A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 178 miles from Gloucester, Virginia to College Park, Maryland.
Author: David
Travel from Gloucester, Virginia to College Park, Maryland
We drove our coach 178 miles, about three hours of driving, from Gloucester, Virginia to College Park, Maryland.
We had planned to drive double that distance to our next destination, which would have been over six hours driving, but we wisely decided to split that up into two legs. We prefer to limit travel days to around three hours.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading north:
An interactive map:
Leaving our site:
Exiting the campground:
Fun with zoom:
Drawbridge:
I-64 West:
I-95 North:
Exit:
Fuel stop:
Parking with trucks; since we can’t reverse with our toad attached, we need to find back-to-back sites we can pull through:
Heading in for lunch:
Popeyes for lunch:
Back to our coach:
Paladin on the dash:
Oversize load:
Lots of traffic on the other side:
Fun with zoom:
Paladin on the dash:
National Museum of the Marine Corps:
Truck rest area:
Heavy traffic:
Breakdown?
“Caution Horses”:
Lanes divide:
Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge:
Maryland Welcomes You:
I-95 and I-495 North:
Swoopers; two cars going into the lane in front of us:
Exit to College Park:
Arriving at Cherry Hill Park:
Security gate:
Our site:
In order to get to our site we needed to head between cabins to loop around:
Approaching our site:
Colonial Williamsburg
We visited Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia again this year.
An interactive map:
Another interactive map on their website.
Visitor center:
We went to the Sweet Tea & Barley restaurant for lunch:
Then wandered around:
An interesting place.
Thousand Trails Chesapeake Bay
We stayed at Thousand Trails Chesapeake Bay in Gloucester, Virginia. (Campground Reviews listing.)
A fairly nice Thousand Trails campground.
Dates:
- Check in: 2025-04-01
- Check out: 2025-04-13
- 12 nights
Weather:
- Mix of sunny, cloudy, rainy
- High temps 52-83°F, lows 34-67°F
- Some wind, gusts to 32 MPH
Noise:
- No road noise
- No train horn noise
- Lots of neighbor noise
Site:
- #B65, back-in, gravel
- Needed to disconnect toad, parked in front of coach
- Fairly unlevel site; high on passenger side and front; used hydraulic leveling
- Gravel driveway about 60 feet long by 25 feet wide
- 30 feet to neighbors on both sides
- Trees between sites
- Picnic table
- Fire pit
- Tall trees
- Clean site
- Elevation 30 feet, front facing NW
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, conveniently located
- 50 PSI water, conveniently located
- Good sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- Starlink: 56-177 Mbps down, 10-30 Mbps up, 25 ms ping
- Verizon: 5 Mbps down, 5 Mbps up, 70 ms ping (our SIM has 5 Mbps max)
- AT&T: 82-111 Mbps down, 0.75-1 Mbps up, 127 ms ping
- T-Mobile: 1.5 Mbps down, 0.2 Mbps up, 50 ms ping
- Campground Wi-Fi: none
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpsters
- Pool
- Ice cream shop
- On-site cafe
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Nice place for a longer stay
This is a fairly typical Thousand Trails park with 50A full hookups. Our site was mostly level, but look out after it rains, because they have some drainage issues. It was nice to have a restaurant on site that serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Like most Thousand Trails, they have now switched to assigned sites, which I like. Also, like most Thousand Trails, they no longer accept packages. The local Post Office does General Delivery, and the nearest Amazon Locker is in West Point. We camped at Thousand Trails Chesapeake Bay in a Motorhome.
Campground map:
What’s new and burning law:
An interactive map:
Our site:
Utilities:
Some rainy days, and a little surface flooding:
Pavilion:
Cafe:
Dinner:
Breakfast:
Another menu:
Pizza, mac & cheese, brownie:
Camp store (featuring ice cream):
Seasonally closed swimming pool:
Dog park:
Dumpsters:
Other sites:
Piankatank River:
We’d be happy to stay here again.
Video: Emporia to Gloucester, Virginia motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 104 miles from Emporia to Gloucester, Virginia.
