Moriarty, NM to Madrid, NM

Today we let the other two Harvest Hosters let their dogs run around outside while they got set up to leave. We were in no rush since our check in was anytime after 9am and it was only 1.5 hours away. It’s much quicker to leave when you are boondocking. Just hooking up and getting on the road.

We headed to grabbed some coffee and the people watching is just incredible. On slow mornings it’s probably the best thing about traveling. Someone was filling up six 5 gallon buckets and assorted other containers at the water pump. I waited with our flexible 5 gallon jug we intended to fill the camper with for dishes and toilet flushes. Around here, water is life more so than I’ve seen on this trip. He finished up and a cute little pup jumped up to greet him back at the car. I filled up quickly and noticed Jason coming back without coffee. Apparently no lids and no non dairy milk. Good thing we didn’t have far to go.

The roads are windy and we were gaining elevation. Every turn you saw something new. New Mexico is so beautiful.

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I haven’t told you much about where we are spending our time until Saturday. Jason wanted a quick walk to a town but a secluded camping experience. I wanted to be near Santa Fe or Taos. We found Scaramanga. This is actually a filming location! They have filmed several movies in Madrid (pronounced MA-drid, not like Spain) and a producer bought property here and is turning part of it into a permanent Western set. Other parts he rents out or has campgrounds at with primitive toilets/showers. Super primitive, called containment latrines. You essentially go into a bucket and then have to carry it out with you. Not kidding you. Luckily- we have a wet bath! We don’t need this weird toilet system. The shower is gravity fed solar. It’s warm during the day but brisk at night. No problem, we plan when we shower. It has a “glamp site” on the campsite too which basically is a covered structure with a table and chairs with solar USB charging and solar lights. There is a fire pit but it makes no sense to use them right now with wildfires all across the West.

A small snaffo happened the night before where one of the campsites on the property can allow travel trailers and one can’t fit it and I clicked the wrong one. In my defense, I had all the filters on saying I had a 20’ travel trailer RV, dog friendly, etc and the site came up as an option. Thankfully the other site’s guest had canceled so he just switched us over.

We got to Madrid around 11am and sent J, the owner, a text saying we were in town. He had sent us a super secret password only map on how to find this place. The directions were hilarious, telling us where to turn based on random broken down things people had in their driveways or homes. But that’s just the beginning. Ohhh it’s only the beginning.

We’ve got our 3,500lb fully loaded camper on the back of this pretty hefty 4Runner. Big tires, big lift kit, big truck. We encounter these roads that are nothing short of the worst road I’ve ever experienced- and we live in New England! This winding, bumpy, narrow, steep access way is how we are expected to arrive at our destination. Jason’s eyes light up and he switches it into L4 (or H4 I can’t remember and he’s sleeping while I’m typing this) and he is off! Everything is shaking. The 5 gallon jug in the back is swashing around. Patch’s eyes are bugged out. Sweaty Paws returns but in the passenger seat this time as I grip whatever I can hold onto. Jason navigates around dips and bumps and finally, after what felt like days, we got to the top. We took a left into Scaramanga (everything here is Bond themed), and we pull into the first site called Thunderball. We are 30 minutes or so from Santa Fe, but we can see it from here we are so high up and it is so clear. You can literally see for miles and miles.

I believe it goes without saying that the ground here is not at all level. It takes us quite a bit of time to get that all sorted out. The owner J returned from town and came to greet us. He gave us a run down of everything, do’s and don’ts, property lines, how to get into the canyon, what Native artifacts might be found on property, and tells us there is a turquoise vein somewhere on the property. If we find it, we can keep a piece. Whaaaaat?

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J’s guide to the area included so much information so he went over all of it. We talked about his production past and the shows he has produced. Genuinely one of the nicest people I have met on this trip. I got a little nervous because the pups were still waiting in the car so we walked back up toward it. He let us know they could be off leash under voice command so that was awesome news. He just warned us of coyotes but Bear has brought home coyote friends before in Warwick so we weren’t too concerned. (Partially kidding, Mom!)

After J left, we finished setting up. We made the in hindsight weird decision to not only have the shelter he had built here but to also put up our Gazelle. After setting up, we locked up and headed into Santa Fe. There was one place I wanted to go ASAP….

I told you I am a grocery store fiend. I love them! The new finds, the different set ups, different produce. But there is one grocery store for me that is above all the rest, and you’ll recognize this as the place I cried in front of a vegan cheese fridge in our last travels. Natural Grocers.

It seems like a silly fetish, but this place is my favorite. They make awesome selections throughout the store. Brands I love mixed in with ones I’ve never heard of. But even with the brands I know, they have different products of those brands I’ll never see on the East Coast. So that just means I have to buy them and try them!

Jason waited in the car with the pups and I shopped. I was giddy with joy! New vegan cheeses, new chips, new faux meats, new produce!! I had made sure to empty a few containers out and find space before we left, so I knew what would fit. I walked out of the store with a sheepish look but a wolf’s grin and Jason knew there was trouble. 3 boxes full of goodies!! I love you, Natural Grocers!

There was a little vegan food truck we had considered going to but when I was checking out of the grocery store the cashier told me it was underwhelming and gave me three better selections! As Jason and I were looking over the menus, we get a text from J- Flash floods warnings in the area if you are in the canyon GET OUT NOW!

Ummm what? Okay. So now our plans shift. We abandon the idea of getting lunch and rush back to the campsite. After a few more texts to J he explains we can still get in/out, but we can’t go into canyons, arroyos, or flat desert lands while there are flash flood warnings. Phew!

There is just ooooone last thing on our minds. Our Gazelle gazebo. We had put rocks to hold it down, would that be enough?

Jason gets us to the top of the ever bumpy and winding road which is honestly not bad without a camper attached and we turn to look at our campsite and it’s gone. No Gazelle.

We jump into action. Looking at which way the wind was blowing based on flags in the area, we run (carefully as there are cacti literally everywhere) and finally see it. Fully intact. Stuck in a bush. Holy crap.

