Our View From The Road

Sharing where we've been and what we've seen

Tag: VA

Virginia

  • Day 02: Provisioning day

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    Yep, all camping trips begin with provisioning, except this one. It’s day 2 and we’re yet to gather supplies. That changes today!

    Had a great sleep parked at the Cracker Barrel in Winchester, VA. Highly recommended. Awake just before 7:00 and out for a 5.5km walk along mostly overly busy roads. Chilly at -1C but it should soon warm.

    A restful parkup

    Back at the van, Barb has reorganized some things and is feeling much better about where and how our stuff is stored.

    After a smallish breakfast at our hosts, we were back on I-81 South at 9:00am. I’m hoping for a shorter day (a little foreshadowing here).

    Cherry blossoms

    Virginia is a beautiful state. The mountains, farms, forests and valleys all tell a tale of over two-hundred years of settlement. It really is easy to see why it became a popular settling destination.

    Although it won’t feel like it to those of you that live north of the US/Canada border, Spring arrived early for us today. The grass here is greening up and in some-places could already be mowed (still on the lookout for that first operating mower). Many trees are budding and the flowering trees are in full bloom. We saw Cherry blossoms, flowering dogwoods (State flower of Virginia) and Eastern Redbud that actually flowers with a purple flower. Daffodils are also in bloom. Yep, Spring is here.

    Forsythia in bloom along the roadside

    Arriving in Roanoke, VA we decided to visit Camping World and pick up a few bits and pieces for the van and get Propane. Bits and pieces were acquired but their propane system was out of order. They suggested the TSC store next door. Hmmm, I’m hoping they will know how to fill an RV tank.

    We drive to the TSC and immediately prune one of their lovely trees with the roof of the van. Argh! Phew, no harm to the van thankfully, but the poor tree had a few branches less after greeting us. As for the Propane, all went well & the dude was quite skilled in filling RV tanks. Yay, provisioning has begun.

    Next we acquired water for our tank, we can now flush and wash!!! This is a good thing. We do not drink the water from our tank and instead buy bottled water for safety reasons.

    Leaving Virginia and entering Tennessee, I-81 turns Westward towards Knoxville. We arrived during afternoon rush hour… yay! This slowed our progress and resulted in our arriving in Chattanooga at 7:00pm. Not a shorter driving day.

    Dinner courtesy of Arby’s, parkup courtesy of Walmart on Little Debbie Lane, Collegedale, TN. the home of the Little Debbie factory.

    After the Propane and Water acquisitions of earlier, food provisions have been acquired from Walmart that should last us for a few days.

    All for today. Tomorrow we cross into the Central timezone and should arrive in Florida!

  • Day 01: On the road again…

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    Welcome back to our travel blog! The long and snowy winters end approaches; however, not quickly enough for these intrepid explorers. And so this post finds us heading out in search of sunnier and warmer climes in the Southern US. Todays drive took us from the US/Canadian border, across the Blue Ridge mountains and into the state of Virginia.

    It’s 6:00am and half of the house is awake for the day, it should be a busy one. No snow overnight so at least there’s none to brush off of the van before we can drive. Now, time to go for a walk and then the final loading to complete. 9:00am target departure. Wish us luck!

    About to hit the road

    Ok, so 9:30am and we’re rolling out of town after dropping a package off at the post office. The roads are dry and it’s sunny, a good omen we believe.

    The St. Lawrence river is open water signaling that Spring is near. The border crossing is very smooth with just a few cursory questions concluding with the agent saying a rather abrupt “Goodbye”. Several hundred yards later at the bridge toll booth we were held up slightly as a trucker maneuvered his/her 11’6” wide load through a series of bollards signed at being 11’6” clear. Some of the item wrapping brushed against the bollards but otherwise no damage done. Nice driving.

    The drive across US37 towards Watertown, NY was easy and a nice way to ease into what would be a long day.

    We picked up I-81 and headed South towards Syracuse and onto Whitney Point where we stopped at the visitor center and had a ham & cheese wrap for lunch.

    Frost capped trees near Whitney Point, NY

    Binghamton, Scranton and Wilkes Barre soon followed as the interstate took us further South with each passing mile. By this point in the journey almost all of the snow on the ground was gone and the temperature was steadily above zero Celsius. By the time we cross out of Pennsylvania and into Maryland the temperature is a steady 8C, that’s 15C above this mornings temperature at home!

    Crossing the Potomac

    Driving through West Virginia the sun sets and the nighttime truck traffic is taking over the interstate, time to find a park up. Like Mr & Mrs Milddogs last year, we decided to stop at the Cracker Barrel in Winchester, VA. where we enjoyed a chicken dinner before settling down for the night. I was even carded when requesting a beer with my dinner! 59 and still looking under 25! I’ll take it.

    Sunset

    It was a very long day of driving which saw us arrive at 7:15pm, almost 10 hours after leaving home. Tomorrow should be shorter and will see us head towards Chattanooga, TN. Stay tuned for how we make out.

    Before signing off for the night, let’s address a few questions you, our readers, might have.
    1. How are you handling the colder temperatures? Are you not afraid of the piping freezing while driving through states with temperatures below freezing point?
    – We left home with the van still ‘winterized’ with plumbing antifreeze in the piping and plan on leaving it that way until the ambient temperatures support ‘dewinterizing’.
    2. Have you made any changes or improvements to the van over the winter?
    – We were generally very happy with the van when we last used it in 2022. We have added a small shelving system under the sink to better organize baskets that we keep there containing various items used in the galley.
    3. Was any specific maintenance performed before travelling this year?
    – As the van currently has only 15000kms on it, only an oil change and service was performed by the Ford dealer last Fall. Other than this, only the typical pre-trip checks of fluids, tyre pressures, etc. were performed. We are expecting to have to perform a little more maintenance upon our return.