In a weird way, planning a road trip in 2020 winter is almost an obsessive problem solver's dream. How do you go on an adventure when you have to avoid interaction with people and not touch random shit at all cost? How do you not freeze to death? How do you have fun without paranoia or guilt? How do you spend even more time with your other half after spending all the time with him for the last 8 months?!
Nelson and my answer to those questions, is to hire a minivan (a trusty Chrysler Voyager 7 seater we nicknamed 'Frosty the Snow Van'), stowed away the 2nd and end row of seats and turned it into a mobile camping unit. We brought all the supplies ourselves (camp kitchen, food - both fresh and freeze-dried, sleeping mats, bags, the essential #vanlife accessories such as fairy lights and the ukulele, we even put in an IKEA rack in the van for the home-feel). Being super-crafty (?!), we hand-sewed mobile curtains that can be stuck on car windows by suction cups. Along with our trusty road companion Don Don the indoor-(teddy)bear, we left snow-piled New York and began our two week adventure!
Our itinerary, on a high level, was to head south through the Appalachian Mountains, visit both Shenandoah and the Great Smoky Mountains National Parks, cut through the mountain range to the east, and complete the big loop up the coastline before returning home.
1) Looking for Shenandoah River:
Famed river made famous by the song 'Country Road', Shenandoah River State Park would be our first destination and our first experience of Virginia. We didn't see the river immediately but the fresh and crispy air reminded us we were definitely not in New York anymore! The campground is cute, with only 20 sites or so all nicely tucked away. The bathroom is a bit of a hike but has hot shower. Our site was surrounded by earlier snow and we excitedly started cooking our first van-meal and set up our 'beds'. Nelson and I had a sleeping bag and a quilt each and I bulked-bought heat packs and packed thick, wooly socks. :-)
The sleeping bags and heat packs did their job but my sleep-mat didn't! It leaked air during my first night and I woke in the middle of night realizing I was sleeping on cold metal. We spent a couple of hours the next morning hoping to find the leaky spot so we could patch it up, to no vail. :-( Fortunately we were not far deep in the mountains yet so we drove an hour to the closest REI (in Fairfax if anyone is interested) to buy a new mat. We headed straight to Shenandoah National Park after, only to be told by kind rangers that the park was closed because of severe weather warning (!) With that, we went to visit a nearby town, Luray, which is famous for its very decorated cavern (probably not a good idea during COVID haha) and historical landmarks.
With the National Park out of reach, Nelson and I decided to spend rest of our time here exploring the Shenandoah River State Park instead, and what a delightful place it is! We walked along the Shenandoah River, saw woodpeckers along the way, checked out the primitive campsites along the river, hiked up to the visitor center in the snow, and did the Hamlet Hollow trail back to our campsite. Virginia is definitely proud of their state parks and I could see why, the trails are well marked and nicely maintained and from the various lookout spots we could see the beautiful Shenandoah River traversing through. Satisfied, it's time to hit the mountains!
2) Chasing the sunset at Blue Ridge Parkway:
469 miles from Virginia to Cherokee in South Carolina, the parkway is dubbed 'America's favorite drive'. Mindful of certain road closures because of the snow, the stretch we decided to do was from Buchanan (Mile Post 90.9) to Roanoke Mountain (Mile Post 121.4) - a mere 31 miles that took us ages to drive because of the breath-taking scenery. We kept stopping at every turn to admire the view and to take way too many photos. It was late afternoon when we were on the ridge (literally), the sun was low and the expansiveness of the vista really blew our minds. There was the blue hue of the mountains, green and yellow pastures in the lowlands, and the golden James River winding through - it is the perfect painting. The famous Appalachian Trail runs parallel to the parkway and we could see trail heads where hikers had to cross the road to the other side of the ridge (called gaps). With the sunset reminding us to get out of the winding parkway before darkness fell, we turned onto county roads and arrived at our sleeping spot of the night, Chantilly Farm.
