Coast to Coast Part 1, Florida to Montana March - May 2020

Blackwater Falls

When we left Jupiter, FL in mid-March, we planned to fly to Tanzania to see the Great Migration. We had cancelled our trip to Portugal. After a long drive to Jacksonville, we found the campground we had reserved just closed due to COVID-19. We returned to MD just before we got word that our group tour in Africa had been cancelled. After spinning our wheels in MD for a while, we decided to get some work done at our property in Lewisburg WV. We were planning to sell it, so we needed to start cleaning it out.  We set up camp at Douthat State Park in VA and did some hiking before going to Lewisburg. Our intent was to use Goodwill and Restore to take the household goods we had stored, but no longer needed. When we got to Lewisburg, we found both stores closed indefinitely. We spent our time sorting stuff into Keep, Trash, or Give-a-way piles. One of our neighbors offered to buy our 20-acre property and we were delighted to accept their offer. Since they only wanted the property for hunting, they said we could continue to use the garage for storage as long as we needed it. We returned to the Douthat State Park, only to find out it was closing. We moved down the street to a private campground, home for many redneck campers. It wasn’t the type of place we wanted to stay for more than a few nights. 

Happy Face in Dolly Sods WV

This was the beginning a several difficult months, in a period I call “RVing in the time of CORONA”. Now whoever the genius was in Washington who came up with the shutdown rules recognized only two types of RVers. First are the Recreational RVers. These are the people who head for a campground within a few hours drive from their house. They sit around the campfire and socialize/drink beer for two days and then head home. The second type are the Long Term RVers who stay at the same campground for six months or more. So, the Washington geniuses decided to close campgrounds - this would keep the recreational RVers home. They allowed an exemption to those already residents at long term campgrounds so they could remain there. What they didn’t address was the RVers like us that don’t fit in either category. We needed campgrounds open so we have a place to shelter in place other than the Walmart parking lot. The long-term campgrounds would not let us in, because the exception applied only to those who were already long-term residents. Therefore, it became impossible to “shelter in place” when they closed all the places we shelter in! As a result, we were constantly drifting around looking for places to stay. We didn’t feel guilty about traveling because we really had no other choice. I also love the decision to close public bathrooms, since when was going to the bathroom an option?

Busy Beavers in MN

With campgrounds closing everywhere, we booked a timeshare at Shenandoah Crossing in Gordonsville, VA for two weeks. We thought this might get us through the worst of it. It proved to be an interesting stay - we had two power outages, both over 6 hours long, and an unplanned water shutdown that lasted 8 hours. I experienced a problem with my left leg. An ultrasound confirmed it was not a blood clot. A week of steroid treatment finally cleared the problem. It may have been phlebitis. Pat had a Dr appointment in MD to get knee injections, so we got an AirBNB near Ft Meade for a week. After that we moved to an AirBNB in Davis, WV for two weeks. Canaan Valley and Blackwater State Parks were nearby, and we could walk to the Dolly Sods Wilderness area from our AirBNB. The area was practically deserted so we could hike all day and not see another person. “Social Distancing” taken to the extreme! We liked it there so much, we started shopping for a condo there, but didn’t find one we liked.

Pat walks across the Mississippi River

We had three weeks in Fernie reserved for us, but the border was still closed and no one knew when it would open. If it opened by early June, we wanted to be there so we could get in. We had planned to spend most of the summer in British Columbia. So, we left Davis in early May and headed West. We found that some KOA’s were open, so we made it to Indianapolis, and spent a couple days with Phil and Connie. Finding camping became more difficult as we headed west and then north to Breezy Point, MN where we had a timeshare for a week. Diane came up to visit for a while. All the campgrounds in MN remained closed in May, so after the timeshare we moved into an AirBNB for a week in Bemidji, MN. First, I had to winterize the RV for the extreme cold weather that was coming. I never had to winterize in May before! At Itasca State Park, we walked across the Mississippi River.

A Bad Day in North Dakota

We crossed North Dakota and the ticks were waiting for us. On one short hike I picked up 28 ticks. Each day in ND I picked up more than my fair share.  Before we left the state, we got into a sticky situation with our RV. See attached “A Bad Day in North Dakota”. We were glad to get out of ND. I often wonder why anyone would choose to live in North Dakota or Oklahoma. I guess we thought these states were good enough for Native Americans.

Hauser dam on the Missouri River

We entered MT, spent a few nights in Helena and took a hike along the Missouri River. We went to Missoula where we had our RV serviced, and met Robert from Savenac in ST Regis for lunch. We headed up to Whitefish and stayed at the Whitefish Lake State Park. We were only an hour from the Canada border when we found out the border closure was extended for another month. We were frustrated that we were unable to get into Canada and use our place in Fernie. While we were in Whitefish, we started looking at condos for sale. Pat wanted to get off the road in the summer, and we really like MT. We found a nice mountain condo but someone got a contract in just ahead of us. 

Cathedral of St Helena 

Robert and Don

Spring Wildflowers