May 11
We head north out of North Carolina and we’ll be camping in Western Virginia that night. We know that we’ll need to find a significant something in Tennessee while driving to earn our state sticker!
The first slightly significant stop, is this roadside scenic view, which sneakily required quite a hike up a hill for the best view.
We also met this cute box turtle, who seems less then thrilled about his video appearance.
Not really believing that the vista stop is significantly significant enough, we also start a game of bingo, based on the places in the lyrics of the song “Wagon Wheel”.
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| “To Johnson City, Tennessee” |
But still, we finally determined that the Gray Fossil Site and Museum was officially significantly SIGNIFICANT enough to earn the Tennessee travel sticker.
We learned more than we we expected to about peccaries, and had a private tour which allowed Doug to ask ALL the questions. And we got to hear a Tesla coil play Star Wars music!
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| Tennessee! |
Satisfied with our significant stops, we head on north to our campground for the night, Stony Creek Campground in the Jefferson National Forest.
May 12
This is just a quick overnight, since the campground only has a single night available.
We do a quick hike up the hills around the campground in the morning, and then head out for our next campground a little further east in Virginia.
We took a little jog down the Blue Ridge Parkway and had breakfast at the Marby Mill at Milepost 176.
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| We were forced to text a photo of this to Doug’s cousin Dan, to let him know that his Meadows were very far away |
I was bummed that the interpretative station wasn’t open yet, so I missed out on a National Passport stamp. But the internet said that Milepost 169 also had a stamp at their visitor center, so we wandered a bit further down the Parkway. Sadly, the “visitor center” was a bathroom. Rats!!! But the view of the Blue Ridge hills was lovely.
We finished up our drive to Goose Point campground on Philpott Lake nestled in the Blue Ridge Hills. The campground has some snug sites, and we chocked Ora’s wheels REALLY well!
May 14
After a weekend of relaxing and swimming in the lake, we headed further east in Virginia. On the road, we got another “Wagon Wheel” lyrics bingo!
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| “Walk-in’ on south out of Roanoke” (actually east for us) |
We stopped for a lovely hike at Natural Bridge State Park.
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| This picture doesn’t do justice to the cuteness of this family and dog photo shoot! |
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| Doug is chasing waterfalls |
We also made time for a quick visit to Shenandoah National Park, for lunch and a quick hike.
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| Where’s Doug? |
And then we headed on toward Richmond, VA. We got to have dinner with my cousin, Kathy, and a quick visit with her daughter Megan and granddaughter Sophie. And I’m bummed that we forgot to take a photo!
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