It isn’t easy getting it out as cacti thorns are everywhere in the lining. We work to fold it up carefully and bring it back to the campsite. It had gotten over 100 yards from our site. Had we stopped for lunch, who knows where it would be. This isn’t an easily replaceable item so we learned another lesson and got it back into the bag and into storage. Close one for sure!

I get to work on the game I call “Hide all the food so Jason doesn’t think you bought too much because it all has a place to live”. He doesn’t actually care, but I like a challenge to prove I wasn’t “over buying” and I did “need it all”. I mean, come on! I haven’t been to New Mexico in 3 years. Of course I need all of this stuff!

10 minutes later it all as a place. And the only thing I had to move was an unopened bottle that was in the fridge and put that into storage until needed. Easy! We made a simple and sad sandwich compared to the places we were going to stop for lunch. Sigh.

We sat outside for awhile on the built shelter, both reading our books while the pups slept near us. I hope the dogs know we are staying for awhile and to get comfy. Bear especially doesn’t love moving around so much. Patch just wants to be near us (I mean Jason).

It’s time for dinner so we cut up some onion, peppers, and vegan sausage and cook that down, then we added a vegan mole sauce packet I had found and black beans. Spicyyyy just the way we like it. Salad on the side as always on this trip.

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Day one in MA-drid was wild for sure. Can’t wait to reveal what happens next.

Nashville, TN to Atkins, AK

We mostly packed up the night before so we only had to unplug the electrical and disconnect the water hose. We were at the dump station at 8:30 and out of there by 8:45 and on the road. Jason stopped to get coffee at a gas station and we were on the road. I really enjoyed the Cedars of Lebanon State Park but I’m ready to get across the Heartland and get into New Mexico – my most favorite state.

We had about 7 hours to drive today so nothing too crazy. We decided we would go to a Harvest Host location for the night called Paw Paws Pecans in Atkins, Arkansas. We need the opportunities to be boondocking off grid without power to practice and figure out what we need. Also, I mean it’s called Paw Paws🐾 … I had to go there!

We stopped a few hours in at the advice of the All Trails app. I found a nice mile long walk along a pond. We get there, park, and then realize it’s a wildlife refuge…which means no dogs allowed. Jason took the news well and went and took some pictures to get his legs moving.

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Back on the road we snacked off of the bento boxes with the blackberries we got at the Nashville Farmers’ Market and cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes with hummus.

We found another park to walk through a little ways up the road and Patch loved rolling in the thick grass. The grass almost grows sideways it’s so odd. She was definitely a fan of it though especially since the sidewalk was too hot to walk on.

We got into Paw Paws Pecans at about 6:00pm. Two other RVs were there by the time we got there, with their generators roaring already. We had considered a generator but the cost and where to store it were two aspects we couldn’t overcome to bite the bullet and get it. Later tonight, we will feel our first regret in that decision making.

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We met with Billy and Charlotte the owners of this farm. They own 300 acres and have 6000 pecan trees on it. They recently built this house a few years ago and wanted it to have “Southern Charm”. Pecan season ends in December so they decided to do Harvest Host and to rent out an event space on their property to keep things happening all year round. The house was beautiful and they had pecans, fudge, and quilts available for sale. We grabbed a new items and had a lovely long concerned with the couple. At 60 years old they are still kicking it and doing well. Their cat called Guacamole was very friendly to me which apparently he isn’t to others. I’ll take it that this cat knew I wouldn’t steal any of his food. Billy told me I had a “Viking haircut” because of my undercut. I’ll take that as a compliment even though it didn’t quite feel like it. Maybe they haven’t seen many people like me before 🤷🏻‍♀️

After about an hour of talking we headed outside to set the camper up. The pups were impatiently waiting for us too as the other RVers were walking their dogs around. Two beautiful labs.

We entered the Rpod to find one of the panels under the kitchen unit had come off. No idea how this happened today since the roads we were on were the straightest in a long time, but all in all not the biggest deal. 4 screws and it will be back into place.

We didn’t unhook because we knew we would be heading out very early in the AM. We opened the windows with the screens in them and took the pups for a walk on the farm. The camper was SO hot inside and it was just as hot outside. Loooovely.

It was too damn hot to cook so we copped out and made a plate of vegan pepperoni, vegan cheese, and crackers and played a game called Wit’s End. We brought very few games with us but this one is a favorite. Jason won a hard fought battle on this one.

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It was about 9:30 and still so damn humid. Then we notice the mosquitos. All around us. Crap. There wasn’t going to be much sleep happening tonight.

Atkins, AK to Shamrock, TX

We wasted no time getting up and on the road. We left by 7am after a terrible night of humidity, mosquitoes, and sweat. Everything was wet from the rain the day before, we were miserable and quiet and just wanted to move onto the next place.

Jason drove for about an hour and then we stopped to get office at a small place right off the highway. Nothing I could eat here, not even fruit, so I grabbed our coffees and got the almond milk from the camper to add to it. Jason grabbed himself and the dogs a sandwich- spoiled little things- and met me back at the truck.

After many days of only Jason driving, today was the day I would be taking the helm. The roads were flat, straight, and wide so it would be an easy first towing experience for me. Or so we thought.

About 20 minutes into my first time pulling a camper this large, we see the storms come in. Come on man. Well I’m not one to give up easy and Jason was tired from all of the driving so I was determined to deal with the rain. The best part about driving out here is that the 18 wheelers are your driving buddies. They seem like they should be the scary part, but this is what they do and what they are good at, so I will always trust a semi before I will trust a car. Cars don’t realize that it’s going to take towing vehicles longer to stop or slow down and they do stupid things. I prepared myself and got behind an 18 wheeler right before the downpour started. The truck handled it better than I thought and it was over in less than an hour. Jason had asked me a day or so ago what would my road handle would be. The trucks apparently have handles that they use with each other. I said I couldn’t name myself until I drove. Well, you’re looking at Sweaty Paws on the wheel today. I don’t think I could’ve gripped that steering wheel any tighter at times. I would grip the wheel then need to put my paws up to dry them off on the AC vents and then start over again. A lot of self talk and encouragement from Jason and I made it through. Most of this was in my head. Jason wouldn’t have let me be unsafe with the things I love the most in the car. And if you remember from our last road trip when it monsooned and the 18 wheeler lost traction and came backwards toward us, I was able to maneuver around that with the Subaru. All in all trial by fire is probably the best way for me to have learned that I can do this. Afterwards, I mastered passing and on/off ramps, and the thing I was most worried about- gas stations. I drove for about two hours and then we switched again. Very thrilling and fun!

