Homeward Bound!

Well it actually cooled off last night and we slept pretty good. It was a little humid but we made it. Today was our 23rd morning to wake up somewhere other than our home. Wow time really flies when you are having fun. Our plan today was to make a quick stop by Jollibee and then the Red Ribbon Bakery to pick up a few goodies to take home. After taking a few more pictures at Jollibee and headed to Red Ribbon. The plan was to get Lyn a birthday cake and maybe a few other goodies for the road. We got there about 9 and they had all the usual baked goods but they also had a few lunch items as well. We bought a chicken Empenada which is a lot like chicken pot pie. We got Lyn an Ube Cake roll for her birthday on Wednesday and hoped it could survive the ride in the cooler in the back of the car. After a few more pictures we were off. The GPS said a little over 4 hours to go. We could have kept going. We were not worn out but at the same time when the day arrives to go home you get this overwhelming feeling of I can't wait to be home. We had that feeling and even though we only had a 4 hour drive it did seem to drag by.We did have a pretty easy drive and only made a few stops  and arrived home finally around 2 PM! It was so great to see our house and know that we had a great trip and arrived safely. We had driven over 4500 miles and averaged about 44 miles to the gallon thanks to the Toyota Prius. Not the coolest car for sure but I could not ask for more. We were so fortunate on this trip to meet so many great people some of who we now can call friends. In 23 days we never had air conditioning and never watched a minute of TV in fact we are catching up on the news now and it is kind of shocking. We never had any car problems. Actually whenever we did have a problem it was usually caused by yours truly. :) Thank you to everyone following along. We had a great time and still kept our expenses down to about $124 a day. We usually shoot for $100 a day we added a few more more meals out and of course our time in NYC added to it. Anyway still a very inexpensive trip considering it was 23 days long. We are already thinking about next year and looking at several possibilities. I do know that as long Lyn is by my side and Jasper is in the back seat adventure awaits wherever we may go. Thanks again for following along. See you in the Bye and Bye!

Breakfast!

Jasper helping us pack up camp!

Special shout out to the cargo rack!

Yummy!

Double Yummy!

Ube Log Birthday cake!

Getting close!

Finally Home Sweet Home!

Final mileage for the trip 4586!

Onward to Virginia Beach!

We had another great night of sleep and we also had rain the entire night. It was actually great to sleep to however we had not read the weather forecast and had left all of our stuff out. This meant that our chairs and all of our plastic boxes that have our stuff in it was wet. The boxes protected the contents but it had rained so hard that they were now covered in mud. Anyway we packed up our wet camp and put the GPS on for Virginia Beach our next destination. For the first hour we drove through some of the most beautiful farmland we had seen so far. At every turn there would be a house made of stone that either was surrounded by cornfields or horse pastures. It was really pretty. We decided to take the scenic route and go down Highway 13 through Delaware along the coast. It would take about 30 minutes longer but it would keep us off highway 95 and make the drive more enjoyable. This was really a treat. It was a great drive that ended up taking us across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge / Tunnel. We had already been through some pretty cool tunnels and bridges but nothing prepared us for this. You go across over 13 miles of bridges which includes two one mile tunnels. It is really amazing to go on. It was well worth the 13-dollar price of admission. If you are ever in the area head up 13 and take in the sites you will not regret it. After about 5 and half hours we made it to our campground and when we got out of the car we realized for the first time that it was full on summer. It was about 90 degrees with about 80% humidity. Welcome home back to the south. This was the Virginia Beach KOA and we really liked the look of it. It is about 3 miles from the main grand strand and they have a shuttle that will take you to the beach and back if you do not want to drive. Anyway they gave us a very spacious spot and we proceeded to unload our still wet muddy stuff and set up camp. Hopefully we could clean everything up a bit and dry out. We set everything up and washed everything down. It was great to get it done but we ended up being a sweaty mess so we took showers and then headed out to the boardwalk. The main boardwalk area reminded me of Myrtle Beach. They have done a great job with the boardwalk and everything looks new. There were lots of people that were enjoying there day on the beach. I already knew that Jasper was not allowed at the beach but I soon found out that he was not allowed on the boardwalk either. We took a few pictures and then headed back to the main street and just walked for a while there and checked out the sights. Even though we had been along the coast for the last week this is the first time we felt like we were at the beach. Tonight we would be meeting friends at Jollibee for dinner. James and Donna use to work with me years ago and they agreed to join us for our pilgrimage to Jollibee. As you already know Jollibee is a chain from the Philippines that actually does better than McDonalds in that country. We met James and Donna and had a great time catching up while being surrounded by languages from the Philippines. After saying our goodbyes we headed back to camp. Luckily it cooled off considerably and we all went to bed around 10PM. Tomorrow we are going to take in a few quick sights and then point the car for our final destination………home!

