Reginald the Rugged Rhino

As those of you on social media already know, Mike and I did a thing:

Introducing Reggie, the Rugged Rhino.

I alluded in my last couple ride stories, we were planning to upgrade our sleeping quarters for endurance rides. In fact, we've been casually researching an upgrade for quite some time. We got the Rav specifically with distance riding in mind, but quickly outgrew the space we had. Camping in the back of the car is reasonable if the weather cooperates and there are no bugs, but it's a pain if it's hot, cold, raining, or swampy. Add in two dogs and things get extra complicated. Long time readers may remember that we have a pretty bitchin' tent set up that includes a double cot and enough room for dog crates, but there's nothing like pitching a tent on a 90 degree day in Virginia in June with 99% humidity and horse flies the size of Volkswagens to make my normally saintly husband lose his cool. Not to mention, packing all that stuff is really a hassle even if you are the Tetris King.

We did explore the idea of getting a larger vehicle for endurance. We looked into vans, trucks with capped beds, and bigger SUV's. At the end of the day, however, we love the Rav for a bunch of reasons. It's fun to drive, does great on gas, kicks butt on rugged terrain, holds all our crap, and doesn't take up too much space. Plus we're still paying it off and trading it in at this point wouldn't be profitable. Also, we don't really have the budget for a truck payment right now.

Back to the drawing board we went. Our next scheme involved buying a small RV. Mike did a ton of research and picked a few models that were basically the LQ part of a horse trailer without the added weight of hauling horses. (Since my horse is dead and my pony is retired, none of that matters anyway.) The limiting factor there was the towing capacity of the Rav (2,000lb.) We even looked into having a small RV gutted so that we'd just have the basics, but it turns out they come standard with all the gear installed and you'd be paying extra to have less things.

One of the RV's we considered and researched.

We did find a few small RV's that fit the bill and included kitchens and bathrooms with running water. We even made an appointment at a dealer one winter and went to see them in person. We sat down, talked numbers, got approved for financing, and went home to think about it. (Heck, we could even live in the trailer if shit hit the fan with our rental!!)

We came this|close to buying one of these.

In the end, we decided to pass on a small RV. The main factor was the weight. Even before we put any of our gear in it, the RV would be just under the 2,000lb. mark. It didn't give us a lot of wiggle room, and neither one of us really wanted to put that kind of strain on the Rav's transmission, especially hauling over mountains and for hundreds of miles at a time. Like I said, we're not in a position to replace the car if we blow the engine on it.

The next logical step was to check out tiny campers. They're super popular right now and there are a ton of companies who make them in all shapes, sizes, and colors. They're light, easy to maintain, and... oh yeah... like $20k. Since you can get a full sized RV with all the bells and whistles for less than that, the price point was a deal breaker, and we threw in the towel on upgrading our rig for the time being. By that point, I was doing a lot of riding on my own and sleeping in people's LQ's. Most of the rides Mike and I attended together were during cooler weather, and I could just pay for a dog sitter to cut down on crowding.

This bed on wheels looks super sharp, but it starts at $12k!

And then Mike accidentally stumbled upon the Tiny Camper Company LLC in Florida. Here was a guy who was hand building tiny campers and selling them individually. He had tear drop trailers starting at just over $3k, and there were all sorts of upgrades available. Each build was custom-made to order. I did some research and the company had all excellent reviews. It would appear that the craftsmanship was really great and people were really happy.

In the process of browsing the site, Mike discovered the Rugged Rhino, and I think it was love at first sight. The trailer is 6' wide x 8' long x 4' high. It comes with half moon vents that keep water out while letting air in; tinted windows that slide open for cross ventilation and have tough screens to keep the bugs out; doors on both sides with dead bolts; hardwood interior; front and back jacks; a roof rack; interior battery-powered LED lights and outdoor solar-powered motion-sensing lights; a back hitch for additional racks and a built in rack up front with a battery box; electrical hook-ups, and a back galley with shelving built in.  The camper comes with AC vents and the entire thing is Rhino-lined to make it weather-proof, low maintenance, and extra-tough. Plus the Rhino Lining reflects sunlight, keeping the inside temperature low even on hot days. The interior also features a shelve and mesh storage bags for easy organization. The whole thing starts at $6400, a fraction of what comparable campers are selling for. Best of all, the whole thing weighs just over 900lb., well within the Rav's capabilities.

It didn't take long for Mike to start customizing and planning. We discussed the picture window, putting extra windows in the doors, and a few other options. In the end, we decided that we'd order extra fans (which will run off a marine battery, no need for a generator) and also get the Climate Right air conditioner. We'll have to save up for the generator to run it, but in the mean time we could run AC (and heat) anywhere that there's a camper hook up.

By that point, I think we'd unofficially decided to go for it! It didn't take long for that decision to become final. We got approved for financing, put down a deposit, and placed the order online, adding a few upgrades along the way. I will admit that the ordering process was not as streamlined as it could have been, but for the price, we really couldn't complain. The financing is done through a legitimate loan agency that deals specifically with camper financing, and that was the only part that mattered. The Tiny Camper Company website is still a work in progress and there was some confusion along the way, but Joe was really great to work with and was quick to answer questions and address each step of the process along the way.

We placed the order in March and waited the "six to eight weeks" for our camper to be built.

In the process, we found out that freight to have the camper delivered to the house would be $1,000. Yikes! We quickly did some math and agreed that it would be much cheaper to just go get it ourselves. The Tiny Camper Company is roughly 1200 miles from our house, so it would be one hell of a maiden voyage, but as you guys probably know, Mike and I are not ones to shy away from an adventure.

With the six week window in mind, we didn't have many dates to pick from. Between Rabbit Run, Foxcatcher, No Frills, the next three endurance rides, having to get the car serviced before heading down, and Mike having to periodically drive to the airport for work, our weekends were pretty booked through June. The only weekend that was potentially open before we needed the trailer was May 3rd-5th. Technically, it was Biltmore weekend, but I didn't have confirmed plans for that ride back in March, and something had to give. So while everyone else was slogging through the rain on the south east's most famous estate, Mike and I would be driving 2500 miles in under 60 hours, in a different feat of endurance.

The day before our trip, Mike finalized an appointment time at Tiny Camper Company. We would be meeting them at noon on Saturday. We had only formulated a vague plan for the weekend. So much would depend on traffic, weather, road conditions, etc. There was no point in mapping out every detail and getting stressed when something didn't pan out accordingly. I had done a lot of research on car camping laws and dispersed camping. We had several possible routes lined up and I picked many National Forests that were sort of along the way. (The East has a terrible selection of National Forests compared to the rest of the country, just FYI.)

Friday morning, I woke up before Mike, excited and slightly anxious about our trip. We'd be leaving the dogs home for this one. Their Aunt Marissa would be taking care of them while moving herself (poor timing, sorry and thank you, Marissa!) Once Mike woke up, we showered, had our coffee, packed one duffel bag and some sleeping gear, and hit the road.

We wanted to do as much of the drive as possible on Friday so that we wouldn't be scrambling to make our Saturday appointment, but we did not expect to make it all the way down to Groveland in one straight shot. Depending on the time of day, the GPS predicted that it would take between fifteen and seventeen hours to make the drive down. With fuel and food stops, and traffic, I knew it would be longer than that.

The incredible thing about this drive is that you get on 95 about 20 minutes from our house, and then you just stay on 95 for 1000 miles to get to Florida. It's pretty straight forward as far as navigation goes (and I just did most of this drive with Jeff in January, albeit mostly in the dark.)

Mike and I made remarkably good time through Philadelphia and Baltimore, at which point the GPS rerouted us to the Baltimore-Washington Parkway to avoid the worst of the mid-day DC traffic. We sat in some construction traffic for a few miles, but it wasn't bad. Then we followed the east leg of the Capital Beltway over the river and into Alexandria. We were able to see some of DC's famous landmarks out the window, and I was thrilled with how well traffic was moving.

The stretch between DC and Richmond sucked. I mean, it always sucks so there was no big surprise there. We did hop in the express lanes to get past one particularly bad back up, but we mostly sat in traffic to avoid tolls at a rate of about $4 per mile.