The farm hosts big musical events and festivals pre-COVID, now it is just a nice campground where there is no numbered sites or marked space where you pitch your tent or park your car. The owner pointed us to a massive piece of land and said 'park anywhere you want'. And anywhere we did! We perched Frosty in the middle of the field, under the stars, and made our dinner. It was so cold that I had no feelings to my digits whatsoever but it was truly magical. In the darkness we also lost a spoon and a mesh bag for our camp pot hahaha: we found the mesh bag after looking for it for an hour or so (even going through all the photos we took earlier to work out 'when the exhibit was last seen by witnesses), but I never found the spoon until day 12. #vanlife lesson: always put things back to where they come from otherwise you will forever be looking for stuff!
3) Gatlinburg... Why:
Gatlinburg, Tennessee was going to be just a blip on our road trip, a town we stopped by to get some supplies (i.e. a loaf of bread) and maybe have a short stroll to stretch our legs. But it was so horrible it is worth its own section in my post LOL. To get to Gatlinburg we had to first get through a massive traffic jam at Pigeon Forge, which is even more horrible than Gatlinburg. The town was made famous for being Dolly Parton's hometown and the location of 'Dollywood'. There are perhaps a hundred amusement 'parks' on the highway, all next to each other and on top of each other and a few hundred souvenir shops all next to each other and on top of each other as well. Being able to see the Smokies as the backdrop of all this madness probably made it even worse. If it is the middle of the desert a la Vegas, okay, I get it, but this? At the foot of the Great Smokies? Why?! Gatlinburg was just as confounding, thousands of people went there to go to more paid entertainment and waddle slowly with the crowd along this tiny river. Nelson and I got into a fight in Gatlinburg due to a $12 parking fee in order to walk the mediocre Gatlinburg trail next to a major road, and then we drove for more than half an hour to a grocery store only 4 miles away (yes, more traffic jam) because he was fixated on multi grain bread and nothing else. And then we found millions of people inside the grocery store, no social distancing whatsoever. So we ran for our lives and got our arses outta there (without the bread!).
4) Being snowed in at Cades Cove:
We made it to the campground in the dark. We were going to be spending 3 nights at Cades Cove, all nature and no shower/hot water! Nelson initially questioned my decision to book a site so close to the only bathroom in the campground, which he would be later be grateful of my choice when we had to endure 9F degree nights. (always trust your wife, Nelson!)
When we arrived at the campground I noticed several RVs parked at the rangers' carpark instead of inside the campground. I said to myself, 'how appalling, people not following rules and trying to camp for free!' The weather was turning while we made camp and cooked dinner, the wind picked up and howled all night, shaking Frosty several times while we slept. Turned out that because of high wind, the rangers came by earlier in the day and told the campers to move to the parking lot, in case trees fell on top of them. I guess we were very lucky we escaped such scenario (!).
It was a rainy and gloomy morning on Christmas Eve and it was very cold. I tried to have a nap after breakfast but couldn't really get comfortable somehow. I visited the bathroom and saw two girls in there curling their hair. I chuckled and said 'hey - that is dedication to beauty'. She sheeplishly told me that because of the bad weather and it being Christmas Eve and all that, the 4 of them wanted to drive into Gatlinburg for dinner and she wanted to pretty up.
Nelson and I decided to venture out and checked out the famous Cades Cove loop that took us to more than 10 historical sites that depicts the life of the early settlers. We did a few short hikes and checked out John Oliver's place, the Primitive Baptist church and cemetery, Elijah Oliver's place (quite a long walk in the rain!), and the Shield's family cabin. It was actually really cool to see all these old structures being preserved. It was not the idyllic lifestyle one might imagine now though. On top of the hardship the settlers had to endure (painstakingly building one's own log cabin, shortage and uncertainty of food supplies, the freezing cold, etc.), it also seems like there was a lot of politics and in-fighting in the community (I guess where there is people, you can't escape politics). At one point, Elijah Oliver and his family had to go into hiding due to that he sympathized with the union during the civil war - as a result his house was burned down by the confederate supporters. You can't help but ask yourself, has the time really changed after 200 years? Did we really come a long way when it comes to the meaning of democracy and freedom? At the end, the small community was driven out by congress who wanted the land as part of the National Park. I muse to myself, we sometimes dream of leaving the big smoke and move to the countryside for the simpler life, but is life really easier and less hectic when you have bigger pieces of land to play with? It is probably a question worth pondering on later.
