A few years ago, while on one of my solo motorcycle sojourns, was the first time I visited the town of Big Stone Gap in far southwestern Virginia. My reason for going there was to see their LOVEwork (part of the venerable Virginia tourism marketing campaign,”Virginia is for Lovers“). Sadly, it was damaged in a storm and is no longer on display. I really liked the area, and the town seemed nice, so I knew I’d like to return one day. Back then, I had no idea I’d be returning in a big-ass motor home.
The LOVEwork as seen in 2018.
I did not remember having seen a campground in the town, but campgrounds were not on my radar back then. Heck, I think that was even before we started seriously talking about RVing when Mike retired at the end of 2021. At that time, I had just been laid off, so my future-focus was more near-term. I had to think about finding my next job.
Fast-forward to 2021. We are all living in a much different world. It’s crazy how things can change so dramatically in just three years, isn’t it?
Part of Downtown Big Stone Gap
Near the end of May/early June, as I was trying desperately to find a campground that could accommodate us over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, I learned that Big Stone Gap has a campground in town AND they had an opening for us. Win-win!
I was a bit leery of staying in-town, thinking it might be too loud for us, but was intrigued by the idea of being adjacent to the town’s greenway trail and close enough to walk to restaurants if we chose. Not to mention that the campground — Jessie Lea RV — was the first one of about a hundred I’d looked into that had an opening for us over the holiday, and then some. They had a full hook-up (water, electric, and sewer) spot for us for 11 nights straight!
The campground office, store, laundry, and bathhouse are all housed in this one building.
As it turned out, I needn’t have worried. It was relatively quiet, considering the location. And the campground, although small, was neat and tidy. It was also located in a very pretty spot along one small branch of the Powell River.
Afternoon thunderstorm north of town.
There were several pull-through sites in the middle of the campground that didn’t offer much shade, but were very long and level. The Wifi was fast enough for streaming at times, but struggled during times of peak usage.
Below are some more pics captured in and around the campground.
Mike doing retirement things.
View on the passenger side of our coach.
View in front of the coach.
View looking to about 1-2 o’clock from the front of our coach.
Field adjacent to campground, which could be the tent area.
Looking from campground toward town. The Shawnee Avenue West bridge is in the background.
Image captured under the Shawnee Avenue West bridge.
One owner of the campground is a woodcarver.
Looking back at campground from near the Shawnee Avenue West bridge.
Another view of campground from near the Shawnee Avenue West bridge.
Pedestrian bridge from campground to the Big Stone Gap Greenbelt.
View from under the Shawnee Avenue West bridge, looking toward town.
Big Stone Gap Greenbelt across river from campground.
Closer look at one of the campground’s tree carvings.
Mike and I both enjoyed the campground’s proximity to the Big Stone Gap Greenbelt. It was a great place to ride our bicycles. One complete loop around the greenbelt was about three miles (4.8 km). All in all, it was a great location.
Following are pictures I captured along the greenbelt.
Walking from area near campground toward the main branch of the Powell River.
View from greenbelt on side of river opposite the campground.
View of campground from greenbelt.
Carving along greenbelt near campground.
Mural bridge.
Big Stone Gap Trout Mural
Another capture of the Big Stone Gap Trout Mural.
Big Stone Gap Trout Mural
Union is the name of the high school in town. Apparently the art department was responsible for the murals.
Spawning trout?
View of mural from other side of Main Street.
View of mountains from greenbelt looking across the main branch of the Powell River.
Another view of mountains from greenbelt looking across the main branch of the Powell River.
Finally, here’s a shot of Belle imploring us not to leave her home alone.
Belle says, “Don’t leave me!”
We were actually going to return to Jessie Lea RV in Big Stone Gap for a few weeks in August and September, but plans have changed. Again. This time, it is thanks to the blow-out. In about three weeks, we need to be in Lawrenceville, Georgia, just outside of Atlanta, to have the necessary repairs made. So, next week we will be leaving Blue Ridge, Georgia (our current, stunningly beautiful location) and heading south and east to Statesboro, Georgia for a month. I have yet to make reservations for September 10-30, but we are otherwise fully booked through the end of January. In February, we head west.
