimming there when they visited over the weekend. There were a lot of people there fishing and we made friends with a few. They let us know that they were fishing for pompano and Spanish mackerel and showed us some of their catch. We watched them reel in a few and they shared information about the local wildlife, how to prepare the fish that they were catching, and fun things in the area. One man started cleaning their catch and called me over when he threw the scraps back into the ocean and I got to see a few sharks coming to feed! We also saw some more birds and a whole lot of jellyfish swimming by.

On Tuesday morning, John introduced me to a new neighbor that he had discovered – a HUGE orb weaver spider that built a web in a tree at the edge of our site. John had been walking Harley in the middle of the night when he walked straight into the web. He isn’t usually afraid of spiders but running into a giant web with one of the biggest spiders we have ever seen living in it wasn’t the most fun time he has ever had.

Tuesday evening we drove about 30 minutes south of our park to another gorgeous place – Huntington Beach State Park. We took Harley with us and she really enjoyed exploring. The park has a marsh area with a boardwalk, grassy land that holds Atalaya Castle along with campgrounds and visitors centers, and the beach.

We started off in the middle grassy section and walked Harley around Atalaya Castle. This enormous house was the winter home of sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington and construction was completed in the early 1930’s. The house was last used by the Huntington family in 1947 and the entire 2500 acre grounds were leased to the state parks beginning in 1960. The house was closed when we got there but tours are available at certain dates and times.

From the “castle”, a beautiful sandy path leads through a line of trees and out onto the beach. We spent a little time walking along the shore and looking for shells but Harley isn’t a big fan of the beach and we had more park to see so we left after about 20 minutes.

The marsh section of the park was absolutely stunning. There used to be a long boardwalk going across it but, sadly, it suffered catastrophic damage during Hurricane Ian in 2022 so we were only able to walk on a small portion of it that had been replaced. The views were still incredible, though. We saw so many birds and even spotted a blue crab hiding just under the surface of the water.

On Wednesday night we stopped by Warbird Park while out running errands. This was a small, roadside park a few minutes from our campground and had several small monuments to honor our veterans and the lives lost in the 9/11 attacks. We also saw several airplanes that had once flown from the nearby air field. Military operations have since ceased at this field but these monuments remain.

On Thursday afternoon, we went out for lunch at a really delicious buffet that had all you can eat hibachi, sushi, and Chinese food for $11.99. We ate until we thought we were going to explode! We also found a comic shop and picked up another Firefly comic and two Funko Pops that brought back memories of our childhood. Then we went home to watch The Great British Baking Show because we were too full of food to live.

We spent our final day relaxing at the house. We absolutely loved our week in Myrtle Beach! I don’t think John expected to enjoy this stop at all but he agreed that it was a really great week and that the scenery was gorgeous. I wish that we had longer but our next stop is Savannah, Georgia and I am so excited about visiting there as well.

Because we had driven so far from Virginia Beach to avoid Tropical Storm Ophelia, we only had about an hour to go to get to our new home in Cliffs of the Neuse State Park in Seven Springs, North Carolina. The weather was sunny and warm and it was a beautiful day for a drive with the windows down.

We found our campsite and got all set up. The site was large and shaded so we were able to set up our gazebo AND our hammocks and still have plenty of room to spare. The campground is pretty busy on the weekends but fairly quiet during the week and we could tell we were going to enjoy a restful few weeks here.

After setting up, we took a little trip to check out the rest of the state park. As the name suggests, it is situated on the bluffs overlooking the Neuse River and there are several trails and a nice overlook area. We came too late in the year to enjoy the swimming beach but it’s still a really lovely place. There’s even a “dog parking” spot outside of the restrooms!

We needed to pick up a few things from the store so we drove to the nearby town of Mt. Olive for some shopping and to pick up dinner. We found several fast food restaurants and a Walmart Super Center on the outskirts of town with a really cute downtown area nearby. We also discovered that the town of Mt. Olive is the home of a factory that makes Mt. Olive brand pickles!

The week started off well but took a turn on Tuesday when I went to take Harley outside. John was already outside and when she saw him, she took off flying towards him. Unfortunately, this was at the same time that I was stepping from the house onto the stairs and ended up yanking me down the first few stairs. My immediate reaction was to pull back to keep my balance and I ended up wrenching my back and neck and was down for a few days recovering.

On Saturday I was feeling better but we still wanted to take it easy so we decided on an easy trip over to New Bern, North Carolina to visit the birthplace of Pepsi Cola. I know a lot of people are “Coke” people or “Pepsi” people but I am one of the weird ones that love both. Since we already visited The World of Coke in Atlanta earlier this year, I thought it was only fitting that we also see where Pepsi got its start.

On the way over to New Bern, we found a roadside flea market and had to stop. One of our favorite things about traveling is finding local farmer’s markets, flea markets, craft fairs, and festivals to check out and since we were in no real hurry and on no schedule for the day we were able to stop and enjoy. We walked around for a bit and met some really wonderful people. I bought the cutest earrings from a woman who had just recently purchased a laser and this was her first sales event! We also met a man who was selling 3D printed stuff at incredible prices and made a few purchases from him as well. there was a permanent building nearby as well that was like a flea market/craft show inside so we shopped there as well. I picked up a few gifts for a friend and some cute things for myself as well.

After we had seen all there was to see at the flea market we got back in the car and drove the rest of the way to New Bern. In Atlanta, the World of Coke was a huge facility in the middle of park with long lines and big flashy signs and displays. In New Bern, the Pepsi site was a former pharmacy on the corner of of two quiet streets in an adorable small town. One room of the building was a snack counter serving drinks and popcorn and the other room was a modest store selling souvenirs at really reasonable prices. While there wasn’t a ton to see, we did shop in the store for a little bit and then popped in several other small stores on the main street where we parked.

On Sunday, we drove over to Fayetteville, North Carlina to visit the Airborne and Special Forces Museum near Fort Bragg. The museum covers the history of the US Army Airborne and Special Forces from 1940 through the present. A large portion was dedicated to World War II but there were also exhibits on the Korean War, Vietnam, Desert Storm, and the post 9-11 War on Terror.

We got to see planes and helicopters, uniforms and weapons, and learn the stories of men and women who gave their all to protect our country. So far this year we have visited the World War II Museum in New Orleans, the Tuskegee Airmen National Monument and museum in Alabama, Camp Toccoa at Currahee in Georgia, and the Military Aviation Museum so this was a natural choice for us to visit and we had a really great time. The museum is free to visit (donations recommended) and we happily spent a few hours there.

