After having had to defer our departure for more than a week, we were anxious to get on the road and anticipated a relatively easy day and early arrival at our planned first night’s stop in Ashland, VA.
Unfortunately, the gods had other plans!
Upon opening the door of our coach, we were surprised to discover that the temperature inside was a chilly 41, well below the 60 setting we’d programmed last night! Then when the lights failed to illuminate, I checked the now dim battery readout … 6.1v …. Making it abundantly clear that our two deep-cell “house” batteries, which I’d charged only a day earlier, had bitten the dust.
Rounding the first corner enroute to have the batteries replaced, I heard a loud THUD and soon discovered that we’d failed to secure one of our slide-out pantry cabinets.
Thus, the next hour was taken up changing batteries
and unsuccessfully trying reinstall the cabinet only to discover one of the rails had been bent beyond repair.
Finally ready to get underway, we hitched up our jeep only to discover that the auxiliary breaking system we install in the car while towing wasn’t working!
Nevertheless, persistence paid off and we finally headed south on I-95 with new batteries, a pantry cabinet jury-rigged in place and the secondary breaking device disconnected.
Yet, less than 20 miles down the road, we ran into a 6-mile construction-created traffic jam heading into Philadelphia.
Finally breaking free, our journey was relatively uneventful, making good time with surprisingly light traffic … other than crossing exposed bridge spans over the Susquehanna River and the Francis Key Scott Bridge in Baltimore
where the cross winds were gusting well above 20 MPH
and severely buffeting our motorhome making driving a bit of a challenge.
With two cities behind us and being a couple of hours ahead of rush hour, we figured we’d be in by mid-afternoon. SURPRISE!
Five minutes into Virginia, we ran into the first to two miserable traffic jams;
the causes of which remain a mystery.
Despite detouring onto a section of HOV express lanes these tie-ups cost us an additional hour of travel.
We finally made it to Ashland just before 5:00 PM. We’d hoped to take on fresh water, but with the temperatures due to dive to the low to mid 20s tonight.
Still, we’re back on the road and enjoying a glass of wine as I write.
Life is good!