And We're Off!!

Thursday, August 5, 2021

We’re off today on our second “10 week” vacation in the RV (mostly). As we did back in 2019, we decided to drive the RV, with the Jeep towed behind, down to Oak Island for our annual Cohn-Mezer Beach Week. When the week is over, we will proceed with the second stage of our trip, meandering toward Milwaukee. But for now, we are focused on Oak Island. Last year when a tornado forced us to relocate our vacation, we rented a house in Kill Devil Hills, on the North Carolina Outer Banks. To get there, Joe and I drove down the coast through the Eastern Shore (Delaware, Maryland, and a smidgen of Virginia), took the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel to Norfolk, and stayed east to get to the Outer Banks. The drive was so lovely that I said, Next time we drive to Oak Island, the heck with I-95, the most miserable highway in the world... let’s just go this route all the way down to Wilmington. So this year, we are doing exactly that. We have the RV this time, so we can take a couple of days to get there, like we did in 2019, but the drive is much prettier. Today we started off by driving through the New Jersey Pinelands, the small but incredibly lovely town of Haddonton, and ended at the Cape May-Lewes Ferry, which we took back in April. Except for the time we spent on the NJ Turnpike, we have totally avoided I-95. So we left home at 1:55pm (my absolute must-leave-by time was 2pm) and headed south, as I said. Our drive was uneventful, except for one stop to find out why the front tire under me was screaming (we have a tire monitor.) It was apparently too inflated, and Joe released some air to solve the problem. Other than that, and one wrong turn that we fixed right away, the drive was uneventful. We arrived at the Ferry at 5:10 pm, pulled into our slot, walked the dog, and relaxed until it was time to drive onto the ferry. The voyage was delightful; we sat in a shady place and watched the NJ horizon move farther and farther away. I leaned back and dozed for a while, which was just perfect; I think Joe probably did too (he drove the entire three hours.) We finally docked at about 7:30, and drove 30 minutes to Georgetown, DE, where we are comfortably parked in the very back of a Walmart. We don’t expect any issues to arise overnight, and the air is cooling off quite a bit. Joe made me chinese dumplings (frozen at home, and brought along with us) for dinner, and that is pretty much all about our day! (I left out the packing all morning, of course, and the quick lunch at Highand Pizza... it takes a LOT of packing to get out of a house for 10 weeks!) Tomorrow’s plan is to head down US113-US13 into Maryland, cross the Chesapeake Bay, and find someplace in North Carolina to stay for the night. The pickings are kind of slim down there, so we will need a little bit of luck. All part of the adventure! And that is Day 1 of the Cohn RV Journey of 2021.

Ferry Across the Bay

 

Our RV on the Ferry

Wednesday, April 28, 2021
Our day got off to a slower start than we’d hoped, somehow, despite the fact that all we had to do was pack and leave! Joe spent some time searching for a place to fill our propane tank on the way to the ferry, and I spent time uploading my first blog of the season, along with photos. It seems that once again the blog software has changed, and the photos couldn’t be placed the way I preferred, but at least it is up! We finally left the campground at about 11 a.m., which we thought was plenty of time to drive about 50 miles to Cape May, where we planned to catch the ferry at 2:30 p.m.

It wasn’t long, however, before we decided that 1) it was going to take us 90 minutes to drive at least (we were not planning to take the GS Parkway), and 2) we needed gas more than we needed propane (neither tank was full when we left home--a tactical mistake.) I also had to factor in time for lunch, and it usually takes at least 20 minutes for gas, and I wanted to get to the ferry terminal an hour ahead of sailing time. We also needed some bread and cold cuts to make lunches, so stopping at a grocery was also on the agenda if possible. All of this left about 30 minutes to get propane, and that is usually a ridiculously procedure. It usually involves a difficult maneuver to line up the RV with the propane tank, waiting for the one guy who is authorized to fill us up, and sometimes we have to unhook the jeep to make it all work. We decided to skip the propane until later and just deal with getting to the ferry.

The theme of this trip seems to be “take the wrong road.” I drove today, and Joe depended on the GPS for navigation. I was planning to take Route 9 all the way, but the GPS was determined to steer me elsewhere. So we had several loud disagreements as to the route, and lost some of our time that way. In the end, when a detour forced us onto the Parkway, we decided in the interests of time to just stay on it. We arrived at the ferry terminal at 1:30, but without the propane (I did pick up a few groceries while we stopped for lunch, and to remove a noisy hubcap which was annoying us.)

Wake Surfer following the Ferry

The ferry, however, changed our moods entirely. It was hot all day, and a boat trip for 85 minutes seemed ideal. Sam was the first “long vehicle” they loaded into the ferry, so we were right at the front and got out as soon as we were parked in our slot. We hung over the rail for a while looking at the water and the other passengers (everyone was wearing masks). As we pulled away past the breakwater, a surfer followed next to us, surfing the ferry's wake for several minutes before jumping off the board and throwing up his hands in triumph! We settled down into Adirondack chairs in front where we could both see the water and feel the breeze. We even saw some dolphins! And that was where we stayed for the entire trip! It was utterly relaxing and beautiful, and we totally enjoyed it. As we came close to the ferry terminal, we could see a lot of people on the beaches nearby, enjoying an unseasonably hot summer-like day.