I also used our time in North Carolina to decorate for Halloween! I have always loved Halloween time and I have SO MANY decorations in storage back in Ohio. The greatest struggle of living in the tiny house, for me, is that I can’t bring all of my Halloween stuff with me and go all out with my decorating every year like I used to when we were in our old house. I picked up a few things from Walmart and Dollar Tree this year and set about putting up a few modest decorations. I was feeling really pleased with myself….until Boots made it known that she did NOT approve of the decorations and set about trying to destroy everything. At the time of this writing, we have been engaged in an all out war for the past week that consists of me fixing the decorations every day and Boots tearing them back down. I keep telling her that she’s lucky that she’s so cute or I would be tempted to tie her up and hang her from the ceiling as a piece of decor. She responds by ripping down and chewing up something new. The little brat.

All in all we had a really peaceful and relaxing couple of weeks (aside from Boots and her shenanigans!) The park had an 8:00 curfew so that pretty much ensured we spent our evenings at home. We ended up cooking some nice meals and even had a little cookout on our last night at the park – hotdogs and smores on the fire! Our next stop is Myrtle Beach and I have a feeling it will not be this laid back so I’m glad we got the rest while we could!

It was a long but uneventful drive from Laurel, Delaware to the KOA Campground near Richmond, Virginia. John had worked a half day so we didn’t get underway until afternoon on Friday but we arrived at the KOA on Friday evening and were able to setup quickly. I had been worried about the cats riding in the house since it was so hot outside (high 80’s) but they came through just fine (we did stop about half way to check on them and I felt a bit better after that). Since we were only staying the night, we left the house hooked up to the truck and just leveled things the best we could and only unpacked the necessities. We went out for dinner at a Peruvian chicken place and then had breakfast on Saturday morning at Cracker Barrel before hitting the road so we didn’t even have any dishes that needed done.

The drive on Saturday from the KOA to the Holiday Trav-L-Park in Virginia Beach also went pretty well. The staff that greeted us and checked us in were pretty friendly and the park was HUGE! It wasn’t the nicest park we had seen in terms of upkeep and overall friendliness but they did have multiple shower houses, four pools (two of which were closed due to being after Labor Day but the two remaining were really nice), a store, shaded lots, and the nicest laundry room I have ever seen.

We started our visit with dinner and drinks at Yard House and then took a quick drive around town.

I had been a little disappointed that were weren’t able to take the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel into Virginia Beach so on Sunday we decided to drive it anyway in the car. It was such a cool experience! The bridge is over 17 miles and actually consists of three bridge sections and two tunnels and it passes through the Fisherman’s Island Wildlife Area.

While we were across the bay, we visited Kiptopeke State Park. This is a lovely park with wildlife habitats, a fishing pier, and swimming beaches but the most unique feature sits in the water just beyond the fishing pier. This park is home to 9 concrete ships that were built as a result of the steel shortages during WWII. The ships were intentionally sunk here in 1948 to act as a weather barrier for the Chesapeake Bag Ferry terminal. The ferry was closed in 1964 when the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel opened but the ships still protect the pier and provide homes to various wildlife species. The ships are (in order from North to South): S.S. Arthur Newell Talbot, S.S. Edwin Thatcher, S.S. Robert Whitman Lesley, S.S. Willis A Slater, S.S. Leonard Chase Watson, S.S. Richard Kidder Meade, S.S. John Grant, S.S. William Foster Cowham, and the S.S. Willard A Pollard.

On the way back, we also took a drive to see a special attraction – the house that John lived in when he was a child! When John’s was little, they actually lived in Virginia Beach for a few years so, in addition to visiting this fun city, we were also hoping to experience a few things from his childhood, too.

On Wednesday, Pandora had another vet appointment. I had made an appointment at Hilltop Veterinary Clinic in Virginia Beach to have bloodwork done to recheck her thyroid levels and her kidney function. The staff was amazing! They listened to all of our history and my concerns, did a great job with a head to tail exam and drew blood without any of the staff getting clawed or bitten. They gave us a call a few days later with the good news – her levels looked great! The current dosage of her medication seems to be working well and they were able to refill another 4 months worth of pills for us. We had also been concerned about her weight. A few years ago, she weighed 12.8 pounds. At her vet visit in Maine in August she was down to 7.7 pounds. We had started feeding her canned food twice per day in addition to her constant access to dry food to try to fatten her up a little bit and it is working! She is back up to 9.1 pounds! It was great news and now we can wait another 4-6 months to have a recheck.

On Friday evening we drove over to the main part of town for a walk on the beach. It can be expensive to park over there but the Holiday Trav-L-Park actually had a parking lot a block off the beach where we could park for free by showing our parking pass for the campground. This was an unexpected but great amenity! The waves were really high due to the recent storms and it was super windy but we had a nice walk and enjoyed playing in the water.

On Saturday, we drove over to a weird little attraction called Jerrassic Park which consisted of several incredible metal sculptures of dinosaurs. We took lots of pictures and admired the remarkable structures.

We swung back by the house to pick up Harley and then headed over to Mount Trashmore. This park opened in 1974 and was built on top of an abandoned landfill. There is now a playground, walking trails, a skatepark, a lake, corn hole games, shelter houses, a stage, and more. John’s mom used to bring him here to play as a kid when they lived here, too. It was a beautiful day to enjoy a walk and Harley loved rolling in the grass. We could even see a few planes from the nearby air show!

On the way home, we picked up chicken from Jollibee. For $20 they had a 6 piece chicken dinner with two sides and two drinks. We paid a little extra to upgrade our drinks from standard soft drinks to the pineapple coolers and I am so glad we did. They were cold and refreshing! The food was really good and it was a really good deal for the money.

Although it was completely by accident, we had managed to time our visit with the NAS Oceana Air Show (the largest air show in North America!) so we bought tickets for Sunday. We had heard that parking and traffic getting in and out was a nightmare but the base was only about a 20 minute bike ride away so we took our e-bikes over and were able to get in and out easily.

There were several plans and helicopters out front that we could see up close and all of the base staff that we interacted with were so friendly and welcoming. There were tents for shopping and a ton of food stands as well. The announcer kept reminding everyone to stay hydrated and reminded the audience the medics were on site for anyone who started feeling ill. It felt really well organized and safe.

The airshow was amazing. We saw some amazing demonstrations- a truck that can do 350mph raced a plane, we saw and felt jets screeching overhead, saw a helicopter that could flip UPSIDE DOWN, watched a plane land on and take off from a pickup truck, saw people jump from perfectly good planes to land on super small targets in front of us, and marveled at a glider with a jet engine attached. The final thrill was watching the Blue Angels fly! It was an incredible day and I am so glad we got to experience it.

