Philadelphia, PA

We had a great stop in my old college stomping grounds. We have a lot of family and friends in this area and we were able to meet up with most of them during our 10 days in the Philly area. We started off meeting Jason Kelce at a local Jeep dealership where he was shooting scenes for some new ads. We were also able to spend some time with our nephew who is starting his senior year at the Naval Academy. We spent a few hours at the Philadelphia art museum, a few more visiting some wineries in the area near Washington's crossing and a very nice dinner at the Union League with the family. One of the many highlights of this stop was spending Friday night at Longwood Gardens. Longwood is a farm and former home of one of the du Ponts. He bought the farm to save the arboretum which he then further developed into one of the premier botanical gardens in the US. We strolled the grounds for a few hours enjoying the scenery before the start of an impressive fountain and light show. I would highly recommend visiting the gardens in the summer on the weekend to see the show. We then drove to central PA to visit my college roommate and also friends who live in Amish country. I was also able to meet up with my younger brother for a nice dinner to catch up. Our last day in the area included a tour of the workshop where all of the Presidential and VP flags are hand embroidered. It was great to spend the time with our family and friends, but it is time to continue the adventure and head to the Jersey shore.

Manassas, VA/Washington DC

After spending some time in the mountains I was excited to roll into the DC area to see my sister and her family.  We anticipated having some "down time" but we were go, go, go the whole time.  :) 
We went into DC and walked around the mall area to see all the monuments and some of the museums of the Smithsonian.  My favorite thing to see in there is the First Ladies exhibit with the gowns they wore to the inauguration ball and their china patterns  So pretty! 
The next day my niece took us to Great Falls Park which is a walking path along the Potomac River where there is a waterfall.  She then took us to a wonderful little Italian deli for lunch.  Yummy!
My sister has always wanted to do a hike in Shenandoah National Park called "Old Rag".  We decided to go and boy what a hike that was!  The summit is at 3,921 feet but there is a lot of rock scrambling involved!  We had a fantastic time and I hope I get to do it again some day.  When we were starting out for the day, we encountered a hiker on her way down that said she saw a bear chasing a deer.  YIKES!!  We did not see any of the bears until we were headed back to the car, thank goodness!  I think we saw a total of 5 bears on that day. 
On our last sight seeing day my sister and her husband took us to Mt. Vernon, home of George Washington.  The home and grounds are enormous and very beautiful. You also get to learn and appreciate the love story between George and Martha. The time and dedication he gave to our country is truly humbling and I hope it is never forgotten. 

Prince William Forest RV Campground, Manassas, VA

A nice wooded park located right off 234 in the Manassas area adjacent to the Prince William Park that is part of the National Park system. The RV park gives easy access to 195 and the various sights in the DC area. The park is heavily wooded, so don't expect to be able to use your satellite while staying here. The park has showers, laundry, bathrooms and a pool located in the center. There are several different types of sites. Some offer full hookups while others are water and electric only. The interior sites are pull through while the edge sites are backin. Our back in site was long enough for our full size rig and to park our car in front of the coach when the extra parking spaces were all full. There are many extra parking spots around the park, so you should be able to find a place for your car. The park says it offers wifi, but we could not get it to upload even email during our week stay. We were only able to pick up one local channel occasionally with our powered antennae and the park does not offer cable. With no working wifi and no cable, we rate this park a 3 out of 5 and will stay here again when visiting the area due to the convenient location relative to our family.

Luray KOA, Luray, VA

Nice KOA in the farm country area just outside of Luray. The park has many different site options. We stayed in a pull through site that parallel a large central grass area. They have back in sites along a hill on one edge of the park and other back in sites along the interior of the park. The setting for the park is gorgeous among the rolling hills and farms. There are a lot of trees, but we were lucky to have line of sight for our satellite. The park has the standard KOA amenities of showers, bathrooms and laundry room. They also have a nice pool area as shown in the pic below. The wifi worked so-so depending on the time of the day, but you could at least get email updates. We rate this park a 4 out of 5 and will gladly stay here in the future when we visit the beautiful area.

Luray, VA

We were excited to get back into the mountains to visit another National Park. Shenandoah NP is a long narrow park that runs along the Blue Ridge Mountains in central Virginia. We started off our visit by doing a few short hikes to some of the peaks to enjoy the amazing views of the valleys below. On our second hike we came across a large black bear just a few feet off the trail. Luckily for us he was more interested in foraging than in us and we were able to continue moving along the trail. After having hiked thousands of miles in the northwest, I never came across anything other than bear signs, so this was an interesting encounter. Little did we know that it would not the last. Our next day was spent visiting the Luray caverns and The Dukes of Hazzard museum at Cooter's. The caverns were surprisingly impressive. I had no idea this area of Virginia is known for the large underground caverns. Cooter's was a fun stop and I would recommend it to anyone who watched the show. We then went to Monticello to visit the historic home of Thomas Jefferson. I was impressed with the house and the estate grounds, but disappointed with how little they mentioned Jefferson's accomplishments for our country. Our last day was another killer hike in Shenandoah along the White Oak Canyon trail. The trail is known for its many waterfalls and swimming pools. We enjoyed our time in the country setting in central Virginia and will be coming back to the area. Off to DC!!!

Sunset Beach Hotel & Chesapeake Bay KOA Resort & Beach Club, Cape Charles, VA

No picture review. Nice but spendy KOA park on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake. The park is just a mile from the exit/entrance of the bay bridge/tunnel. Be prepared to pay the $39 for your RV and the $15 each way in your car. The RV portion of the park is a a giant field with back in sites. There are no trees, which is great for your satellite. The sites are long enough for full size rigs and wide enough for the outdoor living area and to park your toad. The sites are grass and level. The park has a small workout area, convenience store, etc. The highlight is the large pool area and direct access to the beach. The sunsets are amazing. The wifi worked great and we enjoyed our stay. We give this park a 4 out of 5 and will be staying here again.

Virginia Beach, VA

One of the best part about being on an RV based adventure is that you can stop to see family and friends along your route. We stopped in the VA Beach area to spend a few days with a high school friend that has settled in the area. VA beach is a great place to visit museums, historical sites and tour the Chesapeake areas. We met our friends for dinner in Norfolk and enjoyed sitting out with them on the harbor in the Waterside area. We went back to the same area the next day for a boat tour of the harbor where we got to see the shipyards and Naval yards. It was impressive to see 3 aircraft carriers docked right next to each other. Even from the boat, the carriers are massive ships. I enjoy being on just about any boat and we talked our friends into taking their boat out for the next day. We motored over to a lighthouse in the bay and other sites that you can see from the water. We ended the day with a great dinner of fresh seafood right on the water. We spent our last day visiting Chincoteague island to see the wild horses and beach. The island area is a fun place with a very popular beach. Happy b-day America! Time to move the bus back to the mountains.