As we neared Richmond, we decided to take the longer way around, hopping onto 295 to circumvent the city itself. When we went through, the travel time was only a minute or two faster on 295, but I know how 95 through Richmond can be and didn't want to take any chances. I'm glad we took the detour, as it's definitely the more scenic route, and we were back to making excellent time.

It was smooth sailing through the rest of Virginia, North Carolina, and into South Carolina, where I got a pretty big kick out of South of the Border. Somewhere along the way we grabbed lunch at McDonald's, but otherwise we only stopped for gas every few hours.

I'd like to say that it was interesting to see South Carolina in daylight this time around, but it was honestly just pine trees and swamp in every direction. As we passed the exit for Broxton, I declared, "This is officially as far south as I've ever been."

Just before dark, we decided to grab something for dinner. There weren't a whole lot of options (fast food, fast food, and more fast food). We'd seen Zaxby's  billboards all day long and decided to check it out. It's a Georgia-based chicken chain restaurant and I will say that it was very tasty. Their garlic bread was to die for and I way overdid my calories for the day on that meal.

From there, it was just a short drive to the Georgia border. I'd never been in Georgia before, and I wasn't going to get much of a tour on my first time through since it was dark by then. Keeping amused after sunset was a little trickier than it was during daylight hours, but Mike was still powering right along. We were determined to make it over the Florida line that night, and figured we would probably drive until midnight or so before finding a place to crash.

Our original plan was to camp in the car. I had even picked out Ocala National Forest as a good place to stay. Our back up plan if we got tired before we reached Florida was to pick a truck stop or Walmart parking lot to spend the night. Unfortunately, the weather put a damper on those plans. It was well over 80 degrees even after the sun had gone down, and I knew Mike wasn't going to sleep at all in those conditions. Normally, we'd just tough it out and deal with a restless night of tossing, turning, and sweating, but a 2500 mile round trip in two and a half days with a new trailer in tow is really not the time to test your driving abilities on minimal sleep.

We decided to drive for a little while longer and then find a hotel. There were signs for lots of hotels on pretty much all the exits, and I've had plenty of luck finding last-minute rooms in the past. With smart phones and booking apps at our finger tips, I figured we'd have no problem finding a place to stay that night.

As we approached Jacksonville with midnight looming upon us, I decided to see if we could find a place to crash. I figured we'd stop before reaching the city limits, where prices were sure to go up and vacancies would be harder to find.

We picked the next exit that had multiple hotels listed, and I was disheartened to see all the parking lots overflowing with cars. Not a good sign.

The first hotel we stopped at was a Quality Inn. We walked in the front doors and I asked, "Do you guys have any vacancies?"
The women behind the front desk exchanged a look, and then one looked sympathetically at me and said, "Oh, honey... no."

It turns out there was a shrimp festival and the entire Jacksonville area was completely packed. There were apparently a bunch of other activities that weekend. I asked if there was anywhere local that might have an opening and both women shook their heads. Then I asked if they could give me the name of a city that might be worth trying in. Still no. I tried to explain where we were headed and they stared blankly at us, neither having heard of Groveland.

So we went across the street to the Best Western, where the front desk girl seemed more knowledgeable and helpful.

"I don't suppose you have any vacancies?" I asked, and she shook her head no. We went through the whole process again, and she didn't really know where Groveland was either. She did say she doubted there would be a hotel within 100 miles with an open room unless we went back to Georgia.

"Where did you say you're going?" she asked again. "How would you get there?"
"We'd go about another hundred miles down 95 and then head inland..."
"Why on earth would you want to go that direction?!?!"

In the end, it was Expedia to the rescue. After calling a few more hotels and getting the same spiel, I resorted to just putting filters into my phone and seeing what came up. Unfortunately, it really did appear that there wasn't anything within 200 miles with a room open... at least, not for less than $650 per night. 

Thankfully, I did find one hotel that had rooms available (all five of them) for "only" $200. It was in Clermont. The good news is that Clermont was five minutes away from Groveland. The bad news was that we still had nearly three hours of driving to do to get there.