On Thursday September 21, John took another half day so that we could visit the Military Aviation Museum. We went in three large hangars and saw so many different vehicles and planes. They had an amphibious car and an enigma machine too! It was only $15 per person for admission and there was SO MUCH to see. The coolest part is that most of these are still operational and are sometimes flown to other locations.

We were having a great time at the museum but ended up having to cut our visit short when we started getting Tropical Storm Warnings and Hurricane Statements on our phones.

We had been keeping an eye on the weather all week and had planned to extend our stay for one night as it was supposed to storm on Saturday when we would be moving. By staying one extra night, we had hoped to wait out the storm and leave on Sunday once things had settled down. The new weather updates convinced us to re-evaluate, however. With the new warnings it looked like we were expecting some possible flooding in addition to the high winds and heavy rain.

After making a few calls, we decided to go ahead and leave town that evening. The next park we had booked wasn’t able to take us yet so we found a place called Kamper’s Lodge in Wilson, North Carolina that was on the way to our next park and was farther away from the coastline. We booked for Thursday and Friday nights and packed up in a hurry. We pulled out of Virginia Beach around 3pm on Thursday evening.

Thanks to traffic backups and a bathroom break, we ended up arriving in Wilson, North Caroline a little after 7pm. We were totally exhausted and a little stressed so we quickly fed the cats then rushed out to find some food for ourselves. We picked up sandwiches at a place called Carolina Cheese then finished the evening eating on the couch while watching a few episodes of “The Expanse”.

The park was really nice and I actually wish we could have enjoyed more of it before the storms started. They had a nice looking pool, a small store, a fishing pond with a ton of ducks, and a large pen with donkeys! We got to walk Harley around a few times before the rain started on Friday and were really impressed.

Friday afternoon we drove back into Wilson to visit Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park. The staff at Caroline Cheese had told us about this park during our visit the night before and we decided to brave the rain to see it. The park was full of sculptures made from repurposed metal. They were a combination of windmills and weather vanes but were 100% art. The photos here really can’t do them justice – you have to see them in motion to truly get the full experience. Almost every part of them moved! The horses and cows looked like they were walking and on one piece, two men moved a saw back and forth across a log. It was unbelievable.

Friday night, the storm started picking up. Just as we were drifting off to sleep around midnight a huge gust of wind shook the entire house. I got really freaked out and just never managed to go to sleep for the rest of the night. John slept off and on for a while but then around 6am we saw that Tropical Storm Ophelia had made landfall. We were a good distance away but were expecting heavy rain and strong winds all morning with the worst of the storm hitting us between 11am and 1pm- right when we were supposed to be moving to the next park. We booked our current spot for another night and called the next park to let them know we would be arriving a day later than expected due to the storm.

I managed to fall asleep for about 2 hours around 8am. It was a little scary but we came through with no damage. Once the worst was over around 1:30, John took a nap for a few hours. I stayed up because I didn’t want to mess up my sleep cycle any more than it already was. Finally, around 7pm, I ate dinner, drank and entire bottle of wine, then slept for 12 hours. On Sunday morning we woke up to blue skies and sunshine like nothing had ever happened. We grabbed breakfast from McDonald’s and ate while we packed up. Next stop- Seven Springs, North Carolina!

On Saturday, August 26th it was time to leave Croton-on-Hudson, New York. We had absolutely loved visiting New York City, Sleepy Hollow, and Scranton and there were about a thousand more things we wanted to do…but we were also exhausted and looking forward to a few weeks at a slower speed. We packed up and headed to Delaware where we would spend 6 nights at Lum’s Pond State Park in Bear and then 7 nights at Trap Pond State Park in Laurel.

Starting out was a little rough and discouraging, though. It turns out that New York has some strict rules about its roadways and that the main road that runs from just outside of Croton Point Park and down through New York City does not permit trucks pulling trailers. We pulled up the correct route for our vehicles on the GPS and headed out. We hit a few traffic slow downs which caused even more delays. About an hour after we left, I happened to notice where we actually were – which was crossing a bridge that would have been about 15 minutes from our park if we had been able to use the parkway. Instead, we spent an hour detouring around it in a big circle to finally get where we were going.

It was a long drive (almost 4 hours), but we eventually made it to Lums Pond State Park in Bear, Delaware and got settled in. The park had really nice, large sites set up in a loop with a big grassy space in the center which was perfect for walking Harley. We were also about 15-20 minutes from restaurants and grocery stores so that made us very happy as well.

On Sunday we took a drive over to Baltimore, Maryland which was about an hour away. We did a little shopping and drove around town playing Pokemon Go before grabbing some fast food and returning home. We were still pretty worn out from our time in New York and it was really nice to just take things slow.

On Wednesday evening, we drove into Philadelphia (about an hour away) for dinner. We have been to Philly a few times before and have already visited the Franklin Institute, the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, Ben Franklin’s Grave, the zoo, and the Eastern State Penitentiary. While we love so many things about the area – our favorite is the food!

You can’t visit Philly without having a cheesesteak. You just can’t. Or, maybe YOU can but WE certainly can’t. On previous visits, we have visited the big names (Pat’s, Geno’s, Tony Luke’s, and Dalessandro’s) and tried several smaller, less known places as well. For us, the debate about who has the best sandwich has always been pretty clear – I have always loved Pat’s and John loves Dalessandro’s. We didn’t waste any time trying to find someplace new- we just wanted to enjoy our favorites so we picked up one sandwich from each of our top picks. We also picked up my favorite cannoli in the whole world from a bakery just across the street from Pat’s and next to Geno’s. We took our feast to a little park right next to Dalessandro’s and ate while we watched some very tiny children have football practice then headed back “home” to Delaware.

On Thursday, John took a half day so he could do something that he had really been looking forward to – bike across Delaware! Delaware is a really small state and we were staying in the northern tip which is less than 20 miles across. He had decided long ago that he was going to ride his e-bike across the area and this was the day we picked. We loaded the bike into the car along with Harley and set out for adventure.

We dropped John off at the border of Delaware and Maryland near Chesapeake City and planned to pick him up in Delaware City on the border of Delaware and New Jersey in a few hours. There is a beautiful bike trail that runs along the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and offers some really beautiful views of the area.

Harley and I went on to Chesapeake City where we explored a little dock area and a park. We got back in the car and drove over to Delaware City where we were able to find parking and walk along the canal for a bit. There was a large grassy area in their downtown area right off of the Delaware River and we ran around and chewed on sticks (Harley more than me). We could see the island that holds Fort Delaware off in the river and then we got in the car and drove through Fort Dupont State Park where we spoke to a lovely park ranger and got directions to the end of the bike trail and the Augustine Wildlife Area where we saw several really cool birds and a fox (we weren’t fast enough for too many pictures, though). John finally called and let us know that he had finished but that his bike battery had also died so we went and picked him up and headed home for the day.

