We drove our coach 314 miles, about five hours of driving, from College Park, Maryland to Beaver, West Virginia. The beginning of our westward migration, heading towards our home base in Washington state.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading west:
An interactive map:
Toading up:
I-495:
Welcome to Virginia:
Paladin in his high place:
I-64:
I-66:
Fuel stop:
Tiffin Phaeton motorhome:
Apples on water tower:
We were going to park and have lunch at the fuel stop, but there wasn’t any parking that would work for us, so we continued on. There wasn’t any room at the next rest area either:
So I made lunch on the road:
A later rest area:
I-64:
Welcome to West Virginia:
Of course, we had to play John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” while entering the state:
While in Red Bay earlier in 2024, we had Cody Poores of Cody’s Custom Cabinets build a custom desk for us, based on my design. We wanted a built-in desk that matched the existing cabinetry, didn’t take up too much space on travel days, but expanded when in use. Plus included a space for Paladin’s litter box. Here’s my design:
A timelapse video of drawing the design using Linea Sketch on my iPad Pro with Pencil:
The empty space after removing the IKEA cabinet; the main TV is on a televator, inside that cabinet below the window:
A nice thing about Cody’s service is that he comes to you at your campsite in Red Bay. Here’s the new desk arriving at the end of the week:
Being brought inside:
My design included a TV lift for the computer monitor. We supplied the lift mechanism. Here it’s being mounted:
Back of the new cabinet, with the monitor lift area and cupboards on the left, drawers in the middle, and the cat litter area on the right:
The desk in place, without desktops (and with the main TV raised):
A closer look at the cupboard and monitor lift area without the desktops:
The right-hand pull-out desktop installed:
The left desktop also in place:
The new computer monitor (Apple Studio Display) raised, still wrapped:
The completed desk with the coach slide-outs in for travel:
We store the desk chair by the dining table for travel, and stack the dining chairs:
Looking down the back at the monitor lift and cables:
A couple of grommets for wires:
Wires behind the drawers between the two grommets:
A side view of the monitor lift:
Cupboards:
Cat litter bin and litter box on a drawer slide, so it can be easily pulled out for cleaning:
Jenn’s typical work setup:
When work is done, the monitor can be lowered and desktop closed, and the main TV raised:
There are a couple of Velcro patches inside the desk, and corresponding patches on Jenn’s work and personal laptops, so they can be stored on travel days without sliding around:
Travel mode:
A huge improvement.
(Update: we got Cody to tweak the desk a bit on our next visit to Red Bay; look out for a blog post about that in 2025.)
We visited Antietam National Battlefield in Maryland, where “23,000 soldiers were killed, wounded or missing after twelve hours of savage combat on September 17, 1862”.
Bomb-sniffing dogs in the parking garage: unusual. Beautiful day for a ballgame. Had a “Walking Taco” from Ben’s Chili Bowl—a DC fave. Good stuff. Racing presidents is a fun event between innings. Teddy won. Homers by Thomas and Meneses. Herz struck out 13, which made for a very quick game. It was a City Connect uniform day, so the Nationals were wearing cherry blossoms, and the whole stadium was themed accordingly—kind of pretty. A nice ballpark, but it would’ve been better if they hadn’t blocked the view of the Capitol with condos.
We got there shortly before the gates opened:
Baseball art:
Team store:
More art:
Cutwater Spirits:
We got some tasty beverages in interesting containers:
Arrived as the game started due to bad GPS directions. Enjoyed a crab, mac & cheese dog, then some chicken bacon, ranch fries, and crab chips, followed by some Dippin’ Dots. Lemonade was refreshing on a very warm day. The Braves scored early and never let up. The Orioles made two errors. A fun ballpark atmosphere and exciting crab-themed events. Ruschman struck out twixe and walked. It’s a beautiful stadium. Orioles came close to a tying rally in the 9th, but couldn’t follow through.
The entrance to Oriole Park:
Team store:
Food vendors:
We like to try regional specialties when exploring ballparks; we started with the crab mac hot dog:
“The ballpark that forever changed baseball”:
The view from our seats:
Lineups:
Lots of navy folks for Fleet Week:
Selfie:
Former Mariner Jarred Kelenic:
Crab shuffle game:
Time to try more food:
Chicken bacon ranch fries:
And crab chips:
Hot dog race:
Home run markers on the ground:
I looked for Mariners ones, including Ken Griffey, Jr on April 24, 1994:
