We visited Manassas National Battlefield Park in Manassas, Virginia, where the first major battle of the American Civil War took place on July 21, 1861 (plus a second battle later).
The NPS map; click or tap to interact:
An interactive map:
Visitor center:
Henry Hill Loop Trail:
Stonewall Jackson:
After leaving Shenandoah National Park, we continued south for a few miles on the northern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
This park, barely wider than the highway, is 469 miles long, between Shenandoah National Park in Virginia at the north end and Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina at the south end. We certainly didn’t have time to drive the whole way, but we went to the northernmost visitor center before turning around. We’ll probably visit the southernmost visitor center in the parkway in a few weeks time.
Visitor center:
Jenn had a nice long chat with the volunteer there:
We visited Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, a drive-through park southeast of Washington DC.
NPS map; click or tap to interact on their site:
An interactive map of our route, heading south through the park, then returning outside the park:
Shenandoah National Park north entrance entrance sign:
Visitor center:
I’m sure the vistas would be much more impressive in the fall:
Picnic lunch:
Highest point on drive, elevation 3,680 feet (aww, how cute):
Visitor center:
There are a few commercial waysides in the park:
We stayed at the DC branch of National Indoor RV Centers in Manassas, Virginia.
Not a campground, but an RV service center. We arrived on a Sunday, and left on Friday, sleeping in our coach each night, and going out exploring or waiting in their customer lounge during each day.
Dates:
Weather:
Noise:
Site:
Utilities:
Internet (in usage priority order):
Amenities:
An interactive map:
Our first site, rather sloped:
Nice that they provide electrical hookups:
Closed entrance gate; they provided a link for us to open it so we could arrive on Sunday, and go out in the evenings:
The NIRVC building; this is I think the smallest NIRVC facility:
Others have vast indoor storage, but this one just has some outdoor storage and RVs for sale:
Side of the building:
Around the back, where the service bays are:
On the second and subsequent days, we were parked outside one of the service bays:
Synchronized lift devices:
Where’ve you been? Locations of other NIRVC branches:
The foyer:
The customer lounge, where we waited most days:
As I said, perhaps the smallest NIRVC branch, but also the newest, I think. Waiting in the customer lounge wasn’t super fun, but we just worked on our laptops as usual. And sleeping in our coach each night was easier than moving into a hotel or Airbnb for the week, as we’ve done on some previous occasions.
We’ll probably be back again next year for the annual services.
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 151 miles from Georgetown, Delaware to Manassas, Virginia.
We drove our coach 151 miles, about three hours of driving, from Georgetown, Delaware to Manassas, Virginia, to do annual servicing and repairs at NIRVC DC.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading west:
An interactive map:
Exit road from the campground:
Route 16 West:
Rail crossing:
Maryland Welcomes You:
Route 404, oh no, route not found! (Geek joke.) Also, “snow emergency route” was a new one to us:
Nice church:
Kent Island Narrows:
Bridge over Chesapeake Bay; not a lot of shoulder:
Severn River:
Exit towards Baltimore:
Beltway:
Potomac River:
Welcome to Virginia (a rather hidden sign):
I-66 West:
A climbing wall:
Exit to Manassas:
Turn onto Industrial Road:
Turn onto Contractors Court:
Arriving at NIRVC DC:
We arrived on a Sunday when they were closed, so they had provided us with a link to open the gate, so we could get in and camp for the night:
Our coach, with the workshops behind:
I looked for a spot to park for the night; this was easy, though not very flat:
In the future, we’d just park on the concrete next to the building; there are electrical outlets there too. Now we know. We plan to be back again next year for our annual servicing.
Our motorhome has two toilets; an electric gravity toilet in the half bath, and an electric macerating toilet in the rear bathroom. Both have had their issues; in 2021 I needed to replace the flush switch on the half bath toilet, and in 2022 I needed to dismantle the rear toilet to clear out a blockage.
Recently, the rear toilet stopped working again, in much the same way as before, so I figured that I needed to clear a blockage again. Though it was a bit different this time; it would flush first thing in the morning, then stop working again. Which made me think something else was going on. Upon dismantling it, I confirmed that there wasn’t any blockage. Research indicated that the issue was likely the controller unit; apparently our vintage had a known issue where it could overheat and stop working.
So, I ordered a replacement controller. It’s the “Thetford 36398 Toilet Controller for Tecma Silence Plus RV Toilet”. I purchased it from Boat & RV Accessories, as they had it for a good price and could ship it overnight. But it is also available on Amazon from a couple of sellers.
But unfortunately this did not solve the issue. I thought it did, as the toilet worked properly for a few days, but yesterday as we prepared to leave our campsite, it failed again. It’s possible that the new controller went bad, but it seems much more likely to me that the macerator pump is actually the cause. So I guess I need to try replacing that.
On to the pictures. Here’s the toilet in the shower, prior to looking for clogs:
Paladin sniffing the sewer pipe:
I looked where the blockage was before, after the macerator, but it was clear:
So I fully removed the macerator; no blockage anywhere:
The suspect controller:
Work in progress:
The new controller arrived, and even included a copy of the manual:
I put the toilet back in the shower (it had been back in place, though disconnected, while I waited for the part), and removed the old controller:
I added the new controller, and re-installed the macerator:
Then re-installed the toilet, and checked it:
It worked for a few days, but as mentioned above, replacing the controller didn’t solve the issue. Stay tuned for a future post on my next attempt at repairing this toilet! We’re very glad that we have two toilets in our coach, so can make do with using the other one in the meantime.
Just another super glamorous aspect of RV life.
We visited two ends of the Assateague Island National Seashore, in Maryland and Virginia. Famous for their wild horses.
The NPS map; click or tap to interact:
An interactive map of our route (we were going to have dinner in Ocean Beach, but it was too busy, so we continued up the coast to Bethany Beach):
Visitor center:
Wild horses:
Dunes trail hike:
Wild horse and touron:
The Chincoteague end of the island:
Horse corral, where they collect the horses on this end of the island:
Visitor center:
A popular beach:
Lighthouse info:
I noticed one of the slide glides was broken on the front passenger slide-out. So we also got Coach Connection in Red Bay to fix that. The glide blocks help support the slide-out, but can break in time; this is the second time we’ve had to replace one (though a different one).
It involves slightly jacking up the slide to take the pressure off:
The the glide blocks can be easily removed and replaced, mounted onto a metal plate:
We stayed at Homestead Campground in Georgetown, Delaware. (Campground Reviews listing.)
Another last-minute change, to avoid going through narrow tunnels and roadworks. A very nice, quiet campground, mostly permanent sites.
Dates:
Weather:
Noise:
Site:
Utilities:
Internet (in usage priority order):
Amenities:
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Nice park, loaded with weekenders
This campground mainly has permanent seasonal sites where residents come down for the weekends during the summer. There were very few folks around during the week, but everyone came “home” from Thursday to Sunday. The campground has lots of activities every weekend. The “transient” sites were all nice long pull-throughs. We camped at Homestead Campground in a Motorhome.
Campground map:
A gift when checking in; water and kettle corn:
An interactive map:
Our site; since we booked the day before we arrived, we could see that the row was mostly empty, and booked a site with empty sites on both sides; it’s nice to have space:
Utilities:
A bunny on our site:
Paladin was most fascinated:
Other sites:
Mostly park models:
Pond:
Splash pad:
Adult pool (they also have a larger family pool):
Events:
Games:
Ball field:
Idle unpopulated koi pond:
A nice campground.