On Friday, it was time to make the hour and a half drive from Bear in the northern part of the state down to Laurel in the south. The drive was fairly uneventful and we easily got settled in our new spot in Trap Pond State Park. I have to take a minute and say how much we really liked this park. There were 5 loops of campsites that each had their own play area for the kids and bathhouse. We were in the “A” Loop and our bathroom was super nice. I understand that this was recently rebuilt and that the other loops haven’t had theirs upgraded yet but that it is in the works. All of the loops end with common space along the lake and the park is full of trees which make the campsites very shady and comfortable.

On Sunday we drove down to Chincoteague Island in Virginia for a boat tour to Assateague Island and hopefully a look at the wild ponies of Assateague Island. Both the captain and the guide were super friendly and knowledgeable about the area.

We were able to see the horses from pretty far away and we learned so much about the horses and the area itself. These horses are descended from Spanish stock – probably survivors of shipwrecks that managed to swim ashore to the island. The herds have survived on the island for around 300 years! Over the last hundred years, they have been managed by the Saltwater Cowboys – a group of volunteer firemen on Chincoteague Island.

Following the boat tour, we walked around Mariner’s Point for a little while and just enjoyed the beautiful day.

We still had a little bit of time before we had to get back to Harley so we decided to drive over to Assateague Island for a final try at seeing the horses. We were able to pull off the main road through the park and see the horses off in the distance.

We also drove to the overlook area and walked the trail there – but again they were pretty far away. We managed to get a few good pictures and enjoyed just watching them through the lens of the camera which works like binoculars so that was pretty cool.

Finally, on the way out, we happened to look to the field next to the car and we saw some of the ponies walking right along the fence line! We didn’t get very good pictures here because of all of the trees and bushes in the way but it was really neat seeing them this close.

We were excited about visiting a few other places around Delaware and Maryland during our stay and were looking forward to enjoying the beautiful park we were staying in – but then the temperatures spiked to the high 90’s. Thankfully, we had picked up and installed a entirely new air conditioner (our original mini-split completely died on us in August and our temporary portable unit just couldn’t keep up with the heatwave) so we were very comfortable in the house- we just weren’t able to leave it.

My body also decided this would be the perfect week to get a cold so I was down for a few days with that. What rotten luck.

We ended up leaving Delaware a day earlier than expected as well. When we get to a new place, we always make sure to take in our truck GPS unit and get it updated and check out the route to the next destination. Our move from Laurel, Delaware to Virginia Beach had us taking a 3 hour route across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel but it turns out that the tiny house is right at the height limit for the tunnel. There were also wind warnings on the bridge that didn’t sound great for driving a high profile vehicle (like our house) across. We decided that rather than take chances with the wind or risk being turned way at the tunnel due to height, we would just take an alternate route around. This new route came in over 6 hours! And with the heat and me having been sick we didn’t want to spend that much time in the car. Plus with gas stops and bathroom breaks that would have probably ended up putting us closer to 7 or 8 hours which is longer than we like to drive and longer than we like to have the animals stressed out during a move.

Thankfully, John was able to find a KOA Campground at King’s Dominion Amusement Park that would take us for the night so we decided to leave Trap Pond on Friday, drive the 3.5 hours to Richmond, Virginia then finish up the trip to Virginia Beach on Saturday. We hated the fact that we didn’t get to enjoy as much of Delaware as we had wanted but it was time to move on.

It’s really hard for us because, due to the fact that we have to have electric and water connections and some parks won’t allow tiny houses or pit bulls, we absolutely have to plan ahead for our travels. This creates a schedule that we must adhere to. We have now been moving every 1 to 2 weeks since March and, honestly, we are getting tired. We are already booked up through the end of this year but starting in 2024 we will be slowing down and spending more time in each location. We still plan to travel full time but we will be spending around a month between moves so that we can allow ourselves some days to rest and still be able to have more time to experience each destination – and we have some fun stuff planned so I can’t wait! In the mean time, Virginia Beach, here we come!

Tuesday August 22 was a day of firsts for me and it was amazing! John had gotten us tickets to see a show on Broadway (my first Broadway show actually in NYC!) so we decided to go in a little early and see a little bit of the city and grab dinner before heading to the theater.

We drove out of our park and right into the parking lot for the train station. We boarded the train in Croton-on-Hudson (my first New York train ride!) and rode into the city around 3pm. The ride was really nice and much more comfortable than I expected. We had beautiful views of the Hudson River all the way into the city. Our train made a few stops at some of the small towns along the way and once we were in the city we made stops at Yankee Stadium and in Harlem before pulling into Grand Central.

I had seen Grand Central Terminal in several television shows and movies but I was not prepared for how beautiful and how HUGE it is! I told myself the whole way in on the train not to act like a dumb tourist and stand there staring up at the sky. I followed my own instructions for approximately 5 minutes after arrival. Thankfully, I wasn’t the only one in complete awe.

We stepped out into the city itself and started making our way toward the theater. We walked past the New York Public Library and couldn’t resist going inside. I was hoping we would see the cool librarian ghost from the original Ghostbusters movie but no such luck. It was still a really pretty building, though, and I was glad that we stopped.

We walked a bit further and found a restaurant that didn’t look too busy that served burgers and fries and had plenty of open tables so we stopped in. It was while we were waiting for our food to arrive that I realized we were in Times Square. Our dinner was good and relatively cheap and we were quickly in our way again.

We did a little people watching on the way to the theater but we arrived a little early, still. Thankfully, we found a Mid-Town Comics location just a block from the theater so we went in for a look around. I ended up picking up a few comics for my Firefly collection and a Firefly Cookbook with recipes based on foods from the television show.

After shopping, it was time for the show! We walked over to the theater and got in line. I had no idea where our seats were or even what the show was about as John had handled everything. I was delighted to find that we were sitting in the front row of the balcony on the left hand side of the center section. In other words – AMAZING SEATS!

As for the show, John had chosen “Shucked”. This is a newer show that had only opened last spring and still had all of its original cast (my first time seeing a show with original cast!). One of the performers, Alex Newell, had won a Tony for their portrayal of Lulu, one of the four main characters. Alex had also appeared as “Mo” in the television show “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist” which John and I had both enjoyed very much. The show focuses on a small place called Cob County whose very existence is centered around the corn they grow and revolves around the lives of the residents of this isolated community. When the corn starts to fail, our heroine Maizey sets out to find help from the big, scary outside world – much to the dismay of her fiancé, Beau. When Maizey finds a man who seems to be the answer to the corn problem and brings him back home to save the town it creates all sorts of other problems for Maizey, Beau, and Lulu. Now that Maizey has experienced the whole big world can she ever go back to being a small town girl again?

