Mammoth Meanders to Massachusetts, Day 12 and return day

16 June 2023

Goodbye Cumberland River tributary:

Rain rain and more rain. Blah. 

Last day and headed home. Rain in Memphis. Rain in the evening at the RV Park. At least all the rain was keeping it relatively cool, because it would be scorching hot otherwise.

We spent the night at Dub'l R RV Park in Brinkley Arkansas. Kind of like a Walmart parking lot with hookups.  Not far off the highway and with a very nice manager, so I'd overnight here again. But there was no place to walk Molly except along a highway (wide shoulders, thank heavens) where the cars went rather fast.

 

Mammoth Meanders to Massachusetts Return
Brinkley Arkansas to home
6/17

From my notes:
Headed home. At least this morning it's not raining...yet. The air conditioner has already started coming on.

As we come to the end of this trip, I've really started craving veggies. Not just salad and raw veggies, although raw veggies with hummus would have been nice. But mainly I crave a big bowl of mixed veggie curry, with carrots, spinach and tofu. Or a stir fry, or a white bean stew with kale, or just anything that's not the veggie hot dogs, string cheese, popcorn and chips I've been lunching off. Even the Amy's chili for supper last night felt too heavy and flavorless.

And home, not too late in the day. We survived.

NOTES
1. When choosing gas stops, check for places on the right-hand side of the road. We often lose five minutes each way getting over a highway.

2. Make myself some easy to reheat frozen lunches. I tried home-made taquitos once but they didn't work well--they mushed up. I might try them again but remember to cook them separated and until crispy. I should try rice balls again or veggie mini-burritos.

3. When reserving campgrounds in Pennsylvania, remember they have dog/no dog loops.

4. Definitely go back to Tom Sawyer's RV park sometime, and be sure to pay extra to reserve a site on the water.

5. Plan a long drive (if you have to) on the first day of a trip. That gets a good chunk of the road out of the way while you're still relatively fresh.

Mammoth Meanders to Massachusetts Day 11

Thu June 15
Claytor Lake VA to Salt Lick Creek Campground 

But first, good-bye to Salt Lick Creek:

 Sunny and.warm with high hazy clouds. Lots of mountains to get through. Scary.

 

We spent the night at a COE park on the Cumberland River in Tennessee. It was a gorgeous place, but way too far off the highway to ever consider stopping at again. Unless we want spend two nights there and do some fishing or tootling around on the river. It appeared to have a dam somewhere near, because it was wide and slow-moving where we were.  (Actually, I have to correct this. We weren't on the river, we were on a dammed-up creek. Probably Salt Lick Creek. But the Cumberland was nearby.)

The campground was crowded with people but also crowded with birds--birds all over the place!  Our campsite was right on the water and we were serenaded by orioles, robins, catbirds, wood thrushes, summer tanagers, and many other little chirpers of many confusing varieties. One or more mommy Mallard ducks led their ducklings up and down and all around the water's edge. And this lovely little snake stopped by--

 

The water was full of fish, continually breaking the surface. It would be an amazing place to pull out the kayak and paddle the edges, or just do a a little bank fishing.

Molly got a decent walk, but like most COE parks, this one had no trails to explore. We walked around and around the campground and tried our best to stay out of the way of loose dogs. It was a little hot, and although I had on my jogging shoes and we were technically "jogging", I can't say we got it much exercise. But it was better than nothing.

Review:
Salt Lick Creek
Too far off road and too gorgeous for an overnighter.

It's a lovely campground on little lake not far from the Cumberland River.  The site surfaces were hard-packed gravel and pretty level, but not perfectly so. I believe we used a few blocks for our 32' Motorhome.  The picnic tables were ancient, but the whole park was incredibly clean.  The roads were well marked, too. But there was no cell phone service, even on AT&T--I'm surprised Google could navigate us there.

There was a mowed field where kids could play ball, and there may have been a small playground, but I saw no other amenities such as trails or bird blinds. There may have been a fishing pier over near the boat ramp, which was small but usable. It's a great place for boating or fishing. Maybe even swimming.

We were there on a Thursday night in late June and it was pretty crowded. Most campers had put out huge amounts of "party lights" and other nonsense--I tried to go sit at our picnic table and enjoy the night skies and moon over the lake, but it was as bright as day from our neighbor's outdoor lighting.

Mammoth Meanders to Massachusetts Day 10

Wed June 14
Gifford Pinchot State Park to Claytor Lake VA

 

 

 

Claytor Lake is beautiful. Small, and the campsites are cramped, but new and immaculately clean. And trails all around. Not long but good enough for me to jog on. Lots of bear warnings. Dumpsters are secured shut with steel cables. Lake would be great for the kayak.