KOA West Chester, PA.

Jasper sacked out!

Chesapeake Bay Bridge and tunnel!

The tunnel!

KOA Virginia Beach!

KOA Virginia Beach!

Home Sweet Home!

Out and about in Virginia Beach!

Out and about in Virginia Beach!

Out and about in Virginia Beach!

Out and about in Virginia Beach!

Out and about in Virginia Beach!

Jollibee!

Jollibee!

Driving to Manhattan!

Well we were expecting rain so we packed up the car the night before and planned on leaving for Manhattan to meet Lyn's relative Divina. The plan was to drive into Manhattan and find parking near Battery Park and then meet Divina and just walk the streets and take in a little more of NYC. When we got up it was still raining lightly. We took showers walked Jasper and packed up our very wet tent. Our final destination was about two hours away. I was a little nervous of driving in NYC but was excited to do it as well. Something about driving right through the city in our little car with its coolers on the back sounded fun to me. Luckily it was Sunday and the traffic should be pretty light. Anyway we headed out and had a beautiful drive there in a pretty hard rain. Once we could see the city the sun started to come out and by the time we arrived the day was full of sunshine. Lyn and I found parking without to much trouble and ended up only a few blocks away from our intended destination. We got Jasper out of the car and a valet went and parked our car. Not sure what he thought as I am sure it smells like three weeks worth of camping and has stuff pretty much packed in every available space. Anyway we walked through the park to meet Divina. After a few calls we met her and decided to go to the 9/11 memorial and then head to Chinatown for lunch. Jasper did great with all of the sights and sounds of the city. He actually seemed to enjoy taking it in. The one thing he did not like was any type of grate that was on the sidewalk. In NYC they are everywhere. He probably walked twice as far as we did just avoiding them. He loved the attention though. At lots of cross walks people would reach down and give him a pat on the head. He loved it. We finally ended up in Chinatown and just took in the sites. Divina has lived there almost a year so she new her way around. We could not find a place to eat that had a patio for Jasper so we decided to go to Little Italy. We found a place that said Jasper was welcome to sit with us on the patio and even brought him a bowl of water. My kind of place. After lunch we worked our way back to Battery park while peaking in stores stopping in parks and just taking in the sights. Finally we ended up near our car at a market and we all got a snack and sat outside on their patio. After we had finished catching up it was time to head to our next destination which would be at a KOA outside of Philadelphia. Thanks for the hospitality Divina hopefully you can visit us in the big town of Greensboro!

We headed out about 3 and traffic had increased 10 fold. Luckily we were headed out of a tunnel that was not far from where we were. After one missed turn we were headed through the tunnel and we were out of Manhattan. We had about a 2.5 hour drive to our campsite. Traffic was heavy but with my GPS and Lyn beside me keeping me on track we made it there by about 5:30. The campground was beautiful and they gave us a site right on a river that had horse pastures on the other side. The area was very calm and not really very many campers there.  We set up camp and Lyn fixed dinner. Then we headed for the showers. We all went to bed around 10PM exhausted from the day. Tomorrow we head to our final destination Virginia Beach! There is a fast food chain by the name of Jollibee that has been calling us. We will be answering that call!

Jasper in NYC!

Meeting Divina!

Meeting Divina!

Meeting Divina!

Driving in Manhattan.

Out and about in NYC!

Out and about in NYC!

Out and about in NYC!

Little Italy!

Chinatown!

