On your mark…. get set… Yep, we popped ourselves upright (barely) and packed / unpacked / repacked the Rav the Tuesday after Stanfest ’24 for a late July excursion stateside. With our end destination fixed as Columbia, South Carolina, we departed Wednesday with everything in between NS & SC being “fair game”. With strictly “vacationing” in mind, the intention was to travel Appalachia and rekindle our longstanding interest in the American Civil War, attend a couple of sporting events, tent a few nights, wrestle down a southern Smokehouse/BBQ meal or two, and correct some long overdue catch up time with friends.
We did our usual prep making sure credentials, a handful of sawbucks and tech requirements (Airalo) were in place prior to departure. A couple of things we knew we were facing included warm temps 🥵, busy highways 🚙 and assembling a quick kit of camping gear ⛺. Key, as always for us (on these big highway pushes), was filling our vehicle cooler with ice pack, cold snacks and drinks for the run south. We had done some advance research / booking so the initial accommodation / camping / attraction pieces were in place. However, some of the return pieces were left open, allowing for flexibility during the last leg of the journey, so I’d call this a hybrid bit of trip organization. We hoped to see everything from well established routes to new territory on this trek.
So, we will be blogging this run and welcome you to tag along. As per our cross continental travel last summer (Trans Canada ’23) the nature of this trip will include blasts of highway travel broken by stops along the way, kind of following whichever way the chip bag blows on the highway. We’ll push hard early for distance, then settle in for visits to attractions and hopefully some “new to us” spaces and places, including Kentucky State and the City of Pittsburgh. Unresolved, from previous trips, are visits to the Fredricksburg National Military Park area and Great Smoky Mountains National Park which we had bypassed on earlier US journeys. Feel free to read along, comment (links at the bottom of each page) or just enjoy the pics (Ms Lumsden is staff photographer on this road trip). With the sunrise in the rear view mirror, we were “tickled” to be taking this one on!
Can’t wait to hear about the bbq
Will be sure to describe and post some pics Andrew… I have designs on Carolina Pulled Pork and Kentucky Bourbon BBQ… we actually enjoyed samplings from a Brazilian BBQ Buffet this evening! Gonna have to schedule a daily hike too I guess 😂.
You two have the greatest adventures!
No moss growing under the feet this summer… that’s for sure! Hope all is good and you are enjoying a well deserved rest Velma! 👍
Wow 1110 km!! You covered a lot of territory in one day …a great start , looking forward to following along each day.
Thanks for chiming in Eileen… first couple of days will be mostly highway… then we have some attractions kicking in! Hope you’re recuperating from a busy Stanfest weekend!
Here we go again!!! Yes!!! Although I’m a little saddened by the fact that you are now TWO trips ahead of us. Time to get moving here. As I’ve said many times, we love when you do the scouting for our future trips. We’ve followed your paths several times and have always been pleased with the results. Safe travels and keep on blogging!!
I’m not sure we are trips ahead… but I know for sure that ours are shorter 😂! We got away from the “epic” highway trips for a while until last years blow out… it’s fun to be at it again! Challenging driving for sure… this morning we have touched MA, CT, NY, NJ and lastly PA via Interstate, so it’s not for the faint of heart. NJ feels like the whole state is paved 😳! Glad to have you along Mike!!!