Month: September 2022

Shenandoah National Park

The first destination of our trip was a visit to Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. We stayed on the west side of the park near Harrisonburg. The area around here was very scenic farmland.

We were pleasantly surprised that this weekend was ‘KOA member appreciation weekend’ and we got one night’s stay for free! As usual, the campground was very nice and we had a spot at the very back overlooking a forested area.

On Saturday we got up early and headed for the park. Our goal was to drive the length of the park on Skyline Drive. This road runs 105 miles north and south along the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Shenandoah National Park and is the only public road through the Park.

The weather was foggy and cloudy but nice and cool. We managed to get some nice views and had lunch at one of the picnic areas. The road was not busy at all but I was surprised to see almost all hiking trailheads nearly full of cars. I yearned to go on a hike but my knee isn’t quite up for it yet!

We ended up driving nearly 200 miles and got back to camp in time for our dinner! A great day at Shenandoah National Park. We start the second leg of our northbound journey with 4 stops between here and Maine and less than 200 miles a day driving.

North through the South

Departure day saw fair but hot weather as we made out way up the Florida coast, through Jacksonville, and along the Georgia coast to Savannah. We made good time on one of our longer days and had a pleasant albeit warm night’s stay.

Music: The Tangent. Long-form Prog at its finest!

Day two had us drive through South Carolina – not as many miles today. The road south of Charlotte was rough but the Excellent Adventure road like a dream in heavy truck traffic until our stop in Lumberton, North Carolina. This campground was nice but not much shade for a hot-sticky day. They did have a nice trail along Back Swamp (part of the Lumber River system). Jake took a dip and cooled off!

Music: Peter Gabriel and related 80’s stuff picked out by the AI. Rumor has it Peter is ready to drop fresh tracks 20 years after his last studio album Up.

Day three started much cooler than the previous days, not even breaking 90F before our stop in southern Virginia – less than 200 miles today. The roads were better and a lot of truck traffic again. It dawned on me that 99% of the cars going in my direction pass me at my cruising speed of 60mph 😂! The campground, outside of Emporia, had a lot of residents that worked in the area. Very quiet and shady with lots of big trees.

Somewhere in southern Virginia

Music: More 80’s stuff ending with Tears for Fears. Everybody really does want to rule the world.

So much for the first leg of our northbound journey. We’ll spend the next couple of days exploring the Shenandoah National Park area before continuing on to Maine.

Excellent Adventure 2022

Our excellent adventure for this year has us heading north to Maine skirting the Northeast megapolis as much as possible. I’ll stay in Maine for a week visiting the coast and nearby areas. The return trip is planned through New Hampshire and New York and on to Pennsylvania where I will see the historic Tubridy and Kovac hometowns of Snow Shoe and Connellsville in Pennslyvania. Then down through the Appalachians to visit friends in Tennessee and then home. I plan to visit Shenandoah, Acadia, Watkins Glen, and New River Gorge parks and see the Mt. Washington and Adirondack areas.