Today we actually had to fill in time between the two stops since we left so early and couldn’t check in until after 4pm where we are staying in Shamrock, TX. We found an area that had several hikes side by side so we took a detour to check it out.

Red Rocks Canyon in Oklahoma was beautiful. We had to pay $10 to park but that seemed reasonable for what we were doing. There was a VERY windy road we had to navigate to get down into the canyon but Jason was loving it.

The humidity hit us hard. Whoa was it hot here! We drove through and found a place to park near the trail we wanted to do. Instantly when we got out of the car the dogs were panting hard. These guys usually want to run, but they were dragging behind us. We did maybe .4 miles and Bear just sat down. We gave them water and turned around back to the car. On the way back Jason found a creek and let them off leash down to it. The both ran down and laid in the water. They didn’t move. They just laid there. My poor little ones! Jason and I weren’t in much better shape but we knew how far back we had to go so mentally we were okay. They stayed in the water for about 5 minutes and then Jason called them up. Patch came running of course but Bear wasn’t trusting us and stayed a little longer to cool off.

We stopped to get some pictures of the RPod in front of the canyon. I love the red rocks!

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It was Sweaty Paws turn to drive again so after Jason got us out of the canyon (yeah I’m not even close to ready to do that!) I drove us on into Texas.

We passed through many Native American tribal lands and we took the time to read and learn about the various cultures. There is no doubt that when you travel the country you are going to have moments where you realize what other cultures lost so that the people of the past could progress towards something different. I wonder if things could’ve been done differently so that we could’ve learned to live side by side. A lot of feelings were drummed up and I didn’t want to let them just pass through. Sometimes you need to stay in it.

We crossed over into Texas around 4:00 and our exit wasn’t far away- 17 miles in. We are staying at the Texas Route 66 RV park in Shamrock. Jason wanted to explore and drive on Rt 66 so I figured this would be a good start. Route 66 goes from Chicago, IL all the way to California. We intersected it right after Oklahoma City.

The RV park was up and coming. The owners had it for only a few years and they had been renovating it ever since. The LARGE RV in front of us at check in had Hawaii plates! I had a lot of questions….

We were the first Rhode Islanders to stay here! Maybe 15 minutes after setting up, a camper van pulls in next to us from Massachusetts! Go figure haha.

What I love about Texas is very few things. In the last blog you knew I never wanted to come back here because of all of the steer yards. The conditions the animals live in are terrible and I cried each time I passed by one. But what I like about this area is that you can see for miles ahead. So we could see for about an hour or so that a storm was coming through. I was able to capture some great pictures.

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One of the upgrades to the RV park is a storm shelter. I thought it was an outhouse but Jason later explained it’s true purpose. They also have sheep and goats and donkeys that mow the grass as they said. They seemed okay and they liked the little pats on the head I was giving while the dogs ran around in the dog park.

Jason went outside to play his Woodrow while I made dinner. Since we were attached to power and it was too hot to truly cook, microwaved meals it was! Chana Masala and red lentil Dal with coconut jasmine rice. It was actually a lot better than I thought it would be.

The storm started around 7:30 and lasted into the night. The winds were the worst part of it but the rains did flood the driveways around us. We played some Farkle, our go to game, in an attempt to distract me from the storm. Then we researched where to stay in NM since our plan was to be there for awhile. Our friends Kevin and Chris sent us some suggestions and we were on the hunt. Most places we needed to call instead of book online so we had to wait til morning. Tomorrow we will be in New Mexico!

Nashville, TN to Nashville, TN

It has been one week since we left Rhode Island in Tropical Storm Elsa’s wake. We have over 1,000 miles under our belts and today is a day to take a rest. Jason had taken the time the night before to properly season the griddle so this morning we had breakfast. I had set the table with juice from Pulp and Sprout and made a peach and blueberry fruit salad while Jason cooked up the “eggs”. I love the Just Egg product- it’s the perfect scramble. We reheated the rest of the peppers and onions from the night before and went to sit down when a neighbor strolled by on a bicycle and struck up a conversation. He had on an Airstream shirt and we had questions about why this campground, with 117 sites, was more than half full of Airstream campers. Well, this weekend was their International meet up of Vintage Airstreams. This means they have to be at least 25 years old. He suggested an app that I hadn’t downloaded yet to find campgrounds and dump stations, etc and even offered us a small solar panel for when we camp off grid. Jason and I had bought and returned a solar panel after we realized how big it was and we weren’t quite ready to jump into that yet. He stayed for about an hour and our food got cold so I apologize for the lack of pictures… I was so hungry!

We planned a short trip to Nashville city to get vegan food from one place I had researched- the BE-hive. This deli and market specializes in vegan “meats”, including roast beef and pepperoni! I was very excited to try the pepperoni. They also make sandwiches like a hot Italian sub or steak and Cheez. It was a tiny little place when we got there but it had everything it’s website said it would. We ordered sandwiches, Jason got the steak and Cheez and I got the fried chick’n Nashville Hot sandwich. We shared nacho tots on the waitress’s recommendation. Waiting outside for the food, Jason went into the “curiosities” store next door. He came out saying the only thing I would like in that whole store was a blue heeler puppy that was inside! I could hear it barking and I wanted to see it but there was taxidermy inside and I couldn’t get myself to go in… even for a cute pup!