We went back to the campground soaking wet but in great spirits and started our Christmas celebrations. Champagne was chilled and opened (no worries about it being chilled with the temperature outside ha ha), Nelson and I put on our Santa hats and exchanged gifts over a pretty decent charcuterie board (if I may say so myself). We sang Christmas songs and Nelson played his ukulele. It was really nice! It started snowing and we were both excited about our first real white Christmas. Words came by that all the roads into the mountains were closed because of heavy snow and ice - we kept peeking to our neighboring site, wondering if the girls with the nice hair and their partners would make it back after their dinner. We had freeze dried creme brulee which is not that bad but pretty weird.
We woke up on Christmas Day to at least 7 inches of snow and it was stunning! The snow was still falling and it was very, very cold but it was so beautiful. Because of the road closure, no one could come in (or get out) and it felt like the whole national park was for the few of us. There was a massive airstream parked nearby and they even brought out a Christmas tree. Everyone seemed excited about this rare Christmas day snow. Nelson and I went for walks. It was amazing everywhere, although parts of the roads were very icy and I fell on my bottom once. And the snow covered the trails so you could never go that far. But we saw lots of wild lives like wood peckers and deer (including a big buck!), and some peculiar paw prints which we were later told probably belong to mountain lions (woah I am not ready for this). Our neighbors didn't make it back last night and there was more bad weather forecasted.
It snowed more and on Boxing Day we were contemplating our next move. There was a small window where the road would be opened one way, it would require careful driving but if we didn't get out, the next wave of snow could have delayed us further. Our neighbors at that point haven't made it back yet, after being stuck in Gatlinburg for 2 nights. And I was really craving a hot shower... Nelson and I packed up and got ready to leave.
5) Appalachian Mountains, I hate you:
We made it out of the National Park (and received astounded facial expressions from passers by, the roads were still closed and it looked like we were the only car on the road, we came to a locked gate and a ranger had to let us out). We stopped at Townsend and got gas and... you guessed it, multi-grain bread, and were on our way to Charlotte, North Carolina. Little did we knew at the time that this winter was going to throw more challenges at us. The only way to go to the Eastern states was to cut through the Appalachian Mountains and the shortest route (441 through the Cherokee forest) was closed. So we went on state highway 321 and skirted around the mountains and at a town called Cosby, tried the next shortest route, a road called the Lindsey Gap Road, which was also closed. Okay, are we having fun yet? We went south of Cosby and tried route 32, this time we made it quite far along and got very close to the North Carolina state line before being turned back - the road was closed on the other end. By this point we had already spend almost 2 hours driving through snow, ice, and fallen trees and I had a sinking feeling that we were going to be stuck in Tennessee forever. What didn't help was that there was no phone reception so it was difficult to see the map. Nelson decided to go north a bit this time and try our luck with route 339. Bingo! 3rd time's the charm and we managed to make our way onto Highway 40 that would eventually get us out of the mountains and into North Carolina. I started to feel a bit more relaxed and was excited about hot shower, a hot meal, and doing laundry. :-)
6) Beautiful Charlotte:
In Charlotte we took a short break from #vanlife and stayed in an airbnb for one night. Nelson and I both had a long, hot shower and did our laundry. We got takeout from a Mexican Restaurant. The food was good and we were warm, clean, and happy. #vanlife lesson: you sometimes need a break from #vanlife. We woke up the next morning to sunshine and blue sky - we went for a stroll at NoDa (short for North of Davidson Street, its an up-and-coming art district) and then drove to the Fourth Ward in downtown Charlotte and walked along the historical streets to the early settlers' cemetery. The houses in Fourth Ward are immaculately looked after and the colors of the buildings were so vibrant! With a healthy dose of urban energy, we were ready to take on more nature.
