Virginia to South Carolina

Written by Emily

Leaving West Virginia

September 15, 2023

Leaving West Virginia deserves a paragraph of its own. We took the US-33 from Canaan Valley through Harman, Seneca Rocks and Judy Gap. The road is a motorcyclist’s dream – which means it is an RVer’s nightmare. The road itself is well paved and there were many large trucks hooning up and down the mountains with no problem, but it was definitely the steepest and most challenging route we had taken so far. Google maps said it should have taken us about two and half hours to get from Canaan Valley to Harrisonburg, but it took us most of the day. We were about half an hour into the trip and were coming down an eleven percent grade and had to come to a complete stop for some road works – our brakes were smoking and I had a minor nervous breakdown. Justin subsequently used the trailer brakes more effectively from there, and successfully got us to Harrisonburg, but even he found some of the descents very challenging and I am not quite sure I would have made it in the driver’s seat. Of course, the route itself is very scenic which we unfortunately have very few photos of because Justin was driving and I was gripping the sissy-bar on the dashboard.

Harrisonburg (VA)

September 15, 2023

We finally arrived at our overnight stop outside of Harrisonburg, Virginia. We are Harvest Hosts members (our favorite RV membership) – which allows you to stay overnight at farms, wineries, breweries, museums, churches etc. It’s an annual fee of about $85 and then all your stays are free of charge (although you are of course encouraged to spend some money with your host’s business as a thank you for the stay). It is boondocking and you need to be self-sufficient (have your own toilet and shower on board) and it is one of our favorite ways to stay when we are on a multi-day trip. We usually try to stay at wineries or other places where it looks like there is a bit of space to run the dogs and be by ourselves.

This stay was at Brix & Columns Vineyards and it was fabulous. It was a Friday night and they had live entertainment at the tasting room and the property was absolutely beautiful. We drank too much wine because we met the other Harvest Host campers – Kim and Kerryn – and stayed up way too late at our ‘campsite’ once we got kicked out of the tasting room. Needless to say a great night after a rather stressful day traversing the mountains.

Montebello (VA)

September 16 – 29, 2023

Our next stop was for two weeks at Montebello in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was a relatively short drive from Harrisonburg to the north end of the Blue Ridge Parkway which was the route the campground owners had strictly advised us not to deviate from. The Blue Ridge Parkway is a great road to drive on. Even though it is in the mountains, it follows the mountain ridge (who would’ve guessed?!) and does not have steep inclines or descents. We exited the parkway at mile marker 27 and it was only a short drive to our campground at Montebello Camping and Fishing Resort (although that short drive was on some very narrow, windy and steep roads)!

The Montebello campground was almost deserted except for a couple of long-term residents at the other end of the park which was fantastic. I had spent a lot of time researching all the sites in this campground because it is built on the side of a hill and some of the sites looked a bit how-ya-going. I had settled on Site 10 – at the top of the hill, right in the back corner. The owners actually don’t let anyone book that site online because it’s “difficult to get into” (it’s not), but when I called to enquire I was allowed to book the site as long I promised that we are competent at reversing the trailer.

Unfortunately our beautiful secluded site at the top of the hill presented a major problem: The tree canopy was thick and tall and it was the first time our Starlink outright refused to connect to a satellite. There was not a sliver of Starlink service and there was also no mobile reception within ten miles of the campground, so work on Monday was going to be a challenge. Justin setup the Starlink down the hill with the satellite in a bit of a clearing and we could just get the wifi reception on our phones out the front of the trailer. But it was not going to be any good for work so I spent a couple of days at a picnic table down the hill (closer to the router) but ultimately we went to the front desk to enquire about moving to another site.

Crabtree Falls is not far down the road from Montebello and we spent one afternoon hiking to the top of the falls with the dogs. It was a moderately challenging uphill climb but the view from the top was definitely worth the walk.

Another good day out in the area was visiting Thomas Jefferson’s residence “Monticello”. The weather was awful unfortunately so we didn’t walk around the grounds very much, but it’s interesting to take a tour of the house and spend time in the museum they have built to tell the story of Jefferson.