Hey, we said we wanted an adventure, right?

That last leg of the drive was tough. Mike was doing well behind the wheel, but my eyelids were definitely getting heavy. There was nothing to look at in the dark, and once we got off the highway, we really had to pay attention to the navigation. Plus we hit toll roads and weren't sure EZ Pass would be accepted since Florida has their own system (the Sun Pass). It's been a long time since we had to stop to pay cash tolls (but we met some nice people along the way!) As it turns out, we could have used easy pass, but we didn't learn that until the woman in the very last toll booth informed us (after she told us the story of how she was planning to buy a car from the person who'd passed through immediately before us...)

At long last, we arrived in Clermont, which appeared to be a perfectly nice area with lots of restaurants, hotels, etc. It didn't take long to find the Fairfield Inn & Suites, where I'd made our reservation.

We were both dragging and looking a bit unkempt as we stumbled into the lobby at 2:30 in the morning. We were greeted by a perfectly wonderful gentleman at the front desk and I greeted him with, "We are here to check in... hopefully."

Thankfully, Expedia did what I needed it to do and the check-in process was a breeze. Minutes later, we were showering in our clean, spacious, and blissfully air-conditioned hotel room. I don't remember much after that because we basically crawled into bed and passed out.

We'd set an alarm for 9 o'clock the following morning so we'd have time to enjoy our complimentary breakfast, but despite our long hours on the road the previous day, and our middle-of-the-night arrival, we both woke up long before the alarm went off.

We headed back out to the lobby where breakfast was served, and I managed to accidentally make quite an impression on the hotel staff. You see, I innocently tried to make myself some waffles. The blueberry batter was empty so I reached for the nozzle on the vanilla, which promptly came off in my hand. Batter poured everywhere in a gooey, sticky river of vanilla deliciousness. I scrambled for the paper cups they keep next to the waffle maker and filled several with batter before the flow slowed to a trickle and I was able to get a hold of someone on the staff.

There was a very nice blonde woman nearby who immediately jumped in to help me feel better about making a mess and screwing up the staff's morning routine. She hollered to her husband, "I'm having waffles, how about you?"

Of course, I made a batch for myself to use up as much of the spilled batter as possible.

This is why I can't have nice things.

Once I was done demolishing the dining area, Mike and I ran back to the room to pack our bags and check out. (This process was also a breeze and I can't say enough nice things about our last-minute hotel find!)

I fell in love with the palm trees outside our hotel.

By the time we were checked out, we had about an hour to kill before our trailer appointment. I'm not one to miss an opportunity to explore, even if it's on short notice, so we decided to add a little side trip to the Lake Apopka north shore, about 20 minutes away.

Despite the fact that it was only 11am, temperatures were already climbing into the mid 90's and the air was sticky and heavy.

We drove past the Florida Citrus Tower (and probably would have stopped if I'd been coherent enough to research the area when we arrived). Then we got on Florida's Turnpike and headed up 561 towards Astatula. We saw a fair chunk of the aptly named Lake County as we drove. Florida was the first state we've been in that felt really and truly flat. I remember being disappointed when we went to Illinois a few years ago. That was flat, but not impressively so. Florida delivered, and with the palm trees and gigantic bugs (and periodic rain storms) I really felt like I got a taste for the tropical climate (and I didn't like it... gross.)

I was surprised at how many horse (and cattle) farms there were along the drive. Everywhere we looked we saw pastures with horses sweating, stomping, and swatting at bugs. I can see the appeal of leaving cold weather behind in the winter, but I cannot fathom keeping horses in that climate year round. I'm sure the ones that spend their whole lives there adapt to some degree, but I just felt sorry for them as they huddled in ponds and under palm trees, trying to stay cool; and it wasn't even noon yet!

We also spotted many different water birds as we drove, primarily sand hill cranes and egrets. I was excited that we might get to see some critters that we don't have up north once we got to the lake.

