Drive to Boston

Aug. 11-12, 2008

After dropping mom off at the Newark airport, Shaune and I started our trip to Boston. We drove all the way through Connecticut on the 84 to the 90, then turned south to get as close to Wompatuck State Park as we could. We stayed the night in a Walmart parking lot since we arrived late. Wednesday morning we drove to the state park, a 4,000-square-foot park, thickly settled with trees and ferns that is just 15 miles outside of Boston, located in the very posh neighborhood of Hingham.

We quickly set up the RV so that we could take off and meet our friends Jessica and Todd nearby to drive to Cape Cod for a few days. Technically, we weren't supposed to keep the RV at the site if we weren't staying there, but like most state parks, no one seems to monitor this type of thing. Now, park a wheel or part of the trailer off of the gravel just slightly, and a park ranger will appear as if out of no where. It's a great policy though, otherwise, each site would slowly expand into nearby vegetation. We left before lunch to meet our friends.

Family visit in New York

Aug. 1-11, 2008
Hopewell Junction, New York

Nearly two months into our trip, it was great to arrive in Hopewell Junction, New York to see my grandparents and family. Mom was able to schedule a visit at the same time, which was great. From DC, we took the most direct route possible into New York - the lovely New Jersey Turnpike. We skirted around the gritty industrial city of Baltimore, just missed Philadelphia, which were considering visiting but changed our minds to save time, and traveled on the NJT until we were able to avoid NY city traffic by getting on the Garden state parkway followed by the 287 to the 87. We stopped for a night near the 287/87 junction in a town called Airmont. The town seemed like any other town within the reaches of NY city: lowslung strip malls built in the late 80s with family-owned Italian pizza and sub takeouts, chinese restaurants, donut shops. But we also noticed a majority hasidic Jewish population. Kosher delis and synagogues stood next to drycleaners owned by Koreans and gas stations run by East Asians. School buses were driven by men with black top hats, single ringlets of hair tucked behind each ear. We decided this area merited a Walmart sleepover. By the time we parked the RV, we were no longer within walking distance of any Jewish specialty eating spots, so we settled for some disappointing pasta instead.

The next day we awoke early and drove a short distance to Sylvan Lake Beach Campground on the east side of the Hudson River and 10 miles or so from my grandparents house in Wappingers Falls. Mom met us there after we arrived, and strangely, this lake was where she and her brother and sisters used to go for afternoons when they were kids. The sleepy park hadn't changed at all, she noticed. The lake was nice, situated just downhill from our site. The thick grass was a vibrant green, the smell of the moss on the rocky ground reminded me of the smell of my grandparent's house; a smell that always reminds me of summers spent in NY as a child.

We spent the week visiting my grandparents, playing Password, eating takeout. It was a great week, and on Saturday, Shaune and I took the one and a half hour train ride into NY city for the day. Although we weren't planning on seeing a show, we ended up buying some half-priced ticked for a matinee showing of Avenue Q (a modern, cynical adult take on Sesame Street). It was fantastic, as usual, and Shaune's first Broadway show. We walked all the way from Times Square to Chinatown to the New York Noodle House (there are hundreds sharing this name, no doubt) on the corner of Bowery and Pell. At last, we had again the incredible salted shrimp, cooked with a layer of salt, delicious juice spilling out from the middle. They truly are remarkable. Also, we happened to be in the city on the first Saturday of five when they closed 4th and 5th avenues to traffic. There were hordes of cyclists and pedestrians enjoying the car-free areas. It was a bit strange, by habit, you still looked out for reckless cabs and stray motorcyclists. As always, the city was incredibly exciting, and made us both want to move there once again.

Washington, DC

Washington, D.C.