At the north end of the Blue Ridge Parkway the road becomes the Skyline Drive and takes you into Shenendoah National Park. I don’t know why we didn’t spend much time here. We did take one drive about half way into the park and back out again, but unfortunately the two weeks at Montebello slipped by a bit too quick and we didn’t take enough advantage of being relatively close to this national park.

Roanoke (VA) & Fancy Gap (NC)

September 29 – October 1, 2023

As we approached our planned leaving day on the Saturday I was thinking a lot about how long it was taking us to haul our trailer over windy mountainous roads. Google maps told us it was about a two and a half hour drive from Montebello to our next stop at Fancy Gap; but I suddenly realized this route was on the I-81 (not on the Parkway). The very helpful woman in the camp store had warned us against trying to get off the mountain in this area and advised that we follow the Blue Ridge Parkway all the way to Fancy Gap. Indeed, we had been up and down the road from Montebello to the I-81 a couple of times in the truck and there was no way in hell we were going to get our trailer down that road (we had actually met someone who hauled their Airstream up that road from the I-81 to our campground and he admitted it was a very poor decision – and his wife looked extremely unimpressed).

So, if we were to follow the Blue Ridge Parkway all the way to Fancy Gap we were looking at an approximately six hour journey for us with the trailer on – a prospect that neither of us (and especially not the cat) were keen to sign up for. So we departed Montebello on Friday 29 and followed the Blue Ridge Parkway down to Roanoke.

The trip did not start well with the cat becoming car sick on about the third downhill bend and projectile-vomiting through the front of her carrier and all over the truck. The smell of regurgitated cat food then made me dry wretch out the window and we pulled over for another 20 min while we tidied ourselves up. It did get better from there.

On the Saturday we continued our journey to Fancy Gap (but stayed on the Interstates – I-81 and then I-77) – and got back on the Blue Ridge Parkway at Fancy Gap (very easy entrance / exit to the interstate). We were sad we didn’t plan to spend more time here. We stayed at Fancy Gap Cabins and Campground – a really beautiful and quiet spot on the Parkway.

We had Saturday afternoon to explore along the Parkway a little bit and found the Mabry Mill. It’s managed by the National Park Service due to its historic significance. There were apparently many mills like this back in the day although this is one of the last (and most beautifully preserved) along with stables, workshop and machinery were owned and operated by Ed Mabry and his wife Lizzy in the early 1900s.

Need Justin’s photos here! Justin is the main photographer in our family and unfortunately his phone gave up the ghost AND he had not back up his photos for the last twelve months. So we are going to have some gaps in the photos until we find someone who can revive the phone.

Ashville, NC

October 1-7, 2023

Although I had been dreaming of driving the entire length of the Blue Ridge Parkway, the reality of doing so with the trailer in tow and a car-sick cat did not match with how I’d envisaged this would play out. So we stayed on the Interstates (I-77 and then I-40) to arrive at Wilson’s Riverfront RV Park in Ashville, North Carolina.

Wilsons’s is a unique little RV park on the river, next door to Carrier Park and only a few minutes from downtown. A lot of people had warned us that Ashville was dangerous and a bit of a shithole… we disagree! We found a vibrant city with nice people, great food & coffee and entertainment. Wilson’s RV Park is right next door to an entertainment area and we got to enjoy some free music concerts from the comfort of our parking spot. There is also a great walking and bike path that cuts through the middle of the RV Park and continues along the side of the river for a few miles. I actually saw a black bear down that path one day dashing up from the river and cut through a hole in the fence and disappeared.

We departed Ashville on October 7th and did a two-day hop out to the Atlantic coast to Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. We took up some free parking at Walmart on the outskirts of Camden SC for the night and continued our journey on Sunday 8th to Myrtle Beach. Whilst the Camden Walmart did not quite have the views that Roanoke did, we appreciated the place the park and a good night’s sleep.