The show was absolutely hilarious and all of the musical numbers were super catchy (we bought the soundtrack on the train home that night). While a lot of the jokes were a little corn-y, it was still really fun. A few of the people sitting around us didn’t appreciate a lot of the adult humor (Lulu asserts that she doesn’t need to sacrifice any of her big personality for a man as long as she has a corn cob and some batteries and Maizey plans to get real close to one of the male characters and see if anything, feelings or otherwise, starts to grow- there are plenty of jokes about race, religion, and sexuality thrown in for good measure) but I was sure I was going to suffocate from laughing so hard.

Coming out of the theater and walking back through Times Square was probably one of the most magical experiences of the whole trip. There were lighted billboards and people everywhere! There were food carts and souvenir vendors on every corner and the air was full of hoking car corns and steam coming from the sewer grates and the occasion rumble of the subway running under our feet. I think that’s when I really started to fall in love with the city.

The next day, we hadn’t had enough so we hopped back on the train and went back for more. Like the night before, we started at Grand Central but this time we headed towards Rockefeller Center. We saw the skating rink and shopped in the Nintendo Store and FAO Schwartz.

We also visited Saint Patrick’s Cathedral and it was unbelievable. I am not a religious person but the incredible cathedral was definitely awe inspiring.

Our “big attraction” of the day was the Top of the Rock experience at 30 Rock. We bought tickets and rode to the very top of the 70 story building in an elevator that took 43 seconds to cover the distance. We had been considering which experience to do – this or the Empire State Building but we decided on this one because it offered a view of Central Park. It wasn’t very busy either – we purchased tickets upon arrival and waited maybe 15 minutes or so. I know that lines at the Empire State Building can get quite long so we that this was a pretty good experience. It all worked out quite well.

While we didn’t get to do everything that we wanted in the city – we could live there for years and not do everything we wanted to do- we were exhausted. We had been into the city three times now and walked around 5 miles each time and we were beat.

We decided to take Thursday and do something that had been on my bucket list for a long time. I have been a fan of The Office for a long while but have become pretty obsessed in recent years. During the COVID lockdowns I started watching the show constantly and really haven’t stopped. While the show was filmed in California, it was set in Scranton, PA and this was the closest point to Scranton we had hit in our travels. It was still about two hours away so we loaded up the dog and took her with us.

We saw many of the locations featured in the show – including the Penn Paper Tower and streets signs for Mulberry Street featured in the opening credits- and visited Cooper’s Seafood and Alfredo’s Pizza Cafe which were mentioned in the show many times. We drove by the Steamtown Mall, the Electric City sign, and the Radisson and we saw signs for Mount Pocono and Lake Wallenpaupack. Harley even got to get out and go potty and roll in the grass while in town. We picked up a few souvenirs (and some pizza) and drove back home with the satisfaction of having made this “holy pilgrimage”.

On Friday we had big plans…but we were too tired for anything. We went out to lunch at the Mount Kisko Diner and laid around the house resting up for the drive to Delaware the following day and making plans to visit The Big Apple again soon.

On Saturday August 19th, we made the drive from Woodstock, Connecticut to Croton Point Park in Croton-on-Hudson, New York. Some of the roads coming through Connecticut were absolutely terrible and we got stuck in a few traffic jams (during which we picked up a few social media followers and exchanged messages with other cars also sitting at a standstill) but we finally made it to our park. We were greeted by several of our fellow campers and, once we got settled, opened our house to about 20 visitors over the course of the evening. It was so nice to meet some of our neighbors and everyone was so excited about our house. We met one lady named Maria who brought her wife, daughter, and grandchildren over to visit and they absolutely loved our house. Another couple (Jerry and Chantelle) were local but had brought their son over to the park for the day and stopped to chat. They ended up taking us out for dinner and gave us some amazing information about the area and advice on things to do and see while we were there. We usually get a few people who are interested in our house but this was by far the best welcome we have ever had at a park.

We started our first full day (Sunday) with breakfast from a local deli on the advice of our friends from the night before. The food was dirt cheap and absolutely delicious. I got the Bacon, Egg and Cheese and John got the Andy. We split some home fries and a black & white cookie and were feeling fueled up and ready to take on the day.

We decided to take a “quick drive” into the city just to see what we could from the car and maybe get a handle on things we wanted to do during the week. John had done some research and picked a place for us to start things off so we headed down the road right along the Hudson River and were soon driving into New York City. Our destination was actually in New Jersey so we got to drive through the Lincoln Tunnel. One of my favorite Christmas movies and a must watch for us every year is “Elf” starring Will Ferrell. The entire time we were driving the tunnel, all I could hear was Buddy saying “I passed through the seven levels of the Candy Cane forest, through the sea of swirly twirly gum drops, and then I walked through the Lincoln Tunnel.” This would be just the first time this week that I would recognize a place from television, movies, or books and be in complete awe that I was actually experiencing it in person.

We crossed into New Jersey and I started seeing signs for “Weehawken”. Now, I should probably mention that I am a big fan of Broadway musicals and of history in general. If you are also a fan of one or both of these things, you may be aware of a little production called “Hamilton” which is one of my favorites. It tells a slightly embellished but fairly decent account of the life of Alexander Hamilton, one of our founding fathers. There is one song that sets the stage for the duel with Aaron Burr that would ultimately end Hamilton’s life and it says “Weehawken. Dawn. Guns, Drawn”. I started singing the song immediately but still didn’t put it together to figure out where we were going so I was both surprised and excited when the car parked at the Weehawken Dueling Grounds- the actual site where history took place.

The Dueling Grounds were near Alexander Hamilton Park so we walked over to check it out. The entire area gave such an incredible view of the New York City skyline. It was really an amazing first introduction to the city and was really neat as a historical site.

I also started chatting with a local woman (we bonded over the shared experience of stepping in something sticky in front of one of the information plaques) and she told us that we could drive down the road just a bit and also see the Statue of Liberty. I know that this is such a touristy thing to do but it was on my list of things to see in the city so we headed on over. My plan was just to look at it from the car from the shore in New Jersey but John surprised me again by heading off to the ticket window to get us on one of the ferry boats to go see her up close and personal.

