We tearfully left our family in Boston (actually I’m not sure the children even noticed, they were busy bouncing on a trampoline, that’s life . . .) and headed out back on the road well rested by our time in a real building and bed but also excited to be getting back into the truck and making our way back south.  Our first stop was not too far away in Narragansett, RI.  Javier lived there for a year and a half and was where he started his graduate degree so he’s got a lot of fond memories of the place. Well, buster you can’t go home!  He was shocked to find that the apartment he used to live in, a converted attic near the beach, had been knocked down to make way for a larger apartment complex. That’s progress. Still Narragansett was pleasant as ever and the weather was relatively bright so it was fun to traipse about, check out old haunts and see how things were going.  We spent a couple of nights in the truck at Fisherman’s Memorial State Park and then hit the road toward PA.

Now, given that we had put roughly 12,000 miles on the truck at this point, and just given the odd looking sight that it is, you would have thought that we would’ve had a curious member of law enforcement stop to check us out.  Well it finally happened outside of Hickory Run State Park in PA.  We were cruising down the highway doing what we thought was the speed limit, 55, when a state trooper pulled behind us and tailed us for what seemed like forever.  He finally turned on his lights and we pulled over curious to see what he’d say.  He came to the window and I think was a little disappointed to find that we weren’t a couple of hippie teenagers with pot smoke billowing out of the cab.  He took our license and registration and then returned to let us know that he was giving us a “warning” for a) not being able to see out the rearview mirror (we had neglected to take down the curtain in the back) & b)  . . . DRIVING TOO SLOW . . . Hahahahahahaaa!!!   . . . apparently doing 55 on Pennsylvania highways is “15” miles under the speed limit and we were impeding the flow of traffic.  Sure buddy.  Anyway, we thanked him for the clarification, promised we’d drive faster and then went on our way.  We were just a few minutes from the State Park and it was a nice change of scenery to the bluster we’d just encountered.

The plan was to stay there a couple of evenings and check out the small town of Danville, PA where Javi had lived when he was little.  The next morning we woke up, checked out an amazing boulder field in the State Park and then headed into Danville.  We had lunch at the river that was near Javi’s old house and then went on a hike in a local park.  We had arranged to meet with a couple of old family friends who took us in for the evening and bought us an amazing dinner.

The next day we were back on the road and were really excited to make Shenandoah National Park our next camping spot.  We drove Skyline Highway to Big Meadow campground and were stoked to discover that they had spaces available and that they were only $17 per night.  We were both so glad that we opted to include Shenandoah on our itinerary because it ended up being, not only one of the best campsites, but some of the best weather that we got on our trip.  While we were there, we enjoyed multiple hikes, checked out some waterfalls, took in some great info at the visitor center and Javi also managed to split open his head during a rain storm.  As he was rushing to get back into the camper when the rain started, he bashed the top of his forehead into the lath on the camper shell and knocked himself on his butt.  While he was lucky to have been wearing a hat, as soon he saw the look on Laura’s face he knew it was a doozie, and as he reached up and touched the spot he hit himself at he knew it wasn’t rain that was moistening his hand.  Once he got his bearings he washed up in the bathroom and realized it wasn’t as bad as it first seemed, no stitches, no bandaids, just some Neosporin and he was back in action the next day. But Laura was a little traumatized from all the blood.

We wrapped up the excitement in Shenandoah and headed to another of Javi’s graduate haunts, Charlottesville, VA. A night out in C’ville was all we really needed and we hit the road one more time stopping in a deluge at Hungry Mother State Park in southern Virginia.  It was a real shame that the weather had entered “torrential” mode because it was our last camping for who knows how long and it seemed like the state park was a real gem.  The next morning we shook off whatever water had pooled up on the truck and hit the open road for what would be the last time.  Our destination was Chattanooga Tennessee and a short week of family, friends and preparing for our leap over the pond . . . but first, Birthdays and Anniversary celebrations in Texas!!!