Grand East Coast Tour
Day 1 Thursday September 3, 2026
Today was the first day of a new adventure for us. We are going on the Grand East Coast Tour with Fantasy RV Tours. This will be our 7th tour with them.
We have been preparing for this trip for a while trying to dot all the “i’s” and cross all the “t’s” before we leave. We departed at 10:25am which is a little later than we normally leave but we only had about 220 miles to drive today. We normally keep our driving to around 300 miles a day.
It was really hot today. Somewhere in the mid 90’s so the dash air conditioner was not keeping us cool. So after driving about an hour I cranked our generator so we could run the three roof air conditioners. They didn’t seem to be cooling as they should so after about another hour or so I found a fuel station with a large parking lot to pull into to check the generator.
Lena has raised the foot rest on her seat and when I stopped the foot rest would not retract so I had to step over it to get outside to check the generator and as I expected the breaker on it had tripped. I turn it back on and the the three air conditioners started working and for some reason the foot rest would retract which should of had nothing to do with the power from the generator since the controls on the foot rest are run by 12volt battery power.
We noticed a Royal Farms fuel station/convenience store across the divided highway from where we were stopped. We have heard they have good fried chicken. There is one being built in our hometown of Wallace. So we went there and got some for our lunch when we get to our stop for tonight.
I try to always check around the motorhome, tow bar and Jeep when we stop to make sure no one bothers anything when we are away from the motorhome. When we returned to the motorhome after getting our chicken I discovered I had not turned the engine off on the Jeep when we hooked it up at home. So it has ran for just over 2 hours as we were traveling. I shut it off. It didn’t hurt anything except it used some fuel. I have never done that before but I have read where other RVers have. That is the last step in the procedure to get the Jeep in “tow mode” and I just didn’t do it even though it is on my written procedure.
As expected the traffic in Virginia Beach was very busy but our GPS lead us right to our stop for tonight. We are staying at a Harvest Hosts location tonight. It is Unity Church of Tidewater. They have a very large parking lot and allow up to 3 RVs to stay overnight. There is not a cost to stay at a Harvest Hosts but it is recommended to make a donation if the Hosts doesn’t have items to sell.
We will have to run the generator until it cools off which will not be until about 10pm since most Harvest Hosts do not have electrical hookups. That is not a problem because our Onan generator is designed to run for days if needed as long as there is 1/4 tank or more of fuel. It uses the same fuel tank as the motorhome.
After we got setup we ate part of the fried chicken. We each ordered a two piece dinner but they put three pieces in Lena’s box so we have enough for another meal.
Day 2 Friday September 4, 2026
Well it is Happy Birthday to Lena today. We only had about 80 miles to drive to our next stop so we didn’t leave until about 9:30.
We were at the toll booth for the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel in a few minutes. I think this will make the fourth time we have gone through the tunnel and I didn’t like driving it any better today than I did in the past. The two tunnels are two lane but the bridge sections are four lanes. It is not so bad meeting a car in the tunnels but today we met a few 18 wheelers and I am always afraid they are going to creep over and take off my drivers mirror. There is no extra room to move over if someone coming in the opposite direction is too close to the center line. But we got through the tunnels unscathed.
We stopped at a Walmart to get some fruit before we got to our Harvest Hosts site for the night. Our Harvest Hosts site did not work out. We were very disappointed in the site. They have room for two RVs and one old converted bus was in one of the sites when we arrived. Both sites were very unlevel. The old bus had his front tires up on about a foot of blocks to get level.
We unhooked the car and I pulled into the other site. We tried twice to get the motorhome somewhat level. The site was at lest 10” out of level front to back and about 3” side to side. When we put our ramps under the front wheels and pulled up on them the weight of the motorhome pushed them right into the soft ground. I was just not comfortable with the site. I knew if we got any rain during the night we probably we not get out in the morning so we put our ramps away, pulled out of the site and hooked the Jeep back up and left.
Later I got online and canceled the site and explained why I was canceling. I was disappointed about not staying here because it was just a few miles from Chincoteague Island and we had planned to go there in hopes of see the wild Chincoteague ponies.
I found a small campground down the road about 30 miles but when we got there the owner said she didn’t have anything big enough to fit us into. So we left there and headed on down the road again. We knew about Trap Pond State Park in Delaware about 10 miles or so down the road so we headed there. The young man at the desk said he didn’t think they had any vacant sites but he did find site B31 that was vacant for one night but he said it was for a 35’ RV. I know that most state park don’t have accurate information about the size of their sites so I told him I would take it. Our motorhome is 41’ long. When we got parked we had room in the rear of the site and was able to park the Jeep sideways in front of the motorhome. So the site was close to 60’ in length.
We stayed 3 nights in this campground in June 2014 in site B15.
After we got setup Lena prepared the leftover chicken and tater wedges we had leftover from yesterday. I think they were even better today.
Later we got our chairs out and sat outside and enjoyed the outside. It is a tad bit cooler here. And should get cooler as we get farther North.
Day 3 Saturday September 5, 2026
We only have 121 miles to go today since we drove farther yesterday than we had planned. We had a leisurely breakfast and left about 10am.
We are driving down US-13 highway and have been since we left the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area. It is a four lane road and in most places it is divided by a grass medium. There are numerous small town along the highway. And there is a Royal Farms store and a Dunkin Donut shop about every 10-15 miles. We have traveled this highway in the past and there wasn’t any of these places along the road.
We got to our destination for tonight about 12:30pm. It is another Harvest Host called The Farmers Market. They have a firewood, meat, fruit and vegetable stand beside their house and a large grassy yard in the back where they let the Harvest Hosts guess park their RVs.
They are surrounded by large houses in housing developments. I am sure they were here before all these large fairly new homes or they would not have been allowed to have all these farm animals in the mix of these houses. They have a collection of farm animals on what looks like about 3 acres of land. They have laying chickens, sheep, goats, a donkey and several geese.
After we had lunch we went to their market and bought some pasture raised chicken, whole milk and pasture raised eggs.
It is several degrees cooler here so we opened the windows on the motorhome so we wouldn’t have to run the generator for the air conditioners. I will run it some before bedtime to charge up the batteries for tonight so they will run the refrigerator all night.
We are a little less than 500 miles into our trip and have been in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and now we are in New Jersey.
Day 4 Sunday September 6, 2026
We got up earlier today since we had a little over 300 miles to travel to our next destination of Colaluca Family Campground in Foster, Rhode Island. We departed at 8:15 and stopped at a Loves Truck Stop to get fuel after about 40 miles.
I had planned a route to go North of the cities in New York but that didn’t go as planned. So we ended up going through Manhattan on I85. I weren’t sure we would get through there without a mishap but we made it unscathed. They couldn’t pay me to live in place like that. Too much city for this old county boy.
After we got way past the big cities and got back on I95 we stopped for a break and a quick lunch at a Service Plaza. Something we are not accustomed to. They are not exactly a Rest Stop like we are accustomed to. They have a dozen or so gas pumps, some diesel pumps for big rigs, a fairly large car parking lot and a few big rig parking spots. Inside they have about 8 fast food outlets and a dining room. We got a couple slices of pizza and relaxed a bit before continuing on to our destination for the next two nights.
We got to our campground about 2:45pm, checked in and setup in site 19. We had just finished setting up when we got a shower of rain.
It is so much cooler here, 70 degrees at 5pm with a low of 53 predicted for tonight. That is a big change for us coming from upper 90’s at home. We sat outside for awhile but had to change from shorts and short sleeve shirts to long pants and a long sleeve shirt.
This is a large campground with over 275 campsites sitting on about 100 acres of land. Most appear to be along the woods edge or in the trees. A lot of the RVs here are long term/seasonal but unlike some campgrounds that allow long term RVs those here are not junked up around them as bad as some we have seen. There are lots of young families here with kids enjoying the Labor Day weekend.
We will be here two nights with nothing much planned but relaxing because when our tour starts on the 10th we will be busy with activities and travel for 40 days.
Day 5 Monday 7, 2026
What a difference a day makes. It was 54 degrees at 8am this morning. Burr! I turned on the fireplace this morning to break the chill inside the motorhome.
We have complained about the extreme heat this Summer so we will try and enjoy this much cooler weather.
After a big breakfast we did a few chores around the motorhome and then took a walk around part of the campground. A lot of the campers are going home this morning after the holiday weekend.
During yesterday’s travel we were on some roads that had some very rough places especially some of the bridges. If they would just use all the toll money they collect in New Jersey and New York and fix the potholes I wouldn’t mind paying all those tolls so much. They do like Tolls in both states. We have toll fees over $100 just in New Jersey and New York. That doesn’t count those in Virginia and Delaware and the ones we have tomorrow in Connecticut.
Today I found one of the refrigerator door handles loose and also the bar in the shower that holds the shower wand loose from all the rough roads. I was able to fix both issues by tightening two Allen screws. That is why I carry numerous tools in the motorhome. I never know what tool I will need next.
Last night was the first night we have stayed in Rhode Island in our motorhome so that ticks off one more state that we have stayed at least one night in for a total now of 43 states and 9 Canadian Provinces. We will never reach 50 states because I haven’t found large enough pontoons for the motorhome to go to Hawaii. And we don’t expect to go to Oregon, California or Nevada. We will be in two other states on this trip that we haven’t stayed one night in so that will make 45. I have been to California and Oregon but not in the motorhome.