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Now you may know that I love hot and spicy foods. I’ve participated in the Hot Ones Hot Sauce Challenge on two occasions officially but sometimes I’ll just pour a myriad of one of 30+ hot sauces Jason and I own. I’ve had the worst of the worst- Da Bomb Beyond Insanity and the one with the highest scoville- The Last Dab- which is 3 million scoville heat units. (Tabasco is around 2,500 SHU for comparison). So I like hot. I don’t get too bothered by heat. This sandwich packed some real heat! Woo! Thankfully Jason grabbed some root beers and between that and the nacho tots I was able to get some breaks from the heat. Great sandwich!

We headed to the Nashville Farmers’ Market to grab some greens and veggies for our next few days of travel. It is dog friendly so the pups came with.

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We wandered around and grabbed tomatoes and blackberries. They had no greens unfortunately. Great people watching here though. We stayed less than 10 minutes and headed back to the campground.

Jason spotted that these campgrounds had laundry available. We took the opportunity to lay low for the rest of the day. Jason got the laundry started and then took a nap. I went and switched it and then folded and brought it back.

It was time for Drink Master J to get to cocktail making so we could play some outdoor games and then explore the Airstreams nearby.

We played washer toss for a few games. Then went for a stroll around the campground to see the Airstreams lit up.

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We decided dinner would be pulling out whatever we had opened and finding a way to finish it off before we left. Jason worked on this while I put the clothes away from laundry earlier.

Asheville, NC to Nashville, TN

There was a market I wanted to get to this morning but in true Asheville fashion it wasn’t open until 10am which was when we needed to check out of the campground. I didn’t want to test Baloo on the city streets of Asheville so we forged onward to Tennessee. Jason got to talking (shocking) to someone walking by this morning and it turns out they graduated from Vets in Warwick and URI, two of Jason’s alma maters. Doesn’t matter how far we go from RI, we always find people from the area.

Today was an easy driving day overall- only about 4 hours. We could check into our campground outside of Nashville at 3pm (central time) so we were in good shape leaving Asheville before 10am. After a few hours of driving I looked for a hike and found something amazing!

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We pulled up to Ozone State Park which seemed very unassuming but hidden within was an amazing waterfall!

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The waterfall was absolutely stunning, the best one we’ve seen so far. The scramble to get to the bottom was too much for umm.. the dogs… so I stayed back while Jason descended to see the waterfall from the bottom. Jason said the water was warm and the rock scramble was hard and I made the right choice to stay back. He didn’t have to tell me, I know my limitations! We brought Patch and Bear to the top of the waterfall and let them get wet. They laid right down and cooled off. It’s 93 degrees today and humid as hell. They loved it.

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Back on the road, we hit another big storm. Took about 20 minutes to drive through but Jason did great once again. We stuck behind a trailer and that helped. Patch was less than thrilled!

I told Jason that we were right on time to arrive at Cedars of Lebanon State Park which I never should’ve said in hindsight. Jason hit a lull and needed a coffee so we stopped at a rest area. The Dunkin’ Express they have here are quick but there is no almond milk or any plant based milk to be found. I grabbed the almond milk from the fridge to be ready when Jason comes back and as he approaches the car he yells out “You were right! The shit pipe!”

The number 1 thing that goes wrong on RPods is the bracket that hold the black tank pipe up breaks. You’d think this is something that Forest River would address with expediency! Luckily the RPod facebook group had given several warnings about this so we had bought the tools necessary before we left to fix it.

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We were able to get it fixed in about 20 minutes. Glad we had planned ahead and had the right hardware with us!

We arrived at the Cedars of Lebanon State Park around 4:00 and were settled in around 4:45pm. We decided that we would cook on the Blackstone Griddle tonight and eat at the campground and then drive through Nashville later on and get a feel for the city. We’ve been here before but never at night.

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We waited until around 9:00 and then loaded the pups into the truck to Nashville. We were about 35 minutes outside of the city but we liked the vibe (and space) of this campground so we decided it was okay that it was a little further away.

We drove down Broadway and around town. Grabbed some pictures and listened to the loud music blasting from one bar to the next. This is a sensory overload for sure! Bachelorette and Bachelor parties were everywhere, and there were even kids waiting outside Hard Rock Cafe this late at night. To be honest, this isn’t my scene at all. Definitely not dog friendly either. Jason loves this stuff!

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We went to look at one of the vegan restaurants that was nearby but we weren’t able to find it. Crossed that off the list for tomorrow! Headed back to the campground and noticed huh… there are a lot of Airstreams here…..

Asheville, NC to Asheville, NC

We had decided the night before that we would spend one more day in Asheville since so many of the places I wanted to visit were closed. This is the advantage of not having set plans! Today Jason signed up for a forging class nearby in Mars Hill. He’s pretty pumped about it so he was up and moving early.

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We headed over to Pulp & Sprout, a totally vegan restaurant in Asheville. It reminded me a little of Wildflour back in Pawtucket. After striking out the day before, I wasn’t letting opportunity go to waste today! I grabbed a mushroom Bahn Mi sandwich, and ALT (Avocado, lettuce, tomato, and an Up Beet salad with pesto and cashew ricotta. I also grabbed Jason a mixed berry crumb cake and an assortment of juices for us to try ranging from beet to carrot to green juices as well as two nut “mylks”. This was going to be breakfast and lunch for us today as we were leaving town to head into the mountains for the forging class. Everything was delicious and I enjoyed the vibe of this side of the city.

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We searched All Trails for a short walk near where the forging class was going to be and didn’t find much. There was a sort .9 mile walk in Marshall so we headed there.

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Forging with Jeremy

We arrived at the Quiver Full Farm a tad too early so we sat in a church donated park across the street and had our lunch. Jason is going to write about the experience forging with Jeremy in a separate post. It was about a 4 hour experience and there were 3 other people there too working on their own “knife chopper”. You’ll see the finished product in the photos. I had a few work phone calls I had to make and I caught up on blogging so the pups and I waited in the car and walked around the 60 acre farm while Jason forged. Jeremy had a Braveheart quote written on his wall, so you know I had to like him!

