Our Next Adventure

We our days away from our next adventure with friends in the mountains! Usually I post about our next trip in the spring while planning, but this year has slipped through my fingers. To say we have been busy is a huge understatement!

We will be leaving very soon for the mountains of Virginia and North Carolina along the Blue Ridge Parkway (BRP from now on!). This year Dave will be finishing the trip with us and we will be joining friends a few days in from Virginia for about a month of the trip. My kids are excited because there will be an extra kid to play with!

Usually I have reservations made and a trip completely planned by February, but it didn't happen this year.  This year's trip was inspired by my backpacking trip a few months ago in Ocala National Forest. We were hiking in the woods for 4 days and I still didn't want to leave! We will be spending a large portion of this trip in the woods without electricity or showers (p.u.!) but rest assured we will have running water and flush toilets!

I have some wonderful hikes planned and lots of little side trips along the way. We won't be driving through very many big cities this time around, but tons of very small ones - our favorite!

The annoying tropical storm Alberto in the Gulf has me a little concerned with what weather we will be getting the first week or so. There have been a lot of times in the past where it rained for days, so I'm hoping we have our rain routine down to a science so it's not too disappointing.

Now on to preparations!!

Counting Down

I am the world's worst procrastinator when it comes to packing for a trip. The only thing I dread more is the unpacking. So I've started a little earlier with this trip - a whole day before we leave. Shocking, I know mom.

One of the harder things to wrap my brain around was just how much we would need on this trip. Since we'll be camping the majority of the time we need a lot of food and all the supplies to cook it. And since we've made the change to a vegetarian lifestyle, it's not at easy as grilling some hot dogs and hamburgers.

And since we'll be on the road practically every day, we'll need car entertainment.

We need a bunch of clothes since we won't have a washing machine. There are a few days we might need some cooler weather gear too. And of course we can't forget the sleeping bags and the tent. Oh, and the kids.  They have to go somewhere too.

Anyone care to join us just to haul all this stuff?