We leave the Blue Ridge mountains to stop in Staunton, VA to see the historic station. From there we hop on I-81 and travel to Hershey, PA where we driveway camp and troubleshoot with another Pleasure-Way Lexor owner.
30 July 2025 – Wednesday (Catching up on 2025 travel)
1000 71,391 74°F 1810′ Leave Sherando Lake State Park, Virginia
1049 71,416 85°F 1385′ Staunton, VA Amtrak Station
We were able to park right across the street from the station. I sent Beth to the Quilt shop next door, but she was disappointed that it was out of business.
There is access to a cool crosswalk above the tracks. I couldn’t resist climbing the stairs to see the view. Unfortunately no trains passed under while we were there. It would be a great place to capture railroad videos. The safety fence was a repository for many “love locks,” the most interesting of which was an Indian Elephant.
Unfortunately there was no access to the inside of the station. Amtrak offices are on the first floor of an old (1886)signal tower building. We hope the station can be refurbished and open to serve passengers again. A plaque showed that the original passenger terminal was built in 1857 and “modernized” in 1902.
1127 71,416 85°F Leave Staunton, Virginia
On the way out of town we passed a couple of watering devices. The first was an old steam tender watering spout. Right around the corner was a surprising sculpture of a garden watering can next to an old Chesapeake & Ohio train bridge.
Like many Virginia towns, Staunton has some nicely preserved historical buildings. Beth snapped this photo as we passed the County Courthouse. We might have to plan another visit to explore more of this Virginia town.
While driving through the Appalachian mountains we tried a new application on our phone.
“ProMasters Only” lets us monitor the temperature of our van’s transmission oil.
Transmissions are a weak link in these vans. We are hopeful that monitoring the temperature will prolong the life of ours. The temp never went above 183°. If it ever goes out of the green zone we will pull over and let it cool down.
1215 71,458 87°F New Market, Virginia I-81 Rest Area
Ran the generator and air conditioner to keep cool while making and eating. lunch. The outside temperature sensor read 100°F when we left the rest area at 1257.
1605 71,646 85°F Hershey, Pennsylvania
Enjoyed spending the night in Mark & Sherry’s driveway. They are part of the Pleasure-Way Driveway Camping Group, as are we. If you are a Pleasure-Way owner, consider joining the group on Facebook. It is a great way to make friends with common interests and find safe places to stop for the night.
We all went to dinner at a local Amish burger & ice cream place with good food and delicious desserts. It was fun to swap travel stories and share changes we’ve made to our vans.
They have a, new to them, 2015 Pleasure-Way Lexor TS. It was fun sharing how to access things on a RAM ProMaster. We discovered a hard-wired fan in the outside fridge compartment that had been running continuously. It may have been the culprit in an issue where the house battery had been draining when the van wasn’t being used. Another unique thing in that van was the lack of a battery charging cut-off switch. We did find a circuit breaker that accomplishes the same thing.
Neither of us slept well, due to the heat and humidity, but we had extra coffee and did some more visiting and troubleshooting in the morning. Many thanks to Mark & Sherry for a fun visit.
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