On The Road 12, episode 5, day 1, 730, Shenandoah River State Park va

Donner absolutely loves his new bunking arrangement. He did not even glance at my cot and when straight for his. Now I am filled with guilt that I never thought of this for Montag, Sontag and Kessie, and Leben and Erde. But they never complained.

Setting up the tent in the light rain was not as onerous as I thought it was going to be. A couple of poles got disconnected in the tent sleeve that required sione patience to resolve. All in all, we met the challenge head on with both the tent and tarp and I must say we did a pretty good job. Donner played his part by giving me his company.

We are alone in the entire camp. I kept seeing a light through the woods in the distance, but it was my headlight reflecting on something.

Dark is coming early these days. I had to use my headlamp outside at 630. We were in the tent by 654, which means I will get a lot of reading done or another 10 hours of sleep. It is drizzling lightly outside so that will be conducive to a good night"s sleep. The temperature is cooperating with us during this episode unlike in Blackwater Fslls, where the temperature was 25 all three nights.

The plan for tomorrow is simple. Up at 7, take Donner for a walk, and sir outside my front door testing as the Shenandoah lazily rolls along, as it has got so may eons and much history.

Ed and Donner, from the road.

Just arrived in Shenandoah River State Park, 2 PM

The weather was fairly nice for the entire drive of two hours until I hit front Royal. Then the rain started. It is raining slightly now, but the chance of rain increases from 83% to 93% over the course of the next three hours, so I have no choice but to go out there and set up the tent now. Interestingly enough, of the hundreds of times I have pitched my camp, I can recall only two times where we actually had to set up the tent in the rain. It is not a pleasant task to do, but once complete, and once the inside the tent and is dried out, it is pretty cozy inside .

We have the camp all to ourselves for the next two days, so if it is isolation I am looking for, it is certainly here.

Since there is no place around the campsite to set up a tarp, my guess is dinner will be served in the pavilion in the park down the road a bit.


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OTR 12, episode five

Donner and I are all packed and ready to shovel four episode five of OTR 12. I decided to stay close to home and return to the Shenandoah River State Park, where I was able to reserve site number five, which is right on the river. This is symbolic because my very first road camping trip was to the banks of the Shenandoah river in 1969, the year humans first reach the moon.

The good news about these Monday to Thursday trip says that there's very little preparation and packing that I have to do. And track, I did very little until this morning and it only took me about two hours to go through the routine of getting ready and showing off. I have a feeling that this is going to be a regular routine for me starting like next May

Time to turn on "this land is your land" and get on the road.

Blackwater Falls State Park WV day 4

On the way home from cold snowy Blackwater Falls State Park WV. Taking in the view on route 48 listening to John Denver singing Tske Me Hime Oountry Road.absolutely beautiful day today, no clouds, 35 degrees. Sure could use more of these days.

Blackwater Falls State Park WV day 3, 330pm

After stopping at the Lodge for a treat for Donner. We drove to the Nordic center, whe I found an off-road trail for 4x4 vehicles only. See photo. After driving about a half mile, I turned around. I had not check out the winch, we were alone on the trial, there was no cell phone service, and Donner cannot walk far. It was a pretty rough trail.

After that, we drive into town and gassed up. I then discovered J and D automotive where Josh topped off my differential oil. There has been a persistent leak that needs to get fixed.

We are now at the nature center enjoying the view on the lake before heading back to camp for dinner, the plan is to head in tent at 530 and get a good night's sleep before the long drive back tomorrow,

Driving the narrow winding snow covered roads through the forest brought back a lot of good memories of past journeys with all my dogs. How pleasant it is that those journeys took place and still burned onto my retrievable memory.

Blackwater Falls State Park WV day 3 1135

Snowing and cold 29°, Instead of staying in the tent all day and reading, I decided to drive around to different stops in the park. Right now we are sitting outside the lodge waiting for a hamburger for Donner. Got to do something to stay warm and avoid ennui,
The snow is expected to last all day so it looks like I will be packing up tomorrow with several inches of snow. I think the last time that I had to pitch in break camp in the snow was in 2016 when Stephanie and die camped at the Arctic Circle in Alaska for a couple of nights. Not pleasant, but doable

Blackwater Falls State Park WV day 3

I was expecting this, prepared for it, but not acclimated to it. Everything was nice and cozy in the tent last night (all 12 hours of sleep) but it is cold cold cold outside, 25 degrees. I will have to decide where to make breakfast, outside, in the vestibule of the tent, or in the defender. While I always opt for the most difficult option in all I do, I might make an exception today. But the marginal degree of difficulty among the three options is negligible.

