Realising the Dream
Travelog of RVW members Maggie Birchmore and Di Chawner
e-mail: di.mags@virgin.net

It’s May and we are back in the US.  We collected the vehicles from Independence, Missouri, and spent a few days there reminding ourselves how everything works.  Of course the weather reminded us of what it can do, what with Tornado warnings and rain, torrential rain.  The only good thing is that it meant we didn’t have to wash the dust off the vehicles as the rain did it for us.  Once it stopped raining off we set.  Our journey this year will take us to the East Coast of the USA and then north to the Canadian Maritimes and ultimately Newfoundland.  From there we head west through Quebec to Toronto then via Michigan to Indiana and finally back to Independence, Missouri,  - a journey of some 8,000 miles. 

Our first stop was St Louis and a Walmart overnight, from there to a small town near Louisville called Corydon.  We found a lovely campground by the river and a very friendly neighbour who plugged us into his cable TV connection.  What more could you need? Well, what we didn’t need was more rain, but we got it. The following day it finally stopped.  We moved on and a short drive took us to Levi Jackson State Park, Kentucky (just south of London!).  A lovely park with loads of trees and not far from Cumberland Falls State Park where we had discovered it was possible to see a moon-bow which can be viewed only when the moon is full, sky is clear and late into the evening it appears in the spray of the waterfalls.  Well everything was right for us except after a wait of nearly 3 hours it failed to appear, so we went home.  No luck there.  The following day it rained and didn’t it rain. Torrents of water everywhere and to top it all, the loudest thunderstorm we have ever heard.  It was deafening.  Needless to say the lightening was close-by and very bright and the storm came with a tornado warning too.  It was at this time that we realised we had a leak in the roof by one of our vents.  So that was our next job.  Not the last job because a few days later our toilet needed repairing.  So we went off shopping, got the parts and had a go repairing it.  Not to be classed as an enjoyable job but necessary and now it’s fixed and, fingers crossed, will be OK. 

We did go to London as there was a craft festival there.  A small festival but we did try some of the most tender BBQ pork ever! We enjoyed it so much that we bought a small shoulder which had been in the BBQ for 15 hours.  We were also given a clay pot made before our eyes and also a small painted stone with a shamrock on it. What nice folks.

We continued our drive east calling at the Escapee Park in Knoxville, Tennessee, before arriving at Asheville, North Carolina.  There at Rutledge Lake RV Park we met up with Marge and Wilma, two friends of ours who are working there for the summer.  It was good to see them again.  Asheville is well known for the Biltmore House and estate.  It is the largest house in the USA and with 8,000 acres of grounds it’s pretty spectacular. It belonged to the Vanderbilts and now is open to the public.

Well worth a visit.  We had a lovely day there and then, yes, it rained. Rain with thunder and lightening.  The thunder was so loud we couldn’t even hear the TV.  What is it with this weather!!!!

From Asheville to Greensboro and then onto our next main stop at Williamsburg, Virginia.  Our campground in Williamsburg was located just 3 miles from the centre of town which was ideal.  Our site though, turned out to be not so ideal.  Located no more that 12 feet from the main railway line, we had quite a shock when the first of the ½ mile long goods trains trundled through, shaking the ground and of course us, even at midnight!  Got to be the closest campsite to a railroad yet!!

Williamsburg is part of the historic triangle of Williamsburg, Yorktown and Jamestown.  In 1607 good ole English settlers arrived and set up the first English settlement in America at Jamestown.  There they lived along with the Africans and Powhatan Native Americans till 1781. What started as a lonely settlement of 105 people on the James River became 13 British Colonies.  In 1781 there were over 1 million British settlers here, a great deal considering England and Wales total population at the time was only 7.5 million!!   The final battle between Lord Cornwallis’s English army and the American General Greene’s army and militia supported by the French army came in 1781 and finally the English army was overpowered and captured.  This was on the Yorktown Battlefield.  This battle was the last in the war and led to American Independence.

Well that your history lesson and now we are heading off north to Washington, DC, and then New England.

Bye for now,


Di & Maggie