Hello from the road! After several days of excited tent cleaning, Subaru packing, and supply gathering I set out from my folks place in PA on Friday, June 13. I eased into the road trip rhythm with a short drive to Maryland and spent the weekend catching up with friends there and in Washington, DC.
On Monday afternoon I headed to Shenandoah National Park in Virginia for my first night of camping. I picked up perishables and firewood en-route, found the campground, set up my tent, and got a fire going with the second match. Around the time I was crawling into my sleeping bag for the night the first rain drops started; shortly after a thunderstorm raged. As I felt the drops forcing their way through the tent’s nylon I remembered that you can see how close lightening is by counting the number of seconds between the flash and thunder. I tried it, only got to “one”, and hurriedly inch-wormed my way as far as possible from my metal nightstand.
I awoke on Tuesday surprisingly dry, with puddles all over my tent. I toweled things off, treated myself to a 5-minute, coin-operated shower, then set off for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee. The only hiccup came when I stopped for gas and the lever that opens the Subaru’s fuel tank jammed. After conferring with the owner’s manual, and a patron at the next pump who agreed “you can’t do much without gas,” I pried the tank open with a screw driver against a dish cloth and got back on the highway feeling wild. As I settled into campsite number two, I strapped an extra tarp to the top of my tent, just in case.
On Wednesday, June 18, I hiked in the familiar forests of the Appalachian Trail, passing the occasional youth group who politely ma'amed me as I climbed to the ridge. On Thursday, I traveled south through the mountains to my friends’ home in Atlanta, past medians filled with wildflowers. No shower facilities in the Smokies, so I doused myself with Febreze and hoped for the best. Current mile count: 874.
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In Pennsylvania, about to set off!
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jumper cables, hatchet and A Concise History of the Modern World stored with the spare tire
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a morning run in Great Falls National Park, Maryland
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The Shenandoah Valley
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Shenandoah National Park, Virginia
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the kitchen box
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Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee
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morning coffee
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hiking in the Smoky Mountains
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| picnic lunch, en-route to Atlanta |
