Allegheny Mountains

 

When we’re on the road for months at a time, Mark and I find ourselves unconsciously dividing the trip into phases. I think some travelers plan a trip with a destination in mind and plot stops along the way. Our approach is more about heading  in a certain direction and exploring that area. We find ourselves zigzagging a lot, as we travel, versus plotting a course in a straight line.

The first month of this trip was primarily devoted to exploring the Carolinas. The phase we are currently in is to immerse ourselves in the Allegheny Mountains. 

The Alleghenies are part of the Appalachian Mountain Range and are found in the states of Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. It comes as no surprise that some of the most picturesque places we’ve chosen to visit, in those four states, are in the Alleghenies. 

Douthat State Park, in Virginia, is one of Virginia’s original parks, formed in 1936, and is on the national register of historic places. It features some of Virginia’s most outstanding scenery and wonderful hiking/biking trails.

Swallow Falls State Park, in Maryland, is home to an ancient Hemlock forest and Maryland’s highest vertical drop waterfall. The Youghiogheny River also flows through the park. Youghiogheny is an Indian word that means “river that flows the wrong way.” It is the only river in the state that flows north to Pittsburgh. In 1918, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone and John Burroughs camped together here at the falls!

We loved our visits to these two parks and are presently in a private park, in West Virginia’s Alleghenies, called Avalon resort. It’s beautiful and mountainous here, too, without quite as much history; but there is a laundry room and swimming pool!

Travel Days

 

We are doing a much better job, on this trip, keeping our mileage low on travel days. We are also consciously making the effort to travel on backroads when it’s possible. We don’t like to go more than 62 mph, when pulling the camper, so there is no real advantage to taking the interstate if you don’t plan to drive fast. Lots of the country roads we find ourselves on have a speed limit of 55mph and that suits us fine. I love discovering out of the way diners and unusual art work, as we travel, like this mural, on Hwy 86, that must surely be titled, “Cock n Bull”.

We are also doing things a bit different, in regards to lunch, on a travel day. We almost always pack a lunch but since rest areas are hard to come by, on America’s backroads, we’ve discovered gas stations and local eateries often have roadside picnic tables we can use. Of course, if the weather is bad, we can pull into a parking lot anywhere and “picnic “ in the camper.

Next Stop, Virginia

 

After leaving the coast and moving inland, we spent our last week in NC at Falls Lake Recreation Area. Falls Lake is a large reservoir located between Raleigh and Durham. Holly Point campground is one of those rare campgrounds where there’s really not a bad campsite in the entire park. Every site in our loop is large, private and treed.

The park also offers access to a section of NC’s long trail, Mountains-to-Sea; a 1,200 mile trail that traverses the state from the Appalachian mountains to the Atlantic Ocean. 

This has been a great place to hike, bike and play disc golf; not to mention the ease of resupply in the college town of Wake Forest, just 10 miles away.

Speaking of resupply; one thing we’ve realized, traveling around the country is that the grocery stores we shop at from home, operate under different names in different states. Kroger goes by the name of Fry’s, Harris Teeter, City Market, Smith’s and Ralph’s. They’re all owned and operated under the Kroger Co. banner. Giant and Food Lion are under the same parent company too as are Safeway and Albertsons. I think it’s funny we carry around 10 or 12 different rewards cards and are really only shopping at three different stores!

Last Day on the Coast

 

Why did Southern Living magazine pick Beaufort, NC as the states “best” small town? Maybe it’s the century-old cottages on the oak shaded streets. Or perhaps it’s the low key atmosphere of this former fishing village. 

We discovered the town of Beaufort (pronounced bow furt) because I wanted to see the Shackleford wild horses on the barrier island of Shackleford Banks. (The horses are presumed to have lived on the island for over 400 years. DNA samples have concluded the herd descended from Spanish mustangs.) The only way to get to the island is by taking a ferry, run by the National Park service, that departs from picturesque Beaufort.

We booked tickets on the first ferry of the day and were thrilled Starbaby was allowed to go too. We packed a picnic lunch and with a handful of others, made it to the uninhabited island around 9:30. We hiked from one side of the island to the other and saw two different groups of these beautiful, resilient animals.

I felt like the day couldn’t get any better so was really surprised when a pod of dolphin swam alongside the boat on our ferry ride home. What a perfect ending to our stay on the Carolina coast!

