April 13 - 16, 2013 The new adventure begins

Once again we are headed west into the unknown. Alaska? West Coast? Middle America? We can travel where and when the whim takes us. Retirement is incredible. Blessings again go to Brenda and Ray, our house sitters, for the care they give to our house and cat while we are gone. Of course they get to see all those fabulous perennials come up and we miss seldom do in the spring anymore.

The truck trade from a 2010 F-350 to a 2013 F-450 is behind us. A bit of a delay on getting the camper loaded as we had to go over to Truck Camper Warehouse in NH and get Torklift tie downs, bump stops and air bags installed. It's a monster of a truck and the longer wheel base adds so much ease to carrying the Chalet truck camper. We also ordered a TadiBrothers rear view wireless camera system to replace the one that went with the F350. Install of that has not been easy or satisfying. It works some times but is getting interference from somewhere.

We left Maine in a small snow squall on the 13th of April. After an overnight stop in a Cracker Barrel lot in PA, we arrived at Assateague National Seashore to once again enjoy the ocean, beaches, horses and the smells of spring. The forsythia is out, buds on all the trees and no dirty left over snow piles. Two truck camper couples we know arrived and we enjoyed chatting, walking and watching the wild horses. It was sunny, 70 degrees and windy as usual.

 Assateague took a hit from Storm Sandy also. Lots of erosion along the beaches and the trees have paid the price.

On the 16th we arrived at Tall Pines Campground in Temperenceville, VA on the bay side of the Eastern Shore. This campground got a tremendous hit from Storm Sandy but has replaced electric power lines, water lines, gravel roads, etc. to get ready for the camp season. By Saturday around 190 truck campers had arrived and we shared stories, equipment hints, fire pits, and meals. Great to see so many familiar faces and meet new ones. There are a lot of new campers and trucks among this group. Many many photos of this rally can be seen on the Mid Atlantic Truck Camper Rally web site.

Weather varied from 75 and sunny to a big night thunderstorm that left lakes among the campers. Activities included a pie eating contest, raffles, a kid's parade decorated in Americana, fireworks and more fire pit socializing. TadiBrothers drop shipped a replacement rear view camera lenses but it still doesn't work well. We will go to XTreme Campers in NC and have Mike O take a look at it for us.

It's just plain enjoyable to be by the water in the 60-70 degree range.