Monday, May 28, 2018

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!

Day 1 – We went to bed very tired last night after a busy day of packing up most of our remaining belongings, tools, supplies, etc.  And we still had all the last-minute packing & chores to do before leaving today. The girls were troopers, none of them offering resistance when we brought them out to the RV. Gracie immediately began playing with her favorite toy; the other three just meandered about checking everything out. When we came out with the final load of stuff, we found two of them already in the bedroom, lying on the bed, ready to hit the road. We departed home at 11:40 a.m.  It was cloudy and 62 degrees.

263 miles (5:10) 28998-29261

Leaving from home May 28, 2018

We didn’t know when we left exactly where we’d be camping on night one. There were several campgrounds in Massachusetts where we’d stayed before. Any of those would be fine for an overnighter. We didn’t know what to expect with the traffic, this being the last day of a three-day holiday weekend. Most people are heading home after the holiday weekend. For some people, Memorial Day signals the beginning of the summer vacation season. If the traffic was bad, we were prepared to stop in a couple of hours. Otherwise, we’d stop further along, getting as far as possible through the long journey on the MASS Turnpike (a.k.a., I-90).

The loooong Mass Turnpike!

We took the NYS Thruway to I-90 & crossed into MA. The traffic heading our way (north & east) was surprisingly light. But we were glad we weren’t headed in the opposite direction. Heavy traffic on both the Thruway and the Turnpike. After crossing into MA, we stopped at the  CAT Scales (weigh station) to see how we did with distributing the weight for this trip.

Still trying to get our weight distribution right!

We flunked. We both thought we’d done well packing up since we were aware that we had too much weight in the back on the last trip. We were disappointed to find that more juggling things around would be necessary. (Wine & Beer is heavy, you know? LOL.)

We stopped for lunch. The high today was 69 degrees. We drove beyond the first several campgrounds since the cats weren’t complaining, the traffic wasn’t bad, and we weren’t ready to stop for the night yet. We stopped near the New Hampshire border in Salisbury, MA and got a campsite at Salisbury Beach State Reservation. We’ve stayed here several times before. We got site #D27 with water & electric; there was a dump station at the Park. It’s basically a very large parking lot with hook-ups and some trees. It’s a popular Park because it’s on the Ocean. There’s fishing, boating, swimming, etc. and there’s lots to do nearby. It’s also a convenient stopping place between Maine and Massachusetts. Because it was a Monday at the end of a holiday weekend and school was still in session, we weren’t worried about not having reservations. But it’s hard to get into this campground without reservations during the summer season.

Salisbury Beach State Reservation, Salisbury, MA

Site 27, Salisbury Beach State Reservation, Salisbury, MA

It was 4:50 p.m. when we arrived, cloudy & 62 degrees. We did a quick, minimal unpacking & were hooked up & relaxing with the cats at 5:30. Not too shabby. But we wanted to get the weight in better balance in the RV so we moved a bunch of stuff around from back to front in preparation for weighing again the next time we came to a weigh station. Tired after that, we had Salmon Wraps for dinner and were in bed early. Tomorrow we head for Freeport, Maine.