Out and about in NYC!

Out and about in NYC!

Out and about in NYC!

Finally A Totally Groovy Day!

It was finally warm last night actually it was just perfect for sleeping. It was great to have Jasper back and we all three slept well. We had decided the night before that we would give the Woodstock museum another try. It was about an hour and half away and opened at 10AM. We headed out after having another helping of free pancakes compliments of the KOA staff. The kids at the campground were already playing miniature golf jumping on a big jumping pillow and just running about in general. Get ready Spencer Jane Miles your day is coming!!! J It was about 8:30AM when we left. We arrived at the museum at 10 and it was already too hot to leave Jasper in the car with the windows cracked so we left him in with the AC on. The Prius has a way to lock it with the AC running which is a nice since we will know he will be safe and cool. We also planned to check on him about every 45 minutes to make sure he is OK. When we walked up to the museum we noticed that they were selling tickets to that nights show for Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga. They still had lawn seats for $43 dollars a piece. We were tempted but decided we did not need to spend the money and that it would be way too long for Jasper to be in the car. We went in the Museum for the price of $15 each. They had their main exhibit upstairs and a temporary exhibit downstairs called  “Threads”. It was clothing styles from the 60’s. While everyone else went to the main exhibit we headed to “Threads.” It was pretty cool and after reading all about the different styles of the 60’s they had an area were you could try on some of the clothes on yourself. Since no one else was there we had plenty of time to try on all of the clothing items and take pictures. It was actually fun and I already knew that our money had been well spent on these tickets. We went upstairs to the main exhibit and from the moment you walk in it is an overwhelming explosion on the senses. Pictures, videos, artifacts are beckoning you to come take a look. It actually starts out with information in the late 50’s and works its way through the time line ending with the Woodstock event. As you go through every piece of it so interesting you find yourself wanting to run to the next thing but also wanting to make sure you did not miss anything in the place you were at. Very few people were there so we did not feel rushed at all. They had a million facts that I had never heard. Like the fact that Crosby Stills and Nash had only played in front of a live audience once before the Woodstock event. Also the concert organizers agreed between themselves not to pay more than $15,000 for any artist or group but when Jimmy Hendrix wanted 30,000 they agreed instantly. Also during the beggining of the event there were only two highway patrol officers inside the event. The governor had the National Guard on stand by and the also 300 more patrolmen. The two patrolmen that were at the event radioed out and begged them not to send anyone in because everyone was being so peaceful. They also talked about how they were running out of food and water but the very townspeople that were against the concert came out in droves to help whenever help was needed. Anyway can you tell I loved this place?! After we got about half way through we went and made sure Jasper was OK and of course he was. So we took him for a short walk and headed back in. The rest of the tour was filled with information on the actual event which included a full size hippie bus that you could go in and another movie area where you sat in Bean Bags to watch it. Finally when I thought we were done they had a 25-minute video on just the artist. The doors opened into a small movie theatre and we got to sit back and watch the highlights of Joe Cocker, Grace Slick, Jimi Hendrix and on and on and on! Finally we were done and headed to the gift shop. Unfortunately it was the usual overpriced stuff that you usually see at these kind of things so we decided to head out and see the actual field that the original event took place. We went back and got our car and drove just a few hundred yards down the road to where the actual stage was. I was only 7 when this event happened but no matter how old you were if you like music at all this is a great place to visit. Anyway after a great visit we headed home stopping at a few flea markets on the way. I thought they may have some cheaper Woodstock souvenirs but they did not. Finally we got home around 2 and had a late lunch. I took Jasper to the dog park and then I took a nap while Lyn did some things around camp. Tonight we plan to relax at our campsite and get ready for our drive into NYC. We will be meeting Divina a relative of Lyn’s in lower Manhattan. That’s right I will be driving our Prius with coolers on the back with all three of us inside searching for a reasonable place to park. Ha Ha………what could go wrong?!?!?!??! I will have to say I enjoyed today and look forward to the rest of the trip. It is getting close to the end but there is still a little adventure to be had.

Where it all happened!

Yikes!

See the peace sign?

Goofing around!

More goofing around!

The bus!