Warwick, Rhode Island to Kutztown, PA
We were up late finishing packing but all in all I’m glad we didn’t rush out a few days prior. We had been racing to get so much done, but had to problem solve so much to do it. We woke up Tuesday morning to the camper having no power at all. It was the day after we dewinterized it so we had used different systems the day prior that we hadn’t used yet. We pulled these two very unhappy looking rods and elements out and replaced them and bam! Everything worked again. Thank you to the Rpod Owners facebook group that answered my call for help. $30 later, and we were good to go.
Needless to say, there were some stressful times and leaving on this loooong trip with that type of energy flowing through us was not going to be the start we needed to let everything go.
We had packed the camper the night before so we just needed to hook up and go. Hindsight, probably should’ve just hooked it up too while it wasn’t DOWNPOURING from Tropical Storm Elsa.
We are extremely grateful that our friend’s daughter is staying at our house while we are away. Thank you to Jayna and Gabe (and Atticus!) for holding down the fort for us!
It’s pouring as I said and this is unfortunately the first time we are towing with all this extra weight and we could feel it. Something was off. We pulled over, added air to the very below pressure tires and got back going. It was better, but not enough. Then I remembered my first rookie lesson- I had the fresh water tank 2/3 of the way full. This can cause sway and add extra unnecessary weight. We knew we had 5 gallons in a container in the 4Runner so we stopped again and I drained out as much water as I could. It was raining and it was my fresh tank so I am not apologizing for this. We needed to be safe. Once it was done, we were back on the road and the sway was gone. Nice and easy ride from there.
Where to go?
So as I said in a prior post, we are totally winging it right now. We have no plans. No reservations. Nothing. We had hoped to make it to a Harvest Host location in Maryland for our first night, a winery on the Chesapeake Bay (where Lafayette was waiting!), but the timing was not in our favor for tonight. We got on the road when we intended, but the lessons learned and the road conditions through Connecticut told us we should readjust our expectations.
Saucony Creek Brewery
I searched Harvest Host for awhile and found Saucony Creek Brewery in Kutztown, PA. Just past Allentown where my friend Amy is from, Kutztown about 6 hours away from Warwick. We wanted to keep our big travel days around 6 hours so this fit the bill. Plus, they had vegan beer and vegan food on the menu, so sometimes it’s good to be in the passenger seat looking up where we will be staying!
We arrived right before sunset and it was beautiful. Harvest Host is a membership that we have where you spend $80 a year for the membership but you can stay at any of 2,000+ farms, breweries, vineyards, distilleries, museums, etc across the country for mostly free. They ask you to spend $20 in product to thank the Harvest Host for allowing you to park in their parking lot. Well guess what? I love wine and beer! And I love farms that are sanctuaries for animals! This works for us.
I had a wheat beer and he had a Fruit Wagon Sour with blackberries and plums. We both grabbed a salad- mine with grapefruit and tofu. They also had triple threat garlic fries but I couldn’t have all of the ingredients so they modified it for me and I think added a pound of garlic on top- no lie! Jason rolled his eyes when I ordered it and reminded me that the camper is small but you know, I just had to!
Then the most magical thing happened… we were surrounded by fireflies! The fields, everything around us was glowing. Patch tried to see if they wanted to be her friend but they aren’t dog lovers. When we headed back to the camper I grabbed out my camera and tripod and went to snapping pictures. I’ll add those tomorrow as my camera is with Jason right now as he is adventuring in some caverns.
Vegan On the Rhode 