The Outer Banks

 

The Outer Banks are a group of barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina. The beaches here are open and non commercialized. We are staying in a campground in Croatan National Forest and are surrounded by salt marshes and maritime forests. It is so peaceful.

You’d be hard pressed to find a coastal area with more history than the Outer Banks. This is where Blackbeard and hundreds of other pirates ships met their end in the Graveyard of the Atlantic; where the first English settlement, in the new world, in 1587, was established and mysteriously vanished, three years later, before an English ship bringing supplies could return; where the Wright brothers took their first flight.

Ironically, after setting up camp, and asking some local Carolinians what the area was famous for, all they could talk about was a food truck, called Captains Kitchen, and it’s “world famous “ shrimp burger. We haven’t made it to the Graveyard of the Atlantic museum or seen the Wright Brothers Memorial  but we have had our first ever shrimp burger, and it was delicious!

Variety is the Spice of Life

After an enjoyable stay at Poinsett State Park, we headed for a private park in North Carolina, near the coast. Before Covid, we were a couple  who stayed almost exclusively in state parks when traveling, but in 2020, when all the national and state parks shut down, we learned the value of private parks.

Aesthetics are important to me but sometimes so are amenities. After a week in a beautiful, wooded, natural setting, it’s a nice change spending a few days in a place where you can do laundry without leaving the campground, lounge around a pool in the heat of the afternoon and socialize with others doing activities and playing games. (Shuffleboard is a lot more fun than it looks!)

We met our new best friends, Caroline and Jeff, at Whispering Pines, (who travel in an incredible van they designed) and I managed to karaoke for the first time. We were also close enough to North Myrtle Beach, where my family vacationed growing up, for a walk down memory lane.

Tall Trees

 

America has 63 National Parks but only 47 of those are in the continuous states. When we are planning a trip, if we are traveling through a state with a National Park, we try to stay close enough to the park so that we can spend some time exploring what it has to offer. We chose the route we are currently taking so we could check out Congaree National Park here in SC. Congaree is only 18 miles from Columbia, the states capital. 

The park preserves the largest tract of old growth bottomland hardwood forest left in the United States. The bald cypress and other hardwoods, growing in this floodplain, are some of the tallest in the world; even taller than trees in the Amazon rain forest. The park has lots of cool trails and even has a “canoe trail” for those who want to explore the park by water. 

Trash or Treasure

 

I don’t like making campground recommendations. You realize, after being on the road for a while, that the places you love, while traveling, are special to you for an untold number of reasons. Poinsett State Park, in South Carolina, checks all the boxes, for what Mark and I look for in a campground, but I realize other campers who stay here might not see anything special about the place.

It’s a small park and the road into the campground is narrow with ruts and a few potholes, but since our camper is only 19 feet long that wasn’t an issue for us. At times, this area has a reputation for being “buggy”, but there was a cool breeze our entire stay and no mosquitoes; we did have to deal with some gnats but they were manageable. The park has created a multi-use trail system, accessible from the campground, which allows hiking and biking right from your camper door. Of course, if you don’t hike or bike that wouldn’t impress you. There’s a pond to cool of in, on hot days, canoes to rent and even a large common space where we could set up our disc golf travel basket. Did I mention it’s a CCC park? So the old Conservation Corp buildings, built in the 1930’s, have been preserved and restored. I love the old log and stone structures.

“Poinsett State Park, you are a treasure to me! I’m going to ignore the neighboring camper “Yelping” about your flaws, inadequacies and need for modernization!”

South Carolina Cowpens

 

When asked, “What is South Carolina known for?” some might answer; best pulled pork BBQ with mustard based sauce, beautiful coastal towns and beaches or Charleston. But what about Cowpens National Battlefield?

The battle at Cowpens was the most decisive American victory, of the war for independence, in the American Revolution. Cowpens was a term used, in South Carolina, to describe an area where cattle could range freely during Colonial times. The undisputed defeat of the British, at Cowpens, was the event which started Cornwallis on the road to Yorktown, where he would surrender, a few months later.

We are staying at a private park, through the weekend, called Carolina Foothills Resort. It’s less than ten miles from this historic landmark. What a wonderful option, for exploring, when we woke up to 28° temps this morning. And best of all, even though it’s a National Park, dogs are welcome on all the trails! Even dogs  with “redcoats.”