North and Home - #33-03

July 13, 2003 (Sun)
Darien, GA to Rock Ridge, NC (386/2208 mi)

Up at 5:30, showered, had apple pancakes for breakfast, and were off at 7:30. The weather was a cool 75.6 degrees, sky was cloudy, and the air a bit humid and tending toward sprinkles. All in all not a bad day to travel after yesterday's 94 degrees. The temperature was only up to 83 degrees when we pulled into the Flying J station - where we spent the night on the way down - for gas and an on board lunch. The traffic continually increased as we traveled north - we speculated that was everyone headed home to start another grueling work week - and the weather deteriorated to heavy rain through South Carolina.

Rock Ridge is a lovely, wooded' uncrowded, quiet campground. Our site overlooks a pasture with a small pond which is home for a sizable herd of goats, white with brown heads, and two ostriches (or emus). - - - Well, so much for quiet and uncrowded! As I write this we got a neighbor on one side close enough touch of we stick our arm out our living room window and another outside our dining room window whose awning will overlap ours if they open it. Only three of four other units in the whole campground and these folks were assigned so close to us!!! When Mark asked to be assign a less crowded area, the owner said there won't be any. The whole campground is going to fill up. We've eliminated this place from our list of possible stops in the future.

Q051946 - Rock Ridge Campground #22 w/e/s $17.00 D
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July 14, 2003 (Mon)
Rockridge, NC to Home (468 mi)

The whole campground didn't fill up! Far from it. In our section, full hook up, there were more empty sites this morning - twenty or so in a row - than occupied ones. In the other area, water and electric only - but not as scenic, there were only a few units packed as closely together as we were. Some day I'm going to write a dissertation speculating on the psychology of campground owners. It will probably be based on the theory that they don't and never have camped. It was quiet last night, though, in spite of our being able to hear every word of our neighbor's dinner conversation while they sat in their motor home and we sat in ours

We were up at 6:00 and at 7:00, headed off to find a McDonalds for breakfast (72 degrees and heavy clouds). There were periods of heavy rain as we traveled north but the traffic was tolerable - fast but tolerable. We circumvented Richmond on I-295 and jumped off I-95 on to SR-207 and headed for US-301. We wanted to avoid the traffic around Washington and Baltimore. It almost worked flawlessly. Construction on the bridge across the Chesapeake Bay at Annapolis backed us down some. Southbound was much worse.

Company name on the side of a truck - "J & H Bentnel & Sons & Granddaughter"

I-295 up through New Jersey was the worst road of our trip - stair-step rough all the way. We wondered if there'd be anything left of the cargo in our trailer.

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