Monday, May 9, 2022. Harrisonburg VA to Nashville TN
Today was the longest drive budgeted for this road trip at 8 hours according to Google Maps. It got cold enough in Harrisonburg VA for the furnace to come on a few times with the outside temperature dropping to 36˚F. But we woke to find blue skies above and light traffic ahead as we drove across western Virginia and into eastern Tennessee. The landscape has changed to more hilly country with stony outcrops. We have moved from the Delaware coastal plains, through the Piedmonts, and now are in the Blue Ridge Mountains. There are scattered cattle ranches and farms, but much of the terrain is now undeveloped forests along vast stretches of the I-81 and I-40.
We made a stop at the Camping World in Roanoke, VA where they have a free trailer dump for Good Sam Members adjacent to their maintenance and RV repair shop.
There was nobody checking or Good Sam membership card, so it’s likely anyone could use these trailer dumps for free so long as they looked like they knew what they were doing. Our black tank was reading just 1/3, but it felt like a relief to empty the black and grey water tanks just to no longer carry around the unnecessary weight.
While we were stopped, we filled up the RV with 14.1gal of diesel @$5.299/gal with 22524miles on the odometer (13.8mpg) in Roanoke, and 9.524gal @ $5.159 in Abingdon, VA with 22654miles on the odometer (13.6mpg).
After crossing into Tennessee we stopped at a rest area and made some smoked turkey sandwiches for lunch. An 18 wheeler at the test stop was having some major engine work done in the parking area by a mobile mechanic.
We made one more refueling stop in Lebanon TN where we took on 17.3gal @$5.169/gal with 22935 miles on the odometer (16.2mpg). As we approached Nashville, the traffic got heavier and our cruising speed was reduced from 75-80mph to 65-70mph, which probably accounts for the better fuel economy.
We arrived at the outskirts of Nashville around 5pm, but as bad as traffic was, it was nothing compared with the traffic in the Metro Seattle area during rush hour. We were never really at a standstill. We arrived at Janet’s cousin Randy’s house around 6:30pm, just a little bit before Randy got home from his medical practice office day. He was carrying a laundry bag with laundry from his office to be done at home. He is a disappearing breed- a solo Internal Medicine practitioner in a small office with just 3 employees.
Randy’s wife Ann had her hands full with their new miniature Schnauzer pup as she greeted us and gave us refreshments. They have had other dogs but this is their first puppy with no children in the household to help with the training and entertaining of the puppy. Randy brought home some BBQ for dinner, and Ann had made fresh strawberry shortcakes for dessert. We had fun visiting and getting caught up.
Randy was very fortunate to have been involved in a capitated care plan so that he had an ongoing cash flow even as the pandemic had curtailed office visits severely. He was able to keep his staff employed and operations going. His practice had morphed into an outpatient only model after hospitalists began to take over the local hospitals, and it really saved him from having to deal with deathly ill Covid patients. He was able to send patients with Covid-like symptoms to the hospital for triage and care, and could concentrate on his usual patient’s non-covid care issues in the office. It was also a great help when Medicare and private insurers eventually began covering telemedicine calls and video conferencing.
Randy and Ann graciously offered to allow us to occupy one of their bedrooms, but we are quite comfortable in our little RV homestead, especially since Randy allowed us to plug into shore power so we can run our air conditioner. It wasn’t too hot, but the humidity is building up, and tomorrow is forecast to be close to 90˚F. Randy has Tuesdays off, so he will give us a local tour tomorrow.
