Our second stop was a winery/brewery location which happen to share a parking lot with a dog boarding facility. Luckily, Cody did not see a single one of the dogs over there, so no grumpy old man barking. We parked next to a Sprinter van, so we had company at this location, though we never saw the people. It was grass again, but this time right next to a road. We can also hear traffic from the turnpike here, but it’s not bad.
After setting up, we walked down to the tasting room. There was no one in the winery, and the brewery only opened at 6pm for trivia. It’s busier in the summer, and I’m surprised they stay open year round. The wines were decent, most of them sweeter than I like. Many dessert style wines.
We made dinner and then headed to the brewery for trivia – 90’s music, right up my alley! We got there late, but the host let us join anyway for the 3rd and 4th round. There were 5 teams, including us. We ended up getting 2nd and winning a prize. So 90’s music is not a forte of local Hershians. There was a beer made with Snickers that was delicious!
The next morning I got up early enough again to see the sunrise. Although it’s right next to the interstate, it’s a beautiful view. We walked Cody around and did a quasi-workout later in the morning since our next drive was only 2.5 hours.* (Yeah, the next “2.5 hours” deserves its own post).
The building below is the brewery. I bet this is a great hangout in the summertime.
We’ve officially started our cross-country winter escape! We left yesterday, Sunday, and headed to Gardiner Brewing Company and Wright Farm. We joined Harvest Hosts, and this was our first stay at one of the host places. We left later in the day as we’d planned to, so we didn’t leave much time to to check out the brewery. And after finally finding the parking spots for RVs well up the hill in the orchard, we opted for our Treehouse beers in the RV.
We had a few mishaps to start the trip. It wouldn’t be a true Ben and Megan adventure without them. I’ve rigged a fix for the electric brake controller which lost connection to the truck’s ground. The generator does not like us running the TV and microwave together. (There’s something fishy about that generator, we haven’t figured out what. We’ve used a lot of propane already…).
The reviews did not lie that the view is amazing at these RV spots. I got to practice some night photography,
I’ve got to work on the sharpness. Lot of time to practice before Joshua Tree. The constellations were out early. We got to see them well before the moon rose. I could get the 7 sisters and Orion in one shot, but Cassiopeia wouldn’t fit.
Ben took photos while I set up my camera. He says I’m in a spotlight here, like I’m about to be abducted. Lucky for him, I’m still here. =)
The morning Cody walk was pretty nice, too! We knew we were out in the middle of a field when we arrived, but we couldn’t see much since it was already dark. This photo below is my favorite for this spot.
Ben got some shots when he went out later. Cody got a lot of time outside here. They had their own Stonehenge, though we didn’t get the story there.
We got a few items at the farm’s market. Think Holmberg’s on a slightly larger scale. On to the next spot!
We passed through Asheville; stayed one night there and one night in Chattanooga. I needed to fly for work on Monday, so we needed to be in Huntsville by that afternoon. We didn’t see anything in Asheville, we were too exhausted to go anywhere. The camp we stayed at was nice, it had a small lake. We walked around it with Cody. He gets tired of being in the truck also.
On a previous visit to Huntsville, we’d stopped to see Lookout Mountain. It was December and a foggy day, so we didn’t see much. Ben wanted to try again, only this time he came across Ruby Falls. We went on a tour of them Sunday night. It is the largest known subterranean (underground) waterfall in the United States. It is 145 feet of cascading water in a cavern.
Leo Lambert found the waterfalls in the late 1920’s. Not ideally, he cut his way through Lookout Mountain hoping to open up caverns for tourists. He found the waterfall and named it after his wife, Ruby. The photo below shows the route they followed and how narrow it was
The tour took about an hour and a half. First, you ride an elevator 260 feet down. Then, hunched over (if you’re tall like Ben and me), you follow a tour guide and large group of people on a very long “2/5 mile” trek through the caverns. It was really cool to see all the formations, but it definitely took a long time to walk to the falls. Especially behind a mom that told her kids to “touch this” and “look here” and “let me get a photo” because they would never be there again. Yes, it’s true; maybe just don’t need to say it 20 times. I know, she was excited. I took several photos of the whole family and that made her very happy.
