It's About the (RV) Journey....: Virginia at Last..........

We've been here in Virginia for almost a week, but kinda too busy to post! Last week, we drove through West Virginia and Virginia, which was so beautiful...rolling green hills...lots and lots of green! A sight for sore eyes, as its been very dry out west. We pulled into our last "travel night" campground in Natural Bridge, Va, where we enjoyed the campsite and the pool after a drive up and down the hills of West Virginia. We did have a problem at the site trying to level the RV. According to the level, it was off by 6 inches. The RV slanted towards the driver's side, so it was really weird...almost like walking on a ship. That was the best we could get though, and we looked around and it seemed none of the open sites were too level. So...eh...one night... we figured it would be okay to be slanted. Still, we were a bit worried though, and looked through all of the RV information, and it turns out being unlevel like that is very bad for the refrigerator. The cooling system in the RV fridges (that run on propane or electric) can be adversely affected and ruin the refrigerator, which is a very expensive repair. So...long story short...we turned off the fridge! Since we didn't have much food because we were down to our last travel day, it was no big deal. Sometimes its good to have things like this happen so we review the specs and not get cavalier and complacent with the proper way to handle the RV without doing damage.

up, over and through the hills of West Virginia and Virginia

beautiful...and so green!

As we were checking in at the campground, I spotted the pool next to the office and it looked so inviting. I mentioned it to the staff, and they told us the pool is brand new this year. There was no one in the pool, and so we took advantage. Well, one of us did! We were there at a good time too, before all the kids arrived in the late afternoon back from the family excursion to points of interest...haahha.

the lifeguard

brand new pool!!

the water was just so inviting!

Tom is cool enough....not much of a water baby...see our RV behind him?

the site was not level at all, but it was really nice

The next day (last Thursday actually), we had a short drive to Louisa, Va and arrived at our new "backyard". We were having such a hard time leveling the RV at a nice wooded site, and as we were standing there, a giant tree limb from one of the nearby trees snapped off and fell onto a site just two down from us. Uh oh! We looked at some of the trees, and shook our heads since we were planning on being here for 3 months. So, between the leveling and the tree issue, we went back to the office and secured a spot in the field on a hill. Perfect! We set up with no leveling issues and felt much more confident that a tree wouldn't damage our "home" or our car!

We started to become familiar with the area, finding the foodstore, post office, etc in town on our way to see Jess and Andrew. We even ordered a few things to make our patio comfortable since we will be here for a few months. We are lazy that way, and only set up nicely if we are going to be in a location for a few weeks or more.

It was great to see Jess and Andrew (they look great), and we are thrilled to be able to help them out a bit with their business so Jess can take it easy and be more or less on maternity leave. Its hard for her to slow down though. (Wonder where she gets that from? As Tom says, "we is like that"). We are looking forward to seeing our son Chris soon too. He's about 2 hours away, and will be visiting us soon. It will be nice to be in the same state as our kids for a little while!

Tom and I are preparing for the arrival of the baby as well. We got our "Whooping Cough" vaccine (Tdap), which is recommended for anyone that will be around babies-like a grandbaby! Even though we were vaccinated as kids, the protection of the vaccine wears off over time. Whooping cough is still common in the U.S. and large outbreaks occur every few years. Whooping cough can be deadly for babies. 'Nuff said. Being that we have been in several national parks with lots of visitors from all over the world, we figured it would be a good idea.

Over the past few days, we have been training with Jess and Andrew, and getting into a routine. They let us off early yesterday (hahah) and they were able to come over to the campground for a barbecue. Again, we were so excited to have "company"! Tom cooked up some nice steaks and burgers, and we enjoyed our dinner inside in the air conditioning without mosquitos. Just after dessert, the skies became really dark and threatening. After a hasty "goodbye", the skies just opened up and flooded the campsite. Luckily, Jess and Andrew escaped the bad weather until they were very near their house. It was quite a deluge!