Day 1: Travel to Williamsburg

This summer our vacation was centered around staying in one tiny state: Delaware. Delaware and Illinois are the only states east of the Mississippi that we have not spent the night in. We assume that we will stay in Illinois at some point on a future trip out west, so we need to hit Delaware. A few years ago I never would have thought about going to Delaware. I’ve never even met anyone from Delaware. But after doing some research, and actually taking time to look at it on the map, Allyson and I learned that Delaware has a lot of nice ocean/summer spots. But it’s still kinda small, so it’d be tough to make a whole trip out of it. We decided to add in a few nights in Williamsburg since we have some history buffs in the family.

On Sunday we were up early to try and get on the road while the kids were asleep. We wanted to be on the road by 5am, but all of the July 4th activities stretched out late on Saturday so we pushed things back an hour. We hit the road with all girls asleep…..and Nolan wide awake.

I backed out of our driveway, turned down our street, and was immediately greeted to a tire pressure alarm. So less than 5 minutes after we left I was next to Bob Evan’s fixing my tire. I already had an idea what the issue was because I had low tire pressure on the front driver's side tire when I got Sassy out of storage, and the low pressure was on the same tire. The issue was air leaking out of the valve stem extender. I was able to confirm the leak, replace the extender, fill the tire and get on the road quickly. This is our seventh year with a motorhome, so by now I have many parts to address issues on the road (and in your neighborhood) 😕.

Once we got rolling the drive went smoothly. We all remarked at how hilly and mountainous southern Pennsylvania is. No one ever talks about that. West Virginia is “Wild and Wonderful” but it’s really just like Pennsylvania. When we started into Virginia we saw some signs for Shenandoah National Park. I guess I lost track there was a national park here. It was about 20 miles off the highway and Allyson and I decided it would be silly not to stop, plus we were due for a break.

We pulled into the park and drove up Skyline Drive to the Dickey Ridge visitor center. The drive up was typical of a National Park. Beautiful views all around. It reminded me a lot of the Smokey Mountains. We snapped a family photo and went into the Visitor Center to get Junior Ranger workbooks. We then headed off on a hike that started out promising but quickly became unenjoyable. It was hot and the trail was full of bugs. At first we urged the kids to suck it up, but soon Allyson and I had to acknowledge it wasn’t a fun time. On top of the bugs, Nolan was insisting on “jumping” his way down the trail. It was taking forever and he kept trying to jump on jagged rocks. At this pace we were liable to die on this 1-mile hike. We decided to turn back and head to the visitor center to finish the Ranger workbooks.

The girls are rule followers (at least at school) so they diligently completed all the junior ranger workbook requirements. Which was important because the Ranger they meet with scrutinized each page they completed and asked them detailed questions about the assignments. It took forever and there was a large line forming behind us. Very odd. Just give em the badges lady. When the woman looked at four-year-old Sammy's drawing of a bee and asked "what adaptations did you include in your bee?" it was clear she was off the mark. Anyways, after their grilling they were sworn in and got their badges. We headed back to the motorhome to set off for the campground in Williamsburg.

After three more hours we arrived at the campground just after 6:30pm. We set up the camper, checked out the campground, and made some walking tacos for dinner, which were very popular.

The campground is nice. It’s small with limited amenities, but it is fairly clean. The reason we picked it is that the campground is a stop on the bus route. So we should be able to get to any of the historical attractions without a rental car. Rental cars are always a pain, so avoiding both the cost and the inconvenience of picking one up was very appealing.

Later in the evening we stayed up to watch the England-Mexico World Cup match, which was fun. We started with all the girls up and by the end it was just Allyson and I. Tomorrow we’re heading into Williamsburg. If we can survive the heat it should be a good day.