But I digress. Most of the rock is limestone. There were some formations with color from other rock and ores.
These rocks were precariously hanging above the walkway…
They time the lights at the waterfalls so that they turn on for 10 minutes once the tour group is there. I do agree with that previously-mentioned mom that they could give you more time in there instead of shuffling us around like a pack on a schedule. Yes – 1.5 hours “on tour” and 10 minutes at the falls. We did get some good photos, but not much time to just stand and enjoy them.
I’m glad we saw them. It was a fun experience. If you’re ever in the area, Lookout Mountain and Ruby Falls make a great side trip.
We were able to meet up with my parents and Shawn in Emporia Friday for lunch. It was very nice to see them, I’m glad they made the drive down. We got to see Shawn’s brand new ride as well!
Our first stop on the way to Huntsville was a state park just north of Raleigh, NC. The park was definitely more our speed for camping than the large RV park in VA Beach. We’ll be looking for more state parks with the RV.
For now, I’ve been the designated “backer-upper.” I’m getting a lot of good practice with it. This was fairly easy; and thankfully no people to watch. =) Our site was nice and shaded, very quiet.
Checkout wasn’t until 3pm, so we enjoyed the park some. We took Cody with us on a walk along the trail. He and I turned back halfway, but Ben walked the entire trail. Cody can’t make it as far as he used to, though he still enjoys a good walk through the woods. The trail follows the lake to the main beach/boat ramp area. It’s a pretty large lake; reminds me of Lake Anna.
We headed down to the beach area to cool off and enjoy the water. It was still early, but quite a few boats were already out to enjoy the day. We relaxed for about an hour before heading back and packing up to head to the next stop.
We stopped at a rest area and let Cody eat. While we were driving, Ben kept telling Cody to stop licking the bowl. He could hear the bowls rattling; usually means Cody is taking in all the food essence he can. A little while later, we stopped for gas. Look what we saw:
Whoops! It wasn’t Cody licking the bowl we heard, but the bowls moving on the back of the truck! It stayed here the entire drive from the rest area to the gas station. That’s impressive driving, Ben!
We stayed at a sardine camp in Virginia Beach. I call it that because that’s how they packed us in there. I didn’t take any photos because a) didn’t think about it and b) wasn’t much to photo. But, it served the purpose of a place to stay while in Hampton Roads. Our friend Trish had her change of command for the cutter Northland. She’s on to Headquarters in DC now, the “chief fish cop” as Ben puts it succinctly. So watch out illegal fisherpeoples!
This was the first time I’ve ever been on a Coast Guard ship. I don’t think I’ve even been on the Eagle yet. Yes, it’s a smaller version of a Navy ship – white hull instead of gray. The ceremony was nice, and Trish’s speech was definitely her speed and fun to listen to.
The sunny day and shaded tent didn’t make a good background for the photos, but you get the picture.
Trish had the reception at Smartmouth. They’ve expanded since we were last there, it’s a nice open space. Her cake was great – apparently they have an inflatable unicorn as a mascot of sorts on the boat. The uni has had several adventures while Trish had command.
FYI – the PEZ in the boat is cocaine. Large drug bust. See, the unicorn had many adventures.
It’s been very hot. As Ben has said several times during the trip, we are going the wrong way in the summer. We should be going north! Instead, we head south. The RV park we’re in has no shade and the trailer is uncomfortable from about 2 until the sun goes down.
We met Tess and Jeff at a new brewery in VA Beach Thursday…well, new to us. They opened in 2019. New Realm Brewery. The food and beer were good. It was great to see them again. They are RV’ers, so we talked about connecting in the winter. They’ll be fun to meet up with for sure.
Friday we continue our journey south, taking a few days to get to Huntsville.
