We left and since we were going to be driving through Columbia, we stopped at a YMCA and also looked for a restaurant that had some good vegetarian food. We ended up going to the Blue Cactus. A little, hole in the wall, Korean restaurant. The food was very good.
Last night it was pouring like crazy. We got to Colleton State Park and stayed there the night. We are probably going to head back north a little bit today since it is pretty toasty and muggy.
-Miranda
This is an old picture, but I hadn't gotten around to getting the photos off my computer. This was at a small state park where there was a natural tunnel in the rock. Since the tunnel was already there, they put the train tracks through it. While we were there, a train just happened to be going by.
A large tree with a vine hanging off it. Joe was hoping to be able to swing on it, but it wasn't strong enough.
Some bamboo.
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Finally! We finally found a proper National Forest.
We stayed in the Walmart parking lot for two nights so we could get a bunch of work done. We left yesterday, early afternoon and headed towards Union, SC in search of a YMCA. That one was apparently closed on Sundays. The whole town was really dreary and run down looking. Everything looked closed or out of business. So, we just left and headed towards the Sumter.
We picked a road and drove down it. We parked in a spot for lunch then biked down the road to see if we could find a spot. We ended up finding a small road that branched off the main one, split, and both ends ended. Perfect! Unfortunately, our power is pretty low (it's been cloudy) but it's so nice to finally be somewhere away from people and cities.
-Miranda
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We left the National Forest in the morning and kept on heading south. We made it to Johnson City, TN and found a Walmart to sleep at. We bought a little netbook type thing at the Best Buy in town also. Now we use that while driving and at night (watching stuff online before bed) to help conserve on power. Plus it's easier to haul around than our big laptops.
We left Johnson City yesterday with a general plan to try and find somewhere in another National Forest to stay. Unfortunately, the National Forests over here are far more populated than those in the West. We just cannot seem to find roads that just go into the forest! They all are privately owned and have houses on them. Those that don't, don't have any side roads, or anywhere to pull off. Seeing some of the garbage and mess in that last forest spot we were at, I think we see why. It appears that people around here don't know how to not make a mess of the forest... In that last spot, we actually found 3 containers filled with old fluorescent lights.. . . That's pretty bad.
So, we climbed the mountain (it was dark, so we couldn't really see the view) and there was an overlook off the interstate. We stopped for who knows what reason. When we went to start it up again, it clicked and then no more electricity. We decided to just stay there the night and figure it out in the morning.
Oh my gosh it was so windy! Joe barely slept because the wind kept rocking the RV. Once morning came, Joe started poking around. He checked all the fuses he could find and did a lot of wire wiggling. Eventually it just started working again. We have no idea why, so unfortunately, it will probably happen again. We're thinking it's a lose connection or wire somewhere.
Anyway, we're now staying in yet another Walmart in Spartanburg, SC. We'll be able to get a bunch of work done since the internet is good, then keep heading towards the coast tomorrow.
-Miranda
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After leaving Daniel Boone National Forest, we just headed straight for Pikeville. We stayed in the Walmart parking lot that night. It was cold. It was down to the mid 30s. On Monday, we went to the YMCA to work out. The little one in Winchester was much better, I think. This one was larger, but the showers were annoying and painful, the machines seemed more warn and not as nice, and the track surface majorly produced static electricity. Oh well, we still got our exercise and showers.
Then I went to my concert (which was super fun!) and we stayed in the Walmart parking lot again, since it was already 11 by that time.
We left this morning to head towards the nearest national forest to see if there would be anywhere to stay. The first one (right on the state line of Kentucky and Virginia) was a bust. Apparently a ton of the land in their national is privately owned. We ended up moving on to the another section and finally found a road that actually is a National Forest road. We are now parked there, pretty much on the side of the road for the night. No traffic has gone by though, so we think it's very seldom traveled.
-Miranda
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We left Winchester after running a couple errands and stopping for lunch again at that yummy sandwich shop and headed towards Daniel Boone National Forest. Our hope was to be able to park somewhere off the road and stay for a couple days. Unfortunately, it looked pretty controlled. You must buy a pass if you are staying overnight. It's not expensive, so that wasn't a big deal, but there was really no good place to pull off. We ended up going down a side road that ended at a couple nice, short hikes. There was a little pull off from that road, so we ended up staying there the night.
Oh my gosh it was cold. Not freezing, luckily, but we aren't staying another night because apparently it is supposed to get down to 30 there and we can't be having stuff in the RV freeze. We are on our way to Pikeville now.
-Miranda
EDIT: Here are a couple photos from there.
Joe in front of the Red River Gorge
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