Slow Meander Home

It was another chilly morning so I fired up the furnace! Got it all toasty warm with no alarms! YAY! It was too chilly to read much and the sun was slow to come up and warm the picnic table so I headed out a bit earlier than I'd expected to.

It was 3 hours home, but I made several stops along the way.

The first stop was at Appomattox Court House National Historic Park. I was expecting a battlefield like Manassass, but there was a whole little village with restored houses and exhibits! I was the 1st visitor of the day so the Rangers were very attentive, I felt bad that all I really wanted to do was walk around a bit & get my passport stamped! The Civil War is interesting, but I'm not that into it!

My next stop was Deadalus Books in Charlottesville. Deadalus is a used book store that other used book store dream to be! It's in a old house and is three floors of cobbled together bookshelves cramed with books! It's well organized, although it doesn't appear that way when you walk in and it's a great way to spend a happy hour browsing! Parking in downtown Charlottesville was going to be a challenge, but I found a spot not even a block from Deadalus! I took up two curbside spots, but I found parking! I had a lovely time browsing and when I went to pay, the owner of the store noticed that I had a pile of novels - he went in the back and got me a free book from the ones that they pull off the shelves because they aren't selling! The gift book is called Ship Fever by Andrea Barrett - I'd never heard of it, but it won the National Book Award! I'll give it a try!

 

Since my parking spot was only good for 2 hours and it wasn't a very appealing place to hang out, I decided to go find a park for lunch. I drove out to Pen Park and found a picnic table! It also seems that there's a network of bike paths that you can access from Pen Park, too bad I have a flat! It was a nice place for lunch and soon I was on my way north.

At the intersection of US29 and VA28 there's an ice cream stand called The Moo-Thru. Supposedly it has fabulous ice cream made from farm fresh milk. Every time I'd been by that area it had been closed. But today I was coming through at 2:00 in the afternoon on a hot sunny day! Perfect for ice cream! I had the cookie dough and it was very good! Even better, the "small" was actually small! Perfect size!

My final stop before home was A-1Cyling in Manassas. This is where I bought my bike and they do a great job fixing stuff! Ben quickly fixed my flat, and let me watch so I could learn what to do. They also had a kit available with everything you need to fix a flat on your own! Next time I can attempt to fix it myself!

Finally, by late afternoon I was home! Unloaded, dumped the black tank, and traded the vehicles!

 

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High Bridge Trail & Holliday Lake State Parks

I had a nice quiet night! No crazy alarms! It was chilly this morning so I started the furnace to take the chill off and it didn't set off the alarm!

After breakfast and stocking up on water I headed out to Farmville to ride my bike on High Bridge Trail. The trail is a Rail Trail and it is also a VA State Park. The whole trail is 30 miles long and the centerpiece of the trail is The High Bridge - a long trestle that spans the Appomattox River.

It was only about 30 minutes to Farmville and I quickly found the Muncipal Parking lot with free parking! And the trail, which was clearly marked by huge state park signs, crossed right next to it! The lot was huge and had plenty of space for Roxy. I walked up to where the trail crossed to look at the map and figure out a plan. I'd hoped to ride about 30 miles. Farmville is right in the middle of the trail. The High Bridge was 4.4 miles from where I was so I decided I'd go out there first and the come back & head the other direction.

The trail is finely crushed rocks - very smooth! The trail is also very straight - not many curves. I thought maybe it was going uphill but it was gentle and I'm not really sure. The scenery is rural and wooded. It almost reminds me of the Abingdon-Damascus stretch of the Virginia Creeper Trail, but the Creeper Trail is nicer!

The High Bridge was pretty neat. You could look at the tops of the trees! It was about a 1/2 mile long! Even the long high trestle on the Creeper Trail isn't that long! The bridge had several benches where you could sit & rest and take in the view. The thing that surprised me was that the river was very narrow! Almost could have passed for a creek! I guess the bridge had to be long & high so the train tracks could keep a steady grade across the valley.

 

 

After the bridge I kept going to almost the end of the trail - I was three miles from the end when I turned around. I'd ridden 12 miles so would have 24 by the time I rode back. The trail was about the same after the bridge as it was before - straight and tree lined. It was a nice ride but not that exciting.

As I got closer to Farmville my thighs and butt were ready for a break. My expensive padded biker shorts don't seem to help much! I was going to take a long lunch break and walk around Farmville a bit before going out for a 2nd, shorter ride.

