Dreams of being on the road, in our camper for the summer have finally come true! This summer, with all of our rentals renewed and our mid-term rental rented through August, we were free to plan an extended road trip! Our southern family had booked a lake house in Inman South Carolina at the end of July, so we decided to take the slow route out, mountain bike along the way, stop to see family and really take advantage of the time freedom we have. With us being out on the road for so long, we rented our house on Airbnb as well – creating another stream of income while we are on the road! Here’s an account of our adventures….cheers to Summer Road Trips!

June 12 & 13
Wilson State Park, Kansas 
$40.74 – 2 nights

Leaving on a Monday, we headed to one of our favorite stops heading east in Kansas. With 25 miles of IMBA epic single track trails, as well as a gorgeous lake, electric hookups and showers onsite, this campsite is the perfect in-between spot when coming or going from Denver. The two nights we spent here were extremely enjoyable – and we even met other full-time RV’ers who are in the FIRE community!

June 14 & 15
Lake Ponca Campground, Oklahoma
$50 – 2 nights 

Oklahoma where the wind comes whipping down the plains! The second stop, Lake Ponca Campground, was right on Lake Ponca and we were thoroughly impressed! Although there’s not much to the town, the site had electric, had nice showers and was right on Lake Ponca. We spent time on our paddleboards – it was extremely warm – and paddled over to the other side of the lake to play nine holes of frisbee golf. The day we were leaving, we checked out the Lake Ponca Mountain Biking Trails, which were about 3 miles from our site. Due to the crazy storm the night before – yes, we were a bit scared! – the trails were sticky, and the clay-like dirt made for difficult pedaling. After several wheel jams, we decided to call it and headed back to our campsite to shower and hit the road to Bentonville.

June 16 – 23
The Bike Inn, Bentonville, Arkansas
$275.81 – 7 nights

Back in Bentonville for the third time, we pulled into The Bike Inn and immediately knew we’d have a great stay. This hostile like campsite/hotel was bike centric with multiple areas to hand out, a shower and bathroom house, a bike wash station and firepit area. Although we had to ride through neighborhoods and busy streets to get into the trail system, Bentonville is extremely bike friendly and most everywhere had sidewalks or bike lanes. We arrived on a Friday, so setup camp and headed out for some brews & food. First stop was the Social Project Brewing, which had great beers but no food, so we biked to Bentonville Brewery – a larger brewery with a few food trucks and a band. Biking back to our home base, we veered into Osage park, a beautiful space with paved paths through a marsh area. While the proximity to trails wasn’t super convenient, there were sidewalks everywhere – a great first night! While in Bentonville, we biked Coler Preserve, Slaughter Pen, all through downtown Bentonville, to the Compton Gardens, then to the Crystal Bridges Museum and to and from camp – we didn’t drive at all & biked over 100 miles!

The Avette brothers also were playing the 2^nd night we got there, so we bought tickets & Ubered to the venue for a fabulous concert. The Bike Inn was a perfect scene for us – and we even met a father-son duo there from the Philadelphia area – we ended up biking with them one day! And the beer scene was on point – we checked out Social Project Brewing, Bentonville Brewing, and Bike Rack Brewing. Great grub was had as well – we noshed the Pedaler’s Pub, Tamales & Co for tacos, a tasty Mexican Food Truck at Bentonville Brewing, and Bawarchi Biryanis (an amazing Indian restaurant). While we had been to the area previously, we got to experience it in a whole different way and in a whole different area. Next stop: Wynne, Arkansas!

June 23-24
Village Creek State Park, Wynne Arkansas
$55.76 – 2 nights

These two days at the Village Creek State Park campground in Wynne Arkansas were so lovely and the facilities were superb! The site we booked had electric – the park ranger actually moved us to a double site due to the length of our vehicle – and the showers were great as well. Just about a quarter mile up into the park was a lake we biked to with our paddleboards and spent the whole day on the water. Reception was terrible in the park, which was actually extremely nice and we truly unplugged (although I did pay for a day of Wi-Fi to coordinate a house showing for a client!). Two days flew by here and it was a magical stop, where I truly felt unfettered and free, like I did when I was a kid experiencing summer.

Sewanee, Tennessee
June 25^th – July 5^th
FREE (cause family!) – 9 nights

The nine days we spent in my cousin’s driveway were truly wonderful. Not only did we get to spend quality time with my cousin and his beautiful family, I got to see my other two aunts, uncle and cousins who made time to come see us while we were in the area. Plus, we got to explore the town of Sewanee in all it’s magic and charm.

We hiked into the depths of the woods – owned by Sewanee University – exploring rivers, small waterfalls and caves. Marcus, Mike, Trail and I headed into two separate caves, an amazing experience that had us sliding, climbing and balancing on slick rocks in the pitch black (thank goodness we brought headlamps) and gazing at stalagmites and stalactites. Mike and I wanted to bike in Chattanooga one day, so when Marcus had to take his van in for work, we followed shortly after to meet and headed to the Racoon Mountain Visitor Center. We got geared up and started out, but it started torrential downpouring 15 minutes in, so we called it and headed to meet my Aunt Cathy at Odd Story Brewing Co – a great brewery with a fabulous food truck!

