Season 6- Final Blog: Heading Home 4/15/26-4/30/26

We have a membership to Harvest Host that we really don’t use as often as we should. Harvest Host offers overnight camping  at farms and Brewery and some businesses. We decided to take advantage of a Harvest Host location in Missouri. It was only about a half an hour from where Hailey’s Baby Shower was located. 

The night was peaceful and the next morning, we purchased some strawberries and homemade icecream.

We then headed out to the Rusted Route Event Venue for Barbara and Franks daughter’s shower. This venue was unbelievable. So beautiful. The food, the service and the landscaping were just amazing. They even had a farm house on property that you can rent for the evening which is what Barbara and Frank did, for after the shower. The farm house was like something you would see in a magazine. 

Next day we began our long and slow trek home to the east coast. We drove about 90 minutes to our first stop which was Fort Massac State Park in Metropolis Illinois. Such a great place. And the hometown of Superman.

We took a nice bike ride and went exploring the old fort.

We headed out the next day and were planning to stay at this other state park in Illinois. We got there and it wasn’t really what he had in mind. The campsites were extremely close together and the cost was double what we thought it would be but we spent some time checking out the Twig Creatures which were pretty cool.

We drove then another half an hour or so to the Beaver Dam Rest area which was super nice and spent the night there.  Next day we headed another two hours east to another Harvest Host location called Shaker Village in Kentucky. This place was awesome. So much history here on 3000 acres. Just amazing. We walked around a bit and then had a wonderful dinner at the Trustees Table which had a delicious menu and great architecture all around. 

Next two days we just stayed at Rest Stops along the highway. It’s nice when they have picnic areas so we aren’t stuck just sitting in the Van.

We headed to West Virginia to watch the dog races at the Mardi Gras Casino. We went in and got our players card which they loaded with a free lunch so we headed to the restaurant first before doing any gambling. 

The Greyhound dog races were so much fun. Man, can those dogs run!!! They are so fast. We were like the only ones watching the races. Had the whole place to ourselves. After the races we went back to the van for a nice nights rest. They had RV spots overlooking the racetrack and in the morning all the dogs came back to practice so we got to watch that from above.

So for those of you that don’t know, I have been to every National Park in the country. I knew there were a couple of new parks recently, some of them I had been to in my travels but there was one in West Virginia that I hadn’t been to so we decided to head that way to the New River Gorge National Park. We stopped at the Visitor Center and watched their movie and explored the museum. They have a bunch of free campgrounds here at the National Park which is pretty much unheard of. Most National Parks do not allow dispersed camping but this one does so we settled in at The Meadow Creek Campground for the night. 

Next day we went to a cute little town nestled in the mountains. We decided to spend a second night at the National Park as it was a beautiful sunny day. 

After that we headed to Virginia and stopped at the Virginia Welcome Center to get our free sample bag of Virginia peanuts. If you have never had Virginia Peanuts before, they are so good and twice the size of your average Walmart Peanut.

From there we went to explore the town of Staunton to check out the giant watering can and have a little lunch.

We have been basically staying at rest stops and Cracker Barrel’s this week so decided a shower would probably be a good idea before we arrive at my Dads house. So we were planning on spending the night at a State Park, we arrived there and took our showers and then checked the weather to see that it was going to rain all day and night so there really was no reason for us to pay the campground fees and be stuck in the van. We continued on to the Hollywood Casino where we spent the rainy day and night. I lost and Greg won. Greg won $300 bucks on some super old machine on a 90 cent bet. It was very exciting. We had some dinner and then back to the van for a rainy night of sleep. The sound of the rain on the van is very soothing and great for a good nights sleep. On the way we stopped at a Bass Pro Shop to kill some time. This particular Bass Pro Shop had the most animals we have ever seen. Even more than the giant Pyramid shaped one in Memphis.

Woke up this morning on the very last day of blog writing for Season 6. We head back to Raquette Lake after a short visit with family. Hopefully the Black-flies aren’t too awful. I’m looking forward to gardening. Below is the April calendar. Our diesel bill for the van this month was much larger than normal with gas prices what they are. The further east we went, the higher the diesel prices. We have to fill up today in Pennsylvania and the Diesel here is $6 a gallon. Ouch

Hope you enjoyed Season Six as much as we did. I know a bunch of you are regular readers of the blog. It would be so awesome if you could leave a comment and let us know how you like it. That will be the best send-off to keep me wanting to continue the blog for season 7. If your comment does not show up right away on your end, it’s because Word Press makes me approve each comment and I don’t always check everyday. Anyhow, Thanks for reading and have a great summer.