When the ferry docked at Lewes, we were only about 2 miles from the entry to Cape Henlopen State Park in Delaware. I had made reservations here a couple of weeks ago, and good thing, because the place is full. It’s a really nice campgroun with water and electricity at our site, but we’ve also noticed a LOT of pine pollen all over everything. I guess it’s the season for that. After I once again took the wrong road in the park (as I mentioned, that’s the theme of this trip!) I found my way to the campground, where we hooked up, put up our awning to provide some additional shade, and our lounge chairs. Then we got some cold drinks and sat for about an hour. I was reading my book, and Joe was still looking for propane, and also ice cream. It was such a beautiful evening, with the weather cooled down just a little bit and a pleasant breeze, that we decided to eat dinner on our picnic table outside for a change (it’s usually too much trouble to bother!) When we went inside, we decided that the breeze was not quite enough, and we turned on the air conditioner! It was on for much of the night.

Tomorrow is my birthday! We are going to explore the campground, look for ice cream, and then enjoy a steak dinner with some extra treats my sister sent with me for the day. The weather is supposed to continue to be hot, and I am tempted to say let’s go to the beach. I believe the park here has its own beach... we will find out tomorrow. We were given a campground map but not a park map, and I hope we can find one of those someplace. The wifi connection here hasn’t been working too well, making our hot-spot on our phones not function strongly enough. So we are stuck with our phones for information, and mine stinks. My gift to myself when we get home is going to finally be a new phone!

Ferry Crossing

Joe looking down at our RV on ferry

2019-09-19 (Thursday)

Today's blog should be fairly short-- I don't feel as if we did that much. But we did have some great fun on the ferry!

When we woke up, the day looked very overcast and drippy again. I walked Cassie on the nearby beach along the bay shore, and although I could see the closest islands across from us, the ones in the distance were almost invisible, as were the moutains to the south. I was feeling a bit down thinking of our ferry trip, which I was imagining to be a clear and beautiful day with views of islands everywhere.

We left the campground on schedule, and followed WA 20 (the road we've been following for two days) over to Whidbey Island, and then to Desperation Island. The bridge between those two was over a narrow gorge with beautiful greenish water, and many folks had stopped on the far side to take photographs. We stopped on the near side on a wide shoulder, but the far side (which was part of Desperation State Park) had a parking lot which had no room for us. So luckily I had snapped a few photos as we went over the inlet, and although you can't see the dozens of small craft anchored in the harbor there, you will have to believe me that it was very picturesque!

After that, the only stop we had was at a roadside market. We picked up some tomatoes, corn, and a few other things of interest, including a scoop of "salty malt" flavored ice cream. When I tasted it, I couldn't resist, and besides, as I said to the young woman behind the counter, "It's 3pm and hot and sunny SOMEplace, right?"  A new twist on "It's 5:00 someplace." I like mine better .

We had made a 2:45pm reservation last night for the ferry, and it turned out we were considerably ahead of schedule. Luckily, the ferry had room, and they didn't even let us think about it, they told us we were going on the 1:15 instead. That was just fine with us! I walked the dog during the 30 minutes we had to wait, and picked up some brochures, and Joey made me a quick sandwich. And suddenly it was time to go. We were first in line in our lane, meaning we could see right out the front of the ferry! But after we started crossing, Joey and I got out and enjoyed watching the islands of Puget Sound all around us from the railing. Oh! And I forgot to mention-- by this time, all that morning fog had lifted, the sun was out, the sky was blue, the clouds were fluffy, and it WAS the glorious day I'd been "planning" for.

Islands in the distance

All too quickly, the ride was over (it saved us 4 hours of driving, by the way.) We drove off the ferry, agreeing it had been too short and a lot of fun, and headed for Port Angeles and our campground. We were a little surprised to realize it would be about a 50 minute drive-- on the map, it looks so much closer! I think I have greatly underestimated the size of the Olympic Peninsula, and maybe will have to readjust my expectations as to how much we can drive around in one day.

Pulling into the dock at Port Townsend (that's our RV in front)

 We got to our campground around 4pm, checked in, and spent a couple of hours with me just hanging out reading tourist brochures, and Joe trying to ascertain how good our internet etc. was for Saturday's football game. Sadly, it seems that although we have excellent internet connections, ABC (the station broadcasting the game) does not make its live-streaming available here. I don't really understand this at all, and Joey is still playing with it, but it seems we may be out of luck, and will have to rely on Spartan Sports Network. But frankly, football is a LOT less interesting if you can't SEE it.

After this, we decided to go into Port Angeles for some dinner, instead of cooking. By this time, it was lightly raining again, and we were feeling antsy. We went to a place called Kokopelli, which had seafood and a few other things with a southwestern flavor. I had fresh salmon, remembering the exquisite salmon I had almost 40 years ago in Seattle. Alas, I was not as impressed with it this time around. Joey enjoyed an assortment of a lot of stuff, but agreed the salmon was not thrilling. We are planning to buy our own fresh salmon tomorrow, so he can cook it for me.

On a related note--we drove through the town of Dungeness! It seems this is where the crabs come from. Evidently salmon is an afterthought, so maybe that's why it wasn't fabulous?

Tomorrow, we are heading up into Olympic National Park. We can't really believe we are here on the Olympic Peninsula. It's as far from New Jersey as we can get in the Lower 45, and it seems amazing that we did it.  I'm still toying with the idea of taking the ferry from here over to Victoria, B.C. Everyone says it is beautiful, but I'm just not sure we will love it as much as our Europhile friends. OTOH, I've heard about it for so long, it seems like maybe it's worthwhile and will be something different. We have time to make up our mind, so anyone who wants to influence us (one way or another) be sure to let me know what you think!