Saturday 6 July
I woke up not feeling great today. I wasn’t feeling fantastic on the 4th, and by that night was not feeling like celebrating anyway, but this morning was worse. Nothing serious, just achy and tired and in need of a day in bed. Not possible here!
We set off at 8am from the town of Dunn and our motel stop there. We had seen signs for a factory outlet selling a range of things that was called JR’s and sounded a bit like Wall Drug with its range, so we decided to stop there on our way out of North Carolina. I sat in the front with Ross and dozed…and was no help or support to him for the rest of the day!
After a few purchases of souvenirs, we returned to the RV to travel on to DC. I booked us in last night to a KOA just north of Washington DC, which offers a shuttle bus in, with drop off and pick up at the Capitol Building. I went and had a sleep and woke up to find Ross had stopped at Denny’s for lunch. (Actually, they had stopped at Waffle House at Tim’s request, but I couldn’t stomach that, so convinced them to have a main meal at Denny’s and save waffles for another day). We are finding it convenient to have a main meal during the day when travelling of meat and vegetables etc at a restaurant and then we just do a light dinner in the RV once we have found a campground and set up for the night.
After Denny’s, I felt awake and thought I should sit up front and encourage Ross again in his Herculean effort of driving. Yesterday he did 378 miles, today 335 miles. I lasted all of about half an hour, swapped with Tim who IS good at supporting Ross while driving, and went and had another sleep. The older four kids take turns in the front, chatting to Ross, bringing him water and snacks, watching the Navman to make sure we don’t miss any turns; and today Jarrod started reading aloud to Ross as he is the only one who has not been able to read any of the novels he has while away.
Anyway, I slept right through Virginia, and woke up to find Ross backing the RV into our parking spot at the Maryland KOA!
We were given the last spot available here, and are very thankful for it! The place is buzzing with activity and people – I even had to wait to use the laundry which has not happened anywhere else. As well as the shuttle bus to DC, the place has a large playground, jumping pillow, outdoor table tennis and snooker and chess, and a large pool with lifeguard on duty. And tonight they had a free icecream social at 7pm and a movie at 8.30pm. The kids started to watch ‘Finding Nemo’ but admitted to being tired so we brought them back to the RV for bed before the movie finished. It appears no one else has had as much sleep as me today – I don’t have much idea at all of what went on, it is all a blur as I slept through most of it!