EscaPOD Adventures

Thank you. It is good. We will be leaving tomorrow on the next leg of this trip. We have been enjoying time with my family.

Rather than limit this to a year, I think this time I will have one topic to which I can add future trips as well.

Similar to last year's summer trips, we set out from home headed north. Originally, we were going to go up the Fredricksburg and cut over to I81 to bypass Washington DC. I got the idea to do something different. Instead, we headed over though Charlottesville to Rockfish Gap which was the start of Skyline Drive. I had the idea of staying at either Loft Mountain or Big Meadow but when we got to the entrance, the sign boards indicated that all campgrounds along Skyline Drive were full. It was not surprising since it was the Saturday before Independence Day. One good thing was that I had gotten the America the Beautiful access pass when I had the opportunity. That got us entrance onto Skyline Drive without having to pay.

We drove the southern portion of Skyline Drive to Swift Run Gap entrance station. We had called and made a reservation at Heavenly Acres campground. It was pretty full, but there was a space open. We were guided to a pull-though site. Since we were traveling with a full water tank, I only connected the electric and we were set. It was quite warm, so I needed to run the AC. As it was getting dark, people were gathering near the pool. It turns out that the campground was going to have a fireworks show. There were also root beer floats available. I bought two, one for me and one for my wife and carried them back. While I was gone, the show started. I got back to see the end of the show. On the other side of some trees, there were even bigger fireworks at a distance. Turns out the local Lions Club was also having a fireworks show. I watched some of those before heading back. The site we had and the campground roads were not the most smooth and level ones I have been on, but the stay was pleasant. I did not check out the bath house. The owners were pleasant. I would stay there again if we are in that area. I do not have pictures, but it is in some beautiful, wooded hills.

The next morning, we got back on the road. We crossed Skyline Drive and headed over to I81 to continue our northbound trip, ending at my sister's house where we are currently parked.

Our refrigerator, which was not cooling very well when we were in areas where the temperatures were in the 90's is doing well now that we are in an area where the nighttime temperatures are in the 60's and daytime temperatures are in the high 70's to low 80's. The Thule awning is as easy to use as I had hoped. I am very happy that we were able to get it installed at the same time our R-Pod was being repaired from last winter's accident.

That is all for now.