Bezabor: On the road at last! I write today from a Panera cafe in Portsmouth, NH. We left Tuesday the sixth after a late start. I found four or five breaks in the sidewall of the van's left rear tire and they were just too dangerous to ignore--- a blowout at speed could easily have led to a crash or rollover. When I called my local repair shop I learned the tire had been discountinued so I'd have to go for another model, the bad tire was four years old so any defect claim would probably be denied by Goodyear. With the differences in tire, I chose to go for a pair. So $269 later and a few hours later, we were finally able to get on the road.
I went to my former work site to check out (see the first log entry for explanation) and as it turned out I was glad I did. This led us to also do a geocache in that area. The geocache instructions had been given to me at my retirement party. When I put the initial coordinates in the GPS, I saw from the unit's map that it was taking me to a retirement home-- thus the reference to "Ghost of Retirements Future" in the geocache instructions. The intermediate clue gathered there took us to an outdoors shop where a gift certificate for $125 awaited. What a surprise! We used it to buy some kayaking boots for Labashi.
We finally got on the road about 1500 hours, our goal being the Port Jervis, NY area. More specifically we were looking for Walmarts in that area. We tried the first one at Matamoras,
PA, just before crossing the line but it had a sign forbidding RVs so we moved on. We tried another at Middletown, NY, but again, that one had a sign forbidding overnight stays. But we persevered and had better luck at Fishkill, NY. But by that time it was late and we were a little wound up from the travel and this Walmart chose Tuesday night to run the parking lot cleaner machine so we didn't sleep well.
On Wednesday we headed for Maine and as we neared the Massachusetts line I remembered that the world's largest antiques fair was to be held this week at Brimfield, MA. I had found that in a book "1000 Things You Must See Before You Die" (or something like that-- remember, I'm in a cafe here!). So we stopped in Brimfield intending to stay the night in the parking lot. But we only lasted about three hours or so. The antique fair was very big but more like a flea market than we expected. We enjoyed our stay even though it was quite hot walking through the area. But about 1500 we decided to get back on the road. That took us to New Hampshire. When we found that the state campground was charging $35-$57 for a night at Hampton Beach, we decided to do the Walmart thing again. We were out of luck at Seabrook and Rye but found the one west of Portsmouth (Newington) to allow overnighters.
We chatted with a Walmart employee who was working her first day on the job--- she was from Gulfport, MS and had been sent here by her Mom. She had accompanied a friend who was attending college in New Hampshire and she was dropped off to live with a relative in Portsmouth. She was miserable here. She complained of the funny way people talk using the example "they PAHK the CAHH". She was homesick and didn't know where her mother is--- at the last minute her mother had chosen to stay in Gulfport.
We also chatted with a Walmart clerk who was 70 years old and said she's a gold-hunter. She had retired from the post office five years ago and she winters out west and summers back east. She had a gold nugget on a necklace and just loved to talk about gold. She said she had taken her daughter to Alaska a few years ago and would like to go back. What an interesting person! Her name is Pat.
We spoke with another couple travelling and staying in Walmart parking lots. We had a nice chat but never exchanged names. They were from British Columbia and travelling with a pickup and a hard-side pop-up trailer. They too were suffering from the sticker shock of campground prices.
So at this point we're 2 for 6 on finding Walmarts that allow camping. The searching is not fun but I have an uploaded file from the Discovery motor homes site that lays the Walmart locations on top of my Street Atlas program and allows us to see about where they lie in relation to the interstate or the town center and that has worked ok. But I should have bought Don Wright's listing of Walmarts that don't allow camping. It's looking like the ones closest to the interstates are the ones that tend not to allow overnighting. - Bez.
I went to my former work site to check out (see the first log entry for explanation) and as it turned out I was glad I did. This led us to also do a geocache in that area. The geocache instructions had been given to me at my retirement party. When I put the initial coordinates in the GPS, I saw from the unit's map that it was taking me to a retirement home-- thus the reference to "Ghost of Retirements Future" in the geocache instructions. The intermediate clue gathered there took us to an outdoors shop where a gift certificate for $125 awaited. What a surprise! We used it to buy some kayaking boots for Labashi.
We finally got on the road about 1500 hours, our goal being the Port Jervis, NY area. More specifically we were looking for Walmarts in that area. We tried the first one at Matamoras,
PA, just before crossing the line but it had a sign forbidding RVs so we moved on. We tried another at Middletown, NY, but again, that one had a sign forbidding overnight stays. But we persevered and had better luck at Fishkill, NY. But by that time it was late and we were a little wound up from the travel and this Walmart chose Tuesday night to run the parking lot cleaner machine so we didn't sleep well.
On Wednesday we headed for Maine and as we neared the Massachusetts line I remembered that the world's largest antiques fair was to be held this week at Brimfield, MA. I had found that in a book "1000 Things You Must See Before You Die" (or something like that-- remember, I'm in a cafe here!). So we stopped in Brimfield intending to stay the night in the parking lot. But we only lasted about three hours or so. The antique fair was very big but more like a flea market than we expected. We enjoyed our stay even though it was quite hot walking through the area. But about 1500 we decided to get back on the road. That took us to New Hampshire. When we found that the state campground was charging $35-$57 for a night at Hampton Beach, we decided to do the Walmart thing again. We were out of luck at Seabrook and Rye but found the one west of Portsmouth (Newington) to allow overnighters.
We chatted with a Walmart employee who was working her first day on the job--- she was from Gulfport, MS and had been sent here by her Mom. She had accompanied a friend who was attending college in New Hampshire and she was dropped off to live with a relative in Portsmouth. She was miserable here. She complained of the funny way people talk using the example "they PAHK the CAHH". She was homesick and didn't know where her mother is--- at the last minute her mother had chosen to stay in Gulfport.
We also chatted with a Walmart clerk who was 70 years old and said she's a gold-hunter. She had retired from the post office five years ago and she winters out west and summers back east. She had a gold nugget on a necklace and just loved to talk about gold. She said she had taken her daughter to Alaska a few years ago and would like to go back. What an interesting person! Her name is Pat.
We spoke with another couple travelling and staying in Walmart parking lots. We had a nice chat but never exchanged names. They were from British Columbia and travelling with a pickup and a hard-side pop-up trailer. They too were suffering from the sticker shock of campground prices.
So at this point we're 2 for 6 on finding Walmarts that allow camping. The searching is not fun but I have an uploaded file from the Discovery motor homes site that lays the Walmart locations on top of my Street Atlas program and allows us to see about where they lie in relation to the interstate or the town center and that has worked ok. But I should have bought Don Wright's listing of Walmarts that don't allow camping. It's looking like the ones closest to the interstates are the ones that tend not to allow overnighting. - Bez.
posted by Bezabor&Labashi | 10:37
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