Saturday a.m. – August 23 – Elizabethtown, PA

Yesterday, Friday, was one of the toughest days on the trip so far. Although the Interstate roads have been quite good (compared to last year’s travels), when we left Virginia, the road surfaces turned rough.

I was surprised traveling north on I-81, when we left Virginia, we found ourselves in West Virginia I had thought we’d go directly from Virginia into Pennsylvania. But no, not only did we cross some 30 miles of West Virginia, but then 12 miles of Maryland. A quick glance at the map showed a strange contour of state lines in that neck of the woods. West Virginia pokes eastward and almost cuts off Maryland.

Anyway, the roads in WV, Maryland, and Pennsylvania were quite rough, no doubt due to the heavy traffic. It was a jarring ride accompanied by fellow drivers who were either overly slow and cautious or downright reckless. I know it was a Friday afternoon, but it was the most traffic we’ve seen so far.

After stopping at the Pennsylvania visitor’s center where only direct questions were answered, no additional information or general knowledge dispensed, we had our first RV camping surprise of the trip. Our intended destination was the general area of Harrisburg, York, Lancaster, and Reading. This is the Amish / Mennonite farm land of Pennsylvania; an area Margaret has visited briefly several years ago and was anxious to re-visit.

Alas, none of the RV parks we called had vacancies. Apparently, the last week of August is the busiest time of the year. Who knew? We finally were able to find a KOA just south of Elizabethtown. Just on the edge of the map and not exactly the epicenter of Amish-land, but better than Wal-Mart. The second surprise was the price. We’ve become accustomed to the $25 – 30 per night RV park rates or less (that’s with full hookups). The KOA was $52/night. I did get the KOA discount of 15% with their membership card, but it was still a surprise. It is a nice KOA, very clean, services, pool, golf, basketball, a shuttle, etc., hence the price.

Our last surprise of the day was the road / map directions to the RV park were less than stellar. We overshot as the turn to the KOA which was reached via a short connecting road that was indicated but not named on the map. We ended up on some narrow, scary back roads amid tight turns and corn fields with no idea where we were (including frequent detour and bridge-out signs). By seat-of-the-pants navigation, we managed to circle around to where we had first gotten lost, called the camp-ground and received precise directions. When we pulled in just before 5:00 pm, we were exhausted. Glad every day isn’t like that.

A couple more photos today from Staunton, VA, taken down-town.