Before even setting foot outside Salt Springs our trip plans hit a snag. My sister's mother-in-law was taken to the hospital gravely ill. So Kim and Robert had to cancel their plans to meet up with us in Williamsburg. My dad and Sandy were supposed to be meeting up with us also and they decided to lend support to Kim and Robert and stay home. Steve and I went back and forth trying to decide if we wanted to stick with our planned trip, plan a different trip, or just stay home and not bother, we decided to carry on with our original plans and make the trip to Virginia.
So leaving all cares and troubles behind us we started out bright and early, at least for me, Saturday morning. I must admit, we had one of the most pleasant first days on the road ever, well almost. The drive was pleasant. The traffic was light. There were no wrong turns made. Things were going along just fine. We made just one stop for gas, hiccup. Pumped gas, go to the cashier, and our debit card was declined. Now i dont know about you, but when I see someone and their card is declined i think loser. So it really tweaks my butt when I've got the money and my FREAKING CARD is declined. Wells Fargo I guess doesn't think we are spending our money wisely and they'd rather we not take a vacation without clearing it with the, first. The ensuing phone call to card services is a story for another day, lets just say there is a customer service person that is re-thinking her profession of choice.
Moving along, we got to the campground where we would spend the night and out came the travel gremlins. The campground was a cute little place, not much to look at, but right off the highway as promised, well manicured, staffed with a very nice lady, and cheap. We got to our site, we put down the jacks, put the slides out, we were ready to relax and Steve was anticipating watching the race. I guess I just assumed they had cable. It touted "full" hook-ups, but sadly no cable. Oh crap! Well Steve said, hey it's OK, we should be able to get something on the iPad, right? Although they did have free wifi, there was something going on with that and the connection was horrible. So, NO, we couldn't get anything on the iPad. Honestly, I don't know if we did have wifi if there would have been somewhere to go to watch the race anyway, but I wasn't going to bring that up.
Well we did have a new movie that we hadn't yet seen, "Safe". It was really good. I would give it four golf carts. We played a game of Scrabble, it beat his butt, so that didn't sit well, but we did have fun. We made it an early night and went to bed. Oh did I forget to mention it poured, well let me mention it, it came down like cats and dogs. So we slept well in anticipation of starting out early, really early by my standards, for Williamsburg. Day one was done.
Bright and early Sunday morning we are ready to go. I was a bit concerned that we'd have a problem driving over the grass to get out after all the rain. When we'd come in, the campground attendant told us we could just drive strait across the grassy area in front of us to go out. Steve walked a way to test the ground and he didn't think it felt soft from the rain so we gave it a try. Thank God the travel gremlins were still in bed, we drove right out, right onto the highway, and day two had begun. Mind you, I was feeling pretty damn good right about now. We were making good time, things had been relatively uneventful, life was good and I didn't care who knew it.
The Virginia state line. YES! We were in Virginia. I wanted to stop at the Virginia Welcome Center. So we did. Oh this was a perfect idea. We had toyed with the idea of going to either Mt. Vernon, or Monticello. Both are about a two hour drive from Williamsburg, but I thought we are a hell of a lot closer to them when we are in Williamsburg then we are when we're in Florida so we ought to make the most of it. Well we spoke with a nice man and he said if he could only hit one he'd go for Monticello. They gave us maps and brochures and hints and tips and we were on our way again.
Right about now I'm on the top of the world. Well you know how that goes, the higher you are the further you have to fall. So we are tooling along, we are making good time, we are off the highway, this is it, the home stretch. All of a sudden we are staring at a ferry! A freaking ferry, like a boat that takes you across a body of water! What the heck is up with that?! So let's picture this people, we are in a 40+ foot motor home. We are towing a car behind us. We are on a narrow two lane road, no shoulder to speak of, dead ending at the water, no where, and I do mean no where to turn around. There is a gravel area off the road to the right that looks like it should be parking but there are no parking signs all over it. So screw the signs, we pull in and put the behemoth in park. Those flipp'n little gremlins, at it again.
I'm not panicked, yeah right, I just pull out my phone and I'm going to make a call. Thank God for all the crap they gave us at the Welcome Center. The maps have numbers on them. I called one, I got a woman on the line and she really wasn't very helpful but it gave the mind a chance to absorb what the heck was happening. There were some bikers waiting to board the ferry, Steve went to talk to them. They suggested IF we could get turned around we could go back about 10 miles and take a different way across the James river. We weren't giving up so easily, before giving in we walked down the ferry entrance to talk to the two guys directing traffic. They had those bright orange reflective vests on, they had to know what was going on, right? They don't just let anybody have a reflective vest by God.
These two guys take one look at us walking to them and you know they had to be laughing inside. So we tell them our tale of woe, with huge smiles they tell us they take tour buses, tractor trailers, and all manner of things across on the ferry, no problem. So we got to take a ride across the James River on a ferry. What a cool experience that was. It was a tight squeeze but it's all good when you travel in a motor home. Now of course this set us back about an hour but who cares, it's just the two of us. No one is waiting for us to arrive.
We are now in Williamsburg Virginia. The campground is a cute little place. Not very big at all. We set up, settle in, have a great dinner, I made a stuffed chicken and corn with cranberry sauce. Oh my God we do eat a little too well. This time the campground has both cable and a working wifi. After dinner we clean up get rid if the trash and litter the floor with brochures and pamphlets and maps to make our plans for Monday. Monday is going to be a full day. Day two is done.
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