Magnus Moves! Massachusetts and back, Day 13

Sunday July 21
Move to West Thompson Lake, a Corp. of Engineers campground in Massachusetts.

On Sunday it was time to get an early start, pack up and head to our campground near Edward's house. Of course, the early part didn't happen and the drive was hideous. Road construction had a good part of route 6 closed down and traffic was very heavy. We idled for a good ten minutes a couple of times at least.

At the least I'd given us all a good breakfast before leaving. By raiding all the remaining bacon and eggs in our fridge, cooking a pot of rice, and making sausage-egg-McMuffins for Ed and Edward, I was able to turned out a pretty decent breakfast. Plus apples, oranges and grapes.  Much better than Dunkin'.

I wasn't sorry to be leaving Cape Cod. The trip didn't turn out at all like I'd expected. We spent too much time driving and stuck in traffic. Too much time waiting around. And very little time doing anything fun at all, except for (a) the lovely long walk Molly and I took down to the cranberry bog in the campground, (b) the brief period Ed and I spent looking at seals and gulls on the fisherman's wharf pier, and (c) the kids playing in the sand at Coast Guard Beach. That was fun.

Sweetwater Farms campground had been very nice but very crowded, of course. The people were great--the activities excellent. At least three playgrounds and mini-golf. We got free ice-cream one night and a guy took the kids on a "hayride" on a wagon pulled behind a tractor.  I didn't see a single dog off leash and only had minor scare when I stopped to talk to a lady and our dogs wanted to sniff. And once when I walked past a very large dog on a run. But no close encounters, so that was good.

I'd go there again, but preferably not in high season. Maybe September would be nice?  The kids' tent camping site was kind of meh but it was the only one nearby that was available, so I can't complain.  And the walk down to the cranberry bog and lake was lovely--if I'd been able to find it without a map, I'd have gone a second time.

So, nice place but very disappointing for my expectations of Cape Cod. Some other time, maybe. Plenty of  other places to go.

Scenes along the drive while stuck in traffic

Arrived to find this:

Lovely disc golf course at the campground. More on that tomorrow.

Magnus Moves! Massachusetts and back, Day 12

Saturday July 20

Today's plan was to eat a good breakfast, then hit the coast guard beach and another beach, then maybe go to the nature center and boardwalks on the north/west side of the peninsula.  In the afternoon we'd go swimming.  Optimism abounded.

Ed and I were up and ready to eat by eight or so, but by the time they took showers and got ready to travel, it was probably closer to ten or maybe ten-thirty. It seemed awfully late, but it was still prime breakfast time for Saturday in a resort area.  The first restaurant I chose had a one hour wait; the second one--another 20 minutes farther away-- had a one hour fifteen minute wait. Across the street was a Dunkin' Donuts so that's where we went. Bad food for not-so-good prices, but fast.

Then to Coast Guard Beach in the South Padre National Seashore. It was free to get in with our America the Beautiful pass and Edward's military ID; the tram to get down to the beach was free; and the beach was gorgeous. Maybe a little too much big waves especially at high tide, but gorgeous.

Waiting for the tram

But we weren't dressed for swimming. The indications I'd gotten about the beach was that it was too choppy for swimming and more suited for beach walking, so that's what we went prepared to do. At the least we had the kid's beach toys, so they got to play in the sand. And of course they got wet and ended up splashing the waves very happily. It wasn't much fun for us adults, but we had a great time watching them.

 Lifeguard at the spot we were at. Didn't expect that.  And there was a seal out in the water, popping his head up from time to time.

 

This evening we had the good sense to skip lunch and eat supper early.  I chose one of the closest places I could find, and it worked well. Stone L'Oven Pizza in Brewster. The pizza was really good. My spinach wrap was pretty big but bland without cheese--some pesto or hummus or even a swipe of mustard would have improved it immensely.  But we got fed and made it back to camp in time to walk Molly, have a campfire, and roast marshmallows.  Very campsy.

Magnus Moves! Massachusetts and back, Day 11

Friday, July 19

On Friday we did a bunch of cleanup/maintenance activities and then we went to to the office to arrange a campsite for Edward. And we went somewhere else, too, but I have no memory of where...

(Jogged my memory by looking at photos.)  This was the day we went to Chatham Pier and Fish Market (I think). The overlook there showed piled of seals just across the way, lounging around in the sun. One fishing boat had finished his cleaning out and appeared to be filling up with something, nothing spectacular to see. One seal kept looking up out of the water at the people overlooking on the pier, I guess hoping for a handout. So nice.

