A Pleasant Surprise, But $$$ - Jun 23, 2011 - Richmond, Virginia, United States

We got the word from the RV Repair Shop in Richmond that our mirrors were in, so we left Thursday morning heading inland hoping to get them fixed that day. We got there around noon, left Otto in their hands, and took off to do some errands. One of the main chores to be done was to replace our Garmin GPS which had stopped giving us directions. Since we use it every day, it was a kind of a necessity. We headed to Costco where we had bought it, receipt in hand, and were told that they could not do an exchange or refund as we did not have all the parts. When we explained our situation, they called the manager who admitted they had had some problems with that model and immediately gave us store credit and helped us pick out a new one which they had had very good luck with ( a Magellan ). We have never been disappointed with the service we have gotten from Costco, and after this will continue to be loyal customers.

When we got back to pick up Otto later that afternoon we were especially relieved that we had not had to shell out any money for a new GPS as the cost of the mirrors including installation was almost $1300. I guess they just see you coming...

So we headed to our campsite, which was only a few miles up the road and settled in for a 3 day stay to check out Richmond. We have passed through Richmond many times on our way up and down the coast and have never been very impressed, but once we got traveling around the city itself we found that it had some wonderful areas and fun type restaurants which were really our style. We visited some of the Civil War sites, which is really what Richmond is all about, and took a river cruise. We had lunch at Millie's Diner, which is no diner at all, but a little hole in the wall one of our books recommended with a fabulous menu. The next day our lunch was at a pizza place with an upstairs balcony which offered a great view of the elevated railroad tracks and some great people watching.

We also met some very interesting people at the campground. The first night there was a family there with a 2 year old, a 12 year old, a man and a woman; sounds fine, but we really couldn't figure out from their actions what the relationship was between any of them. Turns out it was a man and his daughter (the 12 year old) (wife had stayed home), and his wife's sister and her little boy. They all seemed to get along fine and were very nice; the 2nd night they joined our campfire and made their s'mores. When they left, a couple arrived and again we had to figure out how the family worked. It was a man and his wife (about our age, maybe a little younger), their daughter and granddaughter, who were later joined by the son in law. The daughter and son in law appeared to be about 21 tops with a 3-4 year old daughter. They live with the parents as does their 25 year old son, as he puts it, just one big happy family. He is retired military, air force, and she is still working but also retired air force. They were very interesting to talk to as they had traveled all over and both their children are adopted, one from Mexico and one from Turkey, while they were stationed overseas.

So it was a fun time, quite relaxing, and we move from here to Washington, DC. There are quite a few things we want to do there so it was probably good to have some quiet time here. Sometimes the best part of the trip is the people you meet, not the things you see.