Day one, lots of miles

Currently sitting in a very toasty van while Joe tries to muster up the energy to get a shower.

Pre-organization

Left the house at 9 this morning. Made it about 1/4 mile down the road before we had to turn around to shut off the water pump. The roads were a bit snowy until we hit Columbus, but smooth sailing from there on out. Well, almost. The washer fluid must have frozen, so had a gross windshield until that thawed out. Made a stop before Cincinnati for fuel and to grab the sandwiches I had made the night before. Stopped again at a rest stop halfway through Kentucky. Tough to make this day sound exciting, we were really just trying to get through some miles so we can be done with the interstate. Joe beat me at the alphabet game, pretty impressive for the driver.

Tonight we are at Montgomery Bell State Park, just west of Nashville. The sun was just setting when we got here (5p central), so we took a short walk down one of the trails and around the campground. Looks like less than 10 sites are taken tonight, out of probably 100 sites or so total. We threw everything in pretty haphazardly this more, so did some organizing.

Made a pretty fancy dinner of chicken nuggets (heated in a skillet, need a mini toaster oven) and bagged salad. We don't have a table, but the drawer under the bed is the perfect place for me to set up my laptop for typing. We both agreed to get up early so we can enjoy as much sunlight as we can. Days are short when the sun sets at 5.

546 miles
$95.66 spent

5.39 M&Ms & lotto (so we can daydream about a nicer van & not having to be back to work!)
33.61 Fuel
35ish Campsite
21.66 grocery store

Comments

Totals

We spent around $110/day, which is pretty close to what we were expecting based on past travels. We did start with groceries and fuel, but will end with some food and maybe some fuel, not a full tank though. Fuel $517.62 Grocery $432.68 Campsite $390.00 Restaurant $80.00 Stuff $71.98 Tolls $25.50 Firewood $20.00 Park fee $13.00 Laundry $8.00 Van wash $2.50 Trip total $1,561.28

Heading north FL to NC

On our way out of the campground, we stopped at an "overlook", which was a surprisingly big ravine. Too much brush and trees to get a good picture. Headed towards Jacksonville and then back on the interstate. Lots of boring driving here. Van odometer switched to 270k. We could have probably driven a bit further, but decided to stay the night an hour north of Charlotte at Stone Mountain State Park (no, not the one with the people carved into it, this is different and way cooler). We have stayed here many times before, and our goal was to try to hike to the top and back (probably 2 hours) as soon as we got there. We got stuck in traffic around Charlotte (no surprise) and by the time we got there it would have been to dark to make it back safely. We drove back into town and had dinner at Skull Camp Brewing. Their parking lot was a mess, and we parked on a pretty steep hill full of loose and washed out gravel. "Are we going to get st...

Florida Gulf Coast Part 1

We are staying in the same campground again tonight, just a different spot. The best thing about the van (compared to tent camping at least) is that everything is pretty much ready to go. We just have to unplug the power, make sure nothing is going to fall off the counters, and hit up a place to dump out the bucket under the sink that catches the dishwater. We usually forget to check the counters, but nothing has broken yet. It was a little chilly this morning, not quite 60 at 8am. We were just a few miles from a few mile stretch of Gulf Islands National Seashore, so headed there first. We were all ready to give them our parks pass, but before 9am they don't charge to get in. Neat drive down through the park, and eventually we pulled off and crossed the dunes to the ocean. Very secluded place, felt like we had it to ourselves. We walked the beach for an hour. I was worried it would rain, but stayed dry, just super humid. Next w...

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