29. Apr, 2016

THURSDAY 25-09-08

Today has been a long day. We didn’t sleep too well at all last night, fortunately the aircraft in to Albany International Airport didn’t fly all night, but the traffic down the I90 did. This was probably the noisiest and largest Wal-Mart freebie campground ever. The great shame is that if they had allowed us to park on the other side of the store we wouldn’t have heard the traffic at all. Still we mustn’t be ungrateful, there have been times, due to the lack of private campgrounds that we’d have been stuck without Wal-Mart providing us with overnight parking. 

We were back on the road at about 09:30 having first popped in to the store as I needed to buy some blank DVD’s on which to download digital photographs at the end of each month. We also purchased a small carry pouch for the compact camera, smaller and more convenient than the one we currently use. 

We stopped at a number of Rest Areas on the way to Boston, this gave us a chance to stretch our legs and Rosina's back. We discussed the limited options for campgrounds in Boston and by Boston I mean within about a 50 mile radius. There were various mix and match options involving car hire to town, car hire to railway station, taxi to station, shuttle to station but only at a fixed time. In the end we opted for Ellis Haven campground www.ellishaven.com why I can’t remember now, I think it was because we could take a 6-mile taxi ride to the railway station, and from there a train to Boston or skip the taxi and drive the RV to the station. Anyhow we finally arrived at Ellis Haven, paid our money for just one night, having learned lessons from the last trip, were allocated our pitch and went in search of it.

As we slowly toured the campground looking for our pitch, slowly, not because there were children running around but slowly because if we’d gone any faster we’d have probably ripped the underside of the vehicle out, or completely rearranged everything in every locker. I’ve never come across a campground like it. Scruffy and rough would be an insult to those who live scruffy and rough.  There was no way I was staying there and it was particularly annoying because I’d mentally prepared myself for an end to the days driving task. Save to say the air was blue, but The Chef being the calm ambassador managed to get our money back.

By now we decided to forget Boston, I felt I’d done my bit in trying to visit, but there are just no practical campground solutions to visiting the city. Fortunately we had previously visited it in 2000 prior to a 7 day tour of New England in the Fall, but it would have been nice to have revisited some of the locations. So off we went again, this time bound for Atlantic Oaks RV Park www.capecamping.com on Cape Cod, the collective name for just about everywhere on the peninsular of land jutting out in to the Atlantic Ocean from south of Plymouth to Provincetown. 

We arrived here at about 17:00 having been on the road all day. This campground isn’t the Hilton but it will do. The original idea had been for us to camp at Provincetown but having gone on to two campground websites back in the UK, I felt their terms and conditions were far too heavily weighted against the customer and so decided to stay here and travel up to Provincetown as a day trip. I quickly had us plumbed in to all facilities including Cable TV, the bringer of the most appalling drivel that has ever been created by man, but without the snowy bits that an outdoor aerial brings. A quick flick to the Weather Channel bought us news that we were about to get heavy rain and winds overnight tonight and tomorrow, and more to come on Saturday, especially if a Tropical Storm out in the Atlantic becomes a Hurricane and heads our way. Not to worry, I know that if we leave the campground, turn left, go down to the roundabout and take the third turning right we’ll be on the Evacuation Route off the peninsular. Other than that it’s a day trip to Provincetown tomorrow in heavy wind and rain, a trip to the Liquor store down the road to buy a box of wine and then back to the RV to await the storm or hurricane whilst I hide under the blankets and suck my thumb. 

LOCATION TONIGHT: Atlantic Oaks RV Park, 3700 State Hwy, Eastham, MA 02642-2114 (GPS: N41.845301 W69.984658).

29. Apr, 2016

29. Apr, 2016

29. Apr, 2016

WEDNESDAY 24-09-08 

We woke early having had a peaceful night, Rosina elected to shower in the RV whilst I, being the other half of a couple, the only couple on at least 75% of the campground was determined to give the cleaners something to do and so showered in the bathroom block not too far away. 

We ran the generator for a while so that The Chef could dry her hair in the bathroom and make our usual flask of coffee for the days travelling. After preparing the vehicle for the journey ahead I reversed it the wrong way round the campground loop until I reached the tap near our allocated pitch. There I filled the freshwater tank to 2/3 full before committing the greatest of sins – washing the vehicle. I had to use cold soapy water but managed to give it a quick once over which was needed especially on the rear. My feelings were that since I’d had no electricity out of them I’d have water instead. That done we made our way out of the campground with The Chef reading the campground receipt from the night before announcing that we’d paid a basic fee of $13 plus $6 for extras, plus state tax of course. I asked her what the extras were for and she said electricity, and so I turned the vehicle round and went back to the office. In I went to find yet again Miss Eat-a-whole-pizza-for-breakfast and another member of staff. I asked her to explain what the extras were, I let her tell me that it was for electricity before I pointed out to her that we had no electricity last night because we were 30 amp which she’d been told by The Chef, and they only supply 20 amp which has a different plug connection. A shrug of the shoulders and an announcement of policy which was that it was a flat rate charge for electricity, we had electricity available on the pitch so that was that. I left the office hoping against hope that she’d have a near-death experience choking on her one remaining slice of a large pizza. 

Off we went, making for Rochester, NY to do some shopping at the local Wal-Mart Superstore. We hadn’t been to a large one for a while, instead running across much smaller stores selling a bit of everything but not much food.  The early part of this journey took us along the coast close to Lake Ontario, where there were some very nice lakeside properties and across the road, swamps, which I was surprised to see, though I’m sure the wealthy locals would refer to them as ‘wetlands’. 

On arrival at Wal-Mart we did our bits of shopping before the penny dropped that many of these larger stores do tyres and oil changes, so off I went to their counter and asked about an oil change for the RV. Yes they’d do it, but they didn’t have an oil filter for our vehicle and so off I walked to a store about ¼ mile away to buy the correct filter before returning and booking the vehicle in. 

The guys did the oil and filter change in 20 minutes and charged me about $47 which I thought was very reasonable so I gave them a $5 tip for some doughnuts with their coffee. We loaded up our shopping and hit the road bound for Albany, further down the I90 Toll Road-cum-Interstate Highway. 

The scenery for so much of this trip has been very much like rural England, today though as we got closer to Albany it did start to get a bit more interesting by way of some large hills, small lakes, the Erie Canal, which seems to be running parallel with us, and leaves on the trees which seem to be on the turn ready to be visited by the annual ‘Leaf peepers’. 

On arrival at  Albany ‘She’ in Satnav delivered us to Wal-Mart only for us to discover signs everywhere saying no overnight parking by RV’s or trucks. This was a blow, we still needed some wine and so decided to pop in and get some whilst clarifying the situation. It’s true not all Wal-Mart’s allow overnight parking but I only listed as potential overnight campgrounds those which did. Having established that this huge two-story Wal-Mart didn’t sell wine either, we had a look around. 

A member of staff on the exit door clarified the parking situation and in fact we could park overnight but only on the rear car park which is also on the flight path of Albany International Airport as well as next to the Interstate. We have yet to hear the sound of the obligatory freight trains. It looks as if we will not be enjoying a quiet night tonight, never mind, as always with Wal-Mart, it’s free and convenient, and we're always grateful for their hospitality. 

Tomorrow is the final leg of our journey to the Boston, Massachusetts area, though exactly where we will be camping remains a mystery even to me, due to the lack of anything locally suitable. 

LOCATION TONIGHT: Wal-Mart, Washington Avenue Extension, Albany, NY 12205 (GPS: N42.694780 W73.845513)

29. Apr, 2016