Travel from Emporia to Gloucester, Virginia
We drove our coach 104 miles, about two hours of driving, from Emporia to Gloucester, Virginia.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading northeast:
An interactive map:
I-95 North:
Exit to I-295 North:
Bridge over James River:
James River:
Exit to I-64:
Virginia Welcome Center:
“Virginia is for Lovers”:
Brochures:
I collected a bunch:
Back to our coach:
Route 33 east:
Bridge by a packaging products plant:
Mattaponi River:
Route 198:
Arriving at Thousand Trails Cheaspeake Bay:
This was the first day the campground was open for the season, so there was a long line to check in. We joined the line at 12:53 (check in started at noon):
At 13:00:
At 13:21:
Guided to our site (unnecessarily, it wasn’t hard to find) at 13:30:
Our site:
Using a sewer tote tank and macerator pump to dump waste tanks from the back of our truck again
I previously posted about using a sewer tote and macerator pump to empty our waste tanks. Here’s another example of doing this, with a variation to cope with parking in front of our coach.
I dumped when our gray and black waste tanks reached 50%; we could have been conservative and made it the week with that space, but it was nice not to need to do so:
The wet bay, with the power for the macerator hooked up, along with the sewer pipe:
The macerator pump, hooked up to a sewer hose and a garden hose dedicated to this purpose:
When parked in front of the coach, it’s a bit longer to get from the wet bay to the truck:
The hose into the tote in the back of the (pollen-y) truck:
Filling the tote:
8% gray and 13% black after the first dump; I fully emptied them the day before we departed, which took another two dumps (with the liquids added after the first dump):
Dumping from the truck at the dump station:
The tote in the back of the truck while dumping:
It’s nice to have this option when we don’t have a sewer hookup.
Emporia / I-95 KOA
We stayed at Emporia / I-95 KOA in Emporia, Virginia. (Campground Reviews listing.)
A convenient stop on the way north. This is described as a KOA Holiday, but is more of a Journey. This is a reasonable place to stop (if you don’t mind the train horns at all hours), but I wouldn’t call it a holiday destination.
Dates:
- Check in: 2025-03-30
- Check out: 2025-04-01
- 2 nights
Weather:
- Partly cloudy, some rain
- High temp 79°F, lows 49-64°F
- Some wind, gusts to 25 MPH
Noise:
- Little road noise
- Nearby train horn noise, about every half hour, day and night
- Some neighbor noise
Site:
- #126, pull-through, gravel
- Didn’t need to disconnect toad, and didn’t since only two nights
- Somewhat level site; high on passenger side and front; used hydraulic leveling
- Gravel driveway about 80 feet long by 13 feet wide
- 11 feet to neighbor on passenger side
- 22 feet to neighbor on driver side
- Just grass between sites
- Picnic table
- Fire pit
- No trees
- Somewhat clean site
- Elevation 120 feet, front facing NE
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, conveniently located
- 50 PSI water, conveniently located
- Unthreaded sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- T-Mobile: 226-244 Mbps down, 6 Mbps up, 14-21 ms ping
- AT&T: 90-146 Mbps down, 11 Mbps up, 62 ms ping
- Verizon: 5 Mbps down, 5 Mbps up, 85 ms ping (our SIM has 5 Mbps max)
- Starlink: not used
- Campground Wi-Fi: not used
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpsters and bins
- Closed seasonal pool
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Good for a quick stop
It’s my understanding that a KOA Holiday is supposed to be the destination and reason for going there. Why this is listed as a Holiday is beyond me. It was perfectly fine for a short stay, but the train noise all day and night would preclude me from wanting to stay any longer than necessary. Our nightly rate was because I used $50 in KOA reward points for a two-night stay. Otherwise, this would have been far too expensive for what it was. We camped at Emporia / I-95 KOA in a Motorhome.
Campground map:
An interactive map:
Our site:
Utilities; rather high sewer, with no thread, so I used the water bag weight:
Other sites:
Seasonally closed pool:
Not too bad a stop for a day or two, other than the train horn noise; if we come this way again, we might look for another option.
Video: Wake Forest, North Carolina to Emporia, Virginia motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 111 miles from Wake Forest, North Carolina to Emporia, Virginia.
Travel from Wake Forest, North Carolina to Emporia, Virginia
We drove our coach 111 miles, about two hours of driving, from Wake Forest, North Carolina to Emporia, Virginia.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading north:
An interactive map:
Leaving the campground; a nice view:
Falls Lake:
Route 1 North:
I-85 North:
Welcome to Virginia:
Welcome center:
Rest area lunch stop:
Route 58 East:
Brodnax water tower:
Fun with zoom:
I-95 North:
Exit to KOA:
Arriving at KOA:
Guided to our site:
