We only had a 175 mile trek today and we got on the road about nine. It wasn’t exactly a pleasant drive for Bob. We went through two watersheds and the roads were up and down and they twisted this way and that. Add in a considerable amount of 18 wheelers all hell-bent on making good time and it was kind of nerve wracking for him. I just read my book and stayed quiet.
We made one last stop before we made the last leg of our journey. We wanted to ask the locals about the best way to go in. Directions in hand we proceeded.
Oh My. What a drive this was. We are going to be up in the mountains and this happens to be the highest elevation in Virginia. We went through a little town called Damascus and then started up the mountain.
It was a twisty, winding, two lane road with a stream on our side of the road and trees and solid rock on the side of the lane coming down off the mountain. There were some mighty tight turns. There were curves where you couldn’t see what was coming the other way. Sometimes cars and trucks whose drivers know these roads were coming down the other way and to us first timers it seemed like they were driving like bats outta hell.
There were sections where it seems we were driving straight up and all I could think of was everything in the 5th wheel shifting. I can tell you we were thankful for The Beast.
After a trip that seemed to take forever and that surely took years off our lives, we finally arrived at Beartree Campground.
We stopped at the gate and met some of our co-camp hosts. We were greeted warmly.
We were led to our loop by a fellow camp host. This place is huge! We met our next door neighbors on the way and when they walked away they said, “Good luck parking that thing!” Didn’t exactly leave us with a warm and fuzzy feeling. When we got to our site we understood what they meant.
The first thing you have to understand is the loop is going uphill and it’s a one lane road with gullies on either side. Every RV’er who just read that shivered. Go ahead, admit it.
Bob got the truck into position to back it in and I just held my breath. There was no wiggle room here to work with. Did he get it in on the first try? No, but he did on the second. It didn’t go in with just one back up there was some pulling forward and backing up again to get our home perfectly lined up with the deck already in place.
Shortly after we got in Butch & Cathy, our next door neighbors came over for a short visit. They knew we had a lot to do to get set up so they didn’t stay long.
So here we are. On top of a mountain, with NO CELL SERVICE, NO INTERNET! and we haven’t had time to set up the Directv so for now, NO TV. We knew there would be no cell service unless we went into Damascus but there is a phone here we can use that has free long distance. TV? Our neighbors have Directv so we know we can get a connection there. That will have to wait until tomorrow.
We got a lot done today but we’re not completely set up yet.
We were brought a golf cart for our use this summer.
Dinner was more or less find what you can. Bob had grilled sandwiches and I had Cap’n Crunch cereal.
We settled in to watch some movies and around 8 o’clock the park manager, Edie, dropped in to welcome us. She’s just as nice as I thought she would be from the few phones calls we’ve had and the private messages we’ve typed back and forth on Facebook.
If our first impressions hold true this is going to be a great summer.
We don’t start workamping until next Tuesday so we have four days to finish getting set up, thoroughly cleaning the house inside and out, getting a feel for the lay of the land and seeing Bob’s sister Cathy. She is, after all, the reason we are here.
There is an WIFI at the gate house/office, so we can go there and get online. I’ll be working in the office four or five days a week so I’ll type my blog posts in Live Writer and then upload them from there. When I work I can satisfy my Candy Crush addiction. In fact, we’ve already decided that we’re going to look into getting a booster antenna so that maybe we can have Internet from our site. I’m keeping my fingers crossed on that one.
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