Weeks 20-27 were spent with family, friends and lots of dogs. Check out the reel I made that shows just a glimpse of the fun we had.
Sunday, November 3rd
We drove through Ohio yesterday after grabbing lunch with some of Zac’s family. We spent the night at a Walmart in Jackson, Ohio after checking with the manager that we could stay. Sunday morning we got our grocery shopping done and then waited around for the Mothman Museum to open at noon. Once the time came, we drove over to Pleasant Place, West Virginia (our 14th state of this adventure!!) while listening to a podcast explaining the lore of Mothman. We spent about 10 minutes in the museum for this cryptid before deciding to get back on the road. On the way to our basecamp we were able to stop in Charleston to see the state capital.
After that quick drive through viewing, we drove about 1.5 hours to our home for the week. We made it to the state park but must have been routed to a back entrance because we encountered steep hills with a 10% grade up and down - this is really not ideal with a travel trailer. We managed to get within the park but panicked when our brake controller for the trailer started to flash with an “overload” error - meaning our trailer brakes were no longer functioning. Somehow, we made it to our campsite and realized we needed to relocate for better internet connection. So after a quick call to the parks office, we were able to change sites and get a strong signal with Starlink. This musical-chairs situation was stressful but reminded us that we needed to do a flush of our tanks and fill our water for the week. Had we stayed with our original site we would have completely missed this! Those eight weeks of staying with family sure have made us rusty with our camper routines.
Base Camp
This week we were stationed at Twin Falls Resort State Park, in southern West Virginia. The hills and twisty-turny roads were cool the first few times we drove them, but by the end of the week we were tired of them. There was also a hunting lottery going on in the park from Monday through Wednesday, meaning the hiking trails were closed down and we had to find things to do about an hour away. With all of that being said, we still liked the spacious campsites of this state park and the beautiful fall foliage we were able to see out the windows.
Monday, November 4th
After work we headed into the closest town (45 minutes!!) to see about getting our brake controller fixed. We went to a few auto parts stores and then Uhaul to see if anyone had recommendations. The best we could get was an appointment at Uhaul on Wednesday to have someone check it out. So we drove back to base camp empty-handed and still worried about our current brake controller condition. At least we had a nice, hot meal waiting for us when we got back to the trailer! We enjoyed a yummy pot roast made in our crockpot - what a lifesaver as the temps start to drop. This was our first glimpse of fall-back on a work day and it was a huge shock to our routine to lose sunlight so quickly.
This photo was taken at 5:34pm if you can believe it!
Tuesday, November 5th
With dwindling sunlight in mind, we hit the road real quick after work and headed about an hours drive to the closest National Park. We managed to make it to the Canyon Overlook Visitor Center of New River Gorge National Park before it closed and we secured our souvenirs before checking out the sights. There was an excellent view of the canyon and bridge from this visitor center and there were still some fall colors hanging in there for us to appreciate.
Next we drove 45 minutes to another scenic overlook that was on our itinerary and still within the National Park - Grandview. We arrived when it was sprinkling and the sun was starting to set.
This made for an amazing rainbow at this overlook against the gray sky. It only lasted about 5 minutes and we felt so lucky to be able to catch it! After snapping a few pictures we hopped back in the truck and listened to the Game of Thrones audiobook for our hour long drive back to the trailer.
Wednesday, November 6th
Today was the appointment to get our brake controller fixed, so I took off work early and drove into town. Once arriving at Uhaul the man told me that it was a problem with our trailer and not the truck and turned me away without even looking at anything. I was so mad I could have cried! But I called around and was able to have someone at a nearby rv store diagnose and replace the broken part (which obviously wasn’t a problem with the trailer). Thank goodness! After getting that stress off our backs, I picked up Zac from the trailer where he was finishing up his work day and we headed to Tamarack Marketplace. This was advertised as “The Best of West Virginia” on signs as we drove to our campground on Sunday, so I convinced Zac to check it out without any idea of what it was. We arrived with the place empty but we were able to stroll around and look at art without huge crowds. There were impressive quilts, pottery and woodwork throughout this circular building, that we appreciated but could not afford. Instead, we sprung for a West Virginia hot dog and split the meal in our truck before driving back. Our rating: 10/10, loved the combination of creamy coleslaw and sweet chili with a snappy hot dog.
Thursday, November 7th
This evening we enjoyed a short hike in the State Park since we were tired of driving 45 minutes to get anywhere and also the hunting lottery was finally over. As our first official hike since being in Michigan for a couple months, we wanted to see something beautiful yet keep it short and sweet. This hike managed to check those boxes while also not keeping us out after dark.
Friday, November 8th
Another night of staying in the park had us exploring the Pioneer farm and lodge. The walk down to the farm reminded us both of the beginning of Hocus Pocus - there were old wooden houses and leaves falling with chickens roaming all over the place. This ended up being a short visit, so we headed up to the State Park lodge to grab something to eat. As the closest restaurant in miles, we were pretty excited to not cook for a night - but the food ended up being a little disappointing. The staff were all very nice though and had southern accents that I was not expecting for West Virginia. After dinner we headed back to the camper and played some board games and cards while enjoying the local beer and wine we purchased on Wednesday from Tamarack Marketplace.
Saturday, November 9th
Since we were having a hard time finding things to do nearby, we decided to pack up our rig early and head all the way to our next stop, even though our check in wasn’t until Sunday at noon. We made it to Pigeon Forge in about five and a half hours - shout out to Zac for driving all that way - and parked at a Cracker Barrel along the main strip. It took us about 30 minutes to drive 7 miles because of all the stop and go, but there were touristy things to look at along the way. After getting the cat situated in the RV at Cracker Barrel, we walked up the road to find some dinner. Along the way we stopped to play a round of mini golf where Zac won by 6 points, even though I was ahead by 12 in the first half. With my bruised ego and Zac’s big head, we walked another 15 minutes to a small restaurant to grab a bite to eat and a couple Tennessee beers. This dinner also ended up a little disappointing so we tried to make up for it with some ice cream on our walk back to the travel trailer. Very full and tired from our 4 mile round trip walk, we passed out as soon as we got back.
Sunday, November 10th
This morning we woke up at Cracker Barrel, used their restrooms and then headed to Walmart to get our groceries for the week. By the time we were finished shopping, we ate our breakfast in the parking lot and then drove about 15 minutes to our campground. It was pretty nice not having far to take the RV today! We got set up at Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee for the week and realized we had full hook up options for the first time (meaning we had not just electricity, but water and sewer access as well). Once settled at the campground, we got back in the truck to head into the next national park, which ended up being only 20 minutes from us. We decided to drive through Gatlinburg rather than taking a bypass - but this was a mistake as it added another 20 minutes to our trip. This delay wasn’t going to rain on our parade though, we were visiting the Great Smoky Mountains National Park after all! Apparently this is the most visited National Park in the U.S. and we can see why, the brief hike we went on was so cool with moss growing on everything and big white boulders that we mistook for snow. We are very excited to visit this park more as the week goes on!
Thank you for tuning back in to our weekly activities, we are so happy to be on the road again and bring you along with us! Check out the reel I made for the week below, showing more details of what we were up to. See you next week!