It was sad to say goodbye to our little home in Malabar, but all good things come to an end, and I think we may be back next year. We were up early on that Wednesday morning and got things ready for getting underway. We put the bed upright, the slider in, shades retracted and the stabilizers in the up position. I pumped the tanks and filled them with antifreeze (we are headed into cold weather) and flushed some antifreeze through the macerator pump. We pulled out of the campground at 6:30 am and planned on a long day on the road, our destination Fayetteville, North Carolina, just over 600 miles away.
We stopped at a Dunkin Donuts at the first exit on the highway, got coffee and a couple of breakfast treats and were on our way. We passed through some rain, and had a period of some uncomfortably strong winds but the Doodle held her course well and soon we were beyond the rain and into nice bright sunshine. We chatted, reminiscing about the past couple of weeks (what a great time we had!) and of course listened to the audiobook we had started on the way down. We stopped at ‘Peach World’ when we got into Georgia and came away a bit disappointed. I recognized right away that this area of Georgia could certainly use an accomplished sign painter. Carol got some jam and we moved on, stopping for fuel and taking Harper for her necessary walks.
Traffic was what is to be expected along route 95, busy but not over crowded, and truckers, lots of truckers. We actually arrived in Fayetteville earlier than planned and drove for another hour or so ending up in Smithfield, NC and found a Cracker Barrel and a place to park for the night. We also found a fantastic little pizza shop nearby and had some absolutely delicious pizza for supper.
This Cracker Barrel was well off the road and the parking lot was not busy so we had a nice quiet night’s sleep. And I think we both overate at breakfast at the Cracker Barrel, our friends gave us a gift card for Cracker Barrel, (the perfect gift by the way, for travelers) - we used it up completely and ran over by 58 cents. I told Carol I thought we ought to let Tom and Debby know that they owe us 58 cents but she said no….
With our stomachs full, the dog walked and the fuel tank topped off we headed north once again. Our destination for today was a friends house in Landenberg, Pennsylvania which lies right at the corner of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware. The days driving was relatively uneventful but we did have several construction delays and lots of traffic around the metro areas we passed through. We arrived at Kelli’s house late afternoon and I got the Doodle all set up in her driveway and completely winterized her, blowing out all the waterlines with my compressor and putting antifreeze in the drains. It got down into the low twenties that night and the next couple of nights as well. We certainly don’t want things freezing up.
We were visiting as Kelli was having a memorial service for her mother who passed a year ago. Carol was officiating and I made a memorial video to be played the ceremony. Mostly we caught up on things and just hung out. Our daughter and Kelli have been best friends since they were teenagers, so she and our grandkids were there too. Harper was so happy to see Grace and Ben, all squeals and wiggles. Best of all for Harper is the fact that Kelli has two very active dogs for Harper to play with. Of course both dogs, Elsa and Olaf, are much larger than Harper but that didn’t stop them from running and wrestling and just having a great time. Harper loved their large rawhide bones and dragged them everywhere, and they are almost as large as her.
The ceremony was on Saturday and went off without a hitch. Kelli had the place all decorated and about thirty people attended. Carol did a lovely ceremony around the fire pit in the back yard and then the group moved indoors as the weather was chilly. A nice evening and a great remembrance of a wonderful lady. Sunday morning came too early.
Saying good bye to friends is always tough but by 9:30 we were pulling out of the driveway and heading down the road, looking for another cup of coffee. As we got onto the highway I heard a scrape. Then I heard it again! after we heard it several times I figured we must be dragging something, as we got a scraping noise after each bump in the road. We pulled into a rest area and looking underneath I could see that one of the stabilizers had not retracted all the way. I put them down again and up again and they retracted fully. An anomaly, but something I will check in the future. An easy fix - everything should be this easy. Over the Delaware Bridge and onto the New Jersey Turnpike heading home on the final leg.
We guessed that we would not have the light traffic we had on the way down but figures it wouldn’t be that bad driving through New York City as it was Sunday. We have seen worse days but there was a lot of congestion around the Washington Bridge and beyond, until we got to New Rochelle, then clear sailing.
One of the places we love to stop in Stew Leonards in Norwalk, Connecticut. Stew Leonards is an awesome grocery store….yes an awesome grocery store…I know it sounds stupid but it is true. We just can’t pass it up when ever we are on this section of Route 95, and knowing that our refrigerator at home would be empty. We stopped and did some shopping. Stews’ also had the best selection of prepared foods so we picked up something for lunch and had our lunch right there in their parking lot. The last couple of hours went by quickly and soon we were backed safely in our driveway and with a huge sigh - we were home again. So thanks to all our friends we visited along the way and all the wonderful people we met, you all made the trip another great experience.
Below is a gallery of images from along the way. .