7) Myrtle Beach, Beach Life I have missed you:
We crossed the state line soon after leaving Charlotte and drove through South Carolina for a taste of the tropics at Myrtle Beach. It's funny - that it was still cold, temperature around the 40s. However after the week in the snow, we felt really warm. Myrtle Beach is beautiful and has a super chilled vibe. We camped at the Myrtle Beach State Park which only a line of trees separate us from the long stretch of sand. We spent our days lazying under the sun, read our books, and watched people riding their horses on the beach. Having previously lived on the beach back in Manly, Australia, we are pros at the waterfront :-) The only thing worth pointing out is that the warmer climate also means bugs! It is unusually to see mosquito bites in December, and on my belly as well - how did it get in there?!
8) Stalking the water birds at Virginia Beach:
This day marked our longest drive of the two week: 350 miles from South Carolina to North Carolina to Virginia. I took the morning shift and Nelson did the afternoon and the consolation was a crazy-delicious BBQ joint called Sam Jones who specializes in Eastern Carolina-style BBQ which means: 1) No tomato-sauce in the marinate, the meat was rubbed with seasoning and vinegar 2) they cook it whole-hog style. The ribs were tender and juicy and the smoked chicken was so full of flavor. I also tried the sweet potato muffin: 99c of yumminess!
Virginia Beach was noticeably colder than Myrtle Beach but we were blessed with sunny days and little wind. We camped at a private holiday park - in our usual style we arrived well after dark and found the holiday park full of RVs but there was not a single human being in sight. It was somewhat eerie. Usually I expect a few people chatting by the fire, folks going to the bathroom, etc. but there was no one. Even when I went to have a shower I seemed to be the only person in the massive bath house. Only the next morning I saw campers walking their dogs and kids riding bikes then I sighed an air of relief - I guess it was so cold that people kept to themselves in their state of the art recreational vehicles! I was just glad we didn't accidentally stumbled on the Bermuda Triangle equivalent of an RV park!
Nelson and I spent a whole day at the Back Bay Wildlife Refuge and it was lovely. There were lots of sand dunes and pools and swamps along the beach. Certain areas were closed to protect the migrating birds during winter but we walked all of the open trails. I even took a nap in the van! It was towards the end of our road trip at this point and I loved the relaxed connection between Nelson and I. I enjoyed our conversations but also enjoyed when we just sat together in silence.
9) America's First Thanksgiving at Berkeley Plantation:
Berkeley Plantation, just outside Richmond, Virginia, is a place rich in history. Two of the U.S. presidents were born here (I also found out that quite a few of the earlier presidents are all somehow related to each other). It was the place where the military Bugle call 'Taps' was composed. It was also the landing site where the settlers sailing from Bristol, UK on a 35 footer called the Good Ship Margaret, arrived and had America's first ever thanksgiving ritual. The plantation was lovely and quiet - although personally I do find the touring narrative leaning towards glorifying the white European settlers somewhat. Still, Virginia is so full of significant U.S. history that I would love to go back to visit again soon.
10) Baltimore - foodies' heaven or ghetto?
Baltimore marks our final destination of the road trip and the city Nelson and I would spend New Year's Eve. The plan is to gorge on the famous blue crabs with the beer we bought back in Townsend (but that it had been too cold to enjoy a bottle of cold crisp beer haha). A friend warned us of the crime rate in Baltimore and the area we planned to stay at - this kinda put us on edge a little bit. Luckily our accommodation was on a very nice street, facing the Union Square Park, and we got there well before dark.
The crabs did not disappoint! It was so good that we went back again for lunch on New Years Day - my favorite was the Softshell crab stuffed with crab cake. I mean, who says too much of a good thing could be bad!?!
I enjoyed every minute of the big adventure (yes, even when Nelson and I fought about green beans and how long it takes him to do a selfie photo) and loved starting 2021 feeling relaxed and loved. Now the curtains are made and experiment #vanlife had been conducted, I can't wait to go on another road trip with Nelson and our van companion Don Don! (and Thank you - Frosty the Snow Van, I will miss you, even though you are from Nevada)
