Road Trip to Iowa!

Have you ever taken a trip that you've questioned your sanity several times on the trip? Yea, that was us for this trip.

We were invited to a wedding in Iowa and we decided to go. Normally, we'd fly out, but we figured we have the Brave, we may as well use it. The only thing that complicated this was that we were heading to Alaska (by plane & cruise ship) a couple of weeks later. All of this just meant it had to be a quick trip - 2 days out, 2 days there, 2 days back. Whew! We decided to leave the pets at home (with their sitter) for this trip - it proved to be a wise decision.

We started out from our seasonal space in Luray around 6am. We had a long day ahead of us. There's not much to say about the drive - other than it was LONG. Jon did amazing through the mountains in MD. He put the cruise control on and let the engine do it's thing on the long, steeper downgrades. I made lunch in the rig as we were moving down the road & it was great to be able to eat and keep going.

We planned on stopping in Richmond, IN at the Richmond KOA. Honestly, we could've stopped a bit earlier, if we hadn't already had reservations. 10 hours moving time = 11 or more hours of real time once you take into account gas and potty breaks. The Richmond KOA was ok. Great place for an over night stop, but not somewhere we'd stay longer. It was a very small campground & we were staring straight into the rig parked in front of us (our windshields were facing each other). It also was a bit tight and nerve wracking when leaving the next morning. We were able to leave the car connected & get the rig stabilized, so that was a plus.

Our premium site

Mini Golf

Registration Building/Store

Dog Park

Cabins

We got up and on the road by about 7am the next morning. We had a 7 hr (moving) day = 8+ hr in reality ahead of us. We found a Pilot Flying J with RV lanes and made a longer pit stop around 10am. We had them fill up our propane - which was one of the smartest things we did all weekend. We took the time to do it while we had time. I made lunch on the move again, which was great. We also stopped and got the rig washed at a Beacon Truck Wash once in Iowa.

We stayed at Sleepy Hollow Campground near Iowa City, IA in a town called Oxford. Since we were there for the wedding, we didn't really hang around the campground all that much. There seemed to be several seasonals at this campground as well. The campground was doing a "summer carnival" that weekend, so they had a few activities for the kids, which was pretty cool to see. Sleepy Hollow was a great jumping point for us to do everything we wanted to do that weekend.

The night we arrived, we headed to Corallville to join the bridal party & Jon's family (from TX) at the rehearsal dinner.  We had already eaten, so we were there to visit with everyone. It was great to get caught up with Jon's aunt, uncle, and cousins. It was here that we learned we were the only extended family on the groom's side to attend - at all. We were really happy we made the effort after we heard that.

Saturday morning, we decided to head to the Amana Colonies to look around for a bit. It was definitely worth the trip & I wish we had time to visit more of the locations of the colonies than we were able to visit. Most of the buildings have been turned into shops, restaurants, or winery representation.

Look, a bit of home in IA!

We headed back to the rig after lunch to get ready for the wedding, which was in Iowa City in the bride's childhood church. It was a beautiful ceremony & great reception.

Sunday, we had brunch with the bride, groom, and various attendees of the wedding. It was a great way to wish the couple well & to visit one last time with Jon's family.

We then headed to the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site and Presidential Library. We spent WAY more time there than we thought we would. The NPS Park Rangers were great to chat with. We've found many times that the smaller the NPS location, the better the chats with the rangers. Probably because they're the less visited & not as busy parks, so the rangers have more time to chat. We were happy to learn so much about Hoover during our few hours at the historical site.

Hoover House

Hoover House Kitchen

Hoover House Bedroom & Sewing Room

Straight back, through the clearing in the trees, is Hoover's grave site.

School House

Church

Inside of the Church

Statue of the Goddess Isis. She is the goddess of fertility and patroness of nature and magic.

Herbert Hoover Library

President & Mrs. Hoover's grave sites

Once we were done here, we headed back to the coach and laid around for a bit. We watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (which was just ok and not what we really expected at all based on the previews), and called it a night pretty early.

Monday morning came and we were woken up by thunderstorms around 5:30am. We were planning on getting up around then anyhow, but morning thunderstorms aren't exactly something we're used to! Jon was able to get out & unhook the rig and hook up the car between storms, so that was good. We got out of the campground around 7am and got on the road.

Now... I was SUPPOSED to drive for the first time on Monday morning. But, we were trying to keep thunderstorms in our rear view mirror and I wasn't thrilled with the idea of potentially being caught in one, so I let Jon drive. I know conditions will never be perfect, but there will be another time that will be better! Other than trying to out run storms & rain (which did eventually catch up a bit), the drive was uneventful.

We stopped at Buckeye Lake/Columbus East KOA, in Buckeye Lake, OH on the way back home. There are definitely seasonal sites here that the campground owners have let build semi-permanent structures, which we found to be interesting. We really liked this campground & wished we had more time in the area. We could definitely see ourselves visiting the area for longer than a night in the future. Our campsite was super level - which was great. Once again, we didn't disconnect & just leveled & put out the slides. Made the next morning super easy.

Nice, level site

The site next to ours. We were trying to figure out if this was the Work Kamper who was at this one.

Dog Park

Tuesday morning, we pulled the slides in, pulled the jacks up, disconnected everything, and headed out. We had about 7.5 hrs to drive back to Luray and then another 1.5 hrs home, so it'd be another long day.