Despite paying quite a bit for a RV park that was just 5 minutes from the College Park metro station, DC turned out to be a lot of fun. The first night, shaune and I stayed at a Walmart near the Anacostia River, which apparently, we learned later is the less desirable part of town. Worked out for us, because we had a ton of laundry to do, and these areas are better for that sort of thing. Anyway, the next day we checked into Cherry Hill Park campground, only the second private campground that we have stayed at. It had all the amenities, which was nice since we spent most of the weekend in the city and the dogs needed the aircon running in the DC humidity.

We had a great time wandering around, visited most of the memorials on the Mall, including the Korean memorial, which was by far our favorite. We also visited one wing of the National Gallery, where I was thrilled to see three more Vermeer paintings, including my favorite, Girl with a Red Hat. We also visited the Holocaust museum. This was particularly moving for me, I recently visited the Holocaust museums in Berlin and Jerusalem, and found the one in DC to be by far the most informative and compelling.

I was very happy to see all of the Obama T-shirts on sale throughout the city. His face was everywhere. Of course, the danger there is that the Republicans will manage to convince a short-sighted public that his popularity is somehow a bad thing, akin to celebrity status, as though that were a bad word. They have certainly already tried, we shall see if it works. There were quite a few groups protesting a potential war with Iran in front of the White House, but other than that, the Capital was pretty quiet.

We spent an extra day touring the city since we were waiting for a package for Shaune that was a bit delayed.

Dead End of the Bay

July 26, 2008
Romancoke, Maryland

Both of us were looking for a place to stop where we could look far out into the Chesapeake Bay, so the next day before getting to the Bay Bridge, we simply drove south down a local road to Romancoke, an unincorporated town that is basically a volunteer fire station and community center that dead ends into the Bay. In no rush to get to DC, we decided to park up for the night.

In one of our more stressful RV moments, we backed the RV into the local electricity cable overhead, and nearly tore the metal luggage rack off, taking the entire cable with us. I guess we were lucky, but getting out of the tangled mess was quite a scene: throwing wooden spoons up to shaune who was balanced on top to untangle the cable. In the end, no major harm was done, and we spent the evening eating our Chinese stir fry that we made on a desolate pier in the Bay. The view was spectacular, but other than that, there was nothing else for miles. We threw our crab trap out, but the crabs seemed to have outsmarted us, grabbing most of our the chicken drumstick without setting it off.

Maryland Blue Crabs

July 23-25, 2008
St. Michaels, Maryland

St. Michaels is as idyllic as it looks like it would be on a map. Situated on a the tip of a narrow piece of land that juts into the Chesapeake Bay, the town has worked hard to preserve its picturesque main street and older homes near the harbors. I can only imagine the building regulations that exist there in order to keep it this way.

We stayed in a Walmart parking lot in nearby Easton, which is also a cool town with a much more diverse Hispanic community. The next day we moved the RV to the parking lot of a local recreational park just outside of town, underneath a water tower. Strangely, there were no RV parks for 60 miles, private or state-run.

Famous for blue crabs, we couldn't leave Maryland without experiencing them. We checked a few restaurants, but they seemed way too expensive, so we chose to sit outside of Big Al's Seafood Market on a picnic table and ate a half dozen jumbo crabs that they cooked for us. It was perfect, and John, who worked there was very patient in showing us each step of how to clean a crab. It's quite a production, but truly worth the work.

I hate to say it, but it is so great to travel without loads of tacky billboards, so prevalent in the South, especially Georgia. Signs such as "Jesus Allows U-Turns" and the like I can do without, permanently. And, Maryland gets the prize for best recycling! These colorful egg-like bins are everywhere, and offer full recycling, not just aluminum cans that you get in the South, if you are lucky. I think areas of the south have quite a lot to learn from northern states.