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We drove back to the campsite and got changed so we could head back into the city one more time. We wanted to get to two spots- Asheville Brewing Company and Wicked Weed’s Funkatorium. Both vegan and dog friendly with outdoor seating 😊

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I loved Asheville Brewing for several reasons, but one was Richard who took our order. I noticed they were on the phone dealing with an issue before it was my time to order. They handled it so well but with all the sass that you need to have to stay sane in the restaurant business. They had gotten off the phone when it was my turn and was very interactive with me when I told them I was vegan and to help guide me to the best pizza. Apparently there were two vegan pizzas but they weren’t listed on the current menu so they recommended I try the Grateful Veg. They rattled off the ingredients but I got internally distracted so I just said “Sure! I’ll go with it!” and went back to sit down with Jason who was very confused yet proud that I had no idea what pizza would be coming out. This is very much not like me but I decided it was bread, vegan cheese, and veggies- how could it go wrong? Jason then reminded me that it could be covered in olives and I remained somewhat nervous for the next 15 minutes until our pizza arrived. There were dogs everywhere and Jason had struck up a conversation with the people sitting next to us. Bear was basically sitting at this guys foot but he didn’t mind and kept giving Bear little pets which he didn’t mind. They ended up being from Boston! Go figure! They were down here for a wedding and had left their pups at home so they appreciated the love our pups we’re giving them.

Our pizza came and much to my happiness it had artichokes and grilled onions on it so I was content. Phew! Just missed what could’ve been an olive disaster. We grabbed another round and Jason bought me a T-shirt that says “Love is Love” and Asheville Brewing on it and he got himself one that said “Normal Beers Scare Me” haha. My smart boyfriend knew he likely wouldn’t be able to guess my shirt size so he prepaid and had me go up and find a size that fit. Love it.

We walked around the city for a little bit and then headed to the Funkatorium. They specialize in sour and dank beers. Sour beers we love! Dank… well to me they taste as it sounds..like your grandma’s basement. We grabbed two sampler flights and…. Boiled peanuts! I’ve wanted to try these for some time, mostly because I thought it would be something I could bond with Tim Farley over since I’m the vegan that goes to his BBQs. Jason was shocked I ordered them but I figured this was my chance!

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I sent a message to Jen Farley right away with the happy results! I definitely like boiled peanuts, Sam-I-Am! The thing I love about traveling is that even though you are far away from friends and family (and friends who are family 💜) you can get closer to them through shared experiences. We drove the 8 minutes back to the campsite and found our campsite for our next stop- Nashville, TN.

Asheville, NC to Asheville, NC

We slept in late and even the pups weren’t moving. Jason went down to check out the bathrooms and reported the low water pressure we noticed when we hooked up was true all over the campground. No problem, low is better than high. We do have a water pressure monitor on our water line so we can ensure we don’t blow the lines out with high pressure from the campground.

Jason went for a swim in the pool too and looked refreshed when he returned. I didn’t want to wait for breakfast so I had Trader Joe’s Crunchy Cinnamon Squares. Fun fact! The TJ’s version of these is vegan. The brand name is not. I fed the pups a good meal with a can of dog food for them hoping I would be forgiven for how long they were in the car the day before.

I went down and showered but it took a long time for the water to get up to temp. Brrrrrrr

We sat down to make a plan for the day. I have been very excited about Asheville. This was the place I asked to stop at. It has an amazing amount of good vegan food and we’ve been told by people who’ve been here that they could see Jason and I living here at some point in our lives. I wanted to get to know the city that made people think of us. I had a list of about 8 places I wanted to go to….all food related. My friend Jill Blake added to my original list when she was texting me about the trip. The Blake’s like Asheville too!

When trying to map out the day and which areas we wanted to get to, we kept encountering the same note…. closed Tuesday. Closed Monday and Tuesday. Closed Tuesday and Wednesday. I was crushed. Most of the places I wanted to go to wouldn’t be open when we were here! Ahhhhh

Still wanting to get to know the city and figuring I could find something to eat somewhere, we set off. We parked over near the Grove Arcade with a two hour parking meter. Jason went into a hat store and tried some on. While I waited outside the store with the pups a little girl approached me and her mother asked if Patch was a blue heeler like the character Bluey. When I said yes the girl very excitedly asked to pet her and get a picture. She was happy to finally meet Bluey! Patch already knows she’s celebrity status so she gave the girl a lick and took a picture with her. So damn cute!

Meandering through this indoor mall a little further, I notice there is an instrument store. There is no doubt in my mind that this is where we’re going to be spending some time. We heard the music and Jason’s eyes perk up. The instruments are called Woodrows and we were lucky enough that the owner and maker of the instruments was in the shop today.

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The instrument is a version of an Appalachian dulcimer. It’s a mountain sound, with a mix of banjo and mandolin with a little bit of guitar. Each instrument was handmade with different woods all milled locally. Because of this they all had a unique sound ranging from more banjo to more mandolin. The cut outs in the front also changed the tone of the sound. Dan put on a show for us and demonstrated that with a capo the sound can change even more drastically between major and minor. Jason is a lefty so he asked if these could be switched around and Dan said he could definitely do that for us.

Happy 50th Birthday, Babe!

Some of you may know that Jason had a big birthday last month! We had tried to make some plans with our friends but things in my life really weren’t settled at the time and we had to postpone to another time. I had told Jason that I wanted to buy him something on the trip that he wouldn’t normally buy himself. I looked over to him and said “Happy 50th, Babe!” and he knew he had the green light to go ahead and figure out which one’s sound was the one he was most intrigued by. Dan helped Jason out by playing each one right handed because it’s hard to flip it in your mind when you’re trying to play upside down and hear a good sound at the same time. We talked about the sounds we liked and Dan grabbed a few and played them so we could listen to the differences. Jason decided on a crystacello with black walnut and cherry woods. He describes the sound as more bluegrass. We picked up a case, capo, and new strings and Dan told us to return in an hour and he would restring it to be lefty for Jason. We returned to pick it up and Dan had signed the guitar for Jason and he was so grateful for that. I’m glad we were able to have such an amazing conversation with Dan over the course of the hour or so we were there. Such a nice man who is truly living his best life.