 

Herring Gull - not something I get to see down south

I didn't buy anything, which turned out to be a mistake because we never came back. I'd thought it was a fish market, where they sold fish, but if so we never found the entrance to go in and buy any. All we found was a restaurant order/pickup window on a building.  All of their listings were for prepared dishes.

We went back to camp and the kids arrived at about 5 while I was walking Molly, We helped them set up and time evaporated. As time will do.

When we finally went out to eat, we learned that a 9pm closing time wasn't to be taken lightly, especially if the restaurant was way up the peninsula. We arrived just in time placed our orders in line, were rushed upstairs to our table.  It was called Moby Dick's; horrendously expensive and not very good for what I got, Fish 'n Chips.  The fish was okay but the fries were awful.

Oh well, we all got fed. And Ed and I got the sneaky delight of tucking into our air conditioned RV with the cushy bed while they had to sleep on the ground on our old camping pads. Tee-hee.

Magnus Moves! Massachusetts and back, Day 10

Thursday, July 18

It rained all night and we wondered if the field in which we parked would turn into a muddy mess once we started moving. But it stayed firm and solid--no problem.  We had to drive through the gate back into the main RV park area in order to get to the dump station, but that was easy enough.

 Our Safari field in the morning

The rest of the camp and the dump station in the distance

And the road we did NOT take out,
\

But the day turned out to be a miserable disappointment. First, a 2:20 drive turned into 2:30 (taking the longer route to avoid overhanging tree limbs on narrow roads), then to 3:00 (lunch break), then to something unbelievable due to traffic slowdowns. We barely made it in by 2pm, but then after we'd backed into the spot and started setup, I realized I'd taken us to the wrong spot. The only way I could get a reservation at this campground was to take two back-to-back sites, one for one night and then one for two.  That wouldn't have been a problem but I took us to the second night's site instead of the first.

By the time we'd moved and hooked up, it was after three o'clock. The Starlink wouldn't connect. At all. The tree overhead seems to be doing a number on its view of the sky.

The museum I wanted to visit was closed, but we decided to go to a grocery. Also, Edward decided to bring his family camping on Friday (next day), so we went to the office and arranged a camp site for him.  Then to the grocery, where we found that driving around Cape Cod sucks--traffic, narrow roads, people in a hurry--and we had to pass up innumerable bike trails and old cemeteries and other interesting things I wanted to explore. And couldn't.

We went to the grocery to get a few food items we'd run out of--bananas, salad and stuff.  Because this was going to be such a long trip (24 days) we'd decided up front that we'd not try to pack too many perishables but instead get groceries along the way. On the way, we stopped at a magnificent beach overlook where we walk down into the sand just a little ways. It was on a bay and you couldn't see the ocean very well, but way down at the end were the big breakers just inside binocular range.

That was great, but about all we had time to do.

Returning home, Ed discovered that the salt storage bottle had got stuck in the pull-out pantry cupboard and prevented it from opening. That took a good while to disconnect.  Then Molly got a little walk, and then it was suppertime. Starlink still failed us but my phone's mobile data sufficed for watching Cobra Kai season six episodes 1 and 2.

The people running the campground we were at, Sweetwater Forest Family Camping, we very nice but their roads were poorly marked, very narrow and tree-lined. And the whole place very, very crowded with people. It was hard to walk Molly with all the people and dogs. And the closest bathhouse seemed awfully far to walk, however, the water was free and almost hot; the showers were tiny but there were two of them on each the women's and men's side with working shower curtains and a dry bench to stack your clothes.  After the previous night's ice cube shower, these were lovely.

No birds to speak of except catbirds all over the place. One nuthatch I didn't get a good look at. Robins and bluejays of course.

Magnus Moves! Massachusetts and back, Day 9

Wednesday, July 17

I think this is the Hudson

Made it in decent time, about 4:30, to Partridge Hollow Family Campground. The people were exceedingly nice. They put us in the "safari field", which was basically a great big mowed grass field with a couple of trash cans in the middle and electric/water hookups all around.  It was really very nice and we had it all to ourselves.  They had a pool, too.

Molly and I walked around to check the two bathhouses and found that they were both rather a long walk from our camp.  So we went back to the pool to see if the building there contained a shower, but the people in the pool told me no, that was simply a water supply building. They also said the showers cost money, which I hadn't noticed.