Leaving the South

July 21-23, 2008
Pocomoke State Park, Maryland After a few weeks on the beach, both of us were ready to see something new (this sounds incredibly spoiled, but for a trip this long, too much time just relaxing can actually become old). After a short drive, we left the Outer Banks and reached Virginia. Negotiating through Virginia Beach-Norfolk traffic, we stopped off at the visitor's center just before the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, which connects Virginia's Eastern Shore with the mainland. Once of the seven engineering wonders of the world, the bridge was really cool to see. The crossing consists of a series of low-level trestles interrupted by two approximately one-mile-long tunnels beneath Thimble Shoals and Chesapeake navigation channels. The manmade islands, each approximately 5.25 acres in size, are located at each end of the two tunnels. As usual, Shaune did an incredible job driving in challenging situations, although we did have to take off the car at the visitor's center as there were no U-turns and we couldn't turn the RV around without removing the car. Anyway, as soon as you arrive on the Eastern Shore, life seems to slow instantly. This is probably one of the least "discovered" places I have seen. It's surprising, considering the Bay stretches the length of the land and the ocean on the other. We slowly drove north to Maryland via Hwy 13 through a few small towns, stopping off at produce stands for fresh tomatoes and corn.

We randomly chose Pocomoke River State Park in southern Maryland to spend a few days. In two days we never saw any one associated with the park, but it was well maintained and the river was a stones throw away from the site. The kayaking was great here, the river at times was so still it seemed like you were on a sheet of glass. The park itself was dense with evergreen forest and vibrant flowering trees. A short cycle ride away, we found someone selling free-range eggs from their chickens that roamed their yard. I nearly forgot how delicious eggs can be, we haven't had eggs this fresh since Thailand. We also had electric hookups, which makes life much easier for Shaune when he works on his computer.

Learning to Fish

July, 08
Cape Hatteras, North Carolina

After a few days on Ocracoke, we drove to Frisco, a short drive north up the coast to a new campground. We heard that these campgrounds fill up quickly, but there seemed to be loads of space available. When you arrive to a state park campground, they let you drive around and pick your top two choices, which gives you the chance to get really great sites in some cases. We chose a site that with an expansive view of rolling sand dunes covered with sea oats ending with the endless Atlantic ocean. The only downside was that there were no hookups, and no dump station nearby, which meant we had to be very conservative with water and electricity. Our week was mostly spent basking in the sun, reading, and of course, fishing. I went out nearly every morning to the shore with fresh shrimp and a fishing rod and fished for hours. Aside from a few croaker fish that were too small to eat, my fishing attempts were largely unsuccessful. But, I did get a nice tan on the left side of my body. Nevermind, it was fun, and I have a new appreciation for the art of fishing! Fortunately, there was a great local seafood shop a few miles away in Hatteras Village, where we bought fresh flounder nearly every night.

While we were there, Hurricane Cristobal threatened with floods and 60mph winds, but aside from some heavy grey clouds and pelting rain, what we saw of the storm was pretty mild, considering.

Although the beach here is incredible, it is a shame that trucks are allowed on the beaches. During busy afternoons, it's actually difficult to see the shore through all of the cars. There seems to be an intense debate on the Outer Banks on this: most locals insist that if the right to drive on the beach were removed, local businesses would suffer. On the other hand, environmental groups are pushing to ban vehicles entirely. I can see both sides of the argument, but from a tourists perspective, it really pollutes the beach experience. And, personally, I think that if you can't carry all of your things from the parking lot to the beach, you are simply bringing way too much stuff!

After a week there, we moved north to Oregon Inlet campground, just south of Kitty Hawk. The site wasn't as nice as Frisco, but the area is a mecca for shore and pier fishers, so we wanted to give fishing another shot. At this point, I have received quite a bit of "local" fishing advice: the most recent insisted that squid was the bait of choice. Armed with squid, a bucket, and a fishing kit, shaune and I went down to the Inlet bridge and fished off the rocks most afternoons. Finally, I caught a flounder that was just large enough to bring home. As a treat, we rented a double kayak and explored the Sound side of the strip. We paddled through marshy paths, some just deep enough to make it through. The sound is full of life: schools of shrimp leaping out of the water, herons, turtles, you name it.