Driving Home

When we left Nova Scotia, it was cold. It got colder as we drove south. When we got to Maine it was in the mid-30’s. Unlike Nova Scotia, all the leaves had fallen in New Brunswick and Maine. We saw some snow. Just a little at first. Then more. Before long the temperature had dropped to 32^o, and it was snowing heavily. David was analyzing the amount of snow sticking to metal spikes. All the trees were covered in white. The tree trunks and roads were grey. It was like we had driven out of color and into a black and white movie. 

“We don’t know what’s in front of us,” said David. “We could be driving into the perfect storm.” For all we knew, all New England was blanketed by a blizzard. “We don’t want to get stuck somewhere without water or power.” “What’s the worst that can happen?” I said. I was thinking that the roads in Maine and New England would be well groomed because, unlike North Carolina, those states were used to snow. “In this temperature with the air moving over the bottom of the trailer while we're driving, the pipes could freeze and crack.” I watched the temperature on the truck's dash board a long time. It stayed at 32^o. 

We were both quiet. Maine and New England felt like huge obstacles between us and home. We weren’t sure where we were staying that night. We both wanted to get as far south as possible. When we got to the WalMart SuperCenter in Bangor, there was cellphone service, so I called a campground. The number was disconnected. Then I called another and left a message on their answering machine. They never called back. I called a third, and the woman who answered said we could stay there but they were closing the next day, and we had to be out by 11:00. “That’s not a problem,” I said. She said it was $40, more than we had yet paid for a campground. 
We went into the store to buy some food. By the time we were ready to leave, it had stopped snowing. As we were driving, I found another campground that I thought would be open. It was near-by, cheaper and had propane, which the other one didn’t. We had used up one 20 lb bottle and were on our second. In these temperatures, we were using propane for heat and did not want to run out. We ended up staying there and got the propane bottle filled. 

The next day was cold and sunny. To avoid the chaotic and confusing traffic around Boston, New York and DC, as well as the hefty tolls, we took a more westerly route than when we had driven up. A truck driver we had met in PEI had recommended it. The GPS was upset we were on I-95 rather than I-295 and, to get even, directed us onto a narrow, country road for 15 miles, part of which was unpaved. Every few miles we had to stop and wait for construction on it. (And you thought we had learned our lesson about the GPS, but you’ll have to ask David about this one.) We drove around downtown Shrewsbury for awhile looking for a gas station (ask David). There was a lot of construction on the highway. We got stuck in rush hour traffic in Hartford and in some kind of traffic in Waterbury. But overall, it was a better route. We stayed in the WalMart SuperCenter parking lot in Fishkill, New York this night, along with at least six or seven other RV’s. This night wasn’t as peaceful as the one in the previous WalMart because Fishkill is part of a major metropolitan area, and there was a lot of activity, but it worked just fine. (At 5:30 a.m. the cats jumped off the bed and ran to the windows. Someone was making noise outside the trailer. I got up and looked out the windows, which were hard to see out of because of condensation. It looked like a man was picking up trash and putting it into a large pile in a grocery cart.)

The next day we really felt like we were on the truck route. We saw hundreds and hundreds of trucks, but there were no tolls and no low bridges. We even stopped at a truck stop for lunch because we hadn’t seen a rest area in miles. The truck driver next to us got out of his truck, noticed Neptune and Plato trying to get out of the truck and said, “It doesn’t look like your cats like the truck.” He told us he had a cat that traveled in his truck with him and his wife, who was in Oklahoma at the moment. As we continued south, I tried to figure out where to stay that night. I entered the locations of different campgrounds into the GPS. We changed our minds several times during the day. Then, around 5:00 we decided on a campground that was 30 minutes away, just past I-64 where we would cut over to Richmond. It would require some backtracking but seemed to be the best option. Then I glanced up and happened to see a camping sign at the next exit. “There’s a campground,” I said. It wasn’t in my book, and I had no information about it. The exit was coming up quickly. “Should I take it?” said David. “Take it,” I said. “If it’s not open, at least it may be an adventure.” “Watch for signs,” said David. The first sign said the campground was three miles away. In a mile, another sign told us to turn right. Soon after, a sign told us to turn left. “I hope it’s open,” I said as we drove along a narrow country lane. “I just hope there’s some place to turn around,” said David. 

When we arrived, we found a huge KOA campground with only three other campers. When I got out of the car, I noticed a big, dark brown bunny nibbling grass beside the road. I went over to it and pet it. After we set up the trailer, we walked to a nearby waterfall with a huge sign at the top that said “Stop”. 
We got home at 3:30 pm the following day, November 3rd. We'd been gone seven weeks and driven over 7,400 miles. The new tires on the trailer are completely worn out and have to be replaced. The cats are thrilled to be home and have been running up and down the stairs like crazy. 

Check back in March when we’ll begin our spring trip to Texas and the gulf states.