Life in the Slow Lane

Life in the Slow Lane

Hello, 2025 Camping Season!  We are already on the road for another unpredictable adventure with Kevin, our trusty RV.  Rob and I took the last trip of the 2024 season in November, spending a night up near Hyde Park, NY and visiting the Franklin Delano Roosevelt presidential library and his home as well as some fun hiking trails and a delicious farm to table restaurant in the Hudson Valley.  So poor Kevin sat empty and cold for nearly four months after her winterization.  During those cold winter months, we caught ourselves staring longingly out the window at the mighty Kevin dreaming of the trips we are going to take next.  

We did have a bit of a mouse situation this past winter.  In fact, a whole family of mice moved in and made themselves at home in all the drawers, among the pots and pans, dishtowels, tablecloths, books, and games.  Needless to say, Rob spent a whole Sunday scrubbing and disinfecting, along with a lot of laundry. We’ve had chipmunks nest in the air filters before, but these were our first mice.  Irish Spring and peppermint oil are already on the list for winterizing next year!  

At any rate, the deep cleaning and unpacking of all the drawers inspired Rob to replace drawer slides and locking mechanisms on all of our drawers that pop open while we are in transit.  No more drawers crashing open and slamming around mid-trip.  

Rob also worked on adding a valve to the water tank to help stop the siphoning of water while we drive.  What happens when we drive is that water sloshes around and gets siphoned out and we lose half a tank of water en route.  This is a problem when we camp at places with no hookups, like some Harvest Hosts, National and State Parks or truck stops/rest areas.  Sometimes finding water to fill up our tank before parking proves challenging, especially when we are in more remote, rural areas and service stations are few and far between.  No one wants to be caught without water and an RV full of six people. No bueno.

Kevin also got her yearly checkup to make sure she was in functional condition to travel.  Rob resealed the seams on the roof, washed the build-up off the roof, cleaned the gunk out of the air conditioner, and also started pulling the wires into position for solar prep.  The RV has the proper wires, but they are not in the right position.  While we are not installing solar this year, it is one of the next upgrades we are thinking about.  It turns out, we are a little short on wire, so that project is on hold for now.

If you are wondering what I did to help get Kevin set and prepared for 2025’s premiere journey, please see below:

Also, I made the beds, stocked the bathroom, made a bunch of freezer meals, and did a big grocery shop.  We all have different talents.

This will be a trip of firsts.  This morning was the first time we had to brush snow off the camper in order to use it!  This is the first trip where we will have someone from outside our family joining us.  I think we can act normal enough to avoid Kai’s total and complete humiliation.  Kai’s friend, Jools, is along for this adventure since Amaya will not be going (She has classes and also she didn’t want to come.). This trip also marks our first family venture without bikes – we might regret this. We will be testing out our new Starlink satellite internet before our long summer trip.  We will be traveling through some remote areas in the western U.S. and Canada and this will allow us to have internet access.  Yes, I know we all used to travel without cell phones and internet access, but we don’t have to anymore.  And, if you have ever driven across the vast expanse of I-90 and not passed another car for hours, the reassurance of being able to Google is a huge comfort.  Finally, this will also be the first trip where Rob and I now both need special pillows for sleeping to accommodate our respective medical conditions.  Hooray for getting older!

April break is upon us, although you’d never know it by the two inches of snow Rob cleared off the RV roof this morning. 

We couldn’t even bring in the slide, there was so much heavy slush on top!  So, where are we going on this trip?  It was a bit of a last-minute adventure since we were not sure if I would be up for travel or not.  It turns out, this is a perfect window of time and we all really need this getaway.  So, we chose Assateague Island on the National Seashore, between Maryland and Virginia.  We all liked the idea of more of a relaxing vacation and my preference was to drive a shorter distance than last year.  God-willing, we will also have better weather than our Pigeon Forge trip last year.  (I can still smell those wet dogs. Please note, no dogs were invited on this trip.)  Assateague Island is famous for the colony of wild horses that live there.  

After looking at fun things to do and reviewing the National Park website, we thought this would be a great destination.  We love the area.  We love the beach.  We love animals.  Seemed like the perfect place, so we booked three nights there.  To my surprise, I realized we had already been there when a photo memory popped up on my phone last week.  Welp. I suppose that I thought it also looked perfect five years ago when my kids and I vacationed with my best friend and her kids down in Ocean City Maryland.  Nevertheless, we are all looking forward to seeing the horses (some of us for the second time) and then we will move on to Williamsburg.  Once again, we will subject the children to learning about American history when we visit Colonial Williamsburg.  (Maybe they can learn a trade and earn their keep.)  Hopefully, we’ll balance America’s origin story all with a day at Busch Gardens where the kids can ride some amazing roller coasters.

Good times are ahead, but today, we will enjoy the journey.  We are far enough south that there is no longer snow on the ground, but there are gray skies as far as the eye can see and it’s still chilly.  On the bright side, there are more buds on the trees and the grass is green!  I’ve made five sandwiches already, I’m sipping a delicious cup of coffee, and and Rob and I have been rolling through the greatest alt rock hits of the 90s on one of our legendary playlists.  Am I thinking about all the things I forgot?  You betcha.  Will we survive without them?  Absolutely. Life is good.  

Part 2

All settled in at our campsite, a Harvest Host, smack dab in the Furnace Town Historic Site.  Campsite might be an overstatement.  “Sandy parking lot with only one other camper van” might be more accurate.  We jumped out and did a quick flashlight tour of the area before calling it a night.  Furnace Town was a town built by the Maryland Iron company that had its heyday between 1828 and 1850. About 300 people lived and worked here making iron which they sent to a nearby canal to be sent to Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York.  Hopefully we can see what remains tomorrow and explore a couple of the hiking trails before heading to Assateague.  Supposedly this place is haunted and it certainly seems like that might be true… maybe it’s better we are in pitch black!