Sadly, I didn't make any other notes on the park. But I suspect it would be a good place for a two-night stop.

If memory serves, it was the place where the camping area was a big rectangle with about 4 long rows of camp sites, all full of people. Lots of people with dogs and lots without; a couple of big families with huge setups of tents and canopies and such. A little like going camping in a KOA....

But when I bushed whacked across the field that looked like a golf course but wasn't, beside our campsite (we were at the far corner of the rectangle, last site on the last row), I came out on an immaculately groomed trail up through tall pine trees to the lake end and on. A trail or two opened off to the side leading up to an overlook, but I didn't have time to go on up there. I had on my jogging shoes and managed to keep going for an hour. Slowly, of course.

If it weren't for all the people and the general "blah" rectangle of RVs that made up the campground, I'd definitely go back. Swimming in the lake or taking the kayak would be a great possibility.

Brown thrasher, catbird, robin, towhee. Wren of some sort. Warblers, nut hatches, woodpeckers, Pileated Woodpecker for sure and probably others.

Mammoth Meanders to Massachusetts Day 9

Tue June 13
Leaving Massachusetts for Gifford Pinchot State Park.

 I wrote at the time:
Horrible long day. Late start. Backups. Diversion due to google choosing a route with low clearance. More backups at Hartford. Didn't arrive until after six, and then discovered I'd reserved a site with no water. Luckily Ed had water in the tank.

To explain all this, I have to first admit that even though I'd downloaded a "Trucker's App" on my phone that showed low clearances, I hadn't bothered to consult it. I was planning to take all Interstate highways and I really doubt if they have low-clearance issues. But when we got ready to leave, I carelessly let Google choose our route. It took us on a state highway with ominous signage: "No Commercial Traffic".

 After seeing a few of those warnings, I whipped out the app and discovered there was a low clearance twenty or so miles down the road.

Frantically switching back and forth from the app to the Google map tracking our location while we were still speeding down the highway, I started to panic. Eventually Ed asked if I wanted him to pull off and and I said, Yes!  (With a tone of defeat in my voice)

After only a very few minutes of stationary research, I was easily able to turn up a detour that took us over to the Interstate and DID NOT go under any low clearances. And we were off.

But still the wasted time--the exit, the stop and the detour--did not make me happy. Plus our new route took us way too close to New York City and the traffic it brings. 

 Didn't want to go there

Is the "Nyack" an inside joke for New Jerseyans?

The Hudson, maybe?

The issue with the lack of water is easier to explain. we always used to travel without any fresh water in our tank, because why haul weight when we didn't have to? For our first few years of traveling we never chose a campsite without water hookups. But eventually we had to choose one, and on that trip we had issues getting the water tank to fill and then figuring out the gauges.  But we succeeded, and on a couple of trips since then--Badlands National Park being one--we spent several days at campsites without water.

For the trip with Ed's Mother, he decided to travel with enough water in the tank that she could easily use the toilet on the road and not have to "flush" it with the jug of water that we keep beside the commode. And that worked so well, he decided to continue the practice. So when we arrived at this campsite and discovered I'd reserved a spot without water hookups, we had enough in the tank to survive the night nicely. (Actually, they had water faucets not far from our site and we could have filled the tank if we'd needed to.)

My mistake didn't upset me. I was having to juggle site length, electricity, access and location as usual, but then Pennsylvania threw a new wrinkle at me--"pet friendly" camping loops. Apparently the state parks in Pennsylvania have separate areas where camping with pets is allowed or not allowed. Weirdos.

Gifford Pinchot was a boring park except for the birds. Very flat. Way too far off the road for a single night.  Just trees and mowed grass; not even a rock to climb on.

Another remark at the time:
I love my raincoat. But I hate having to wear it every single day. Rainy morning in Pennsylvania. There's no such thing as flat, anywhere up here. Mass. was worse, with steeper hills; here it's more rolling hills. But big ones.

Catbirds all over the place, plus wood thrushes, mourning doves, cardinals of course.

Mammoth Meanders to Massachusetts Day 6-

Sat June 10 - Mon June 12

The next three days are impossible to describe.  It was all just "hurry, hurry, hurry" to sit in a car and "drive, drive, drive". Load load, load stuff; drive back and unload stuff, etc....

