Tuesday, May 3, 2022. Roanoke Falls NC to Wilmington DE

We broke camp and were on the road by 7:30am.  The Jeff’s Retreat was a very nice Boondockers Welcome site and in the future, it would be a nice place to spend 2-3 nights to explore that part of North Carolina.  

We stopped at a Bojangles in Roanoke Falls and picked up Bo-Berry biscuits and some chicken biscuits for breakfast and headed north.  We refueled in Arlington VA with 21645 miles on the odometer.  We took on 19.674gal @$5.059/gal (14.8mpg). We also found McGeorge’s RV- A Camping World Company, in Arlington.  It is a HUGE RV sales and service facility- perhaps the largest I have seen.  But more importantly, they have a RV trailer dump that is free to Good Sam Club members.  So we were able to dump our tanks for free.  It was also a very nice trailer dump lane with everything in working order and with potable water available.  

Traffic was pretty light until we hit Arlington.  Then there were stretches of stop and go traffic even mid day.  At one point we were completely stopped on the Baltimore Washington Parkway for more than a half hour.  When we finally got going again, we drove past the burned remains of a Ford Mustang that had rear ended another car and burst into flames.  

We drove past the Washington Mall in the distance and could see the Jefferson Memorial, Washington Monument and the Capitol dome from the freeway.  

Even though Washington DC is our nation’s capitol, the surrounding neighborhoods are run down and some are down right spooky.  The GPS routed us around some of the traffic jams through smaller side streets, and we spent a lot of time on US Route 1 heading north.  We were surprised at one point when we turned a corner and found ourselves driving over the top of a dam on the Susquehanna River, and then across the Mason Dixon line.

Even though Google Maps predicted a driving time of 5 hours, we ended up arriving at our Boondockers Welcome site in Wilmington DE about 5pm.  We had to back our RV into a tight spot next to the owners’ truck camper, which was a nice Northern Lite camper on it’s jack stilts.  On Ben’s first attempt at backing, he clipped the front corner of the camper with the side of the Winnebago, leaving a nice long scratch in the paint on the fiberglass, but fortunately no permanent damage to the rub strip on the camper shell.  That will be a badge of courage to remind us of this trip.  

We called Terri and John to let them know where we were, and John came in his Honda Accord to pick us up.  We went over to their condo where we had a pre-Cinco de Mayo fiesta complete with margaritas, and visited while running a load of laundry.  We got a tour of Terri’s garden and marveled at how far along her mason bees were in refilling their nesting blocks.  

As John drove us back to the RV, we saw a fox cross the road in front of us in their condo complex.  Terri had played an audio clip of the sounds that foxes can make in the night.  One clip sounded like a group of women being murdered.  Not a pleasant sound to be awakened by at night.  We’ll stick to our own snoring.