Our first stop in our new RV. Well, new to us – we found a used 2019 with a layout we liked. We are doing a couple of weeks to join friends in a Change of Command and a Retirement. Since we didn’t want to do the entire drive to Norfolk in one day, we stopped overnight at Dover Air Force Base. Traffic wasn’t bad at all on the 4th. Honestly, it was the best drive in terms of traffic from CT through NY and NJ I’ve ever had in the summer.
We took turns, each driving about an hour and a half. It takes a lot of energy to control the truck and pay attention to everything around you. We got to Dover around 4pm. Setting up the trailer was easy. The dealership we bought from showed us everything the day we picked it up.
The base has a museum, and the RV camp happened to be very close to it. It’s closed Tuesdays, so we weren’t able to visit it. We did walk Cody around the fence to check out what we could.
We’re pretty sure they had an old Air Force One or Two out there. We couldn’t find the sign for it to confirm.
There was also a KC-10 out on the runway. It was so difficult not to just walk out to it! I’m sure the base police would have rolled up pretty quickly…but maybe not.
We saw a few aircraft land and take off. Overall, the camp was great–super quiet, easy to get in and out. We’d go there again.
We chose to hit the beach the last two days of our stay in Guanacaste. The first day we ventured north to Playa Panama. It was a very quiet beach, and we enjoyed it. All 3 of us got burnt. It was cloudy, and I didn’t put sunscreen on until we got to the beach. I can see all the spots I missed. =)
Ben and I walked the length of the beach. We saw starfish, sand dollars, and a sea urchin. I even took a Zoom call for work–it was a presentation in something I was interested in and didn’t want to miss. Below are the views up and down la playa.
The last day, Tuesday, we stayed at Ocotal. I had wanted to walk around the rocks to the peninsula/island all week. I got some beautiful photos from it, and we really enjoyed the walk. Definitely hit the pool afterwards; we were so sweaty. Below is a view back to our condo community.
This is the peninsula/island we walked around.
As I mentioned before, I really enjoy the tide pool rocky areas where water comes in. This one looked like several mini waterfalls when the water flowed back to the sea.
At this point, it got a little dicey with the steep hill, but we all cleared it easily. Yes, Amy went first. She did have the Tevas. =)
It surprised me on both beaches to see cacti along the water’s edge. I’ve seen several types. I wouldn’t have expected to see them in this humid climate.
Cross this little guy’s path. All week I thought about my friend’s story about how she once stepped on a sea urchin in the ocean while in Mexico. I watched where I stepped very closely. The only two I saw were on land.
I had fun taking photos of this bird. It was just hanging out on that rock, then moved into the water.
I’ve seen this pose from Ben on several trips. I can get sidetracked taking photos. I guess I took a while with that bird. 😉
This was a great trip and much needed vacation. I’m glad we were able to spend time with Amy. We’re already planning the next trip…
Today we went to the Diamante Eco Park, mainly to see the animal sanctuary. They also have zip lines, a beach, ATV tours, and a cultural experience. It’s about 30 minutes from where we are staying. There was a route that was only 20 minutes, but we didn’t make it through the shortcut road.
It was another driving adventure–lots of fun until we hit the washouts. They started out fine, but the last one worried me. I didn’t get any photos unfortunately. It was a good 2-foot dip. But it was the hill of loose dirt that forced me to turn around. We got almost halfway before the tires started spinning. I tried once more then said, “Nope!” We turned around and used the paved roads.
Below is the view from the Diamante Welcome Center. There is a hotel resort near the beach. At Diamante, we did the cultural experience and the animal sanctuary. The cultural experience was about sugar, coffee and cocoa. The guide showed us how they press sugar cane and the process to make it into various sugar products. We got to sample some coffee made from beans grown there as well as make our own chocolate. He had cocoa powder, powdered milk, and raw sugar. We each mixed our own. It was tasty. I tried it his way–with only a little milk and the cocoa. The milk made it creamy that it wasn’t too bitter.
