To high school graduation in Va.
The primary purpose of this trip was to attend our youngest grandson's high school graduation in Virginia. And to visit with his brother, home from his Air Force posting at Travis Air Base near San Francisco. And... to spend time with our son, his "significant other" and her daughter, and our granddaughter and her "significant other" as well. So, we left home on the 5th and arrived there on the 6th. I think. As I write this, I'm not remembering details well. We visited this part of the U.S. three times this year. So it runs together.
I think we took 2 days to drive to Fredericksburg, Va. Then the trailer was left in our son's driveway for most of a week. We enjoyed visiting an being there when our grandson graduated.
Enjoying our visit to the National Forests of the southeast.
We left Fredericksburg on Monday the 11th, and spent the next several days driving south on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We enjoyed the drive even though the views were often obscured by clouds and fog.We began at the north entrance(Afton, Va). Although we saw several inviting campgrounds on the parkway they were either 1) not where we wanted to end the day, or 2) full. So we used commercial CGs. We didn't quite reach Cherokee(the south end of the parkway) before we decided to spend our time further north.
I believe we spent a night(2?) at Stone Mountain SP in N. Car. It was during our stay there that we 1) found and visited a very rough road to Scales and Grindstone Campground. We moved to Grindstone campground and spent two nights there. During the two days, we visited Marion, Va, Whitetop Mtn., Comers Rock, and enjoyed driving interesting FS roads in Washington-Jefferson NF.
Sunday, June 17 - It seems we then drove S reaching Mt Pisgah CG which was essentially full. We backed into a site, only to notice it seemed to be reserved. We spent two nights at Asheville W KOA, getting dinner at Botanas and Beer the first night. The next day, we did laundry and drove south as far as Rosman where we bought lunch from a food truck at Headwaters Outfitters. We then returned to the KOA via US64 and US256. We stopped at the Pisgah NF Ranger Sta./Visitor Ctr. N of the intersection.
Tuesday the 19th - We drove to Lake Moomaw, another Wash.-Jeff. NF campground in Va. and spent two nights there. Wedn. we drove several very interesting roads on an "Overland" route I found.
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| On a hill with a spectacular view. |
Thursday, we moved to Canaan Valley SP in W. Va.where we visited a 4x4 trail in Blackwater Falls SP that we had partially driven in the snow last December. Seeing it again, we were astonished that we had driven it in the snow! We decided not to try it again.
Friday, we again drove sections of the "overland" route, finding and rejecting a river crossing with very high water. But the scenery was great!
Saturday, we headed to Mt Gilead SP in Ohio. We had stayed there one night in the '80s with a rented trailer. Driving I-70 to Columbus, I had an awful time after missing the I-270 interchange and following an erroneous Google map route. Once arriving at the SP, we found it very changed. When we arrived, there was no attendant, and the campground appeared full. We felt very unwelcome, so we decided to continue another 3 1/2 hrs to home.
All in all, it was a very good trip.