I have quite a few other photos and recaps of other locations to share. Catching up for an entire month is hard to do.
About this time yesterday (Wednesday) we were motoring along at the 70 m.p.h. ( 113 km/h) posted speed limit on Interstate 81 northbound. It was a lovely day for a drive. We’d left our previous campsite at Big Stone Gap, Virginia around 9:00 a.m. headed for Pocahontas State Park near Richmond on the eastern side of the state. It should have been about a 6.5-hour drive.
I was enjoying the scenery, doing some shopping on Amazon, texting with friends, and thinking about how much we’d enjoyed our stay in Big Stone Gap. I was even pondering a blog post all about the Big Stone Gap stay, which I’d planned to write last night after we settled in at Pocahontas.
Unfortunately, about three hours into yesterday’s drive, we had a tire blow-out.
There’s not much left of that tire.
If you have never experienced a blow-out, you probably don’t realize how LOUD it can be. A little scary, too. Or a lot scary, depending on who you are. It can also be dangerous. Having any tire fail is bad, but having a front, steering tire blow is the “worst nightmare” scenario.
For us, it was the right-front tire that blew. It’s a steering tire, which is pretty much located directly under the passenger seat where I was sitting. First, there was a very loud bang, followed instantly by the coach jerking to the right. That movement was accompanied by an enormous amount of shaking/vibration and loud thumping sounds as stuff started flying forward inside the coach (we decelerated rapidly) and the shredded tire wreaked havoc on the body of the rig.
Mike heroically managed to get the coach safely over to the shoulder and stopped.
View of hill where blowout occurred.
It was terrifying when it happened. It happened REALLY fast, too. The scariest part was that, since we were approaching a bridge/exit, there was a guard rail angling toward the shoulder and the “escape” space we had was dwindling extremely quickly.
Screen capture of Google Maps satellite view. The blow-out happened when we were at about the upper-left corner of the image.
If you look closely at those screen captures, you can see the guard rail angling closer and closer to the road.
Screen capture of Google Maps satellite view. The red bar shows about where Mike brought the coach to a stop.
This is where Mike brought the coach to a stop.
Below, I have shared text from a forum post Mike wrote describing the experience…
Cruising along I-81N today in the right lane, at the speed limit (70) when I had a blowout on the right steer tire.
Yes, I’ve read posts here [on the forum] …”get rid of the Good Years! They are an accident waiting to happen.” I wish I had listened to that sage advice.
I was able to keep it under control and coast to the very narrow shoulder, but when the tire let loose, it took some of the bodywork with it (the fiberglass fender is shot). When the nose dropped down, the steps grabbed the ground and were bent back so much that they won’t close, and the metal door frame was bent outward when the fender was blown out. There was so much vibration during the blow-out and coming to a stop that three of the headlights were knocked loose (one of them disappeared completely), two of the marker light covers also disappeared, and both of the front “C” accent lights popped partially out. The “wall” between the batteries and the wheel well was obliterated. I’ve not crawled under the coach to see if there was any additional damage.
The good news: The toad (2021 Mini) seems to have escaped unharmed, although the bicycles mounted to the rear of it were shaken loose.
We’re alive – we survived a terrifying incident on a major interstate highway.
Complete Tire in Wytheville, Virginia was stellar in getting on the scene and mounting a temporary tire to get us off the highway and to a nearby campground. They’ve ordered two new Michelin RV tires that will (hopefully) be in tomorrow so that we can continue on our way.
We really were very lucky. Angels were watching over us for sure. Belle was sleeping in her bed between our seats and Mike and I were both belted in. The toaster oven that usually rides on the kitchen counter ended up in front of Belle, resting on the floor against the dashboard. We don’t know how that thing missed hitting Belle, but we do know the toaster oven will be well-secured on future trips.
Belle, oblivious to the danger we had all just barely escaped.
