I started planning the trip in June.  Here’s what I came up with:

As planned, the trip was 18 days and would cover 5,291 miles, with 76 stops along the way.  I was intrigued by the idea of doing a 3 week trip mostly without staying in a formal campground.  Our camping would either be in Walmart parking lots that allow overnight parking, or dispersed camping (primarily in the Western US, camping on federal Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands, in which camping pretty much anywhere is allowed).  This would be dry camping, that is, camping without hookups.  We would carry our own water and electricity (on-board water tanks and batteries with solar panels), as well as propane for refrigeration, heating, and cooking.  Basically, 3 weeks of truly off-grid living.  The trip was not only a family sight-seeing trip, it was also a sanity-check for the idea of spending a good amount of time RVing when we retire.

We were supposed to leave today at 7pm.  This turned out to be wishful thinking, as we weren’t packed yet.  We left around 11:30pm.  We hadn’t even started and we were already 4 1/2 hours behind schedule!

As we entered New Jersey, I noticed that the truck steering was quite jittery.  We pulled over, and visually I confirmed what I was feeling at the wheel – the additional load in the RV and SUV was causing the front axle of the SUV to have less weight on it.  I adjusted the weight distribution hitch so that the SUV had equal weight on both axles, and the problem went away.

We were supposed to sleep at the Walmart of Clarion, PA, but instead stopped at the Walmart of Stroudsburg, PA at about 1am.  We had only travelled 81 miles.  Our first Walmart camping experience!  By 1:45am, we were asleep.

We went up to Mongaup Pond for Memorial day weekend.  All the new systems in the RV worked well, except for a propane leak in the connection for the new catalytic heater.  Once I tightened it up, it was fine.

Trish relaxing in camp:

On Sunday we went kayaking on the pond:

Followed by a ride around the campground:

After lunch, I went for a mountain bike ride.  The climb out of the Mongaup basin was tough, with grades exceeding 20% in spots:

Hodge Pond:

Old wagon wheels:

At one point the trail suddenly enters a thick, canopied forest:

Frick Pond:

This grave marker is a bit off the trail near Frick pond:

Here’s the newspaper article from 1933:

M and B at the beach on Mongaup pond:

On Monday we went fishing on the Willowemoc, but we didn’t catch anything:

We decided to test thenew SUV on the same “road” we rode last summer:

At one point we saw a fawn struggling to get across the road.  Trish moved it to the shoulder and we cut open a water bottle for it.  It was pretty weak, so it probably didn’t survive:

Here we are breaking camp:

What a great weekend!

This summer, we took the RV to a couple of state campgrounds.  It was crowded and not so much fun.  Off-season RVing in Oregon was great – the weather was mild and the campgrounds were empty.  In the northeast, the campgrounds are only open from April to September, and they are very crowded.

The good news is that, in National Forests and on BLM land, there’s something called dispersed camping.  Basically, you can camp anywhere so long as you’re a certain distance from the nearest paved road, etc.  Unfortunately, the northeast has no BLM land and very few national forests.

The nearest national forest for us is Green Mountain National Forest in Vermont.  In September, we drove up to find the perfect campsite.

In all, we logged close to 80 potential sites.  Along the way, we found this great bridge:

One of the areas that we found had enough space to park the RV and opened up onto a secluded pond:

More marsh land beyond:

The kids ran around:

Zoological discoveries:

The road to get to this site was really bad, so I don’t know if we could make it towing the RV.  Come spring, I think we will give Green Mountain a try.

This Chol Hamoed we took the RV down to Assateague Island. It took a bit of time to get everything ready to go, so we didn’t leave until 2am on Monday morning (Motzei Sukkos). We drove straight through, arriving at 7am Monday morning. I was a bit sleepy at 3:45am, but after buying a soda at a rest stop I was fine for the rest of the drive. About 30 miles out, I realized that I forgot to pack B’s bicycle! Thankfully, $48.50 at Walmart solved that problem:

No sales tax in Delaware, hooray! We did have to wait in the parking lot for 10 minutes or so until they opened.

We got the RV set up and the kids explored a bit:

The horses were right next to our campsite:

We played on the beach for the whole day. Towards the end of the day, M and B built a little castle for themselves and sat inside:

Birds at play:

More digging:

Sunset over Assateague:

On Tuesday, we hit the beach again:

In the afternoon, we went to Ocean City. M and I left a bit early and started biking towards Ocean City. Trish caught up with us at the Frontier Town theme park. It was closed for the season, but the shark and boat were accessible:

In Ocean City, we rented one of those two-by-two family bikes and rode it up and down the boardwalk. We played Skee Ball, etc. That night, I took the kids down to the beach and we saw tons of crabs running around:

On wednesday, we had another day
of fun on the beach. M got in over his head, literally:

Later we went into town and went to Baja amusement park to ride the roller coaster and go karts.

Sunset over the campground. Our site is on the far left:

RV + sukkah:

We went out on the beach after dinner. Our RV is on the far left:

Trish and the kids are the glowing streak on the beach, lower left, and Jupiter is the bright “star” on the center left edge:

Annotated version:

And a bonus – Uranus!

Neat, eh?

On Thursday, we, that’s right, hit the beach again. This whole vacation involved a good bit of laying about on the beach, which was fine with me.

We found lots of Horseshoe Crab shells, but this was the biggest one. Note the shells living on it’s back:

I took B for a ride:

Later, Trish built a castle. Behold the smooth walls:

Kite flying:

On the water:

M set up “armies” of horseshoe crab shells:

Towards sunset, we rode down to the bay:

The bridge to the island:

Sunset over the bay:

Wading in the bay:

An island in the bay:

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A bit after sunset, we had a couple Sika deer in the campground:

We left at 10pm and got home at around 3am. Until next time, Assateague!

We spent the weekend camping at Housatonic Meadows State Park.  It was very, very hot and muggy, but we had fun exploring the trails near the campground.

On Sunday, we drove down to Woodbury, CT to a recreation of the Battle of Cedar Creek.  600 reenactors simulated a battle which pitted 32,000 Union soldiers against 21,000 Confederate troops.

Lincoln surveys the Union camp:

General Grant was in attendance as well:

Union guns fire:

The Confederate advance cannot be broken:

Union guns pull back:

Rebel guns fire:

Lincoln looks on:

The two armies suffered 8,500 casualties on that day:

The Union forces regroup and press the attack:

Having pushed back the Rebels, the Union troops return to camp:

General and Mrs. Grant:

We walked through the encampments:

Lincoln reflects:

The Union camp:

A replica of a Civil War era gatling gun:

Artillery pieces in the field:

…On the way home, we stopped in Tarrytown and skated for a while on the North County Trailway.  B and I used skates, Trish used blades, and M used his Razor scooter.

Other that the heat and humidity, it was a great weekend!