It snowed the day before we left. Just a little, thank goodness, but combined with the -12C temperature, it was enough to have us wish we had left earlier. Like last month.
Our first planned stop in the States was at a camping store in Syracuse, where we had a 10% discount coupon. Hubby was looking at expensive "tools" ( I heard "toys" ). But they also thought we had left too late, as they were already on winter hours and not open on Sundays. Oh well. More money for me to spend down south. But oh no. We would just hit another store on the way.
Our travel day was full of adventures, like the nasty snow squalls we hit in the mountains of New York and Pennsylvania State. We survived those by slowing down, engaging the 4 wheel drive and even following a snowplow for a while, but by the time we cleared the bad weather, both truck and trailer were splattered and grey.
Not the nice shiny aluminum that usually covers the trailer, but the ugly road salt and mud grey. And since it was still around -10C, the windshield washer on my side froze, leaving a swipe of grey in front of me. Being the navigator, I had a hard time seeing as we were driving through Binghamton, and I managed to get us lost. Somehow we held right instead of staying on the I-81. It was quite amusing to the residents of a narrow, hilly neighbourhood to see this dirty Airstream driving up their street trying to get back to the highway.
On our headlong flight to warmer climes, we followed the not recommended but often used method of overnighting in parking lots. Our first night was spent at a Walmart. There had been very few RVs on the road with us going south; obviously because we were late, and other than a trucker, we were the sole occupants of the back of the lot. By the time we hit the I-95 south of Baltimore the next day, there were lots of RV's on the road.
Once we were pretty sure the temperature was going to stay above the freezing mark, we really wanted to wash the vehicles. The grey salt coating made us stand out - and not in a good way. A trucker in North Carolina ( who wanted to know where the heck we had been to look like that ) directed us to a truck wash service near the highway. Half an hour later, we were proud of our rig again.
The rain started the next day. It rained so hard at times that the windshield wipers couldn't keep up. We stopped several times, mostly at visitor centers, and by late afternoon our stalling tactics had worked. By the time we reached our campground, the waterworks had stopped.
We settled into a site in Fort Clinch State Park, Florida, surrounded by sand dunes and only a major league pitcher's throw away from the Atlantic Ocean. A lovely place for a walk on the beach and a day's rest.
We were back on the road again in 36 hours, dashing west towards the Gulf Coast. Without the snow, this time.
W
