We were on our way to San Marino, the third smallest country in Europe, behind Monaco and Vatican City, with no idea what to expect. If we were ever told about this tiny country in school, we had both forgotten. San Marino is also on a mountain, like a lot of Italian Towns with a castle. At one point, we had to pull an 18 percent grade. For those who don’t know, that means for every one hundred feet forward we went, the road rose 18 feet. I don’t think I have seen many double grades before. Holly pulled it without much of a struggle.

We found the Park4Night location and pulled in. It had electric hook-ups, but they were in odd place, and the reviews said they didn’t work. We parked would we would have stunning view out our bedroom window. It didn’t disappoint when sundown came.

Something else that has been kind of weird lately. Campers that are just parked in these locations. This was the second time in only a few days that we had a camper parked and we didn’t see anyone come or go. At least this one, the morning we were leaving, someone came up, and got into, and then left in the car they drove up.

Once again, we tried to get some pizza in the afternoon, only to be told the eatery is closed from 1pm to 6:30pm. This is common for place to eat, and a lot of other businesses have followed along. We were able to get a couple of pastries to try later.

We didn’t head up to the castle, it was another strong grade to get up, and we would have had to hike it. We are not in that good of shape yet, but working our way up to it.

When you are doing this kind of trip, you have interruptions in the journey. We were having those, right after our Gas Bottle Diversion, we know would deal with a mouse, dirty laundry, and our first visit by the police.

Before we would leave San Marino and it’s views, we dumped our tanks, and filled up with water.

We continued our way down the back on the boot, heading into a small town that had another one of those Municipal Parking Spots. These have had various services, some working, some not, and some free, some paid. This one had a dump station, fresh water, and free electric! It was pretty crowded when we showed up, and two more campers joined us before darkness fell.

The other great feature of this parking spot was the park, right next door, in fact there was an entrance right into the park. I took Salsa over there to play ball, this usually gets things moving for her. While I was picking up her deposit, she took off on me toward a man walking a puppy. The two got along great, so he unhooked his dog, and they both played until they wore out.

We headed back down the coast and looked to stay at another Farm Camp that was along the sea. Yes, we had just been where they had all kinds of services, but the one we were looking for was a shower, it was that time again. As we pulled into the camping area, we were not all that impressed. It was a real working farm, and looked it, complete with a pile creating Non-Urban Aroma. There were lots of fruit and olive trees around, and the as the night and the next morning came, the place grew on us. We would more than likely stay there again.

We also noticed that we had picked up a stowaway. Little dropping and rice back chewed into let us know we had picked up a mouse somewhere. So, our first stop the next morning was a Do-It-Yourself/Hardware Store. We got a couple of traps, and spray to keep them away in the future. The traps were different, but better than I had seen in the United States. Hmmm, a better mouse trap?

The next stop was for laundry, after all, we had just cleaned up ourselves with nice hot showers, so we needed clean clothes to put on. We decided to find a laundry mat, as the facilities at campgrounds just weren’t cutting it, especially since most don’t have driers.

After the clothes were cleaned, we headed back toward the coast for about ten minutes, to tonight’s parking spot. The reviews said the neighbors were very quiet, probably because they were dead. We spent our first night in a cemetery parking lot. We actually had a relaxing night, and in the morning, the trap had caught our little hitchhiker. He will rest in a proper place. It has some fantastic views.

The cemetery proved to be a good spot, so we thought why not head out for another one? This one was in town, and had a Lidl across the street. I did some shopping between the rain showers. It was not a good store, but I was able to get some essentials, and something to make for dinner.

The rain continued, as darkness fell, we hadn’t yet closed up the camper for the night, and we noticed the police moving slowly along us and the other camper parked in front of us. With a beep of their horn, while they pulled up next to us, we had a strained exchange to let us know the town market would start setting up at 7am, and we needed to be gone. With an early morning for us coming up, we turned in early. I didn’t sleep well, just waiting for the alarm to go off.

The next morning, we got up at 6am, finalized a few things, and moved Holly to another parking spot about five minutes away. We went back to bed for a nap, and after a few hours, woke up to get breakfast. Now, if you think the interruptions are over, you would be wrong, we have a bonus one for you. Salsa get into some burs in the parking area, so we need to work to remove them, some of that meant an impromptu hair trim. She was not happy.

Our next drive was taking us south, along Italy’s East Coast, we would be heading into Gargano National Park, and a day at the beach.