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We walked around downtown Nashville for a bit and tried to grab a bite to eat at a place Dan had recommended but it was too long of a wait and it was closing soon. We moved the car to the other side of town and explored some more.

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We stopped at Cultivated Cocktails Distillery. They had a rosé gun Jason wanted to try out so we grabbed a flight. The menu was leather and I did not like that part.

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Finally we headed over to Rosetta’s Kitchen and Buchi bar. This is an all vegan restaurant that was on my list and the only one open today haha. Perfect! The menu had a lot to offer so we grabbed a little of everything.

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We headed back to the campground and settled in for the night. We made a game plan for the next day since more things would be open. I was super bummed I wasn’t able to get to more of the places I wanted to but I knew we still had time. We had leftovers from Rosetta’s for dinner and got to bed early.

We’ll leave you with some sound advice we learned in Asheville….

Edinburg, VA to Asheville, NC

Today we’re going to talk about shit!!

As we are leaving our first campsite, it was time to empty the black tank for the first time. For non campers, you have 3 tanks in the camper. Fresh for fresh potable water. Grey tank water is from your sinks and showers. And the black tank is from the toilet.

This is obviously a crappy situation but when you have the luxury of peeing in the camper rather than walking in the middle of the night to a bathhouse, you gotta do what you gotta do. Now I have watched several YouTube videos on the subject. This isn’t something I wanted to wing and figure out on my own. I felt confident that we could do it, but just in case I asked the camp host Suzie to come down and assist us. She was so sweet and kind and she talked us through everything just as a reminder, which was good because Jason hadn’t watched the videos yet. I grabbed the black hand gloves from Jason and said that I wanted to do the first “dump” and giggled to myself. 😂

I won’t walk you through every step, but it all came out smoothly. Phew! We had already packed up everything up and attached the camper to the 4Runner and we were on the road by 10am heading to Asheville, NC.

Why people make plans

It should be about a 5.5 hour drive to Asheville…. Or so we thought. Looking at the map, we knew we could go down the Blue Ridge Parkway to get to Asheville so we wanted to catch that. I thought I put the right roads in and it would add about an hour to our trip to just onto the Parkway so we detoured onto it. The GPS then added 2.5 hours onto the trip. I go to try to reroute us back to I-81 and then all of a sudden- no cell service. Shit.

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Jason had been looking for a safe place to stop for the dogs to stretch their legs so he took the next turn figuring we’d be able to find a spot to sit and look at the map closer. There was a sign for Sherando Lake so we figured it must me close by. Well after we took the turn we realized we weren’t close to anything. It was a windy road to the bottom of the mountain with no place to turn off to the side. We meandered down and noticed we were lower on gas than we wanted to be. More shit.

Finally after going down the mountain for a few miles we came upon Shernado Lake. We asked the park ranger where the closest gas station was and she directed us 3 more miles down the road but warned us it was very overpriced. We accepted our punishment and drove down the road. We missed it the first time and had to turn around in a church parking lot which proved to be another adventure as what seemed like a road that just went behind the church and around had a pretty big ditch at the end of it which we didn’t want to pull the camper through. We backed up and got back over to the gas station where someone pulled in right in front of us and blocked where we needed to go to get gas. This person, very much unaware of their surroundings, went into the gas station to buy items. Arg. We took this as a moment to breathe and look at the maps. We decided that once we paid for this far too expensive gas we would turn around and go back up to the top of the ridge and hope for cell service up there. There were no clearer maps that would show us another way.

Back on the Road again

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Back on the top of the ridge we found an overlook and let the dogs out finally. I had cell service here so I readjusted our GPS to get us to Asheville in the quickest time possible. We would be getting in to the city around 8:00 now and that was much later than we anticipated. Oh and have I mentioned that we didn’t book a campground yet because we had no cell service so I couldn’t call any place to find availabilities? Yeah. That’s right. It’s about 2pm now, we don’t have a place to stay, and we’re just getting back on track even though we left 4 hours ago. We knew these days would happen but this was definitely more stressful than I bargained for.

Natural Bridge

We drove a few hours more and came upon a place Jason had wanted to stop at, the Natural Bridge. While he went into the visitor’s center, I scored us a campground 8 minutes outside of downtown Asheville at the Bear Creek Campground. Phew! I felt better now and could enjoy this short walk to a natural wonder.

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The Natural Bridge was 100+ stair steps down from the visitor’s center and it was quite the sight to see. Glad that we took the time to stop here and reset about what this trip is about. I also was able to get some close up pictures of a butterfly on a flower. Loving Jason’s new cell phone camera!

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We had a while to go to Asheville so we listened to music and took pictures as we drove. We stopped to make sandwiches for ourselves because we hadn’t planned for the added time today. What a luxury it is to stop and open up and make a sandwich from a still cold fridge!

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On our way again, we entered Tennessee before heading into North Carolina. The weather began to change and it down-poured several times while we were on the highway. Woooo! Jason did incredible handling the roads and the camper.

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While we weren’t quite in the true Smokey mountains yet, we got our first glimpse of what that meant. Wow! Truly beautiful.

We arrive at the campground around 8:15pm and were unhooked from the 4Runner and set up by 8:45. There were two other Rpods in this campground and we were parked next to one! I was very excited about this.

We finished off the left over pizza for dinner and headed to bed. This was a much longer day than planned. Tomorrow we get to enjoy Asheville, NC.

Edinburg, VA to Edinburg, VA

Bear woke me up at about 6:30 with the need for adventure! Or maybe he just had to pee. For me today was going to be a lazy start because I knew I needed to get the stories out in writing before too many days passed. Jason headed to the bathhouse first and I got the pups settled. He returned with great news- fully updated brand new bathrooms and showers! Woohoo! Those of you who have camped know that this can be hit or miss at campgrounds. While we do have a toilet and shower in our wet bath, we want to use it as a last resort. That added water in the camper is just more things we personally have to deal with. I enjoyed the wonderful shower myself and then returned to Jason setting up the Gazelle gazebo and Blackstone griddle. It looked awesome!

