We're back in VA for the 4th! We’ve been incommunicado for a few days; apparently Connecticut should really be called not-Connected-cut. But we’ll get to that later. First, let me catch you up on everything since last you read.
On the drive down from Vermont, we stopped at what my good friend Nancy calls Mecca—the King Arthur Flour company store in Norwich, VT. It’s like walking right into the catalog. If you haven’t seen the King Arthur catalog, you’re really missing out. Well, if you’re a baker, that is. They’ve got anything and everything you could ever want to make cookies, cakes, pies, bread…including ingredients, pans, cookie cutters, rolling pins, even mixes if you don’t want to bake from scratch. There’s even a bakery right there in the store if you don’t feel like making your own. We picked up a few mixes that we wouldn’t normally buy (the catalog doesn’t list all the ingredients, and you know how I obsess about what the kids eat!) and some cookies for eating on the spot. Yum-Mee! 
We pretty much blew through Massachusetts. I’d love to go see Boston and Cape Cod and Lexington and Concord and all that, but we just didn’t have time to see all that and get back to Virginia in time for the Fourth of July. So we’ll have to do another trip to BeanTown some day.
We spent two nights at the Nelson Family Campground in East Hampton, CT. They had a pool and pond for swimming and fishing (no fishing in the pool) and a lot of “seasonal” visitors. This means folks who bring in their trailer and leave it hooked up all summer. In fact, all three of the campgrounds we’ve stayed at in the North East have had a lot of seasonal campers. This is something I’ve never seen on the West coast or mid-West when camping as a kid. I talked to one older couple who kept dog biscuits on hand just in case a dog walker happened by. I guess that’s their way of luring people in to chat. They’ve been coming to the Nelson Family Campground for 19 years now. The funny thing is, they only live 12 miles away. They said they stay at the campground for 4 or 5 days, then drive home to check the mail and do the laundry. I don’t get it—must be an East Coast thing.
I can see why they drive home to do the laundry, however. The Laundromat in the campground had very nice high-efficiency washers, but charged $2.00 a load to use them! That’s about twice the usual rate. Those high efficiency-washers are great if you get the savings on water and electric, but don’t do much for you if you’re paying extra for them.
But anyway. Tonight’s big adventure is Wal*Mart camping,. I think David just wants to be able to say we’ve done it. In case you’ve never heard of this, apparently most Wal*Marts allow, and some even encourage, overnight camping in their parking lots. They consider it a good business practice. Just think how many people stumble in the front door at 0530, after being waked by the shift change, in search of coffee. I guess some people do most of their camping at Wal*Marts. I read on-line that some folks will stay for a week at a time, just moving their rig out of the parking lot during the day, and coming back each night. Me, I’d rather pay for a water/electric hook-up and a place for the kids to play.
We stopped at the WalMart in Wilkes-Barre, PA, but that is one that doesn’t allow overnight parking. We asked the manager at the Sam’s club if we could stay there and she said yes, and we should just tell the police we had permission if they happened to stop by….. Needless to say, we’re back on the road. We plan to stop at the Chambersburg, PA, WalMart, which, according to the Free Camping web site is camper-friendly. Don’t know if we’ll get a chance to post this before we hit Virginia, but I’ll sign off for now…J.
You can see more pics from this New England Leg of the trip at the following link:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=3x70wrv.1j7v1347&Uy=-1hzi27&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0
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