This is a good question, both figuratively and literally. I know that we have been quiet. Our goal is to be more persistent and to post and share content at least once if not twice a week. It is not that we didn’t have anything to share. We told you that after leaving, we made it to Washington DC for a few days of R&R and traditional tourist activities, and things just got crazy from there.

Our next stop was Shenandoah River State Park, a rather captivating state park in Bentonville, VA, which also happens to be located about ten minutes down the road from Shenandoah National Park. We planned to stay two weeks, and then head down the Blue Ridge Parkway, ending at the KOA in Cherokee, NC, right outside of Smokey Mountain National Park. I won’t go into too many details because we will be sharing posts on these two stops shortly, but things didn’t go exactly as planned. I know, when do things ever go as planned, right?

About a week into our stay at Shenandoah River State Park, we ran into some challenges with the sale of our house and needed to head back to Maine to handle them. Seven hundred and nine miles, twelve hours and twenty-two minutes of unplanned driving, with only a quick stop in a Cabela’s parking lot in between. Five days later we are finally back out of Maine and back on the road. Now we are coming up on Labor Day Weekend and it is impossible to find somewhere to go. We had reservations at the Cherokee KOA but had to cancel them as we didn’t know how long we would be in Maine. Of course, they were now completely booked. We were able to get in early the following week but had to figure out where to go until then.

We ended up in a KOA at Statesville, a decent park, but there wasn’t too much to do in the area. So be it, it served its purpose. We finally ended up at Cherokee and we were not disappointed, by far our favorite stop on the trip so far. Cherokee is a town on the reservation home of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation, in western North Carolina. It is located in a valley surrounded by the Smokey Mountains, and the beautiful Oconaluftee river flowing right through the middle of town. The KOA is at most ten minutes from the Ocanaluftee Visitor Center at Great Smokey Mountains National Park. The first evening we decided to check out the park and caught this enormous bull elk wading right through the river. It was a truly special place. To be honest I had been a little down and this stop really re-energized me and reminded me why we were doing this in the first place.

A stunning bull elk in Smokey Mountain National Park

From there we needed to head to Orlando on another previously unplanned trip as I had a work commitment. Nine hours and ten minutes and 604 miles later we arrived at the Orlando / Kissimmee KOA. By now I am starting to feel like a long-haul trucker. We drove the majority of it in one shot before spending the night in a Buc-ee’s parking lot in St. Augustine Florida. Anyone who has driven I-10 in Texas knows Buc-ee’s. We hadn’t seen one outside of Texas and this one was enormous!

The largest Buc-ee’s we have ever seen in St. Augustine, FL.

I spent most of the time at a conference, but the weather was good, and Orlando is Orlando. We did have a pretty interesting day at Universal Studios, which was both frustrating and exciting but that is a story for another day, and by the end of the day I could barely walk.

For Harry Potter fans Hogwarts Castle was quiet impressive

The whole Harry Potter area was very impressive and truly put you into their world.

From there we headed back North to North Carolina and Uwharrie National Forest, a place that I have dreamed of going to for years. Uwharrie is known for its Jeep trails. The campground was fantastic, but truthfully the trails were subpar, our excitement had probably built them up too much in our minds.

We then headed North to James River State Park in Virginia. We are back in Virginia as we plan to attend Overland Expo East, in Arrington, VA in early October. This is another event that I have dreamed of attending for years and I can’t wait for it. We loved the park, but it was so covered with trees that I couldn’t get any connection for our Starlink Internet service. Add to that we had zero cell signal and we had to find another option. I prefer to disconnect from time to time, but I require connectivity to work. So I was heading an hour into town every day to work. Instead, we found availability at a nearby KOA near Lynchburg, VA.

All of this since leaving on August 6th. Forty-three hours and two thousand five hundred and ninety miles of driving. I could say that I have been swamped with work and travel but that wouldn’t be fair. Work is always busy, and I often travel for work, but I have always found time to write. I think that it comes down to trying to create new routines. Everything is different, down to having to walk the dogs now rather than just letting them out into the yard. I have come to enjoy our walks, but it is all a new process. I have found it difficult to add writing and working on the blog to my new routines. It is still something that I continue to work on.

I am still struggling to find balance. I think that balance over short periods of time is almost impossible to achieve as one area of your focus will always take priority. I have found the key to be that when one area, say work, has taken the majority of your time, it is important to try and push the balance into other areas when things free up and say spend more time on the blog or on my personal health. I haven’t been able to do that well as of late.

It is something that I need to keep working on and rest assured that you will hear more from us going forward, so stay tuned!

Where Have We Been?

Overland Expo East 2022

We did it, we are officially on the road!