Jason turned the griddle on, put the expresso pot on, and got to cooking. He is an expert on the griddle due to prior jobs working in kitchens. Some day he needs to write a book about all of the vastly different jobs he’s had in his life.

We spent about an hour after breakfast looking at hikes in the area and planning slightly forward to deciding which direction we would go in after Edinburg. We also spent about an hour or so rearranging. After only 1 night we realized things we would’ve left home. I’ve absolutely had thoughts about shipping things back home for my sanity. Some of the larger cushions on the dinette are cumbersome. Can’t sleep on the dinette with them on, can’t sit comfortably either with the dogs on the cushions. Jason rearranged the backseat of the 4Runner because we realized you can’t open the trunk when the trailer is attached. We put a 5 gallon water bag back there for us and the pups while traveling and now it’s not accessible. We moved so much around and it felt better.

For today, Jason wanted to explore the Luray Caverns and I wanted to not be claustrophobic and paranoid, so we decided to part ways.

He took the 4Runner off on an adventure and I stayed back, caught up on the blog, and hung out with the puppies. They wanted so badly to go swimming in the creek. Have no fear, they found a way!

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Luray Caverns

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Rose River Falls

Upon Jason’s return the pups and I jumped into the truck and got on our way to the next adventure. We have heard about the hiking in Shenandoah National Park and were ready to go. There are very few entrances into the National Park and it took a little while to get there through these crazy meandering roads. I would not want to have the camper on some of these turns. Jason tried to make it fun and to think of it like a roller coaster ride. It took me awhile to settle into the winding curves.

We got to the Shenandoah National Park entrance and Skyline Drive. I had wanted to get a NP annual pass before we left but it slipped my mind until it was too late to order. Luckily they sold them there and we got one! Yay!

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Skyline Drive was spectacular. There were so many outlooks to stop at so we chose ones that were less busy. We drove to mile marker 49.4 – Fisher’s Gap and got onto the Rose River Falls Trail…. Or so we thought.

It should be known that there is almost no cell reception in the mountains. We had downloaded the Rose River Falls Trail map onto on AllTrails app and thankfully I turned the navigation on. This records where you walk and how long it takes you. We start off on a gravel walkway and we think to ourselves that this 1.7 mile hike will take us no time at all. I start snapping pictures.

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We were about .5 miles in and Jason sees a cave cemetery he wanted to explore. I have really been attempting to be present and not on my phone so while I started the navigation I didn’t look back at it until now. After a bit of panic and retracing our steps, we asked a passerby and apparently this trail was a loop trail. We just started it the wrong way according to the map we had downloaded before we lost cell reception! Phew. We carried on and quickly approached some beautiful waterfalls. There are only 10 hikes dogs cannot be on in the Shenandoah and one of those was off of this trail, the Dark Hallows trail. This was a pretty significant straight up hike to the top of the falls. We don’t separate when we are hiking for obvious reasons but especially because it stresses the dogs out too much (and likely my mother too reading this right now.. Hi Mom!). While the pictures at the top could’ve been spectacular, we know to stay together.

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Looking at the time we decided we could definitely do the whole loop of the trail. At this time we hadn’t realized these weren’t the Rose River Falls that we had just taken pictures of. This part of the trail was what we like. A little more advanced and not just gravel. The pups happily ran around us as we continued forward.

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We see a sign saying the Rose River Falls were just .5 miles ahead. This is what we came to see! We started out this hike thinking we were doing 2.4 miles total. At this point we were at 3.2 miles with 1.7 to go to get back to the car. This is why we always over pack water, food, and the like. We continue on, find the falls, and Jason decides he has to swim in it. Anyone who knows her knows that anywhere Jason goes Patch goes. She runs on ahead of him and swiftly jumps into the pool at the end of the waterfall. 11.5 years old and she still acts like a pup. Jason gets down to her and helps her out. I call both of them back to me and hold onto them while we watch Jason take a swim. He said it was invigorating and clarifying!

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After almost 13 years together, Jason knows me well enough to know when I’m getting tired. He brings out his fool proof game to distract me during the last mile of 700ft elevation change- A-Z game with animal and foods. Bonus points for doubles (like Mickey Mouse)!

We made it back to the top around at around 8:15pm. Seems late but it was just in time for sunset. This was something I wanted to see on this trip- Skyline Drive at sunset. I thought we may have missed it, but I’m happy we didn’t.

It’s about an hour and a half drive home so we go the southern route this time so we can see more of Skyline Dr. We stop at around 9:00 to see if there is anyplace to grab some food from this late at night. I wasn’t hopeful we would find vegan late night eats, but we did!

The Golden Pony

We find a spot in Harrisonburg, VA called the Golden Pony. There are clearly marked vegan items on the menu and outdoor patio seating for the pups.

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Fried Kale on a pizza?? Umm yes please! The pizza had fried kale, red onion, black beans and vegan cheese, and we added vegan cauliflower wings with two sauces, both spectacular, and a tofu sandwich with fries. I grabbed a cappuccino with almond milk which was surprisingly good and Jason got an expresso martini, dark, which means no Bailey’s.

The dogs were asleep in mere moments on the patio. Many people asked about them. More and more people know they are cattle dogs or blue heelers which is a marked change from when they came into our lives 11 years ago. We left the restaurant around 11 and quietly snuck back into the campground at 11:20pm. We certainly know how to make a long day longer but we were able to do so much too it was well worth it.

Tomorrow we will pack up and head out to where I am most excited to visit, Asheville, NC!

