TRAVEL DAY
From: Nummy Lake Recreation Area, Belleplain State Forest, CCC Campground, Woodbine, NJ.
To: HOME.
Day 404 – It was 30 degrees with no wind this morning when we got up. We sat around with our coffee and tea, looking at the NY Times online. Relaxing, but it’s never feel-good news. The fact that we’re heading home soon is always in the back of our minds. There’s so much to do when you get home, and we really didn’t want this trip to end. What shape will the house be in? Have mice invaded during our 13+ months of being on the road? Have big trees come down and are they blocking our driveway? What appliances will come back on, and what will need to be fixed? Unpacking the RV, now that’s always fun. I’m thinking I should just go back to bed.
What should we do today, though? One of the things we wanted to do while we were camping here was to go to Cape May to observe the Hawk migration. We did that many years ago. The Hawks, Falcons, and Eagles fly over the tip of land at Cape May on their way south each year for winter. The city has piers and platforms where people congregate to take pictures of the migrating birds or to watch them fly over. But this year we won’t be going to Cape May after all. The birds are flying by later these days and it’s just too cold and windy to stand outside for any length of time. Better luck next time. At least we are in the car with the heat on when we go on the Refuge Auto Tours.
We were considering going back to the Wildlife Refuge today, but why? Just killing time until our departure date, Monday? Sunday the winds are picking up and we’d just be staying here at the campground; we don’t want to drive anywhere on Sunday. So at 9:45 a.m. this morning, we decided: why not leave today for home? It was a surprise to us that we made this decision and it was a bigger surprise to the girls. Once we started bustling around, putting things up, emptying their water dishes, securing cabinet doors shut, etc., they knew we were going to travel and they weren’t pleased.
The bedroom full of meowing cats, we departed after dumping tanks at 11:15 a.m. It was 38 degrees and sunny. We’ve made the drive from Maryland to New York many times, but we hadn’t driven from the Woodbine area of New Jersey often, especially lately. We had not brought our New Jersey map book; we didn’t know we’d be traveling from the south and had only brought the northern map books. So we left the driving up to the GPS. Always an adventure, we were routed through neighborhoods, nice and not-so-nice. Over, under, and around the Garden State Parkway. Wonderfully maintained highways and bumpy, pot-holed narrow roads. We made a couple of stops to try to figure out our route, and later, additional stops for gas in the RV and a lunch break with the kitties (who did eventually settle down). Once we were in more familiar territory, we settled in, also.
We arrived at our house in NY at 4:20 p.m. It was 35 degrees and partly cloudy. We could park in the driveway, no trees were down there, but so many leaves were down that it was hard to see what was driveway and what was formerly lawn. We rushed to get the girls and various overnight necessities from the RV and into the house before dark. We’ll have plenty of time to completely clean out the RV later.