Staying in a disabled vehicle on the shoulder of a busy interstate highway full of big trucks moving at high speed is one of the worst things you can do, so we all (me, Mike, and Belle) left the coach and waited on the grassy area adjacent to the shoulder, about 50 feet (15 m) away from the coach. (Belle was happy. The shoulder had quite a few raspberry and blackberry bushes full of fruit and there was bear poop for her to sniff and [almost!] roll on.)
Mike called Coach-Net and waited on hold, and waited, then waited some more. Meanwhile, I called the State Police, who dispatched a highway safety vehicle and a state trooper, both who arrived pretty quickly and sat behind us, lights flashing, while we waited to talk to Coach-Net. The trooper called a local tire repair company — Complete Truck Service, Inc. — to come and help us.
I was on the phone with Complete Truck Service when Coach-Net finally got on the phone with Mike (“only” 41 minutes of hold time later!). The rep was actually happy to hear that we were working on the problem ourselves and agreed to pick up the tab for the service call and costs associated with travel for the rescue vehicle. We will need to pay for the new tire. As for the rest of the damage, we are hoping insurance covers that. There is an insurance deductible, of course.
Destroyed fender.
Our rescuers, Complete Truck Service, Inc., brought a tire we could use to get off of the interstate and to their shop.
The images that follow, show some of the damage.
Headlights were shaken out of the frame.
Marker lights were shaken loose.
Another missing headlight.
Mike duct-taped the fender back together.
Fender and steps are duct-taped in place.
Closer look at temporary repairs. (Even the metal door frame was bent.)
Fortunately, there was an RV park right around the corner from Complete Truck Service. Oddly, it just happens to be the same RV park where we camped for the first time when bringing the new-to-us coach back from Kentucky.
Our new tires are supposedly being delivered later today. Hopefully, they will be installed first-thing tomorrow (Friday) so we can continue on to Pocahontas State Park.
Coach sitting at tire shop with temporary (donut) tire in place.
The good news is that we missed Tropical Storm Elsa, which, by the looks of the weather radar, appears to be impacting Pocahontas State Park as I type this. That means we are missing out on torrential rain, flash flooding, and potentially damaging winds, which would have been a huge concern if we were parked at a campsite surrounded by trees.
All in all, things could have been much, MUCH worse.
This is more of that stuff we say is “all part of the adventure.” Both of us could, however, use a little less excitement.
We’ve been easing our way into the whole camping thing. When we picked up the RV in Kentucky, we stayed in a campground for one night on the way home. Then, back in September, we spent two nights at Merry Meadows in Maryland, just south of the Pennsylvania state line. Last week, we spent three nights at Pocahontas State Park in Central Virginia.
We would have stayed longer if we could have gotten reservations over the weekend. Fall, however, is a very popular time to camp. For good reason. The weather was perfect. The days were sunny and pleasantly warm and the nights were cool enough to be able to actually enjoy a campfire.
I finally got to ride along in the coach.
We don’t have a car that can be towed along yet. That will come soon. We are hoping to get a cute little convertible that will include a tow kit so we can hook it directly to the back of the coach using a tow bar. Hubby says a car towed along in that fashion is commonly referred to as a “toad.”
Pilot and furry copilot.
Belle is 13 now. I’m happy that she is still with us and able to also enjoy our new adventures.
Entering Pocahontas State Park
Belle actually likes riding in the coach. She has mixed feelings on car travel in general.
Admiring the coach.
Beautiful sky view.
Fall
Don’t you just love the colors in that leaf image (above)?
Hubby’s bicycle.
Reflective interestingness.
The street our site was on.
The campground was fabulous. The sites were nice and private. We were sandwiched between two other campers, but they were nicely screened from view by trees.
We had a lovely campsite.
In the above image, you can only sort of see our neighbor.
Our site from a different direction.
Campers, chillaxin’.
Chillaxin’ indoors.
Lake view.
We could not see the lake from our site. I captured that photo when we went on a bicycle ride.