Kutztown, PA to Edinburg, VA

We woke up fairly early and pretty much got right on the road… with one minor issue. I had ran the refrigerator on battery power instead of propane the night before. The battery was seemingly dead and we couldn’t shut the slide out. I tried to shut the fridge off completely and then there was enough juice to get the slide in. Whoa that could’ve sucked so much! Luckily we do have a jump starter battery pack so we would’ve been okay.

I made some bento boxes for lunch for us. Tofurkey and Chao cheese with microgeeens and vegan mustard (yes! Not all mustards are vegan). Also some SoDelicious coconut milk yogurt with chia seeds and Kind raspberry granola. Just added some almonds on the side and threw in a banana for good measure.

As we get on the road we decide we need to find a hike to get the dogs’ legs moving before the next long drive. Using the AllTrails app I find something a few towns over in Reading, PA that looks like a creek is beside it. We turned the GPS in that direction and took off.

When we arrived, we noticed this wasn’t going to happen. It was a city walk through a planetarium parking lot and we definitely had no where to park. This hadn’t even crossed my mind to this point. We hike all the time. Drive our car up to the trailhead, park it, and we’re off! But not now! Not with a 20 ft travel trailer with us. Lots of choice words ran through my mind as I tried to furiously look for a new place for the pups to get their miles in.

We put in a new location to the Nolde Forest Trail and hoped for the best. It had a parking lot so we figured we might have a chance. Ehhh not so much. We baaaaarely were able to navigate around the parking lot to get out. We followed the trail map and found that we could swing around and get on through a different way, made it over and we were able to park along the side of the road safely. Phew!

As we are meandering through, we are noticing so many different tree and plant types. I personally love texture pictures of barks and leaves so I will take a lot of those shots on this trip.

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A few deer jump out and cause a stir with the pups. Luckily Jason had the leashes at the moment because I was taking pictures. We look a little further ahead on the map and I see it! It’s a sign that we found the right place! There is a trail in this forest called the Owl Trail. And you know whoooo was so excited to walk it!

The hike lasted about an hour or so. We got back to the Rpod and had to use 4 Wheel drive to get it back onto the road but Jason handled it with ease.

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Jason wanted to hit up this very big farmers market in Lancaster, PA. We were about 30 minutes away but the hardest part was finding a place to park in the city. We found a few coin pay locations but we were afraid to get boxed in. Jason found a baseball field to park next to and it was perfect. He ran into the Central Farmers Market and I watched a ball game be played. He returned with a whole lot of things. Blueberries, peaches, garlic pickles, jam, sourdough bread, oyster mushrooms, salad greens, microgreens, kale empanadas, mango avocado deliciousness and something with chickpeas and tomatoes which was amazing.

While Jason was being the gatherer, I looked for shelter. Remember- no reservations! We knew we wanted to be near the Shenandoah National Park so I looked high and low, mostly using Campendium and Recreation.gov to find a place. After the issue with the fridge the night before we wanted full hook ups. I called 5 places and looked online for availability and nothing. Eeeek. One place told me she would take us but they didn’t have the right electrical plug we needed, 30 amp. Then, out of no where, one of the places called me back saying there was an unexpected opening if we still wanted it. I screeched yes and not even two minutes later Jason was back at the rig with his gathered food. Perfection.

A side story I missed is to let you know the name of the camper. I wanted us to be reminded daily of what we need – the Bare Necessities, which lead me to sing the song and it hit! Baloo needed to be our Rpod’s name. In my mind, Jason just gathered and I hunted for a location. We totally are living with the bare necessities right now.

With shelter secured, the GPS guided us forward. Jason asks me where we are heading, what towns are nearby, anything to do, etc. I call out a few places but when I said Gettysburg he was intrigued. After thinking about it and checking to see what is in Gettysburg, we quickly change routes and decide to take a slight detour through the historic city.

Gettysburg

I will be honest and say I’ve had zero interest to ever see Gettysburg. Seeing a site of a massive military battle where thousands of lives were lost does nothing for me. I wasn’t even sure what we would see, but one thing I know wasn’t on my mind was this…. Gettysburg Bike Week. Jason’s eyes lit up and I felt a twinge of “oh crap, if we hadn’t already secured a location, he would’ve wanted to stay here tonight”. I do not love motorcycles. I like Jason’s Buell and I will ride on it with him, but I do not like how loud they are. Sensory overload times so. many. times.

Since I only found out we were going to Gettysburg 25 minutes prior to arriving, I didn’t have time to get my bearings. What I did find was an Auto Tour around the city to the different significant battle locations. 16 stops in all, usually takes about 2 hours to finish. Being able to see these types of historic monuments with the Pups safely in the car was amazing. One of us would jump out to get pictures but they were never alone. There is a audio/video portion of the Gettysburg tour on the National Parks Service website so we listened as we drove along.

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We did about 3/4 of the tour and decided to head to the campground in Edinburg, VA. We followed the GPS…right into the bike rally. Oh. No. The police had closed certain streets down. The cars in front of us could turn around but no… not us… with our 20 ft Baloo in tow. Luckily we see an opening in the parking lot besides us and were able to creep ourselves onto the road going the opposite way… or so we thought. Not even a minute later, it happens. A five minute long parade of motorcycles! I have it all on video but it’s too large to upload. Once again though something we thought was going to be a negative turned into a positive. I was able to handle the sound but Jason definitely gave me a few moments after to collect myself while he listened to soft jazz instead of funk like he has been playing the past two days. I appreciated that he recognized what I needed to recover before we had to set up camp together! We drove by this beautiful building and I grabbed some pictures of the sky as well. What a nice drive!

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Edinburg, VA

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We arrived fairly late to our campground but it was still plenty light out. We were at the Creekside Campground in Edinburg, VA, very close to Shenandoah National Park abs Luray, VA. Our site was perfect, right on the end of the row at the start of the creek. Without much readjusting Jason got the camper in place. After leveling, we hooked up the water and electric and decided to wait on the sewer tank until morning. Not something I wanted to tackle after this long day and we had plenty of room in the tanks.

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It was a long day and we all fell asleep quickly. Tried to research where to explore but we kept nodding off.