We made four trips to the little town just north of Dartmouth where Edward stored his stuff, and on the last day he and Ed had to go back on Sunday evening to return the moving truck.  Each trip took an hour and 45 minutes at least, so that makes three hours thirty minutes on Friday, when we accomplished nothing except eating supper, then seven hours on Saturday and another seven on Sunday.

On Sunday I went back alone to the campsite and hung out for a few hours, reading and walking the dogs and all. But then I went back to the house so we could eat supper together. On Monday Ed and I hung around the camp all day until time to join the family for supper. We made a stop by a farm store in search of some local maple syrup. They had it, but only in tiny little bottles that wouldn't last Edward's family a full meal.

Then we stopped by Walmart and stocked up some groceries for May. She was tired and overwhelmed with all the unpacking and re-arranging she needed to do, and the idea of having to load up the kids and drive to a store was not appealing to her. No matter--we were happy to oblige.

I never did see a bonafide Black-Capped Chickadee , although I did watch a Chickadee on Friday which would almost certainly have been a Black-Capped by the range map alone. Chipmunks all over the place--lovely little critters. And during my long walk, I was assailed by a couple of birds in the woods. I had hoped they were water thrushes, but on checking the bird book I discovered they were probably just Ovenbird.  If one had sung, I'd have known for sure, but they only scolded me.

Mammoth Meanders to Massachusetts Day 5

 

Fri 9 June
Hickory Run State Park PA to Pine Acres Family Camping MA

Goodbye to Hickory Run-

We had to cut off a corner of Connecticut to get there. Funny, Connecticut has a lot of places where no people are, just like Virginia. I didn't expect that.

 

 

On to Pine Acres Family Camping. It's hard to sum up the place. It's huge, immaculately clean, plenty of signage but still a little confusing to navigate. Some of the sites are spacious, others crammed in between each other in rows. We had a large family with a huge number of kids on one side--I counted eight children's wheeled vehicles at one point--and the adults didn't do a super good job keeping them in control. But they were quiet, so we didn't mind.

On the other side a man and woman in a travel trailer pulled in after us. They were good neighbors--we barely saw them.

So on the positive side, the place has a huge dog park; hiking trails including one that goes on a good half-hour into the woods (I found two ticks on me); a swimming pool (closed at the time); activities; a lake and a fishing pond; canoes you can borrow, and so on.  And tons of chipmunks for Molly. On the other side, they require you to pay for visitors by the car and by the head, so having Edward's family visit would have cost us 65 dollars a day. They gave out armbands we were supposed to wear, but I never did. And there were a few people who sat out at their campfire across from us late every night, talking and laughing in voices that carried. And with all the people, there were lots and lots of dogs. All on leashes, but still.

If we had our choice, we wouldn't stay there again. But it's only 20 minutes from Edward's house and it wasn't so awfully bad. Next time I'll try to get one of the road-side sites that don't have neighbors so close.

Mammoth Meanders to Massachusetts Day 4

Natural Bridge KOA to Hickory Run State Park PA
Thu 8 June

 

The drive this day wasn't nearly as bad. We left at about 9:30 and had an easy pull out of the "Kampground" onto the road, a short trip to I-81, and then we stayed there for a long, long time. The trip was only a little over five hours, or so it seemed, because we arrived shortly after 3pm.

Before all that excitement, we went from Virginia to West Virginia to some other state, Maryland maybe? and then into Pennsylvania. I missed most of the welcome signs, though.

 

 

 

 

The drive up through Pennsylvania was weird. A ridge of big mountains runs right down the center of the state, and after skirting them to the south for a long time, eventually I-81 turned due north and went over them. Pretty nice views up there. But it was mostly hazy, and the mountains stayed distant. Still, it was nice to see how much space there was where nobody was.

(I didn't expect that. I thought that once we left Virginia, it would be houses and manufacturing and cities lining the interstate all the rest of the way north. But it wasn't.)

The campground I chose (Hickory Run State Park) was basically a cleared field with a ring of campsites around the edges. They were created to be back-in sites, and so we had to unhook the jeep. But the builders could have put pull-thru sites in the same space and made our job easier.

Since we had to unhook the Jeep, we figured we might was well mosey on over to see The Boulder Field. I failed to navigate correctly to start with--having a hard time switching between a paper map with some very, very cryptic notations on it, and Google maps which didn't show the roads until I zoomed in to just the right degree of detail.

The Boulder Field was awesome. Even Ed was impressed. Our drive over there wound through little narrow roads in tall stands of trees, but when we arrived and stepped over to the field, the trees abruptly ended. I hope the pictures do it justice: