Dec 12-13, 2023 – Lexington to Merritt, NC
Other than a stop for groceries, our drive to visit friends, Dave & Sandy, and their dog, Sadie, in Merritt was uneventful. We met years ago through sailing. They owned the same boat as we, a 34′ O’Day. Sailing later transitioned to camping and our friendship has endured. They live on the water on a small tributary to the Bay River which, in turn, dumps into Pamlico Sound behind North Carolina’s Outer Banks.
High on our to-do lists was checking out each other’s new campers. Interestingly, they’d changed from a slide-in truck camper to a trailer and we’d done the opposite, changing from a trailer to a motorhome which presents logistics similar to a truck camper. It was so nice to see them and catch up. And, we all enjoyed Sandy’s delicious pot roast dinner!
Sadie, Sandy & Dave’s yellow lab, is as sweet as any we’ve ever met. She still seems to think she’s a puppy and just loves to sit in their laps. That is until she gets too warm and she retreats back to the floor to cool down.
The next day we were watching the wonderful variety of birds that visited their feeder and took some photos. Then we decided go out to do some shopping and to fill one of WAWA’s propane tanks. But the day’s main event was a visit to the town of New Bern. We’ve driven past this area on numerous occasions but never took the time to stop. We should have!
New Bern is a lovely place with a prosperous downtown lined with nice shops, restaurants and even an old fashioned hardware store. Mitchell Hardware is not just a tourist stop. It has all the current products you’d expect in a hardware store but it has managed to integrate them with old fashioned things like nails in bins sold by the pound where you scoop out exactly the amount you want. They even sell things like drywall screws by the piece if you don’t want a whole box.
And, New Bern has bears, lots of bears! The town installed its ceramic bears in 2010 as part of its 300th anniversary celebration. Bears were adopted as the city’s mascot in honor of its original settlers from Bern, Switzerland, which, in turn, had been named for the local bears prized by the Swiss.
After walking some of the downtown we stopped for an excellent lunch at Morgan’s Tavern & Grill just up the street from the hardware store. Yum!
Dec 14, 2023 – Merritt, NC, to Virginia Beach, VA
This morning we said goodbye to Sandy, Dave & Sadie and headed north for Virginia Beach. We made a couple of stops along the way.
The first was Edenton, NC. The town sits on Albemarle Sound. Having been incorporated in 1722, it is the state’s second oldest town and served as North Carolina’s first colonial capital. It was once also the state’s second largest port and was an important part of the Maritime Underground Railroad prior to emancipation.
The town is beautifully preserved and appears to be quite prosperous. Its Waterfront Park features the Roanoke River Lighthouse. The screw pile style light originally marked the mouth of the Roanoke River but was relocated to the park and restored.
The town features many fine examples of 18th, 19th, and early-20th-century homes and buildings. It also served as a cotton processing center during the early 1900s and those buildings have been converted to upscale condos. The place certainly deserves more than the half hour or so that we gave it.
Driving up US-17 we stopped at the visitor center at the Virginia state line. The center serves visitors by both car and boat and we’d first stopped there when we were sailing our boat down the Intracoastal Waterway to The Bahamas for the winter in 2003. This is the first time we’d noticed that a new, floating draw bridge had been installed across the Dismal Swamp Canal to provide walkers access to the Dismal Swamp State Park. The bridge is unusual in that its main body is a barge. Ramps, termed bascules, lower from the banks on each side so people can walk across. To open the bridge for boat traffic the bascules are raised and the barge part pivots out of the way to the bank.
Our destination for the night was Virginia Beach. We’d never been there so we drove around the town, stopping to take some pictures of the Historic Cavalier Hotel and Beach Club. Built in the 1930s, it eventually fell into disrepair. It has since been restored in spectacular fashion.
Dinner was at a local Olive Garden, after which we headed to our Harvest Host, Young Veterans Brewing Co. This location is their production location and only has a modest tasting room. They have another location, The Bunker, downtown. We each had a drink, got a tour of the brewing operation by one of the owners and finally retired to WAWA for the evening.
Dec 15-17, 2023 – Virginia Beach, VA, to Landisville, PA
Our drive to Ocean View near Bethany Beach, DE, to visit our friend, Laurie, was easy and uneventful. Arriving at Laurie’s home we spent the rest of the day catching up and were glad to have the time together. Saturday was a lazy morning and then errands and a visit to downtown Bethany Beach to do some shopping. We later had a delicious dinner at Hooked Up Ale House, including a visit from Santa.
With a strong coastal storm forecast, we left about 9:00 on the 17th to return home. Lucky us, the rain began just as we pulled into our driveway!
Home again, in some ways it seems like we never left. In others, it’s like we forget how the coffee pot works and some of the details of our daily routines.
Wrapping It Up
We have mixed feelings as our road trip comes to a close. We’re looking forward to being at home, yet we’ll miss the carefree nature of the way we travel with no commitments. We covered a lot of ground, visited many new and interesting places, met new people and caught up with good friends. We consider ourselves very fortunate to be able to wander “aimlessly”!
It’s interesting to look back at the dimensions of a long trip like this one. We were on the road for 70 days, moving a total of 43 times. Altogether, we spent 241 hours behind the wheel driving a total of 8,933 miles while averaging 12.0 miles per gallon.
A breakdown of the types of places where we stayed are detailed in the following table:
| TYPE | DAYS |
| State Parks (Inexpensive) | 21 |
| Private Campgrounds | 17 |
| Friend’s Driveways (Free) | 10 |
| Harvest Hosts (Free) | 10 |
| National Parks (Almost free) | 7 |
| Free (WalMart, Cracker Barrel) | 4 |
| Dispersed (Free) | 1 |
| TOTAL | 70 |
We really like the freedom our RV, WAWA, gives us. With its large batteries and solar system we only plugged in to electricity two times and those times were only to run our air conditioning. We rarely need to fill our water tank because it is so large. And our toilet waste can be dumped into any regular toilet. So, even in campgrounds with full hookups we simply pull in to the campsite and we’re done! If we want to go somewhere we simply drive away!
We didn’t use our e-bikes nearly as much as we thought we would. It makes us wonder if, for us, they are even worth hauling along. On the other hand, with only a single vehicle and it being our “home”, if one of us wants to go somewhere both of us have to go. It makes us consider the notion of hauling a small car behind WAWA.
And, of course, we got ideas for more modifications to WAWA. We’ll consider those ideas carefully and probably implement some of them over the winter. After the holidays, we’ll begin planning another “aimless” tour!!