Alpacas

My next and ultimate destination is Pinehurst, North Caroline, but the distance is a bit too far to travel in one day, so I will make a stop at one of the places available through Harvest Hosts.  In this case it is an Alpaca farm in Virginia.  

I should have more carefully planned my journey through, or rather around Baltimore and Washington, as the usual route involves traveling through tunnels, where trailers like mine, carrying propane tanks are prohibited.  There are also toll roads that get rather expensive when you are traveling with 4 axles.  It was also Friday, which in this area means extra traffic.  This ended up being my longest day in the truck by time, as opposed to the most distance traveled.  I had to get off the highway a couple of times to find the routes that didn't involve tunnels and spent a lot of time in stop and go traffic.  I didn't have enough cash with me to pay the final toll bill, so was given a form to mail in with the payment.  Thanks to Beth at The Energy Credit Union for looking after that.  I will look at getting an E-Z Pass.  

After this harrowing day on the road, once I reached the farm I had to navigate this road: 

It was kind of steep and didn't offer the best traction.  On the first attempt I couldn't make it up the hill, so I backed down, switched into four-wheel-drive and then made it up.  I hadn't really thought I would need four-wheel-drive on the truck, but it has come in handy on occasions like this. 

Here I am at the camping site:

With Harvest Hosts they aren't obligated to provide electrical power, but seeing as it was about 100 degrees F and the temperature wasn't going to drop that much over night my hostess offered me a fan that was in the barn and the 15 amp power to operate it.  I started with the fan blowing in the back window of the trailer and then clued in to the fact that I could use the same cord to power the fan in the trailer that would move the air through my duct system.  It wasn't as good as full air conditioning but helped to make it tolerable for the night.  

The following morning I got to meet the Alpacas.  They are very nice animals, with dense, soft coats. 

I learned a lot about the Alpaca business.