A short Fall Trip, part one

 September 24 2023 Sunday

While Millie was at church this morning I went to the storage lot and picked up our travel trailer. By the time she got home I had the rig (Silver Bullet and Lil stinky sitting in front of the house. We had loaded everything except refrigerated food the day before and made short work of raiding the home frig for some vittles. 

1st days travel

By 11 am the house was locked and we were on our way. Our northern most destination was in Gloucester county Virginia but we would only go to Williamston North Carolina today a distance of 230 miles. We overnighted at Goose Creek State Park which is about 13 miles east of Williamston.

Our site at Goose Creek State Park

It was a nice enough park, flat and level gravel site with full hook ups; cost was $40 for the night. The only thing weird about it was it had the feel of an area that had been forested recently. The ground was covered with scrub junk foliage that grows in cut forests. Eventually new trees will grow high enough to block the sun to the ground based plants and it will once again become a forest. For now it’s not very attractive.

Here in the campground we have very poor cell and internet connection so we watched a DVD movie tonight. It was an action adventure movie about corrupt officials in the CIA who were trying to capture a rouge agent who had a micro chip that listed agents and officers who were corrupt, turn coat or committed some serious impropriety somewhere in the world. 

It was titled Safe House and starred Ryan Reynolds and Denzel Washington. It was ok, I gave it a 6, and Millie was 5.

September 25 2023 Monday

We didn’t leave Goose Creek until 10 am this morning; we only had about 150 miles to our destination. We have reservations in a Virginia State Park Called Machicomoco, (mac-hi-co-mo-co) it is on the north shore of the York River across roughly across from the Revolutionary War Yorktown battle Field Park. 

Still traveling north

Machicomoco is a large property, mostly open field in the center and wooded along the river shoreline. The small campground is very nicely appointed, the sites are gravel with water and electric, there is a sewer dump at the exit. We are in site 24, we have one immediate neighbor but there is a good bit of space between us.

Machicomoco State Park in Gloucester Virginia

September 26 2023 Tuesday

It was an overcast drizzling rain kind of day. We didn’t see sense in going out this morning so we just hung out in the RV. We had made arrangements to visit Millie’s aunt Ida in downtown Hampton at 2pm and arrived on time. Aunt Ida is 94 years young and you wouldn’t believe it. She is sharp as a tack, lives independently and is agile enough to still do yard work. In praise to her family she is blessed to have a large loving family that is always there to help and visit or even just call her on the phone.

I copied this picture from one of Ida's daughters FB page.

We enjoyed our visit with Ida and two of her daughters, Judy and Sharon. Time went quickly and before we realized it the afternoon had passed and it was time to go. We stopped at a Cracker Barrel Restaurant on our way home.

Movie of the night was an old one, based on a true story. It tells the story of French convict Henri Charrière (Charlie Hunnam), nicknamed Papillon ("butterfly"), who was falsely imprisoned in 1933 in the notorious Devil's Island penal colony and escaped in 1941 with the help of another convict, counterfeiter Louis Dega (Rami Malek). It starred Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman. Millie’s and I both gave it a score of seven.

September 27, 2023 Wednesday

We have reservations for a tour boat ride at 2:30 today, the day is overcast, but there is no rain today. We searched the internet for something to do before the boat cruise without any luck. One of the drawbacks of our extensive travel is being jaded by art, history or aviation museums. If you’ve seen one old dark picture you’ve seen them all.

To kill some time before our boat tour we reverted on our current favorite recreation, browsing for hidden treasures in thrift stores. We purchased some DVD’s for the RV, had a couple pizza slices for lunch and arrived at the boat dock at 2pm.

The tour boat in Hampton Harbor

Basically the boat cruised out of the Hampton River and crossed Hampton Roads to the Navy Yard. We cruised the length of the outward facing docks and our tour guide gave us a commentary about some of the navy vessels in dockage. This was the highlight of the trip, although the guide also spoke of all the landmarks we passed on the trip.

Aircraft carrier G W Bush and the New York, a San Antonio-class amphibious transport

Dinner tonight was leftovers from Cracker Barrel. Afterwards we multi tasked, me writing this blog posting and Millie working a puzzle while simultaneously listening to an audio book. It is a romantic suspense called Secret Sisters. No score yet, we won’t finish it tonight. PS: It was terrible; I can’t believe we listened to the whole thing. Well, we didn’t really; we did a lot of skipping ahead toward the end.

In the evening we watched the movie Wild Hogs. A comical farce about four weekend warrior friends who decide to become real road warriors on a 2000  mile bike motorcycle ride across the country. Their escapade is filled with hilarious misadventures and madcap mayhem. It features Tim Allen, John Travolta, Martin Lawrence, and William H. Macy. Millie gave it an eight, I was lower at six.

September 28, 2023 Thursday

We drove up Colonial Parkway to Williamsburg this morning; traffic wasn’t bad it was nothing like going south to Newport News. We didn’t stop at any of the historic sites; we were content just to do a driving tour. The weather here is still depressing; we haven’t seen the sun in at least three days.

Williamsburg, lifted from the net, we still haven't seen the sun!

We did happen upon two different thrift stores; both of them had DVD movies for one dollar. I purchased at least ten of them, enough to stock the RV for many more roadtrips.

On our return to the RV we stopped for an early dinner at a Cheddars Scratch Kitchen.  Cheddars is in the Olive Garden family of restaurants. We both got the vegetable plate for $9.99. It featured your choice of four side items plus a large bowl of potato soup and freshly made rolls and butter. Everything was very good and we brought enough food home for another meal!

I packed all the outside living stuff away, we never sat outside because of the weather and we are leaving tomorrow morning.

Tonights movie was, A Walk in the Woods. It starred Robert Redford, Nick Nolte, Emma Thompson. Millie’s score was five, mine was an eight. 

Redford’s character is an aging travel writer who hasn’t penned anything in years. He decides to rejuvenate his spirit by hiking the 2190 mile Appalachian Trail. His wife (Emma Thompson) insists he not go alone. The peace and tranquility he hopes to find is anything but when the only person who says yes to his invitation is his old friend Katz (Nick Nolte), a down on his luck philanderer who is one step ahead of the law. 

This is our last night in the Hampton/Newport News area, this trip will continue in another post as we head south.