It is interesting how a journey like this develops phases; periods with a definite focus. Today marked the start of (or transition to) what we both think of as the vehicle phase; a period where our focus will be on the truck. A week from now we will be in Nixa, MO (for about 10 days) for some upgrades and repairs to the camper and two weeks after that we will be in Colorado for a week of work (both maintenance and upgrades) on the truck. So as we drove out of the DC/Baltimore area this morning on those frantic freeways our eyes were turning west and we were thinking about how to pace ourselves for the 1000 mile leg to Nixa.

The rainy weather of DC turned into a sunny warm day as we traversed Maryland into West Virginia.

Yesterday in Georgetown we saw a little section of the Chesapeake-Ohio Canal which used to run from Cumberland (on the border of Maryland and West Virginia) into the port at Georgetown. Today we got a chance to see a water filled section of the canal at the little town of Hancock. The canal operated from 1831 until 1934 is 184 miles long and at one point flows through a 3000ft tunnel.

Late in the day we came upon a sign to Coopers Rock State Park and decided this would be a good place to camp. The park offered some fine views of treed valleys, sandstone cliffs and a magnificent forest of tall Oak (and other) trees.