We spent most of our time at the animal sanctuary. They had animals native to Costa Rica, although they did have two Marmosets from Brazil that had been donated to them by the founder of another preservation foundation. Amy’s favorite were the sloths. They were entertaining to watch eat–I was impressed how well they ate upside down.
We saw parrots, frogs, monkeys, and toucans. Photos didn’t come out well for most of these animals since they were behind netting or inside glass. For the toucans, however, we were inside their enclosure with them. These birds are domesticated and were confiscated as it’s illegal to have them as pets. The sanctuary keeps them as they would not survive in the wild. As you can see, they aren’t concerned about the humans close to them.
The cats were my favorites to see, though I didn’t get to hear their backstory. I am hoping they were also rescued from other situations. It’s sad that they only get to live in these enclosures. They do not get out to any open spaces. One of the guides did tell us they breed the jaguars to help increase populations as they have Near Threatened status. They were sleeping our first time through the sanctuary–understandable at noon when it’s 90 degrees. They were a little more active the second time through, around 3:30 (and close to feeding time).
I was able to get some good photos through the glass. I did have to use my shadow in some cases.
This puma didn’t look too happy to be disturbed from its sleep. That, or he/she thought I was the guide bringing food.
Look at the size of this jaguar! I would not want to meet him in the wild.
For dinner, we chose our trusty local restaurant–Father Rooster’s. Can’t beat walking distance and next to the beach! Ben got the nachos–it was a huge plate! I have found the servings to be large and wonder if this is how they cater to American tourists.
Amy had a yummy gin drink that also had ginger ale and fruit juices. I’m not a fan of gin, but this drink was delicious!
We’d not yet sat inside the restaurant, choosing outside instead. However, it was pouring, so we sat on the porch. I noticed they had these signs with distances to various places. Low and behold, look what city made the list!
Our plan today was to do some hiking and see a waterfall. While the day didn’t necessarily go as we thought, we did get to do both! The plan was to go to the Lomas de Barbudal Biological Reserve south of Liberia, about 1.5 hours away. I’d read there was good hiking to waterfalls, and it was free. Amy set the route on her phone, and we were off. Plans changed when the directions wanted us to turn into someone’s driveway–that was the fastest route to the location we set.
We continued on a few km to another turn and found the Llanos del Cortes Waterfalls (Planes of Cortes) instead. This was another place we’d marked, but not where I was hoping we’d go. We paid the entrance fee, followed the tour bus in front of us to the lot. We hiked down to the waterfalls, which were really nice.
I asked one of the guides from that van to take a photo of us. He turned it into a photo session and used the flash the entire time. We got a good photo, even if we are pretty reflective in it.
We enjoyed the view for a while, but as we knew we wanted to hike today, we held off getting into the water. We figured we’d come back for a refreshing dip on our way back.
So, after confirming at the entrance that we could re-enter, we turned right and continued on our adventure. From Google maps, it looked like we could get to the Reserve and hiking area this way. It was a scenic drive–lots of cattle farms.
The road was paved for a km or two, then turned into gravel. It continued to get more interesting. Luckily, we had a 4×4, so we weren’t concerned. Photos don’t do the “road” justice – this was one of the rough areas.
Although it was slow going, we figured we’d hit the cross road soon which led to the Reserve. That is, until we came across this gate. It was closed only with some barbed wire wrapped around the post, but who knows if this is private property or blocking cars from the Reserve. So…we turned around to re-do that wonderful road we just drove down. It was better going back since I at least knew what to expect and that we’d driven down it before.
We never did make it to the Reserve and that one hiking location. Maybe others did turn down that one driveway, and maybe it’s not just a driveway. But, I like to think the drive we had was one many tourists don’t experience. And hey, we never would have pulled over so the ox cart could cross the bridge!