It was nice to pull my shoes off and sit down on my bed in the RV to eat! While I ate I caught up on emails and Facebook since I figured I probably wouldn't have coverage at Holliday Lake. After lunch I set out to explore Farmville. I wasn't that impressed. It was mostly furniture stores and Longwood University. One small outdoor/bike store, no used book stores or yarn stores or antique stores! I did find a cafe that had ice cream! It was about 1:00 when I went back to the van to get ready for biking round two. I was going to ride to Tuggle - a 10 mile round trip.

As soon as I took the bike off the van I knew something was wrong. I looked down and sure enough, the front tire was flat! Ugh. I took it up to the bike shop, only to discover that they have a student who fixes bikes but he has classes on Wed so doesn't come in. Since I don't know how to change tires (yet!) my bike ride plans were over. I'm also seeing some business opportunities in Farmville, clearly they could use some more biker services! I think about Damascus that has I believe 4 bike shops/shuttle services!

So, with no more biking until I could fix my tire, I decided to head out to Holliday Lake and see what there was to do there. Like Bear Creek Lake, Holliday Lake was about 30 minutes from Farmville. Holliday Lake however is a lot more remote. As I suspected there is minimal cell signal. And, there was no one here! The park office was closed and I couldn't figure out how to register - I found another ranger who called the manager - she was at home having lunch! I'm one of 3 sites occupied in the campground tonight! (Last night I was one of 6! Wonder why no one is out? Spring Break, nice weather...).

After I got settled into my site I went out for a hike. The main trail around the lake is 6 miles long and I decided I didn't have time or energy for that. I did an out and back on one section of the lake trail, then took a trail to the other campground. It was only about 2 miles but it got me to 10k steps! (24 miles on my bike only registered 1500 steps! I gotten a few thousand walking in Farmville)

 

Back at the campground I sat in the shady corner of my campsite - the sun was hot! - and read until dinner. After dinner I took a walk to the spot where I'd had a fleeting internet signal earlier and did a quick check, then did a lap around the campground.

While I was eating dinner the other folks camped here returned and it looked like they had a FCPS parking permit in their car so I was kinda spying on them walking over there to see if there other clues about where they were from. As soon as they saw me they came out of their trailer and we started chatting. They are from Fairfax - she teaches 10th grade English! We stood around and chatted for almost 2 hours! I never got their names but they were really nice!

 

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Bear Creek Lake State Park

When I made my service appointment I decided I could get in a camping trip either before or after depending on when the weather would be best. Having Spring Break in March means the weather is always iffy. And, it's hard to find campgrounds open.

I'd been wanting to ride The High Bridge Trail in Farmville and it looked to be the perfect "if the weather cooperates" option to go with my trip to Richmond. I also discovered that Virginia State Park campgrounds are open year round (not sure if it's all of them, but many are!) and there were two State Parks close to Farmville.

I picked the closest one to Richmond, Bear Creek Lake, for the first night since I was expecting to be at Rusty's till late in the day. Since I got done so early, I was here for lunch! It's only an hour from Richmond straight out US60.

Despite the perfect weather, there aren't many sites occupied in the campground and I got my pick. I'd reserved a large RV site since the small RV site's limit was 20ft. The Ranger who checked me in saw my van and pointed me in the direction of some smaller sites and I'm glad she did because I hit one of the best sites in the campground, #17. It's one of a few with a lake view! And a picnic table that was in the full sun! It was in the 60s today so perfect for sitting in the sun for lunch! The site it just barely big enough for me and the road in is steep and twisty, so anything bigger than me wouldn't make it!

 

After lunch at my sunny picnic table I headed out to explore. The lake isn't very big and there are a bunch of trails. I managed to put together a figure-8 ish loop hike that was about 6 miles long. It was a nice hike, fairly easy, no big hills. I think I saw a bald eagle! It was a huge bird with a white tail, it flew off before I could get a good look.

 

After my hike I pulled my chair out and sat in the sun reading for awhile. Eventually I forced myself inside to put my bed back together - it wasn't as hard as it sometimes is! Now it's almost time for dinner and the sun is sinking low, the wind is picking up and it's getting chilly.

 

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Richmond Fun

My overnight in Richmond wasn't all about getting the RV fixed, I did find some time for fun too!

I'd planned to meet up with my aunt & uncle for dinner and when I got finished with my pre-service visit to Rusty it was only 2:30, so, since it was the nicest day we'd had in a while I decided to check out part of the Virginia Capitol Bike Trail. This bike trail is fairly new and runs right next to Route 5 from downtown Richmond to Jamestown. It's 53 miles total, but was only going to ride a few miles.