Blackwater Falls State Park WV day 2 1330

At home, I never have the chance to do nothing. I cannot walk three feet around my condo without hearing the silent screams of one cluster of things begging for me to pay some attention. If I were to count the different categories of these clusters, there would be tens. The books cluster would be divided into tens, and then in each of them there would be tens upon tens of unfinished or unstated books. On The Road it is the same way. There is always something that needs to be done, things that are not easily avoided. Even my forced layover of five weeks in the Yukon back in 2016 was no time for leisure. After the quotidian chores of the day were behind me, my days were spent working on plans A, B, and C. (For those who do not read my 2016 blog, plan a was to stay in the Yukon and drive the defender home; Plan B was to Paul the defender down to Skagway, onto the ferry, from the ferry, and then to someone who could install the motor in Seattle; plan C was to leave the defender behind and then return sometime in the future to retrieve it. There was no plan D, abandon the defender, and plan a was the one finally executed, albeit until we got to Salina Utah.)

These Monday to Thursday local on the road camping trips or something different. Outside of the myriad quotidian tasks of the day when I am staying put in a camp, there are only three things begging for my attention: reading and writing, walking, or doing nothing. I think this must be the first time in my life that I have ever experienced the option of the latter. I what I am learning is that there is something to be said about that.

It is snowing on and off. The temperature reached 29°, the highest for the day. I drove around the park to get some fuel for the lay of the land, and realized that I had been here once before in the fall of 1994 or 1995 for a land rover off-road event In the Monongahela national forest.



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Black waterfalls, date to

The temperature dropped to 25° last night. Even though I was in my winter sleeping bag, the temperature in the tent was slightly intolerable, so I pulled out my summer sleep bag and doubled up for a cozy sleep for the rest of the night.

Ashley snow this morning. My first of the season. I think today that I will just drive around to the different sites. It's too cold to read outside, so I will read in the Defender and in the tent. Thank goodness that I filled up my gas tank the last opportunity I could. Except for my stays in Denali In the Yukon,I'm not used to staying in one place when the temperature drops below freezing.

Victory for Donner

As good luck would have it, our only next-door neighbor at Blackwater Falls happened to be a handsome 10-year-old dachshund named Thor, which means thunder, as does Donner. Thanks to Thor's guardians, Jana and Patrick from Texas, Thor and Donner had an opportunity for some quality Face Time,literally. As you can see from Thors eyes, he was a little wary of his greeter.

OTR 12, episode four, Blackwater Falls State Park, West Virginia

Donner and I are now embarked on episode four of OTR 12, and are now camped at lovely Blackwater Falls State Park West Virginia. Although the threat of rain and snow never appeared, the cold did. The temperature when we arrived here was in the mid 30s, and promises to drop to the 20s tonight. We arrived at the camp at 4 PM, had the camp set up by 5:19, and finished the outside chores at precisely 7 PM, just as usual daylight disappeared.

We are alone in the entire camp, in a tent, except for one other camper who is comfortably situated in a large Ivett RV. Anticipating the cold, I brought along daughters cozy bed so there is no incentive to try to squat on my bed until I throw him off. As you can see in the bottom photo, he is all set for the cold tonight, with his winter coat And a cozy red blanket covering him.

I think I will keep these posts short so I can get some reading done. In the last three weeks I have gotten more reading done then and all of my road trips, cumulatively.

On The Road 12 - Episodes 1 to 3

I apologize for being negligent with my blogging this year. It is my hope that next week I will be able to catch up. The trip so far this year has consisted of the following:

 

1. Four cold but wonderful, days at Lewis Mountain campground in the Shenandoah National Park;
2. Four absolutely beautiful days at Loft Mountain Campground at the south end of  the Shenandoah National Park; and
3. Four absolutely terrific days at the Shenandoah River State Park in Virginia, where we camped right on that famous river.

 

Tomorrow, we head off to West Virginia where we will camp for four days at the beautiful Blackwater Falls State Park. For better or for worse the weather will be cold and snow and rain are forecast for most of the time. To compensate for the weather, I am bringing along one of Donner's more comfortable beds so he can head directly for that rather than trying to squat on my cot (see below). But if he decides to squat on my bed, well, I will be most happy to be relegated to his bed.

 

Although I will surely disappointed that I had to cancel our trip along the Donner Party Trail this year, it has worked out extremely well. Not only have I lost 10 pounds in the three weeks since I started this, most of my pandemic weight, these short local trips have given me a chance to come back for physical therapy, Pilates training, and to take Donner swimming on Fridays and Sundays, his favorite treat. Most of the rest of the time at home is spent preparing for the upcoming trip. My hope is to take at least one or two more camping trips after this week, then perhaps rent a cabin for a few more weeks.