We left Smith Mountain Lake area mid-Saturday morning (July 26) after saying goodby to most of the family. Our route took us by the Peaks of Otter visitor center. The Peaks of Otter is part of the Blue Ridge Parkway and we added that stamp to our National Park passport!
Then we proceeded to drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway, per the instructions of our RV routing app.
The Parkway is very scenic but was not enjoyable by the driver of the 30ft RV with a car in tow. There were more winding and hilly roads, with what little traffic there was on the Parkway backing up behind the RV. So we took the first exit we could from the Parkway (as recommended by our routing apps): Petite Gap road. And we found ourselves on a single lane dirt road (with nothing resembling a shoulder) for five miles. And the road had a many switchbacks that were tight enough that the RV and Mini covered both sides of the road! At one point, an F150 truck was coming in the opposite to pass us. He backed up, we found a spot to pull off a bit that was not on the crest with sheer drops on both sides of the “road.” Steve later found out that the routing app was not set to exclude dirt roads. Something that was quickly changed.
We eventually got off of Petite Gap onto real roads, but that 5 miles was the longest hour of Steve’s life. Vicki was riding in terror with her eyes closed (except for taking the pictures)… And Lexie had no idea that anything was wrong. We stopped at the first store area for a 20 minute break: lunch and a chance for Steve’s nerves to settle.
We made our way without further incident to the Shenandoah Valley Campground (SVC). It was a relief to travel on interstates! But when we got to the Campground, we discovered that our entry steps were not retracting automatically anymore. Further travels would be with the steps strapped close.
The SVC site we had was narrow, and our neighbors were attending a Jeep rally, having a good time for the weekend. Most of the time they were pleasant enough but the loud conversations by some of the younger jeepers until around 2am was the only time we had rude campground neighbors in our travels so far. However there was some shade at the campsite so the temperature in the RV was reasonable!
The campground was a busy place geared for families. We enjoyed the pool, and got caught up passing a beachball around like a volleyball.
The campground is best known for having the Middle River loop around it, so Steve went for a river float around the campground (Vicki’s broken toe was not healed enough for the trip.) The float would have been more fun if thunder wasn’t close by, causing Steve to paddle the float faster down the river. The float ended at a picturesque waterfall that Vicki hiked to the next day. (There were no pictures of Steven floating down the river because he was afraid he would get his phone wet.)
Soon after Steve finished the float, a cloudburst (with lightning and thunder) poured down a lot of rain on the campground. Steve enjoys being in the RV during rainstorms, the pitter patter of raindrops on the roof is relaxing.
One final observation about SVC: they are known for domesticated rabbits gone wild. Lexie, who is normally crazy when she sees rabbits, was only slightly excited to see them all over the place.