Day 6 Tuesday September 10, 2026
It is time to move on to our tour meeting location in Wells Maine, which is just a few miles from Kennebunkport Maine. We are arriving two days before the official start date of the tour. We normally do this when we have a long drive before the beginning of a tour in case we had trouble along the way that may delay us.
We pulled out about 9:30am and in a few minutes we crossed into Connecticut again. Before we got to Sun Outdoors Campground in Wells Maine we had been in Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and then Maine all within less than 5 hours. And of course we had to pay some more tolls. They sure love tolls up here in the North. Now if they would just fix the bridge surfaces with all that toll money.
Our friends, Gregg and Judi, that live on the opposite end of North Carolina from us left home on Saturday to be on the tour. We left home on Thursday and when we pulled into a truck stop about 30 miles from our destination today we pulled right in behind them at the fuel pumps. How is that for a coincidence.
We missed the driveway for the campground so we had to drive about a mile and turn around in a convenience store parking lot. We checked in and set up in site 106. Our Wagonmaster and Tailgunners are in sites 104 and 105 and Gregg and Judy are in 108, all in a row. Another couple, Gerald and Clair that we met on the Mississippi River Run are in a site across the street behind us. They are from California. It looks like half of the group is here and probably most of the others will be here tomorrow. There should be a total of 24 RVs on the tour.
After we checked in with the Wagonmaster/Tailgunners we got our chairs out and four couples on the tour gather around and we chatted until about 8pm. It sure is cooler here than what it was when we left home.
Day 7 Wednesday September 9, 2026
It was 59 degrees at 8am this morning. Nice.
After breakfast I cleaned some bugs and dust off the motorhome and Lena did some laundry.
We took a short walk around the campground and did a little exploring around the beach towns of Wells and Ogunquit. Ogunquit seems to be more of a beach/tourist town as it had a lot of tourist walking the streets and visiting the many restaurants.
There was a lot of really nice houses in the area that had lots of flowers and well kept yards. We wanted to see the Lobster Point Lighthouse but we were really surprised how small it was. The glass portion of the top of the lighthouses on the Outer Banks in North Carolina are bigger than this entire lighthouse. We would have stopped and walked around some but they charge $30 to park in the parking lots all over the area. Nope not going to do it.
We made our way back to Billy’s Chowder House and met Gregg and Judi there for a late lunch. Lena had a bowl of Haddock chowder and I had Clam Chowder. The chowder here is not
creamy as in North Carolina and we knew that before we ordered but both were very good.
On the way back to the campground we had to stop to get some milk. We had light rain starting at 5:30pm.
Day 8 Thursday September 10, 2026
Today is the official first day of our tour. After breakfast we drove to Portsmouth NH to visit Albacore Park where the USS Albacore a 1950’s revolutionary research submarine is on display and open to tour. It was built in a local shipyard in Portsmouth NH.
We paid our entrance fee, got our safety briefing and toured the small museum before walking out to tour the submarine.
What made it really interesting was they had a button to push in about a dozen places inside and a recording would play and explain what we were seeing and then the voice of a sailor that had been stationed on the vessel came on to give real firsthand information about being stationed on the vessel.
Now talk about some tight quarters. It is hard to imagine 55 sailors being inside this vessel. The bunks for the sailors, except for the two highest ranking officers were usually 4 tiers high and two rows with an isle of about 2 feet between them. The guy in the top bunk had to squeeze into his bunk around some pipes hanging from the ceiling.
There were only 2 tiny showers for the 55 men and there were smaller than the inside of a telephone booth. They were allowed one shower a week whether they needed it or not because of the limited supply of fresh water.
I think I might become claustrophobic being inside this vessel under water with nowhere to go. It sure makes you appreciate what our military did.
The entire group meet at the campground pavilion (large tent) for the first time so the Wagonmasters/Tailgunners could update everyone on the tour. Everyone also introduced themselves to the group and told how many Fantasy tours they had been on. The most was Jerry and Claire (we were on the Mississippi River Run with them), they had been on 10 tours counting this one, so they got a nice Fantasy jacket each. We have people from most sections of the United States in the group.
Then everyone one drove to Fosters Downeast Clambake for our get acquainted dinner. Almost everyone had chosen the lobster dinner including me. Lena said she chicken out and ordered the BBQ,d chicken. They steamed the lobsters outside in a vat over a hot fire.
The lobster plates had a whole lobster, clams, mussels, corn on the cob still in the husks, red skin potatoes and an onion. I have had lobster before on a Fantasy tour but never a whole lobster unshucked. One of the staff came by our table and offered to demonstrate how to shuck the lobster to get to the meat and I offered her mine so I got mine shucked. I have never had clams or mussels before and was surprised there were pretty good. The best part of the lobster was the meat in the claws. Not much there but it was more tender. Then for dessert we had blueberry crumble cake. We were all stuffed when we left.
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