The tickets were sold in an old train station that was so beautiful. This was the station where people arrived right after passing through Ellis Island and boarded trains to take them all over the United States. The trains had stopped running a long time ago and the tracks were all overgrown but it was still such a powerful sight to see and was absolutely gorgeous.

John had visited NYC before as part of a class trip for school but I had never been to the Big Apple. He had gotten to go to Ellis Island but not to Liberty Island so it was still pretty fun for both of us as we boarded the boat and made our way away from the shore.

Our first stop was Ellis Island and I wish we had more time but we had gotten there for one of the last boats of the day. We did go ashore on Ellis Island but only had about 45 minutes if we wanted to make it to Liberty Island as well. We managed to check out a few exhibits and got a very basic idea of the experience of new arrivals to the United States who passed through this checkpoint. We didn’t have time to look up our family’s history (it’s all computerized now but costs $10 per record search) but we still learned a lot.

We boarded one of the last ferries from Ellis Island to Liberty Island and enjoyed walking all around Lady Liberty. They do still offer special tours to take you inside of the statue (they offer a tour for the base and a tour that takes you up to the crown and torch) but those are very hard to get booked on so the majority of visitors (ourselves included) just content themselves with walking around the edges of the island. We took a ton of pictures, bought a few souvenirs, and got back in line for the ferry back to New Jersey.

Over all, I have to recommend the experience. It was crowded and hot but we loved seeing the statue up close. Tip: If you depart from Liberty State Park on the New Jersey side instead of the New York side, it really appears that it isn’t as busy. Our lines were shorter and our boats were much less full than the ones serving New York guests. This may change based on the day of the week or the time of year but for our trip it was definitely better to have come from Jersey.

On the way back home, we took the Holland Tunnel which was also pretty neat.

John was on vacation this week so our adventures didn’t have to stop after the weekend! On Monday, we drove over to Sleepy Hollow which was only about 15 minutes from our park. Being a lover of all things creepy, I couldn’t be this close and not visit the town that was the setting for Washington Irving’s classic “Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow” tale. We visited the Headless Horseman monument, the Headless Horseman Bridge, and the Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow. The cemetery at the church contains the grave of author Washington Irving and some of the names on the older headstones served as the inspiration for some of the characters in the story. We tried to visit Irving’s home nearby in Tarrytown but it was closed during the week so we grabbed some lunch and headed back home.

We were already exhausted but still had so much to do! We definitely needed to pace ourselves for the rest of the week!

Oh my gosh, you guys. I did it. This is my last Catch Up Post from the first six months of our time on the road. I took over this blog in April of 2023 and my first post was our arrival in the Atlanta area. This post takes us through the final week before that first entry! It’s been a long few months of double posts each week but we are finally caught up! Whoo!

Also, There may be spoilers in this post for the movie “Fried Green Tomatoes” and the television show “The Walking Dead” as we visit filming locations for both of these this week. Both of those things have been out for long enough the everyone who wants to watch them probably have already but read ahead at your own risk.

On Saturday March 25, we set out for the Lake Tobesofkee Recreation Area Arrowhead Campground in Lizella, Georgia which is near Macon. Everything went smoothly, again, as far as the house and the vehicles were concerned. For the first time, all the cats made the trip in the house rather than being in carriers in the car, with the exception of Pandora (Dora is older and has trouble balancing so we were worried about her falling in the house).  As soon as we pulled into our spot (a large, grassy pull-through site up the hill from the lake), I got inside to check on everyone.

Mama and Lilyth had already emerged from wherever they spent the drive. Mama immediately began yelling for treats and Lilyth was napping. I dug Poe out from the blankets in our bed, slightly worried that he might overheat and die. Pallas “hid” head first in the corner of the couch and when I pulled her out to make sure she was okay she hissed at me, tried to kill me, and ran away. Boots and Herald eventually emerged from their hiding places. All in all the trip seemed to have been a success.

The purpose of our stay in the Macon, Georgia area was an entirely selfish one on my part and something that had been on my bucket list for a while. One of my favorite movies growing up was “Fried Green Tomatoes” and a few years ago I learned that the Whistle Stop Cafe was a real place- the owner of the building used for filming decided to turn it into a real cafe – and I knew immediately that I had to visit. I made John watch the movie with me the night before we left Auburn (his first time, my gazillionth) and I didn’t want to waste any time getting there. Once we got settled and made sure all the animals were squared away, we got in the car and drove to the small town of Juliette, Georgia to make my dreams come true. I

It was seriously like walking right into the film when we pulled up. The cafe and surrounding businesses were already closed when we got there but we had the whole street pretty much to ourselves. The owner of one of the stores was there redoing some of their displays and invited us in to shop. We talked for a while and I bought a great t-shirt based on the movie along with some stickers. We walked all around the café and immediate area (which had also been used in the movie) and took a ton of pictures and video. John even got to fly his drone down the railroad tracks running by the restaurant. John finally managed to drag me away – but only after promising we could come back the next day.

On Sunday, as promised, we went back to Juliette for lunch at the Whistle Stop Cafe. Of course we had the fried green tomatoes but neither of us were in the mood for bbq. The food was decent overall- a good batter on the fried stuff, the sweet potato fries on the sampler were AWESOME and the mashed potatoes with the meal were very good as well. Service was excellent though and, if course, you can’t beat the décor. I expected Ruth, Idgie or Sipsey to walk out of the kitchen at any moment and felt like Grady Kilgore should be sitting at the next table or that Smokey Lonesome should be at the counter. We also stopped to pay our respects to Buddy’s arm and did a little souvenir shopping.

That night, we had some terrible weather and got very little sleep because we were under tornado warnings. One of our greatest fears in the tiny house is bad weather so we always take note of where the shelters are when we get to a new park. If bad weather is expected, we get the pet carriers out and are prepared to grab the animals and run for safety. There were several tornadoes that touched down in surrounding areas but we came through with only heavy rain, thunder and lightning.

We spent a lot of time that week sitting outside and enjoying the campsite. We walked Harley around the park and took some photos of the birds and butterflies that we found. We even spent one evening talking to another couple that were camping a few spots down from us that were from our hometown and actually know a friend of ours! What a small world!

Because the park wasn’t really close to anything, we cooked at home and sat around the fire a lot. We did make the trip in to Macon one night for groceries and tried Cook Out for the first time – those milkshakes are incredible! We also visited a local hotspot called Fish & Pig on the advice of some of the other campers we met at the park. We had the Low Country Boil, and the Ribs and Catfish Combo.

We also spent a day visiting the town of Senoia (pronounced “suh-noy”) which served as several filming locations for The Walking Dead on AMC. Although the show had finished filming at the time of our visit, it was still a place that I wanted to check out. I was a huge fan of the show (especially the early seasons) and, for some reason, John is a huge fan of me so he agreed to go with me.