So Molly and trekked back to the nearest one, and sure enough, it was 25 cents for eight minutes. Which was okay, but I decided to stick with Mammoth and just do a cold "Navy" shower--stick my head under the water to get it wet, soap up, then stick it under again to rinse. For my body I just used the washrag and did minimal rinsing. I'm sure I got plenty clean, but it didn't have the refreshing feeling of a full-body shower. But the water was decently warm and it was a hot day outside, so I survived. Complaining.

Meanwhile the storm clouds were brewing. Edward called and we planned dinner at a point approximately halfway between us and them, but before we could get into the Jeep the clouds opened up and it started pouring rain. And continued pouring for all the way to Mexicali Cantina Grill. It's a chain in the area and we'd gone to one before, probably twice--once each time we'd gone to Worcester last year.  It's basic, but good, and has vegetarian options.

The rain stopped but continued to dribble intermittently to cut Molly's evening walk pretty short. My poor puppy was not having a very good trip so far.

The pond at the end of the road, loverly!

Magnus Moves! Massachusetts and back, Day 8

Tuesday, July 16

Good bye to the nice KOA

 

To Lackawanna State Park, Pennsylvania
Horrid day that started with me not being able to find my necklace. Possibly I dropped it in the bathhouse; I'll ask during our return trip to the KOA in about a week.

Traffic sucked, and while we were stuck in horrible awful traffic jams I pulled up the route and google told me it was blocked by road closures. Panicking, I called the park and asked the guy who answered how to get there.  His instructions seemed to make sense, but when I hung up on him and started trying to check the new route for low clearances, I got into a horrible mess switching back and forth from one map to the other while the motorhome was moving on a bumpy, curvy road.  

I finally vetted one of google's "proposed alternate" routes, and we set off down that. Shortly afterward, I discovered the route that the park guy was trying to send me on and it was much shorter and faster. But no help from that--we were already in downtown Scranton and had to keep with the google navigation to get out of there.

By the time we arrived, we were tired and couldn't find the water fill station that was supposed to be at the entrance. (Turned out it was way off to the side, unmarked from the road, and nearly invisible.) If you stared straight at it with binoculars, you could have seen the blue "water cup" sign--but we didn't and we couldn't.  So we went on to the camping loop and found another.  Problem is, the water pressure there was so low that we spent at least 40 minutes there and ended up with maybe 10 gallons of water.

Meanwhile we found out that electricity was off at the campsites. The park host told us it was okay to run our generator, so that's what we did. We're supposed to get gas tomorrow and that should fill the bill.

With all the aggravation, it was still a very pretty little campground. There were lots of groundhogs!  I saw a big one on my walk with Molly, but luckily, she never saw it.  And one rabbit.  And a waterfall off in the distance but I couldn't see the water through the trees and didn't have a trail map to find the trail to it.

And another bad luck thing--the pizza place I'd chosen for supper was closed on Tuesdays. I'd planned to go visit the Anthracite Coal Museum and take the mine tour train, but that activity got canceled--too tired and Molly needed a walk. So instead I found an equally good pizza place (which was excellent, by the way!  Make a note to go there again and maybe do the mine tour too)   We went there and brought a pizza back for dinner in our motorhome with little water, generator running, and a severely obstructed Starlink. It managed to work well enough, though.

Scenic view

Magnus Moves! Massachusetts and back, Day 7

Monday 15 July

Leaving Claytor Lake

 
The destination was Hagerstown/Antietam Battlefield KOA and the estimated time was 3:54, but of course it took us a lot longer. I'm not sure why, exactly. The notes say we left at 9:14;  did not take a gas stop but did take a 30-minute rest area stop; and arrived at 1:48.  So about right on target, give or take ten minutes.

But it felt hideously long,  

 

 

 

 

 

Our arrival was relatively painless and it turned out to be a lovely little KOA. Everything a body needed, including a river alongside with canoes that could be borrowed. A gorgeous bathhouse with three well-equipped stalls in the women's side, and a swimming pool. Tiny, but 6-feet deep at the deep end. And a small dog park equipped with water and some balls. We didn't do any activities except showering (me) and dog-parking (Molly).

It was miserably hot when we arrived, but it cooled down to a livable temperature by sundown.

Despite the tree coverage, which was heavy, we had excellent north-eastern exposure for the Starlink. At dinner we watched our next-to-the-last episode of Cobra Kai, and after dinner watched the last one which turned out to be extra long and ended the season by resolving almost all plot elements. I don't have a clue what they plan to do next time.

It should have been a lovely, lovely day, but it was so oddly tiring. I guess we're getting old.