QC11-01 From snow to warmth.

December 30, 2010 (Thu) Home to Winchester, VA (291/291 miles) 18/45° - Our fears that we might have to do more snow shoveling were unfounded. As was our fear that we would get hung up on Mechanic Street unable to either make it out onto the street or back into the driveway out of the way. It turned out to be no problem. We were able to get off by 10:22 (30°). We drove separately over to the Applebee's restaurant parking lot in Eatontown where we attached the CRV to the motor home thus initiating an interesting new experience.

Towing a car turned out not to be as stressful as we thought it would be. In spite of all expectations the car followed faithfully behind without trying to take control (very often) and Mark gradually gained enough courage to speed up to normal highway speeds. By the time we reached Winchester, VA we were old hands at towing. But getting there was an adventure in other respects. The toll for a passenger car to cross the Delaware Memorial Bridge at the south end of New Jersey is $3.00 for a car, for a motor home towing a car, it's $16.00!! The next toll was a reasonable double the single vehicle rate. And the traffic was heavy, frantic and often congested. The recently liberated snowbound masses were out releasing their pent up frustrations. We'd chosen this route to avoid the unreasonable Garden State Parkway tolls but the toll at the bridge more than made up for them and added many miles of heavy traffic. We won't take that route next time.

The depth of the snow grew gradually less as we went south and the temperature went up slowly reaching an eventual high of 45° as we crossed the Potomac River into Virginia. We pulled into the Winchester Walmart parking lot at about 5:30 more than ready to kick back and recover from a very stressful day.

Q071921 Camp Walmart, Winchester, VA
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December 31, 2010 (Fri) Winchester, VA to Mars Hill, NC (390/681 miles) 30/64° - We had a very restful night, unusual for the first night in a "strange" bed. It was probably because of all the physical activity of the last several days. We were up at 6am and after a leisurely breakfast got off at 9:15. Gas advertised at $2.95 a gallon at a Hess station seemed like a reasonable price for the area so we stopped and filled up. The mountains on each side of us as we drove down I-81 through the Shenandoah Valley were beautifully cloaked in a hazy blue. The continually rising temperature (as high as 64° in the mid-afternoon) added to our euphoria. The snow is pretty much gone from the sides of the road and in the hills - completely gone in most areas. There is snow in the north side of some hills in the higher altitudes but it's rare. It's hard to imagine now how much snow there is at home.

The police have been out in force most of the way, some even on motorcycles which we've not seen before. And they are busy pulling cars over. We think the coming New Years celebration is contributing to the increased enforcement.

We got to Bob and Pat's at 5:00 just as Bob was finalizing the sale of their motor home. We will miss traveling with them. Soon after we were settled, their dinner guests began to arrive - eleven in all. We know most of them from our visits in the past so it was good to see them all and to celebrate New Years Eve with people we consider to be our good friends as well as Bob and Pat's. Most of us being "of a certain age" the party broke up well before midnight. We missed the dropping of the ball in Times Square, as we usually do.

Q072313 Bob & Pat's Driveway