The GPS dropped us off right at the trail head, but when I looked at the map, the time, and my over-heated husband, I didn't think it would be a good idea to try to trek all the way to the lake shore. Instead, we hooked a right and parked by the boat ramp. Before we even got out of the car, I spotted an egret fishing on the far bank of the canal in front of us. I was excited as I reached for the camera, and my excitement grew as I spotted dense, tropical vegetation, palm trees, and Spanish moss in every direction. The point of this trip was to get the camper home safely, but I was thrilled that we were going to get to experience the area a bit, if only for 20 minutes!

We wandered slowly up the bank and saw some interesting birds along the way.

The moorhen was a little shy and harder to photograph.

Caught this guy eating a fish.

Florida seems to have egrets like we have Canada geese.

The most Florida picture.

Spanish moss!

We reached where the canal opened up into marsh/lake just as we were running out of time to explore. It was beautiful and lots of people spend time boating and fishing out there. There were some Geocaches nearby, but none so close that we could grab them on the way out. I guess we'll have to come back, haha.

As we headed back, Mike's keen eye spotted the critter that would make this little detour complete.

Can you see it in this photo?

How about now?

That's right, it took less than 20 minutes of being outside in Florida to find a wild gator! I guess if egrets are like Canada geese, gators are like white tailed deer. I'm sure the locals would have been very amused by how excited I got to see this guy in his natural habitat (though thankfully not too up close!)

I saw people going in there with their kayaks and I have to admit that would be a big, fat nope for me!

Our walk back also included a little brown bird I'd never even heard of before this trip. I spotted a limpkin fishing on the far side of the canal.

Adorable.

On the way out, we passed some interesting warning signs.

We're not in NJ any more.

In no time at all, we were back in the car with the air cranking. I actually slipped into a pair of shorts while Mike drove back the way we came.

We stopped for gas on the way back towards Groveland, and the drive took us along the scenic shoreline of Lake Minneola. I noted with some alarm that all the yards in this area were screened in. No the porches... the entire yards!! I'm not really surprised since we could literally hear the bugs splattering on the hood and windshield as we drove. Yikes!

It didn't take us very long to find the industrial complex that the Tiny Camper Company calls home, and we arrived about 20 minutes early. They were actually cleaning our trailer and putting some finishing touches on it when we arrived, and it was very clear that they treat each one of these campers with pride. I was pretty much bouncing up and down by the time we got out of the car and introduced ourselves.

The process of picking the camper up was quick and painless. Joe was very nice and approachable. We even scored a sweet happy camper mug:

Joe gave us the official tour of our new camper, which we'd already named Reginald (aka Reggie). He pointed out all the features and answered Mike's questions. Then we went inside to sign some final paperwork (mostly for the warranty). There, Mike got the real Florida experience when some kind of bug roughly the size of our new camper flew over and unceremoniously bit him quickly and viciously in the armpit. Even after he swatted it repeatedly, it flew away while laughing at him.

"Welcome to Florida," Joe smiled dryly. 

Of course we took pictures of Reggie before and after we hooked up. Sadly, my phone has really been on the fritz lately and it ate all the photos I took in Florida unless I'd already posted them on social media. Still, I'm sure we'll be taking plenty of Reggie pictures in the coming years. While we're super excited about our new addition, there's really not much to see. I will admit our rig looks pretty badass right now (or, as Jen put it, tactical!) We will look like we're camping with SWAT.

Sophia and Reginald.

Of course, everyone was asking for interior pictures. I haven't taken any yet (it's been raining and gross out) but I did steal some off the Tiny Camper Company website so you can get a general idea. I'm sure we'll be posting updates as we get everything set up and situated.

This is the back galley. Ours looks just like this. People set them up with all kinds of stuff, including sinks and cabinets. For now we're using it for our duffel bags and dog supplies. We're planning to start using our cook top and will probably figure out some kind of "bathroom on the go" situation eventually. No spoilers.

The inside view from one side door. There are doors on either side which is awesome. You can see the mesh storage bags and the windows. The LED lights run on their own and are super bright and awesome. We also got two fans installed in our camper, which I'll include pictures of. They'll be hooked up to a marine battery, which Mike is in the process of ordering now. Our current camping mattress is inside now, with sheets, blankets, and pillows. We'll be upgrading that as well, but haven't decided what we want yet. A full mattress fits with some room to spare. A queen fits width-wise but is three inches too long. A king would fill it wall-to-wall with some trimming. It's tall enough to sit in with plenty of overhead space.

