The Blitz East Finale: Grateful to be back home

Whenever we're on a tight timeline, we need to watch very closely how the weather might impact our travels. Typically we travel slow enough to wait out storms, wind, or poor driving conditions if necessary. When we only have 3 weeks to get from Denver to Boston, waiting out the weather isn't as easy. We always want to stay safe, but time is of the essence. This is why we ended up driving through washed out roads, flash floods and downpours, then found ourselves face-to-face with freezing rain and snow.

Up until our final night in Pennsylvania, things were pretty uneventful. We grabbed a full hookup site at an RV park that was nearing the end of their camping season. On one side of the park were the semi-permanent RVers, some of whom were still around but many who were already winterized and onto warmer pastures. On our side of the park, we were one of three holdouts. We chose a site up on the hill, across the park from the other RVers. We like our alone time, especially on days where we plan to hunker down and do work. It was too cold and rainy to really do anything else anyway, although we did brave the weather to get some photos by the pond.

Rumor was that a majority of the country would be getting freezing temperatures for Halloween. We had already dipped below freezing a few nights, so this wasn't a big change, but we were due to leave on November 1, and when checking the forecast, we discovered that temperatures wouldn't rise above freezing until our check-out time. Our worry was, with all the rain we got, that the roads would turn icy.

On Halloween night, we didn't just get a freeze...

We woke up to a winter wonderland. It was quite beautiful. We actually love seeing snow, especially when it's fresh and makes everything feel cozy and serene. Evidently the other transient RVers at the park didn't agree; they were both already long gone.

Pretty as it was, we needed to figure out if we could safely leave that day. We decided to stay as late as possible, checking out at noon, when the temps would be above 32°F (though barely). We also noticed some high winds coming in. The radar was saying gusts up to 45mph. Typically not anything we'd worry about in normal conditions, but if the roads were slippery, things could get dangerous.

Thankfully, the weather cooperated. After days of rain, we finally saw the sun, which helped to melt the snow and ice throughout the morning. The temperatures rose high enough to sustain the thaw, and all the roads were clear. We gave ourselves the green light. Next stop: Maryland!

We've been pretty opinionated about our DC-area campgrounds. Because we weren't going as far south as Virginia and our go-to Maryland state park would be closed for the season, we set out to find another option. We requested a stay at an RV park not too far from Patapsco, but they never responded. Just as well. I went to my Plan B, which was Little Bennett Campground, a county park campground situated along I-270 northwest of DC. Back when we were RV newbies, we would have avoided a campground like this. The reviews talked about sloped sites, and the website didn't even list the size of RV that would fit in each site! By now, we've had our fair share of wonky sites, and sometimes they've ended up being some of our favorites. We could have called the park and asked about site lengths, but I saw enough reviews that made me feel confident that Loop D would fit us. Loop D is also the only loop with full hookups. I grabbed the last site available for our dates.

Length-wise, we were fine. Slope-wise...good thing we're a trailer and can level ourselves front-to-back easily. Not only was there a slope, but there were also timbers. Timbers that we had to back ourselves over in order to manage the slope. ATCs and their high clearance. Comes in handy more than we would have thought.

Once in our site though, all was well. We had the woodsy vibe that we've come to appreciate in Metro-DC. At one point we even saw a fox run through our site! We were just steps away from a hiking trail, now covered in leaves. It felt really nice to be able to take my morning walks on an actual trail.

We may have covered 23 states since the last time we were in the DC area, but some things never change. We stop to grocery shop at Mom's, and we stop to see our friend Roberto. It's fun to have these traditions on the road.

On Saturday, November 4, bright and early, we packed up and started on our final stretch home. We always give ourselves plenty of time to get back to New England because the congestion and overall stress make for some slow moving. Typically, we add in one overnight to break up our drive. It's slim pickings, especially in the off-season, but we try to land somewhere in Connecticut. Getting through New York is always the biggest obstacle. Sorry to disappoint you, but this time we did not take the George Washington Bridge! In fact, our campground was located west enough that our GPS routed us up to I-78 instead of taking us on I-95 the whole way. We hadn't gone this route before, but we figured we'd give it a try. We went through Harrisburg, PA, which we'd choose any day compared to NYC. From I-78 we got onto I-287, which took us over the Tappan Zee (Cuomo) Bridge, our top choice for crossing the Hudson to circumvent Manhattan. It's still no picnic, but we've now towed over the bridge a few times and have never lost a sewer hose.

Getting up to the northeast is a hassle no matter which route you take. We still dealt with bumps, traffic from accidents, and traffic from construction. We had gotten used to zipping around with little traffic over the past several months, but drives on the east coast yield many fewer miles per hour. We also run into issues finding suitable places to pull off for gas or rest stops. Some are too small to fit us, some are inconvenient, and the good ones tend to fill up quickly. We've always said that learning to RV in the northeast had its advantages because it's so dang hard. Now that we've towed close to 30,000 miles all over the country, we can safely say there's some truth to that theory. All that said, the drive was about as smooth as we could hope for. Only a few bouts of traffic, one from a car accident so bad that they were landing a med-flight. Only 2 incidents where we struggled to find a suitable gas station. And not too many crazy drivers on the road.

Because of this, we decided to push ourselves some extra miles. Previously when we've returned home, we've ended up crackerdocking at the Cracker Barrel in Milford, CT, but this time we went ahead to the Niantic KOA in East Lyme, one of the only RV parks that's open year-round. We paid a hefty price for a site for the night, but we really wanted one more night of the campground feel. This would allow us to have some peace and quiet, take a nice walk in the morning, and utilize all the amenities and resources we needed.

That night we changed the clocks away from Daylight Savings. Time changes are insane in the nomadic life. Back in the spring, we were on Pacific Standard Time, then went to Arizona Time when Daylight Savings began, but since Arizona doesn't spring forward, we stayed the same time until we went north into the Mountain Time states. This time, we quickly jumped from Mountain Daylight to Central Daylight, then were in Eastern Daylight for only a week before we changed the clocks back, setting us an hour earlier once again. Driving long distances is already tiring, but constant time zone changes suck even more energy right out of us.

The benefit of the end of Daylight Savings was that we finally gained an hour for the first time since we began our Blitz East! We got some extra sleep and woke up to an earlier sunrise. The Niantic KOA is right across the street from Rocky Neck State Park, so we were able to squeeze in a few miles of hiking before we hit the road.

Then we made the 2.5-hour drive back to our home-base. Returning after such an epic 11 months was a bit of an out-of-body experience. It didn't quite feel real that we had traveled that many miles. Last year, we stuck close enough to home that we ended up staying at our home-base twice - once in the summer and once in the winter. This year was completely different; we felt like we really spread our wings. With all the memories we created in 2023, coupled with the comforts of being back in familiar territory, we experienced a lot of emotional dissonance those first couple of days back. We can't fully explain the feeling, but it's almost like we needed to grieve the year that was. I follow a lot of hiking YouTubers, and many thru-hikers describe a similar feeling when they return home after completing a trail. It's so nice to be back to a sense of familiarity with all the creature comforts of home, but the adjustment takes time. One thing was for sure, though: We were grateful to be home. We could finally do a deep cleaning and renovating of our rig; we could get packages delivered with ease; we could drive without needing a GPS (okay, I could drive without needing a GPS); and we could start gearing up for holidays with the people we love.