Our first stop was The Woodbury Shoppe which had artifacts from the show and lots of autographs from the cast on various memorabilia and even on the walls themselves. We picked up a few souvenirs for a friend and a map of filming locations and set off. We had hoped to get on a guided tour but the last tour of the day had already gone out when we got there.

We started off by walking down Main Street, which served as the filming location for most of the town of Woodbury during the third season of the show. We recognized many of the buildings in the area and especially enjoyed seeing the iconic water tower.

Senoia also served as the setting for the Alexandria Safe Zone and various flashbacks for some characters through the end of the series. We were able to see the house where Carl barely escapes a walker and eats a giant can of pudding on the roof. Unfortunately, the Alexandria Safe Zone area is Private Property and we were not able to get many photos there.

The train tracks running through town were used for the filming of many of the scenes leading up to the cast arriving at Terminus in season 4. We walked along the tracks and had fun recreating some of the scenes.

Here are some side by side shots comparing screenshots from the show and our visit.

We had lunch at Nic and Norman’s owned by Greg Nicotero (Producer, Visual Effects, Walker) and Walking Dead star Norman Reedus (Darryl Dixon). We had two of the flatbreads and a delicious drink. We didn’t have any celebrity sightings but that was pretty much expected since the show had wrapped. Back when episodes were still filming, it was pretty common for cast and crew to come in during their downtime.

Our final stop in Senoia was the house used for the exterior shots of the Threadgoode house in Fried Green Tomatoes and the train tracks where Buddy dies (also used in The Walking Dead as tracks to Terminus). It has since been painted blue (SACRILEGE!!!!!) but is still as beautiful as ever.

It had been a busy week but my nerdy little heart was so happy as we said goodbye to Lizella and moved on to the Atlanta area. (Well, maybe it wasn’t goodbye forever but goodbye for now. My inner “Towanda” still dreams of moving back to Juliette and working at the Whistle Stop Café one day).

On March 18, we pulled out of Shady Acres Campground in Mobile, Alabama and drove the three hours to Chewacla State Park in Auburn, Alabama. The trip was smooth and uneventful – about time we have a drive without losing something or something breaking! The only issue we had was upon arriving at the park, the clerk told us that we couldn’t bring the tiny house in. Apparently they had some issues with people parking tiny houses and leaving them permanently –and even renting them out! We assured them that this was our home (we weren’t looking to leave it behind anywhere) and that we were really only staying one week. After escalating to management, we were finally allowed in.

The site was gorgeous! The campground was setup as a series of loops branching off of one central road. Each loop had a grassy area in the center with a restrooms and showers and a playground area. The sites branched off the loop and were each surrounded on three sides by woods. A walking trail ran through the woods behind the sites. The sites were long enough for the house, truck, and car to park all in a row and wide enough for the house and a large outdoor area with a picnic table and firepit. We set up our lawn chairs around the fire ring. It was the perfect peaceful retreat.

We got the house set up and decided to go for a bike ride while it was still light outside. We rode to the very back of the park and John hiked down to the waterfall. I was still having trouble with my leg so I waited at the top while he scouted the trail. He found that it was a fairly short trail – a little steep but not terrible- so we made plans to come back another day. For now, we were hungry.

The awesome thing about this park is that it sits down a long, quiet road in the middle of a forest. If you drove out of the park about 15 minutes, however, you found yourself in the college town of Auburn, Alabama. There were tons of shopping options, activities, and restaurants. We had dinner at ChickChickPorkPork and ordered the Menbosha (shrimp toasts), Dae Ge Kal Bi (marinated pork), and Yangyum Chicken.

We spent Sunday driving around town and doing some shopping. We visited Auburn College and visited a few sporting goods stores in search of some hiking shoes for me and a hammock for John. Our campsite in the woods was the perfect place for a hammock so we were happy to find the Eno Doublenest Hammock in a shop in town. We ended the day with dinner at The Hound and shopping in a local bookstore. We had the Bacon Flight (house cured bacon, Canadian bacon, and spicy Italian bacon), Shrimp and Grits, and a Ribeye Steak with fries.

One night after John got off work, we went back into the park to hike to the waterfall. The trail started at the top of the hill and there was a shelter house with picnic tables and a beautiful view.

The trail itself was a very short trek down the hill. It was a little steep but the waterfall was absolutely worth it. We had taken the hammock and John hung it in the trees along the water while I explored the rocks downstream from the falls.

We were having a hard time with getting hot water in the kitchen and, without hot water, it was really hard to do dishes so we ate out pretty frequently during our week in Auburn. We visited Agave Loco for some fajitas one night. Another night we had dinner at Bow + Arrow where we ordered the Helote Fries, Shrimp Tacos with sweet corn rice, and the Three Meat Platter (brisket, sausage, and turkey with hashbrown casserole and mac & cheese). We also visited a food hall near campus and tried a variety of different dishes from several different vendors inside.

We also tried to make meals at home that didn’t involve many dishes – like hotdogs on the campfire! We spent several evenings sitting outside – either in the hammock or our lawn chairs. It wasn’t too cold in the south but the evenings got a little chilly and it was the perfect weather for sitting around the fire in our hoodies while listening to podcasts or reading a book.

We also spent a lot of time walking the trails behind our campsite. Harley absolutely loved running in the woods and exploring the stream.

On Friday, John took a vacation day and we visited the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site and Museum. The site was located at Moton Field which was the location for Primary Flight Training for the Tuskegee Airmen. Two airplane hangars have been converted to museum space and we were able to see some of the planes that these men were trained to fly along with reading personal accounts and viewing artifacts belonging to the pilots. There is still a working runway in back of the site and as we walked around we could see planes taking off and landing throughout the day.

On the way back, we also took a few minutes to drive through Tuskegee National Forest.

 I wish that we had more time to spend exploring but our week in Auburn had come to an end and it was time to prepare for our next move.

The drive from Duck Puddle Campground in Nobleboro, Maine to Chamberlain Lake Campground in Woodstock, Connecticut was supposed to take about 4 hours. We usually only like to drive 2-3 hours at a time so this was already on the high end of our tolerance range. Thanks to traffic delays (car accidents, busy roads) it ended up taking around 5 hours. Plus another hour to get backed into our spot and get the house level. And because of her recent injury, Pandora was riding in a carrier on the passenger seat of my car for this trip. Her sedative wore off after about 3 hours. It was NOT a fun drive for any of us.

