Arriving in Reston just before Labor Day weekend, we were one stop away from our final destination for the next few months at Pocahontas State Park. This was the latest date for our return to the park before our annual Cabin Work Week project, so we pretty quickly got to work assessing inventory and creating orders for supplies needed for this year’s project.
At Lake Fairfax Park campground Lake Fairfax
Our return to Reston had us arriving just as the holiday traffic was beginning. We were grateful to be pulling in on a Thursday, avoiding the peak of the traffic on Friday. Against our better judgment, we did venture out on Friday and so did just about everybody else. We confined much of our exploration to the park for most of the weekend, although we did visit with Cookie and Jerry on Sunday night – one of our main reasons for stopping back in Reston on our way back south.
Our return to Reston had us arriving just as the holiday traffic was beginning. We were grateful to be pulling in on a Thursday, avoiding the peak of the traffic on Friday. Against our better judgment, we did venture out on Friday and so did just about everybody else. We confined much of our exploration to the park for most of the weekend, although we did visit with Cookie and Jerry on Sunday night – one of our main reasons for stopping back in Reston on our way back south.
Dave measuring deck for replacement boards Pocahontas State Park
Time at Pocahontas quickly falls into a schedule of sorts. Mornings take us to the work site to inventory supplies, assess the site, or start preparing wood for the project. Afternoons find us back at the RV working on computers or phones as we work to finalize volunteer lists, research and order supplies, plan activities or some other project-related activity. We have occasional meetings with park staff and other hosts.
Time at Pocahontas quickly falls into a schedule of sorts. Mornings take us to the work site to inventory supplies, assess the site, or start preparing wood for the project. Afternoons find us back at the RV working on computers or phones as we work to finalize volunteer lists, research and order supplies, plan activities or some other project-related activity. We have occasional meetings with park staff and other hosts.
Troy and Taylor at Pocahontas On the weekends, we have visits with family – Bonnie and Troy’s family and Droz, including one Saturday at Busch Gardens.
RV Stuff
Our backup camera at the back of the RV had become an essential tool for Dave to back the RV into a campsite. Since it was installed last year, it had performed flawlessly – until it didn’t. Pulling into Lake Fairfax, the camera signal just wasn’t there on the monitor.
Thinking it was a loose wire, Dave crawled up on the roof of the RV to check. While Cathy watched the monitor, Dave adjusted wires and the cameras position, but nothing changed. To ensure the problem was with the camera and not the connections in between, we swapped out the camera on the back of the RV with the one from the truck that shows the truck bed. When that worked, we decided to make it a permanent change. Before we were done, we discovered that now both cameras worked. With the 2 cameras swapped, all was good, although it wasn’t clear what caused the outage.
Our backup camera at the back of the RV had become an essential tool for Dave to back the RV into a campsite. Since it was installed last year, it had performed flawlessly – until it didn’t. Pulling into Lake Fairfax, the camera signal just wasn’t there on the monitor.
Thinking it was a loose wire, Dave crawled up on the roof of the RV to check. While Cathy watched the monitor, Dave adjusted wires and the cameras position, but nothing changed. To ensure the problem was with the camera and not the connections in between, we swapped out the camera on the back of the RV with the one from the truck that shows the truck bed. When that worked, we decided to make it a permanent change. Before we were done, we discovered that now both cameras worked. With the 2 cameras swapped, all was good, although it wasn’t clear what caused the outage.
Parting Shots
Passing into Maryland on route 15 from Pennsylvania, we stopped at a welcome center that had a display about the creation of the border between the 2 states. With lots of conflict between the two colonies, a definitive border needed to be set. Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon took on the task with what was state of the art technology for its day. Using a transit device to determine the direction for the border line, and a gunter’s chain to measure distance, they set “crown” stones every 5 miles. These had been carved in England and shipped to the colonies to be placed with William Penn’s crest on the PA side and Lord Calvert’s on the MD side. While the Mason-Dixon line has some uglier connotations from later US history, it was originally about ending a conflict, not starting one.
Passing into Maryland on route 15 from Pennsylvania, we stopped at a welcome center that had a display about the creation of the border between the 2 states. With lots of conflict between the two colonies, a definitive border needed to be set. Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon took on the task with what was state of the art technology for its day. Using a transit device to determine the direction for the border line, and a gunter’s chain to measure distance, they set “crown” stones every 5 miles. These had been carved in England and shipped to the colonies to be placed with William Penn’s crest on the PA side and Lord Calvert’s on the MD side. While the Mason-Dixon line has some uglier connotations from later US history, it was originally about ending a conflict, not starting one.