The front wall of the camper features a shelf that is the perfect size for things like phones, wallets, or eyeglass cases. Below are the AC vents. We are getting an AC unit if FedEx* ever figures it the f*** out. The AC will need to run off a generator, which is also on our to-buy list.

*Are you familiar with my hatred for FedEx? The short version is that they cannot seem to find our house. It all started with the time I sent my laptop in for warranty repairs and FedEx held it hostage for six weeks. First they claimed that they knocked and nobody was home. Then I sat home all day and watched them drive by over and over without stopping. They claimed they couldn't find the house, which led to me screaming, "Which is it? You can't find it or I wasn't home? You can't knock on a door if you don't know where it is!!" In the end, I got the personal cell phone number for the regional supervisor and when people try to FedEx things to us, I call him with, "Hi, Bruce, it's Dom again..."

So we ordered our camper and the AC unit to go with it. You get a special price on the AC if you buy it with a camper from Tiny Camper Company. I think Mike and I were both expecting the unit to be with the camper when we picked it up (though Joe did tell us up front that they can't install it themselves for warranty reasons). 

Imagine our surprise when Joe emailed Mike a week before we drove down to ask if we'd gotten an AC unit. 

"Yes, we ordered it and it's included in our financing..."
"Right, but did you receive it?"

"What...?"

It turns out they'd shipped it to us via FedEx (they didn't know any better) and it went missing. Mike got the tracking information and it had been "delivered" a week prior. Now, I may not be the brightest bunny in the fish bowl, but I think I would have noticed a giant, heavy package on the stairs when I got home...

After a brief moment of panic, Mike contacted the AC company directly. It sounds like FedEx delivered the unit to the wrong address and the homeowner returned it to the company (which was really nice since it's worth about $600). They have now shipped it to Mike's office, which should be easier to find.

In under an hour, we were back on the road and heading home. It had taken us roughly 18 hours total to get from NJ to Groveland, and we figured it would probably be closer to 20 with the trailer in tow on the way back.

Still, we weren't done exploring.

We hadn't stayed in the Ocala National Forest on the way down, but we made a brief detour to see it on the way up. It wasn't far out of the way, and it sure beat sitting in Jacksonville traffic on 95!

Route 19 took us right through the heart of the forest, and it was very different from the woods at home. We mostly just drove and looked at the scenery, which mostly consisted of palm trees, sand, and pines. It was beautiful in its own way, but there wasn't a heck of a lot to look at. We did see a tortoise along the way, which was neat! There was also an alligator snapper in the road. We have common snapping turtles up here, but this thing was a monster compared to anything I've seen in the area.

As we passed through, we made a stop at Salt Springs. From the photos online, it looked like it would be a very rewarding stop with very little walking. We parked the trailer on the side of the dirt road and hiked the rest of the way in.

I was disappointed to find that this was really just an overcrowded swimming hole and boat ramp. The most exciting part of the visit was that there were signs telling of the presence of manatees. I would love to see a manatee in the wild, but there was no way we were going to spot any with the tourists splashing and motoring around. Maybe if we'd had some time to spend hiking in the more remote areas of the park, but not on this day!

I'm bummed I didn't notice the green anole (lizard) on this sign til I looked at the photos at home!

This was our last "tourist" stop for the rest of the trip. As we drove, I continously looked up nearby places to see if we could find somewhere cool to camp over night. Our priority, however, was getting as much of the drive out of the way as we could on Saturday so that we could be home at a reasonable hour on Sunday.

As soon as we were out of the Ocala National Forest, we started looking for a place to eat, and it wasn't long before a hole-in-the-wall BBQ place caught our attention. The lakefront views didn't hurt! There's no BBQ like southern BBQ and Mike and I were in heaven. We split some ribs and ate a brisket sandwich and a prime rib sandwich between the two of us. Delicious!