The campground is nice and quiet, though. The spots are generously sized and surrounded by trees and many of the other campers greeted us when we pulled in. We don’t have sewer hookups but the dump station is nearby. We only have 30 amp electric hookups but we have been dealing with that at the last several parks – it just means that we can’t run the air conditioner at the same time as the oven or the blow dryer. It isn’t ideal but we can make it work.

We spent most of the week relaxing at home – I had hurt my foot over the weekend and it took a few days to be comfortable walking on it again- but on Thursday night, we decided to get out and explore. we drove into Killingly, Connecticut to visit Logee’s Plants for Home and Garden. They have an amazing selection of exotic plants – many of which we had never seen before. We ended up buying a few air plants to bring home but mostly we just enjoyed walking around and looking at (and smelling) everything there. The coolest part was a 123 year old lemon tree! The lemons on it can grow up to 5 pounds – they were enormous!

We also drove into Putnam to check out a comic book shop and we ended up eating dinner at Black Dog Bar & Grille. We had the Honey Bacon Bread, the Blueberry BBQ Bacon Burger, and the Lobster Roll.

On Friday night, we decided to explore nearby Putnam. We visited Wonderland Comics for a few new additions to my Firefly comic collection. We also stopped in a few local shops including a snack shop and an antique store. We finished up the evening with a visit to Woodstock Creamery for some delicious meat and dairy products. As we travel, we love shopping from local farms!

On Saturday, we took advantage of the beautiful day to visit Dinosaur State Park. This was the one thing I was looking forward to doing while we were at this stop and it was the perfect day for it. We drove to Rocky Hill, Connecticut (just outside of Hartford) to visit the park. This park is home to one of the largest collection of dinosaur tracks ever found in North America. The footprints were discovered back in the 1960’s and covered a huge portion of land. They couldn’t secure enough funding to dig and preserve the entire site so much of the tracks were covered back up in an effort to keep them safe for future digs. They were able to fund a small park with a covered dome where they left some of the tracks exposed for guests to enjoy. They made a small museum and education center and have nature paths outside.

They also offer the opportunity to make the coolest keepsake – guests can bring their own supplies and make a plaster cast of a dinosaur footprint. This was the thing that I was most excited about and I had been looking forward to this opportunity for months. We took 12 pounds of Plaster of Paris, vegetable oil, a old towel cut into strips, a 5 gallon bucket, and a roll of paper towels (about $20 worth of items) and a staff member helped us to make the cast at no additional charge. They had 5 or 6 different stations to choose from and the entire process took about 45 minutes to an hour. We coated the original footprint in rock with vegetable oil and placed a metal ring (provided by the park) around the print. A staff member bought us water and I mixed the plaster mostly using my hands to make sure we got out as many of the clumps as possible. We poured the plaster into the ring and sealed the bottom with the strips of towel to keep the plaster from running out under the ring. Then we smoothed it off and left it to dry.

While it was drying, we went into the museum to have a look. There was a walkway setup over a large section of earth where the tracks had been discovered and it was amazing to walk the same pathways that actual dinosaurs had once traveled. The tracks themselves are referred to as Eubrontes but that classifies the tracks themselves and not the dinosaur that made them. It is unknown exactly how many individuals made the tracks although there were clearly several based on the size differences. It is also unknown if they all traveled together as it is possible that the tracks were made at different times over the course of a few hours to a few weeks.

No bones have been found at the site, not because no animals died there but because the soil and environmental conditions that worked to preserve the footprints so beautifully are not conducive to preserving bone and other remains. As a result of this, it is unknown exactly what species left the tracks. Observations tell us that they were left by a three toed dinosaur that walked upright (bipedally). A lack of drag marks means that the tails were held out from the body – they did not drag the ground behind the animal. Based on this information and remains found in other parts of the country, it is believed that the animal was a carnivorous dinosaur that is related to Dilophosaurus (the frilled, venom spitting dinosaur from Jurassic Park). Aside from Tyrannosaurus Rex, Dilophosaurus was always one of my favorites growing up so this was especially interesting for me.

After about 40 minutes in the museum, we returned to our cast and a staff member helped us remove it from the metal ring. We took it back to the car along with our leftover materials, spent some time walking on the nature paths, then moved on to our next adventure.

We spent some time driving around Hartford but didn’t really have the time to do much as we needed to get back home to put Harley out. We did drive past the Mark Twain House but didn’t’ have time for the tour.

After stopping by the house to walk Harley, John found a fair in Massachusetts and we decided to go check it out. We arrived in Lancaster, Massachusetts and followed signs to park in a large field. From there, school buses transported us to the fairgrounds for the Bolton Fair.

We walked around for a while and visited the exhibit barns and animal areas. We were able to catch a few minutes of a BMX bike demonstration and, of course, we had to eat some greasy fair food. We had a sausage sandwich, some chicken wings, some giant fried mushrooms on a stick and a big bowl of french fries. I was ecstatic to find a Kona Ice truck and enjoyed a large Pina Colada flavored sno-cone. We had intended to watch the demolition derby but there weren’t enough seats in the bleachers and people were lined up three deep around the fences so we gave up and went home.

On Sunday, we drove over to Providence, Rhode Island for a look around. We had brunch at The District (Chicken and Waffles and a Breakfast Pizza), played Pokémon Go on the campus of Brown University, and had a refreshing frozen lemonade from Del’s before driving back home.

We spent the week relaxing at home. We gave some neighbors a tour of the house and John got to do an interview over Zoom to be on a brand new podcast about RV life and living on the road. We will be sure to give updates on that when we know more. We also had a visit on Wednesday night from a friend that John made at the tiny house workshop that he attended in Georgia a few years ago. They stayed in touch after the class and have updated each other as they both began their own tiny house builds.

Our final activity in Connecticut was a vet visit with Pandora. Back in Maine, she had suffered a laceration to the tip of her tail and was patched up by the wonderful staff at Animal Emergency Clinic of Mid-Maine. It was during this visit that Dora was diagnosed with Hyperthyroidism. She was placed on medication and was supposed to have her bloodwork rechecked in two weeks to calibrate the dosage. Well, our last Friday in Connecticut was the two week mark. I had made the appointment at Peake Brook Veterinary Clinic as soon as we arrived in town and they were the nicest people I could imagine. They removed her sutures and said that the wound looks great. They also said that her thyroid levels have come down considerably since her ER visit but are still slightly elevated so we are increasing the dosage and will have to find another vet to recheck her bloodwork in about 4 weeks.

We will deal with all of Pandora’s health issues as they come up but for now we will focus on the move ahead of us tomorrow. John is on vacation next week and we will be visiting Sleepy Hollow, New York and NYC!