PORT REPUBLIC, NJ. to SPOTSYLAVNIA, VA., via DELAWARE and MARYLAND (OCT. 8, 2009)

OK… We’ve had the worst driving day so far, but we’re in Spotsylvania, Virginia, safe and sound, so I suppose we can’t gripe too much…
Started early, as we usually do when we have a driving day…
Clear skies, but a bit nippy…
Getting the rig ready for “take-off” was a breeze, and we were on our way just after eight…
Took a few minutes to program “Jack” before heading out, and followed his instructions to a tee… Turned right from our RV Park, and promptly got lost…
Had to stop several times to reprogram the little bastard (excuse my French), ‘cause (as we found out after a few trials and errors), he wouldn’t direct us for more than a few miles at a time…
This area is heavily forested, so, maybe, the satellite signals weren’t good? Who knows? Trying to make excuses, I guess?
Anyway, we managed to get ourselves onto Hwy 40, and followed it to the New Jersey Turnpike, where he (Jack) directed us to take a certain on-ramp, which, of course, got us driving NORTH instead of SOUTH…
To make matters a bit more testy, the Turnpike doesn’t have any ingress or egress points for 12 miles… In other words, we took a 24-mile detour!
Yep, I was pissed off…
To make matters worse, Lu got out of hand when we came to the turn-around point… There was no reason for this, of course, because I had everything under control, but… She has a tendency to jump, squirm, and use imaginary vehicle devices (like breaks), and offer unwarranted exclamation for no good reason at all, and it grinds on me… Especially after driving 24 miles out of our way…
So, needless to say, we had a little squabble (I yelled at her), which lasted for, oh, I don’t know… 12 miles, maybe??? Well… Until I needed her advice again…
Couldn’t rely on Jack now, could I?
So there you are… We left New Jersey on a sour note…
Never had so much trouble finding our way as here, but why that is, we can’t begin to figure out…
On to other things…
Before we left this morning, we decided to dive down into Delaware and cross the Chesapeake Bay, above Annapolis, Maryland, so we could add another couple of States to our “Have Been Map.”
As we made our way West and South, we programmed Jack time and again, and promptly ignored his directions, because they simply didn’t make sense… Lu had the map in her lap, and (since she was talking to me again) I paid very close attention, and we made it around the freeway “ring,” around Washington DC, and hit I-95 South…
Bam! An accident had taken place some 15, 20 miles ahead of us, and we were soon in another crawl…
Took an hour to get out of it!
Then, half an hour after we started moving again, we reached our RV Park…
We were told we probably couldn’t get satellite TV at our site, and there was no Cable TV…
I saw Luanne’s face take a dive! Not good news! What will happen to her favorite TV shows?
It’s gonna be a long week!
The place is huge, and we wound our way down to our site through heavily wooded areas…
Found it, and had the most horrible time backing the trailer in… Don’t know why, but it took forever - try after try… Embarrassing! No… Very embarrassing!!
Finally made it, and jockeyed the trailer around, while plugged into the electrical system, so Lu could activate the TV… Hallelujah! The day was saved (along with my hide)… Lu got her TV!
We both had a drink… Then dinner… Then Bed for her and Blog for me…
That’s it for today…
I’m sure tomorrow will be much, much better!
Pictures:
http://cid-44d18849bf3983e9.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/PORT%20REPUBLIC%5EJ%20NJ%20to%20SPOTSYLVANIA%5EJ%20VA%20via%20DELAWARE%20and%20MARYLAND%20%5E5OCT.%208%5EJ%202009%5E6