I parked at Great Shiplock Park right in Downtown Richmond, which happens to be the end of the trail - mile 53. I rode east - I was hoping to make it to where the trail crosses 295 but it turned out that was further than I had time to ride. While not being especially scenic, the trail was very nice - paved, wide, hilly. The first 2 miles or so were more urban but after than it was farmland/suburbs - a very different type of area than I was expecting.

I crossed the Pocahantas Parkway and I took out my phone to see how much further to a park I was aiming for and realized I needed to turn around and get moving toward my aunt & uncle's house. I'm glad I did...turns out I had a strong tailwind which became a headwind when I turned west! Glad I didn't try to press on the extra 3 (6 round trip!) miles!

After a quick snack and changing my clothes I headed over to Kim & Jason's. We ate at one of our favorite nearby Mexican resteraunts - Plaza Azteca - they had great veggie enchiladas! Jason, who lived most of his life in Alaska, and I were both coming off of two weeks of watching the Iditarod in Alaska so we had a lot to discuss including the fact that he knows my favorite musher, Aliy Zirkle!

After dinner we went back to Kim and Jason's. I'd been planning to sleep at the Bass Pro Shop right around the corner from Rusty but as the sun sank low and we kept talking I realized I was just gonna stay right there in their yard...continue the proud tradition of sleeping in people's yards and driveways!

I was paranoid about the LP/CO alarm going off in the night so I ended up disconnecting the battery again. I'd thought the neighborhood would be quieter than the store parking lot, but I might have been wrong - dogs barking all night and motorcycles going by on the main road a few blocks over.

This morning it was in the 30s and very chilly in the RV. I haven't used the propane furnace because it seems like evert time I use it the LP/CO alarm goes off, this morning I decided I didn't care and fired up the furnace! Wow! It got so toasty warm in the RV really fast! And, no alarm today!

 

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RV Service of Virginia

This is not a paid advertisement! I had great service at RV Service of VA and wanted to pass along to recommendation to anyone who might be in need of service!

As you all have heard, many times, on this blog, my fridge and my LP/CO dectector have been two thorns in my side in my RV. The LP/CO dectector started the 1st time I took the RV camping and the fridge hasn't been working right on propane for almost 2 years. It was time to fully address both problems. For years now my Dad has taken his RV to Rusty at RV Service of VA in Richmond and Rusty has helped him work through many frustrating, hard to solve issues with his RV so I decided this was the place to go. I'd called about a month ago and gotten an appointment for Tues of Spring Break. I'd planned to come down Monday night so I could be first on Tuesday. I'd blocked out the whole day, thinking it would be late afternoon before they were done.

I'd gotten some advice from a Facebook group I'm a part of that I should bring the proper LP/CO dectector with me to the service place so I'd be sure it was correct, and they would install it (it's hard wired so it works off the 12volt house battery). When I'd made my appointment, Rusty told me they had the dectectors there and I could buy one from him. I'd searched Amazon to find one but I had no idea what model number it was and the owner's manual covered multiple models. I'd been meaning to go over to the RV, crawl under the bed and get a picture of the dectector to get its model number but never did. I was hoping Rusty the one I needed.

Accessing the LP/CO dectector involves pulling the bed apart. Since it's such a pain to put it back together, I wanted to be sure Rusty had the model I needed ahead of time. When I arrived in Richmond Monday afternoon I went over to RV Service of VA to check. The model number isn't on the front of the dectector. You have to unscrew it, flip it over, and locate the number. I crawled under the bed with a screwdriver and my headlamp to take it apart. My screwdriver was too big. The lady who was helping me was really nice, I wish I'd remembered her name, she went in the shop and got me a smaller screwdriver and I tried again. Still didn't work. This time I got a good look at the screw. It wasn't a Phillips head, it was a tiny hex wrench. Ugh. At this point I gave up, decided I'd take the bed apart and hope for the best!

Lucky for me, they had a dectector in stock that worked for me! It's white and the old one was brown, but it's under the bed, no one sees it and as long as it doesn't false alarm at 2am, it's all good!

They also discovered that the burner tube in the fridge was all corroded, they replaced it and cleaned out all the lines. It was working perfectly in the shop! I have it plugged in in my campsite so haven't really had a chance to test it running on LP, but I'll be out biking all day tomorrow and that will be great test!

Both niggling little problems addressed, and it only took them 2 hours! By 10:30 I was on my way to fun! I'll definitely be going back there next time the RV needs service!

 

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