After that, we basically just drove and drove, stopping when we needed gas (more frequently with the trailer, for sure!) Still, I felt like I took in some of the south. I got to see Georgia in the daylight, and made a mental note to check out some of her creeks in the future.

Along the way, we saw a gigantic alligator casually strolling down the side of the highway. It was doing what they call the "high walk" and it took my brain quite a few seconds to register what I was looking at!

We saw several gators of varying sizes dead on the side of the road as well, which was a bummer, but appears to be pretty common down there. Those and armadillos, which just about broke my heart. I did get to see a live one peeking out over the grass, which was a first for me, but I worry he probably wasn't alive much longer. Not a good place to be an armadillo...

I also got a feel for some of the south's food preferences (and oddities). I'm sure there's nothing like a Florida orange or a Georgia peach, but can someone from the south explain the phenomenon of boiled peanuts to me?? I had never heard of such a thing, but there were billboards for them at every exit! How do you eat them? Are they tasty? Got a favorite brand? I'd legitimately love to know!

Doing the states from smallest to largest on the way down definitely made the drive go faster, and the converse was true as well. It was already growing dark as we crossing into South Carolina, gritting our teeth and pushing through, determined to hit North Carolina before we go too tired to press onward.

Somewhere along the way, we stopped at McDonald's for a late dinner. There weren't too many other quick options in the area, and honestly a greasy cheeseburger and too many fries really hit the spot.

As midnight approached, Mike and I reluctantly accepted that we weren't going to make it into Virginia that night. We started to look for places to rest. Our initial plan was to stay in a rest stop, but NC is one of the few states with signs posted prohibiting overnight parking. I think a lot of people do it anyway, but we have enough bad juju without tempting the legal gods.

Instead, we picked a truck stop, a Flying J outside the town of Micro. This would provide us with real bathrooms, food for the night, and coffee for the morning. Since we were in the south, we were also able to buy a beer to share as we christened Reginald for our maiden voyage.

It didn't take long to set up the bed inside the camper, and we crawled inside, changing comfortably in our spacious new camping quarters before sharing our beer and falling asleep.

With the windows cracked and temperatures in the high 60's, I slept like the dead. We got hit with a thunderstorm in the middle of the night, and I think that just made it even better. I probably could have slept all day, but we set our alarm for 7am so we could get on the road in a timely fashion. This is definitely a huge upgrade for us already and my wheels are already turning a million miles a minute with future plans!!

On Sunday we just made a final push for home. We stopped for gas as needed, grabbing snacks along the way, but we didn't stop to eat or sight-see. We both wanted to be home (and to spare Marissa extra trips to our dogs!) Plus it was raining for most of the drive. The up side was that we had a ton of music to pick from and we rocked out to everything from country hits to old Offspring and Nelly!

The traffic through DC also happened to be really light that day so the GPS took us right through the nation's capital. I hadn't been into DC since my 8th grade field trip, and Mike has never been. We didn't get out of the car, but we did get to drive past a lot of famous landmarks, including the Pentagon and the Washington Monument as well as the Capitol Building and Lincoln Memorial. It's almost enough to make me want to go back for a day of tourism (it's not that far from us!) Almost.

We made it almost all the way home before we ran into trouble. As we got ready to cross the Tydings Bridge in Maryland, just shy of the Pennsylvania line, a sign warned, "Accident ahead. Left lanes closed," and traffic ground to a halt.

We sat and sat, waiting for the road to clear. In the meantime, I did some research and found out that the accident involved only minor injuries and a Hummer that was pulling a Delorean.

I snagged this photo while we waited:

After that we just had to get through Philly before we were in the home stretch.

We arrived home around 5pm, parked the trailer in the yard, and shivered on our way up the stairs. It was only 50 degrees and drizzling back in good ol' Jersey!

And just like that, the trip was over. I was thrilled to see the dogs and to unwind in our own space again. All in all, the trip went really smoothly and we made really good time! 2500 miles, eight states, 57 hours. We know how to pack the thrills into a weekend, and this is just the beginning! As I said, I have a lot of plans brewing for our tiny camper and I'm excited for what the future holds.

In the mean time, Reginald is coming soon to a ride near... some of you.