Yet Another Wilmington…

If you’ve been keeping up, we left Wilmington, MA, last week on our way to North Carolina to visit our friends, Cathy & Don. You can read the previous blog entry here.

We camped for two nights at Andrew Jackson State Park in Lancaster, South Carolina, and spent some time at Anne Springs Close Greenway on the way back to Charlotte. I forgot to mention at the end of the previous post that we stopped by Middle James Brewing in Pineville, NC, after hiking at the Greenway on Sunday.

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On Monday morning, a week from the day we left home, we awoke to our final day in Charlotte. Cathy & Don were on grandparent duty, so we all drove over to Little Sugar Creek Greenway and walked for a couple of hours. Mark squeezed in a run while we were there.

The weather was beautiful and so was nature all around us.

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Monday afternoon, Cathy & Don took us on a brewery walk not far from their neighborhood. We visited Legion Brewing,

Burial Beer Company,

And the favorite, Resident Culture Brewing.

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Monday night, we enjoyed a home-cooked meal with Cathy & Don, their daughter, Kelly, and her husband, Mike. And on Tuesday morning we said our good-byes. Time with good friends goes by too fast.

On the way to the fourth Wilmington of our trip, we saw an amazing sight. A huge, I mean HUGE, flock of white birds, probably Snow Geese, flew over the highway, looking like a murmuration of starlings. It was impossible to get a clear photo, as we were driving about sixty mph, but here’s what we saw:

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It was mesmerizing! And a little distracting for the driver. 🙂

We continued on to Wilmington, North Carolina, where we stayed overnight at the KOA there.

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Our journey south was over now and the rest of the trip would be directed north, toward home.

What Happens In Virginia…

If you need to catch up on the first leg of our recent van trip, check out From Wilmington… To Wilmington… We left off in Fredericksburg, VA, on a drizzly Wednesday morning. The rain didn’t last long and we pulled out of the KOA about the time the sun was struggling to come out. We spent the entire day traveling and visiting in Virginia.

On the way to our third Wilmington, we stopped at lovely Lake Anna State Park. We hiked, ate lunch, and enjoyed the view.

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When we left Lake Anna, we went in search of the next Wilmington on our list: Wilmington, VA. Having no idea what to expect, we were surprised to find it so obscure that we drove by it at first. This is all we found:

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Apparently, Wilmington, VA, is an unincorporated community in Fluvanna County. Several online searches yielded very little additional information. So, we moved on to Richmond.

The two Richmond breweries on the itinerary were The Veil Brewing and The Answer Brew Pub.

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At The Veil, Mark finished his tasting with a Double Raspberry Fizzy!

We ate dinner at The Answer, where we picked up a four-pack of a special-release dessert stout, Diablo Forever Coconut.

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After supper, we drove south for another hour plus to the Holiday Inn in South Hill, VA. We treated ourselves to hot showers and a room for the night.

In the morning, we headed for North Carolina. Lots more adventures to come… 🙂

From Wilmington…to Wilmington…

Do you know how many places in the United States are named Wilmington? Don’t know? (Don’t care??) Well, if the Google can be trusted, there are thirteen. And many are in the eastern part of the country. So as we set out from Wilmington, MA, on another van trip, we thought it’d be fun to step foot in a few alternate Wilmingtons along the way.

After spending Monday morning packing the van, we headed west on the Mass Pike, stopping at Wells State Park in Sturbridge, MA, for some exercise.

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The fresh air prepared us for a long afternoon of driving through Connecticut and New York, and into New Jersey. After getting past a disabled truck on the George Washington Bridge on-ramp, we watched the sunset over NYC from the bridge’s lower deck.

We arrived at our first campsite in Clarksboro, NJ, after dark and settled in for a cold night. Check out our site number. 🙂

On Tuesday morning, we headed toward Wilmington, Delaware. Not sure what we expected, but it was more city-ish and crowded than our own Wilmington.

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After that, we crossed into Maryland, drove through Baltimore, and into Virginia.

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We had to Google the three beautiful white towers. Turns out they’re part of a huge Mormon temple in Kensington, MD. In Virginia, we stopped at Tyson’s Corner Center to meet my brother, who lives and works nearby, for lunch.

From there, we drove south to Fredericksburg, VA, and camped for the night. We awoke to light rain on Wednesday morning. I’ll leave you with this image of our morning visitor.

More Wilmingtons and trip highlights to come… 🙂