The first week of our trip was spent in Williamsburg, VA.  We stayed at the American Heritage RV Park and were very pleased.  The site was a back-in site, but it was fully paved, making leveling a breeze.  We looked at several campgrounds before selecting American Heritage, and we’re glad we stayed here.  If you’re looking for a campground near the Williamsburg area, I recommend staying at this park.

I hadn’t been to Colonial Williamsburg in at least twelve years.   We spent nearly a full day walking the streets, visiting the various shops, had lunch at Chowning’s Tavern, dinner at the Kings Arm’s Tavern… it was a great day.  My legs & feet were aching after all the walking!

One day was spent at Busch Gardens, Williamsburg and another at Kings Dominion.  Between those two parks, I think I got my fill of roller-coaster riding in for the year.  My head is still spinning from some of those rides.  We were very lucky in that the weather was outstanding for all three of these destinations.  However, the weather didn’t cooperate on the day we drove to the Shenandoah National Park. I used to spend a lot of time in that park when I lived in Richmond some 15 years ago.  Shenandoah has always been one of my favorite parks; some great trails are all throughout the park.  It was disappointing that one of my favorite, short hikes, Turk’s Mountain Trail, was cut short due to a torrential downpour that just wouldn’t let up.  We were at least ¾’s of the way into the hike when the skies opened up, lightning and thunder all around, etc… so we decided to high-tail it back to the car.  We were soaked!  Just visiting Shenandoah was nice, but I realized it will be some time again if I ever get a chance to return.

The rest of the time was spent doing what you’re supposed to be doing on vacation… relaxing!  I would wake up late, have some breakfast, sit outside listening to the radio, maybe doze off for a while, get up and have lunch, go take the dog for a walk, doze some more, time for dinner, relax a while more, then hit the hay.  My kind of day!

The trip was great.  Other than the rainstorm at Shenandoah National Park, nary a drop of rain fell on us.  Temps were in the 70′s and 80′s (nice change from the 90′s we’ve been having in Florida), and a nice breeze would blow through on occasion.  Being around trees other than Palm trees was a nice change as well.

I’ll post Week Two : Central Pennsylvania in a few days.  In the meantime, enjoy the Colonial Williamsburg pictures (below).

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It’s been a while since I’ve written anything on the blog, but frankly it’s been a while since we’ve been camping.  But I’m happy to say we just concluded a 2-week, 2200 mile trip with our travel trailer.  The trip went very well; only one slight mishap to report.  I forgot to fasten the lid on the propane tank cover and it blew off somewhere along the way.  Otherwise, everything worked extremely well and the trip was very enjoyable!

Our trip started in Melbourne, Florida, the first night was spent in Florence, South Carolina, and then the next week was in Williamsburg, Virginia.  Then it was off to Lewistown, Pennsylvania for a week, then back to Florence, South Carolina for a night, then home.  A lot of driving!  The 2008 Ford E-350 van pulled the trailer extremely well, the 5.4 liter V-8 did fine on flat runs, had to gear down a bit when pulling through the mountains of VA and PA, but the van was very stable.  I was quite impressed with how well an E-350 is as a tow vehicle.

I will be writing several articles about our trip over the next few days, so stay tuned.