Belle loves being outdoors with her people.
Another view of our street.
Stitching in the sunshine.
It won’t take me long at all to get used to retired life.
I LOVE campfire hotdogs.
We reserved our site in advance.
Artsy capture.
We checked in on Mike’s birthday.
All in all, it was a great trip. The park is located about 25 miles west of Richmond. It only took us about two hours to drive there, which was nice.
The park is a lot hillier than I expected, which is fine except when bicycling. I am quite out of shape, unfortunately, so didn’t enjoy riding as much as I could have. One day…
I’d love to go back to Pocahontas, but there are a lot more state parks to discover. I have no idea where we will go next, but hopefully we’ll get to stay longer.
About a week ago, on Day 2 of my weekend-straddling vacation, I did something I haven’t done in what seems like a long time. I strolled around town taking pictures specifically for the purpose of sharing them here.
I miss blogging. Not just the act of blogging, either. I miss the life I had back when I was blogging regularly. The world today is just soooooo weird, in so many ways.
I am not the same person I was back then. I think that’s true for a lot of people. The world is changing faster than ever, and humanity seems to be changing right along with it. For better or worse. Don’t believe me? Have you seen the Netflix movie, The Social Dilemma? That link will take you to the trailer. It’s simultaneously interesting and disturbing on a rather deep level.
Anyway… this post is about Fall. I LOVE Fall. I mean, I love Spring, too, but I think Fall is my absolute favorite time of year. And that day, a week ago, when I was out walking and shooting pics to share with you, the weather was perfect. Not too hot, not too cold. And the sky was SUCH a beautiful, deep blue.
Most of these shots are straight out of the camera. Some were cropped, but I didn’t do any other photo manipulation. It really was a picture-perfect Fall day in the Virginia Piedmont. I hope you enjoy the pics, and the mini tour.
Our neighbor across East Lee Street. He always has lovely seasonal decorations.
Refurbished caboose at the head of the Warrenton Branch Greenway.
House on Green Street.
Look at that pop of red color. (Culpeper & Washington Streets)
Stone house on Culpeper Street.
Flowers on Culpeper Street.
Chilton House B&B on Culpeper Street
Beautiful hydrangea on Culpeper Street.
Saint James’ Episcopal Church on Culpeper Street
Headed eastbound on East Lee Street.
The next two images are very similar, yet very different. Which one do you like best and why? The difference between the two was achieved simply by taking two steps forward.
Perspective #1
Perspective #2
The last shot is my favorite.
Our LOVEwork and my Honey.
Next post, I’ll tell you about our longest camping trip yet. It was lovely.
We have had such delightful weather lately. I have taken a ton of pictures, believe it or not, and even a few videos. Since so many people are shut-ins these days, I thought I might as well share some of the pretty images I have captured.
I apparently have a thing for flowers and/or flowering trees. Maybe it’s just the colors. Whatever, it doesn’t really matter. I just hope y’all find a little bit of beauty in and enjoy looking at the images I captured.
I wish I could remember where I first read about Virginia Bluebells, a Spring wildflower that grows in moist woodlands. Maybe it was while reading the literature about the Shenandoah River State Park. Or perhaps I read about them while researching Texas Bluebonnets in preparation for this trip to Texas in 2014.
Whatever the source of my fascination with the flower this year, I finally got to see them in bloom. It took three thrips to Shenandoah River State Park, but was worth it to see the otherwise brown woods carpeted in a lovely blanket of green interspersed with flowers in various shades of blue, pink, and purple.
I will let the images speak for themselves. Click on any of the images for a larger version.
The logs pictured in the last image are where I decided to sit and eat lunch. I sat at the end of the top log, on the right-hand side, atop the bank. It was a lovely, peaceful spot. The woods on both sides of the little stream were carpeted with Bluebells.
I hope you enjoyed seeing the Bluebells. Here’s hoping each and every one of you are safe, healthy, happy, and finding creative ways to spend time with your loved ones during this very unique time in our history.
