Hershey PA, Virginia and North Carolina

8/21/21 – 9/5/21: Once again I scored a great spot with Harvest Hosts and today I’ll be visiting and then staying right at the Antique Auto Museum in Hershey PA. I arrived and picked a nice spot in the parking lot next to an antique bus.

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The day I arrived they were hosting a local Cadillac club and the parking lot was full of all kinds of cool Caddies. I was very impressed with the museum, they had a great selection of cars, and the basement was filled with vintage buses and they also had a special section of mini bikes, who doesn’t love a good mini bike?

Check out all the pictures here:

Hershey Antique Auto Museum

After a quiet night I headed out to my next stop, another Harvest Host location, this time in Aldie VA at Quattro Goombas Winery, brewery and pizza kitchen. It was only 120 miles and I kept thinking I would stop for lunch on the way, but I never found a good spot and just kept on driving. I arrived around 4pm and by then was STARVING. 😳 Lets just say I really enjoyed the pizza! They also make a red wine frappe which is the best adult slurpee I’ve ever had.

Another quiet night with the large parking lot all to myself, my next stop was Colonial Beach Virginia, a sleepy little town right on the Potomac river.

When I bought the RV the dealer gave me a 1 year Thousand Trails Camping pass membership and this would be my first experience with one of their parks. Harbor View RV resort was nice, outside of town enough to be quiet but still close to all the attractions and I also got some time in at the pool.

This area is just full of American revolutionary and Civil war history and I visited

Washington’s birthplace

James Monroe’s birthplace

Point lookout state park

I also took a sunset cruise on a vintage sailing vessel.

Sunset sail York river

Since its just down the road from Point lookout state park I had to visit Maryland and sample some of the famous Maryland Blue crabs, I had seen a review for Courtney’s seafood restaurant in Ridge MD. I got there about 3:30pm and it there was just a few people inside so I grabbed a spot at the bar and chatted up a friendly local to get the skinny on the whole crab cleaning thing. He was happy to show me how the secret combo and I really enjoyed the little guys! Sweeter than the dungeness crabs on the west coast and the Old Bay seasoning really makes em pop.

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After spending 4 nights I moved on to another Thousand Trails park right outside of Williamsburg, Virginia. I visited the Jamestown Settlement and Colonial Williamsburg while staying here. You can get your fill of American history in this area for sure!

I also found another Rail Trail to ride! The Virginia Capital Trail is a 52 mile paved multi- use trail that runs from Jamestown all the way to Richmond. I decided to ride the section near the Charles City Courthouse because of easy (free) parking and proximity to Cul’s Courthouse cafe/pub which was highly rated on Yelp. After a warm (and always muggy) 27 mile out and back ride, I had the BBQ burger and Cul himself recommended a Strangeways Brewing sour beer that literally blew my mind. Wish they had nationwide availability on that one!

Click the photo below for more photos of the ride.

The next morning it was time to move again, and this time I’ll be staying at another Thousand Trails park at Lake Gaston, NC.

I arrived and got assigned to a nice spot close to the lake.

I am starting to notice a theme at the Thousand Trails parks, they have a lot of part time/full time residents both in RVs with decks and other semi permanent features and also lots of park models. I really like the idea of having a long term spot and this might be an interesting way to embrace the snowbird lifestyle.

My next stop and final NC location is Jordan Lake state park. I was able to get the Kayak back in the water and had a really nice RV spot here as well.

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Next, I’ll be visiting My Mom, Sister and Nephew in Myrtle Beach for the entire month of September before heading to Florida.