Once we were back on Highway 1, we continued south to Palos Verde National Park. I still had hope that we could get to the Reserve–at least it looked like roads took you there through the park. Of course, we had just gone down another road that supposedly took us there…
We got to the park and found that there were several hikes off the main road through the park. That sounded good to us, so we went to the first one. As soon as we’d gotten out of the car, the mosquitos swarmed. And I mean swarm. A gaggle, plethora, tons! I couldn’t get the bug spray out fast enough. A lot got into the car while we were getting us and the bag out. I actually hiked with the bottle out because those suckers love me on any given day. I am a feast for them.
The trail was 560km of incline, but it was a great view of the plains. And, fewer mosquitos.
We enjoyed the view from La Roca and then hiked back to the car. We were very sweaty, as you can imagine, since it is 90 degrees. Hiking in that humid heat through a blanket of mosquitos sounds more fun that it is. Because of that, and since we’d taken up a lot of time with our backroad adventure, we decided to head back to the waterfall. I’m pretty sure Ben was gonna go there regardless what Amy and I said (he was driving.) =)
Yeah, that was a good call on our part. The water was so refreshing. We swam out as far as they would let you – it is roped off so you can’t get to the falls. Underwater critters like me as much as mosquitos apparently. Whether they were the minnows I saw or something else, I started feeling nibbles. Ben said it was in my head, but after one nibble that felt more like a bite, I chose to take more photos from land.
I sat on the shore and was reading when I saw this critter stop on the rock next to me. I can’t tell if it’s two insects connected together in some recreation or just one very interesting insect. I haven’t figured out what it is yet.
Once refreshed, we headed back for a night in. It was a great day. Even the small amount of sun we got was enough to conk us out early. We’ll probably do the eco park and animal sanctuary near us tomorrow.
We spent Friday hanging out on the beach. I’ve had to do a little work, but I’ll take the view I’ve had while doing it.
We spent the morning on the beach. It heats up quick, so I lasted about an hour and a half. The tide was coming in, so we moved back a few times. We were there early – at 9am – and I watched some fishing boats come in.
Ben made it! We picked him up at the airport in the afternoon. We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out at the restaurant on the beach, Father Rooster’s. Edwin was our server, I’m sure we’ll see him again. I think he remembered Amy and me from Wednesday because he asked our names.
Father Rooster’s provides an interactive wildlife experience with their food and drink service. Remember that magpie jay from Wednesday? Well, he successfully got a chip this time. He landed on the swing’s cross beam above Ben. I didn’t successfully communicate to Ben that the bird was about to swoop in. All I said was, “Ben, raise your hands.” By the time he said, “What? Why?,” the magpie flew in front of him and took a chip right from the dish. We covered the dish with a menu from then on. I haven’t gotten a photo of the culprit, but here’s what he/she looks like.
Geai à face blanche. Famille des Corvidés. Ordre : Passériformes
There was also a large iguana hanging out near the trees. It was bobbing it’s head, and we learned that this either indicates a mating call or a sign of aggression. Iguanas may be a group of animals which could beat me in a staring contest. They are skilled at staying still for long periods of time. Maybe they’ve seen Guardians of the Galaxy and they think they are invisible by moving so slowly. He kept eyeing Ben. I wondered if he was going to take a chip also. His claws looked like they could do more damage than the magpie’s. Luckily, he kept his distance.
We ordered dinner this time, and I chose the ribs. It came with a side of 5 potatoes! Seriously, the fries were huge and delicious. I have lunch for another time, as I asked for a caja para llevar, a takeout box. On the way back to the condo, Amy took us on a “shortcut” because she didn’t want to go through the sand. Instead, we went up the road. Unfortunately, it was not the road she thought it was, so our shortcut became a much longer walk that eventually took us in a circle to the complex’s entrance. Yep, we went on the road to the right of the restaurant when we should have walked past the place to the road on the left of it. Amy’s not choosing the direction any more this trip. =)
We watched the sunset in the pool again. It’s a great viewpoint and a nice close to the end of the day. Tomorrow we’re going on a hike and hope to see some waterfalls. Good night!
Ben and Megan Travel the World 