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:
If you want to visit the DC area with your motorhome, trailer, fifth-wheel, tent, or what-have-you, this is THE place to do it. It’s convenient to the Beltway and close to a Metro stop for all your sightseeing needs. They also offer tours from the campground, which is just the cherry on top. The campground is top-notch and well-kept, with all the amenities you could want (including food delivery right to your site), which is a plus on a travel day. We were in site 39, in the far corner of the park, backing onto trees. The site was a little unlevel side-to-side, but nothing our levelers couldn’t cope with. It was also plenty long enough for our 40′ motorhome with space to park our tow vehicle in front. There was some freeway noise, but it was mostly a distant hum. The staff were all very friendly and helpful. We have already booked our next stay when we swing through the area next year. We camped at Cherry Hill Park – Washington, D.C. In a Motorhome.
A handy campground map for getting to our site:
And on the other site, a map of campground features:
Tours:
Cafe, bus, etc:
Wristbands:
An interactive map:
Our site:
Utilities:
Backed into the foliage:
Our site at night; we don’t usually turn on our undercarriage accent lights and door light, but I did on this occasion, as Jenn was arriving back after spending a few days with her girlfriends:
We appreciated an onsite cafe with food delivery to the site on arrival day (and probably would have partaken on other evenings if we weren’t busy with exploring etc):
Park history:
Camp store:
We appreciated and took much advantage of package delivery to the office:
Bus depot, where tour buses and commuter buses depart:
Pond:
Playground:
Event pavilion:
Ballroom:
Cafe, pools, clubhouse:
Another playground:
Mini golf:
Splash pad:
Game court:
Pond:
Tent area, each with hammocks and gazebos:
Yurt:
Cabins:
Other RV sites:
Pull-through sites:
A large gathering next to us for a couple of days:
Prevost departing:
Gazebo and trash (the squirrels enjoyed investigating the trash):
This place is so huge, they have a shuttle that roams around:
The evening tractor pull rides were popular:
A very nice place. We have already booked another stay here for next year.
This park is not big rig-friendly. The roads are twisty and narrow, with many low trees. We were in site 102, which was incredibly sloped front-to-back, so we dealt with living on an angle for our two-night stay. You could place a marble at one end of the motorhome and it would have rolled to the front unaided, this is how bad it was. An interesting quirk of this park is that they have “pet-free” areas where you’re not allowed to camp with pets. I never did see any explanation of this policy and it didn’t make any sense to me since people were walking their dogs through the “pet-free” area anyway. So, if you’re camping with pets, be sure to double-check what the rule is for a site before you book it, because the ranger at check-in will call you out if they think they see a pet with you. We camped at Codorus State Park in a Motorhome.
Tip for Other Campers: Atomic Dog Cidery near Gettysburg has good food and cider. Just be careful if you want to purchase some cans to take home, as the park has a strict “no alcohol” policy and your nosy neighbors will comment on it even if you’re not drinking it….
Campground map:
An interactive map:
Our site:
The site was very unlevel; we couldn’t get level with hydraulic jacks, and this was the best that our air leveling could manage:
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 102 miles from Manassas, Virginia to Hanover, Pennsylvania. Including an instant replay of when a bunch of kids request Jenn sound the coach air horn, which she obliged.
We drove our coach 102 miles, about two hours of driving, from Manassas, Virginia to Hanover, Pennsylvania. This was a last-minute change to our route, to avoid spending the weekend at NIRVC, and so we could pick up another state.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading north:
An interactive map:
I-495:
Narrow lanes:
Fun with zoom:
Maryland Welcomes You:
Exit to Damascus:
Water tower:
Interesting tower:
Westminster, Maryland:
Some kids on the side of the road waved and signaled to blow our air horn; Jenn obliged them, and they jumped with joy (see it in the video from today):
“Sorry your GPS is wrong”; one of our GPSes did say to go through this driveway as if it were a road, but fortunately I check our route quite carefully, so I knew about it ahead of time:
The stereo/GPS that came with our coach had a small screen, and was no longer receiving map updates, which makes it hard to rely on it for navigation. So we purchased a replacement, the Kenwood DNR1008RVS; a newer model with a 10.1” display, wireless CarPlay to connect to our iPhones, and map updates.
Here’s the old unit, to the right of the camera display:
The old unit removed, and wires for new unit:
The new unit in the dash, without its screen:
The screen added:
It still mirrors to the TV above the windshield:
Though the screen on the unit is big and clear enough that there’s no need to mirror it; I can easily see it from the passenger seat:
