2013 Big Truck across the Southeast, Trip Summary

HOME!!!! We made it, and again with no significant issues, and all of us safe and sound. As has become our custom, I'll post some nerdy stats and a quick wrapup.

Total miles:          3,504
Big Truck miles:   2,870
Jeep solo miles:       634

Avg gas price:      $3.48/gal
Avg mileage:          7.67mpg

States visited - 10 (bringing our running total to 35)

National Parks - 4 (bringing our running total to 29)

State Parks - 3 (no idea of running total)

RV parks/campgrounds - 3 (don't care about running total)

Microbreweries/Distilleries - 6 (this will keep growing)

Incidents - 2*

* Each Big Truck mirror now has 1 minor battle scar. One from the entrance booth to the Wright Brothers National Memorial, and one from a parking sign on Mahantongo Ave outside the Yuengling Brewery.

Debilitating sunburns - 1 (this will continue)

Mechanical issues - 0. Again, very fortunate here, so we'll keep the vigilance on the preparation routine.



Overall it was a fantastic experience, a great mixture of parks, nature, cool cities,friends, places like the Tennessee Aquarium, amazing scenery, and all of it done as a family and on our own schedule.

Attached is a summary of our destinations, I'm sure we've missed a couple, but these are the main ones.

No cheesy final statement, other than a big thank you to our friends and family for help (thanks again Takas family for taking care of Reggie!), support, recommendations, ideas, and most of all thoughts & prayers while we're on the road.  We'll leave with one final picture, and next year we hope to head toward the Pacific Northwest. Carry on.



2013 Big Truck across the Southeast Day 14

Day 14 will be a fairly short post, as at no point did Jordan or I leave the campground. I have never been one to have the campground actually BE the destination, so this took a bit of work for me to get my head around, but it turned out to be a great day overall.

 

I won't bore you with tons of pics, but here is a representation of some of the things that took place. Bikes, hikes, playground, really tiny golf (Jordan's description of miniature golf, I'm going to adopt that), swimming, etc.

 

 

 

Since we were here for the full day and actually used the campsite, this is the most domesticated we became on the entire trip. Normally our site is even more spartan than this.

 

One thing we noticed pretty quickly was that we were a bit of an anomoly in this park. We were one of maybe 3 or 4 motorhomes vs hundreds of trailers. The trailers were occupied by frighteningly similar families. The guys were pretty much my size or bigger, mostly shaved heads or Reno 911 'dos, huge chromed out trucks with volunteer firefighter lights, muscle shirts, trailers that look like they had been adding decorations every day for 5 years, and families with a minimum of 4 kids. Oh, and all HUUUGE Steelers fans. We mostly kept to ourselves and imagined the unstoppable softball team that could be fielded with these campground tenants.

 

Tomorrow - up early, roughly 7 hours home.  I'll post a final summary with some trip stats, starting to get that bittersweet feeling of the trip winding down and yearning for the comforts (and dog - we all miss Reggie) of home.

 

2013 Big Truck across the Southeast Day 13

Time to say goodbye to the horses. We woke up to a beautiful day, and it was hard to leave scenery like this.

 

Of course on the way out we ran into some of our friends, just shortly after finding out (luckily from the guy in front of us, not us) that the dump station was overflowing so no one could empty their tanks. That's good, because no one wants this.

 

Since yesterday's mini aquarium stop was cut short in the visitors center, we swung by on the way out so Jordan could see her horse crab.

Apparently it helps to be there the second the place opens, as we pretty much had it to ourselves.

 

A quick shot of our setup in the parking lot, all packed up and ready to roll. After 3 years, we still would appear to be the smallest RV towing the largest tow vehicle we've seen on the road. Not sure if that's a good sign, but it really works well for us.

 

A couple of hours down the road, we passed this on our left. Dover International Speedway. Since I know very little about NASCAR other than what I learned from Days of Thunder, I was surprised at the sheer scale of the stadium.  Apparently, it's kind of a big deal.

 

 From Delaware to our next destination, Pottsville, PA - this appeared to be the most direct route, except with a stop light every 100 yards and construction on all lanes in all directions.

 

The combination of nearly 6hrs in the Big Truck, those roads/construction, and the fact that Pottsville has no public parking for a vehicle larger than a Fiat 500 created a bit of tension within the Big Truck. 13 days in a glorified van boiled over into a fairly terse exploration for a parking location. This was our solution. 3 meters, marriage crisis averted.

 

Just a couple of blocks up the street stood the oldest continuously operating brewery in the United States, DG Yuengling & Sons. This was our pilgrimage, and after all of the hassle, seeing the history in those walls made it worth it.  The building's exterior was impressive, but inside you could feel the nearly 200 years seeping out of the walls.

 

 

We arrived too late for the twice daily tours, but still were able to wander and see some of the guts of the operation. It is truly impressive to see the mix of old and new technology, along with some items that added so much character you couldn't help but be proud of a business that has stayed true to a process & product for so long.

 

The gift shop was basically a time capsule with some t-shirts. All of the history of the brewery was proudly on display, including items like a letter from Bell Telephone letting the brewery know that they were basically the oldest continuous customer of the phone service in the country.

 

This is just an example of a hallway outside the shop.  Some of the items on the wall were over 100 years old, and the number and magnitude of celebrities and sports icons that have wished them well over the years was very impressive.

 

 After wandering in the brewery for a bit, we headed across town to pick up some Yuengling for ourselves and some friends back home. As popular as their products are, we still can't buy them in the Midwest. Hopefully they expand their distribution soon.

Yes, I'm rocking a Dogfish Head t-shirt at Yuengling, as the Linda Richman lookalike host of the gift shop immediately insulted me for. Craft beer enthusiasts should be able to get along, and she wasn't buying the fact that it was my only clean shirt left. It is.

Back on the road, Jordan attempted to lighten the mood by having her new pet horse Rainbow poop on my head. It worked.

 

The terrain was a marked departure from the coastal byways we've been on for the past 4-5 days. After all of the intersections and construction, we were now on I-80 for about 250 miles. It was actually a welcome change.

Nearly 11 hours in the Big Truck were burned off once we arrived at the campground by a full re-enactment of any karate move Sandy Squirrel has ever unleashed, with the target of this agression being the awning strap.

 

 

Tomorrow is a Dad-Jordan day at the campground, as Kimberly will be venturing into town to some tax-free outlet stores. Yep.

2013 Big Truck across the Southeast Day 12

Day 12 started in an odd fashion. After a few storms hit during the night and threatened our awning's structural integrity, we awoke to horses making horse noises (whinnying? naying, neighing? blustering?). Not a typical camping morning, but interesting. The women made a beeline for the beach,

then it was time for some campsite soccer, bike riding, and then a Dad-Jordan excursion to give Mom some quality beach reading time.

 

We stopped at the visitors center, where Jordan really enjoyed the 'horse crab' (horseshoe crab) in the mini-aquarium (small fishtank). We then headed into town to get some bait for our eagerly anticipated fishing session.

 

As we stopped at the store, I noticed that they also carried some good old Natty Boh, something we never get to see in Michigan. It is popular enough out here that we've seen Mr. Boh stickers on vehicles, so I then learned that it is local to Baltimore & is now owned by Pabst, which means the hipsters won't be far behind.

 

Jordan and her fishing pole, which we named Slayer. She came up with that name almost entirely by herself.

She had a great time fishing, and people were crabbing right around us, so she got to see some real live sea creatures. She was extremely dejected that Slayer didn't pull in any fish, but it will live another day. She's excited to unveil it and Grandma and Papa's cottage, where she plans to outfish her cousins. Logan & Eric, there's a new sheriff in town...

On the way back, we ran into a herd of horses casually heading to the beach to get their tan on. Notice the nonchalance of the beachgoers, this is a pretty normal scene here.

Back at the site, I had time for a quick beach ride, and stumbled upon these horse crabs chilling on the beach.

 

Upon further inspection, this dude was just hanging out, probably proud that he had a better beach setup than his buddy who was sleeping off last night's activities. His posture reminded me of someone...

A little further down the beach I encountered some surfers.

 

Not sure if any of them were an FBI agent or former college QB.

 

Then it was on to our evening plans, which included a drive up the coast to Dogfish Head Brewing & Eats for dinner and my fantasy football draft.

The drive is very slow, and takes you through the heart of Ocean City, MD. The people watching is fantastic, as most look like they are auditioning for Jersey Shore, except just a bit more ridiculous. It would seem that there is a booming spray tan industry here.

 

Outside the congestion, it opened up a bit when we got into Delaware, and we crossed this cool bridge. At night it was all lit up in blue, a pretty interesting visual since there are no other street lights or anything leading up to it.

 

 The brewery was very cool. Dogfish Head is known for having 'off-centered ales for off-centered people', and their draft list did not disappoint. I had brought a couple of Tripel Root* growlers along to fill at the various locations we visit, and this was the first one that could legally fill it.

*Quick aside - Tripel Root is the brewpub that our friends Nate & Laura Gentry are opening in Zeeland, MI. Yes, Zeeland. Support them if you get the chance, and look for them to be open in Spring 2014!

Something funny happened here, but I was busy annoying both Kimberly and Jordan by burying my head in the iPad to draft NFL players that are now certain to have season-ending injuries.

It was about a 45 minute drive back to the site, but once we got there, this was waiting for us. Its really tough to be worried about much when you're sitting on the beach looking at this.

 

 Back at the Big Truck, I learned that the Detroit Lions had put a preseason beat down on Tom Brady (he's so dreamy) and the New England Patriots. We all know that preseason success is a true indicator of regular season potential, so plan on seeing this come February 2014.

 

I will attempt to leave you with 41 seconds of audio to help you fall asleep. Just don't think about all of the ghost crabs that would be crawling on your feet while you sit and listen in person.

 

 

2013 Big Truck across the Southeast Day 11

Day 11 started off with a quick trip to the playground, as it was dark by the time we got back to the campsite last night. A small price to pay since we'd be cooped up for the next 5-6 hours on the way to Assateague Island.

On the way out of Cape Hatteras National Seashore, you have to slow to 25mph and cross this clapped out bridge that looks like it was built by Redd Foxx.

Our next destination was the Wright Brothers National Memorial. As an engineer I'm pretty fascinated by how they took ideas from their bicycle shop and turned them into a working aircraft. The memorial is pretty cool, with the monument dominating the landscape. It marks the top of the hill where Orville, Wilbur, and 5 locals started to push the plane down the track to the takeoff point,

marked right here.  There were 4 successful flights that day, ranging from 120ft to the final flight of 852ft, staying in the air for almost a full minute (59 sec).

Inside there was all sorts of nerdery, so I kind of blacked out for a bit reading up on all the history.

Jordan was pretty interested, especially seeing the models of the plane and hearing the stories of them crashing so many times trying to figure it out. 

 

Then we turned the corner and BAM! A full scall replica of the Wright machine.

 



...and the patent, which even in 1903 took 3 years to be processed. Good to see that the government was already operating at maximum efficiency over 100 years ago.

 

One last shot, just because all you ever hear about is Kitty Hawk, NC being the origin of flight. It actually occurred just a bit south, at Kill Devil Hills, which is a cool enough name to deserve mention.

Back on the road, we stumbled on something so randomly amazing that I didn't even have time to grab a picture, so these are just some images from Digger's Dungeon. Yup - Gravedigger.

 

I'm actually glad we didn't stop, because if we did, I would have been immediately transformed into my redneck formative years. You would have heard the influence of at least 10 straight years of reading Four Wheeler and watching any form of motorsports involving dirt, mud, and KC daylighters.

 

 

Next up - want to see what a $28 bridge/tunnel crossing looks like?

 



 

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, which actually required us to stop and turn off our propane at the tank before crossing. Interesting. The 2 gaps you see from the overhead view are the portions that tunnel beneath the water, allowing the huge ships access to the bay.

 

 

 



The light at the end of the tunnel. Go into the light.

 



It took most of the day, but we finally arrived at Assateague State Park, a place that Kimberly and I had visited close to 10 years ago. Within about 10 minutes, Kimberly and Jordan had the first wild horse sighting.

 

I had picked up a shell during my beach ride the previous day, so it was time for a little tire patching lesson. As you can see, Jordan preferred the stylish overseer role.

A couple minutes later, we had some visitors.

They were interested in my bike shop operation,

and Jordan had been so excited to see the wild ponies, that she could barely contain herself.

 

From there it was on to the beach. You know you are someplace special when you are dodging horse bombs on a picturesque shoreline.

 

We got a few good family shots, this one being my favorite.

I snuck out for a quick night beach ride, and the waves crashing in the moonlight & the ghost crabs (they are real, I didn't just make that up) were quite an experience.

These little guys are fast, as soon as the headlight reached them, they scattered. As quick as they were,

...they still weren't as talented as one of their brethren.

The full moon was pretty cool - more of a harvest moon than we had seen.

By the time we got back to the site, I was determined to win the battle with our wet firewood.  It has been so humid and rainy, everywhere you go to get firewood you can tell it is waterlogged. This is the fruit of my labor.

Day 12 brings a day wandering the beaches with horses, followed by an attempt at an online fantasy football draft. Those seem to work out well with sketchy internet connection in the middle of nowhere.

 

I'll leave you with this image of a 5 year old who was talking about seeing the horsies all day, then finally got to see one. Love the reaction.