At one of the rest stops in Western MD

Once again, Jon did a wonderful job through the mountains/hills of OH, WV, Western MD, and VA. Coming into Cumberland, on a 13 mile 4-6% downgrade (yea... love that part of Western MD!), someone (MDOT) decided it'd be a good time to do bridge repair in the middle of the day. A bunch of trucks and us all counted our blessings that we were able to stop & there were no accidents (there was no warning of the construction). Other than a gas stop that went horribly (why are non-RV trucks using the RV lanes instead of going to the truck lanes and taking up valuable space for those of us that are?!), the trip home was uneventful.

When we got to Luray, we noticed yet another storm coming over the mountains. We hurried to get the car unhooked. Just as we got it unhooked & parked, the rain started coming. Jon got the Brave backed into our space and it started down pouring. We were parked just in the knick of time. Whew! We waited the storm out, got a couple of things connected & headed home to get our puppy & see the kitty.

What a whirlwind of a trip - but 100% worth it. One thing we learned, we will NOT be doing 2 days of long driving like that again any time soon!

Lake In Wood Campground, Narvon, PA / RVFTA Spring Rally - June 2016

I'm going to start this post out with a confession: We've never been "rally people". Most of the rallies we've seen or heard of have been gatherings of older people. While we love older people, we just don't fit in and it's not been our thing.

After stumbling across RV Family Travel Atlas, meeting Stephanie at the Hershey RV Show, joining the forum, and some prodding from fellow forum members, we decided we would give their Spring Rally a try.

The rally was located at Lake in Wood Campground, in Narvon, PA. Getting there was quite the adventure.

Tiny house sighting!

This is how David rides in the Brave. Yea... someone doesn't like moving vehicles.

All was good until we got onto some of the roads leading up to the campground. Our (RV) GPS had us going in some questionable directions. Sigh. One day, we'll figure out when we can/cannot trust the GPS. We had a few tense moments in the last 10 miles or so of the trip.

Once we arrived, I went in to get checked in and all went well. She told me to have Jon wait until someone could escort us to our site. (Side note: we're finding a lot more places are escorting in & we're not sure how we feel about it.)

It's sideways, but the site map. This place is HUGE!

We got escorted to our site & started the process of backing in. These sites were definitely put in before some of the larger rigs were around. We didn't have any issues getting in, so all was good. Jon's definitely getting good at backing in! Our site was VERY wooded; keep the lights on during the day because the sun can't get in wooded.

This is the furthest we've ever been from our electrical hookup.

Look who pulled up & was in the site next to us! We met them & gave/got tours of each Brave.

After getting set up, we headed over to the area where some of the other rally-ers were. We met a few of the other families and then headed out to Shady Maple Market to pick up a few things we needed for the weekend.

We came back, had dinner, and then headed to the fire for a few minutes or so.

Saturday, we stayed at the campground (I had surgery 2 weeks before, so walking the campground was about as much activity as I was up for) and walked about 6 miles total all over the campground. There were a LOT of park model units. Several of them are owned by the campground as cabins, others are owned by seasonals.

The lake

Prayer of the Woods

The upstairs fellowship area of their registration building.

Another view of the fellowship area.

Mini golf anyone?

So many pools!

You can stay in a double decker bus!

Some of that, we took David with us. He was a tired pup towards the end of the afternoon. He was so happy when we stopped at the camp store for water. 

David wasn't sure about the goats. He was very curious about them.

David likes drinking straight from water bottles. Yup, he's spoiled.

During the day (when we weren't walking around), I made a huge fruit salad & some pulled pork for the pot luck. Around 5pm, we headed over to the pot luck. It was great to get to see everyone & chat. We did the trivia & won one of the prizes - go us! Right around the time the fire was supposed to be lit, it started raining (not too hard). A few of us retreated to the pavilion, while several went back to their rigs (to be fair, it was about bed time for most of the littles).

Sunday, we packed up and rolled out pretty early. There were some wicked storms that were going to come through, and we wanted to make sure we weren't driving the Brave when they did. We did beat the storms back to Luray - which was awesome.

One nice thing about the RVFTA rally was that there wasn't too much planned. We appreciated this because, generally, we like to go do our thing & then get together with people at night. We'd definitely attend another RVFTA rally!

Conclusion: Pick your rallies wisely. Know the group you're going with before you go & you'll likely be just fine!

Whiteoak Canyon - to the Upper Falls, May 13-15, 2016

Our friends were visiting Luray in their Airstream this past weekend, so we decided to do a hike with them. We always enjoy our time in the woods with them. We've done several hikes with just the couple and a few with their kids as well.

After narrowing down the choices, we decided on Whiteoak Canyon to the upper falls. It's been raining a LOT here in the mid-Atlantic, so we figured if there were ever a time to do a hike that involved waterfalls, now would be the time.

We drove up Skyline Drive in our beloved Shenandoah National Park to the Skyland area. There was still a ton of parking at the trailhead, which was nice.

The first thing we noticed about Whiteoak Canyon was that it was a pretty easy decline. It got steeper as we went, but never anything crazy. The hike back out was tiring though! We decided at around 2.3 miles to turn the party around. Apparently we didn't make it to the "big" falls, but I think we were all happy with what we saw. I'd definitely recommend hiking poles for the way back up if you have them. By the time we hit mile 4.25 or so, I was D O N E. I think if I had my poles, I would've been feeling a bit better.

We crossed Limberlost a couple of times - that's on our list to hike at some point as well.

Look carefully - there are 3 snakes in there

We had a bit of a reward waiting for us after the hike!

Gluten Free Smith Island Cake from Triple Oak Bakery. Delicious!