After the brewery, we headed to Foster Falls on the way back to Sewanee, which was a short hike down to a small, beautiful crystal lake with a plunging waterfall. Mike and I jumped right in and swam out to the powerful falls, having the water pound our heads, and then scaled the slick rock behind it. Marcus was able to climb quite a bit up, and Alexis and his two sons played in the rocks by the trail. The rest of the days were filled with biking to lake Dimmick, only a mile or so down the road, making pizza (which Trail called having an Amore night) and the cousins even tore it up one night at Shenanigan’s (a bar both Alexis and Marcus worked at in college) to see a Grateful Dead Cover band. Since we hadn’t gotten to bike in Chatty, Mike and I set out on the trails in Sewanee one morning and found an 8 mile or so system at the St Andrew’s School. It was a super flowy loop, with only 800 feet of elevation, which was perfect after our riding hiatus. July 4^th was a big deal in the town of Sewanee, with a lot of Alumni’s coming back, so we woke the morning of and headed into town for a whole day of festivities. Mike had bought an obscene amount of fireworks which he had been lighting over the week for Trail, which absolutely loved them and was hooked. We parked down by Marcus’ office, an old house on the Sewanee campus, and got to see his office – he was Coordinator of Global Initiatives for the college and was teaching a Chinese camp in the following days. It was really great to see someone I had grown up with in all his glory!  After the Doggie parade, Marcus, Mike and I played 9 holes on the secret Disc Golf course on the Sewanee campus, a course marked only by steel tags on the trees that acted as baskets. We chatted about Marcus’s glory days in college and then met the rest of the family at the bouncy house, then stood in long lines for food truck lunch. My older cousin Nate and his son Michael were also coming to town to see us, up from Atlanta. He arrived and we all sat to watch the parade and catch up. It was a fabulous, celebratory day, and afterwards we went back to the house where we biked to Lake Dimmick to jump in, then back where we BBQ’d before heading out to see a show at The Caverns, an underground cave venue. Steel Pulse absolutely crushed it and Lettuce jammed big time. A night with my cousins, whom I hadn’t spent much time with as adults, which I’ll never forget! Next day we packed up and said our sad goodbyes (except to Trail, who doesn’t say goodbye) and headed to Spring City.

 Spring City Tennessee
July 5-7
FREE! Family!

Heading to Spring City was like taking a trip down memory lane. Many fond childhood memories of my grandparents lake house, road tripping down from Pennsylvania,  pulling over for fireworks stands, swimming all day and heading out in the house boat with the family, Christmas with all of the cousins, presents taking all day to open…we stayed two nights on my cousin Matthew’s property. He created four RV sites in the back of his house – all with electric & sewer – to capitalize on the seasonal work the power plant brings. So we were his guinea pigs! My Uncle Matt, who had taken care of my grandparents in their old age, also lived there, so we got to see him for dinner and check out some of his antique finds. After dinner with Uncle Matt, we headed to the local watering hole – a recent addition to the town, as it used to be dry. A little bit of trivia, a drive out to The Chicken (a good ol’ boys bar in the country that you can still smoke in!) and then back to Matthew’s pad. The next day, we headed out to the lake, where we drove by my Grandparent’s old house – which looks nothing like it used to! A sudden thunderstorm rolled in and we headed to the shore, hung out in our truck camper to rest, then grilled out with Austin (Matthew’s son who lived with us for a few months and helped with a project in Fraser) & Jackson. A wonderful reunion with the gang! Next morning, we packed up early and headed to Brevard!

Brevard, North Carolina
July 7 – 17
$295 – Hip Camp

After just 3 ½ hours of driving through the winding roads passing through the smokies, we arrived at the mouth of the Pisgah National Forrest to our home for the next 10 days. It was perfect – a large, open site nestled next to trees and a small stream. Although it didn’t have water – there was a walkup spigot there was no way our truck was getting to – it did have a vault toilet. We spent the rest of the afternoon setting up shop & enjoying the beautiful scenery.

The first few days were spent exploring trails – headed to Dupont to mountain bike on Saturday morning, and despite the extremely crowded trailhead parking lot, ended up being amazing. The trails were in lush forest, fast & flowy, just the kind I loved! After 12.3 miles and 1,500 ft of vert, we headed to a farm stand for some locally grown eggs & lettuce, then to Ecusta Brewing Company for some beers & grub. They had a wonderful burrito bowl – beers we had were a bit malty for our taste. Needless to say, it was an amazing first taste of the area! The next morning, we had aimed to bike, but ended up forgetting the bike key locks, so ended up hiking to Bridal Veil Falls – an incredible area where we hiked up huge rocks and were able to walk behind the huge waterfall. Oskar Blues was calling us, so after heading back to grab lunch at the camp and get baby Winnie, we headed to the brewery for some evening brews.

Third day in Brevard, we headed to Pisgah and got our asses handed to us on Bennet’s Gap – the gnarliest, chunkiest ride I’ve ever done & I ended up walking more than half of the 6 ½ mile, 1300 ft of vert loop. That afternoon to cool our burning legs down, we drove to fawn lake, in the Dupont area and walked about a mile to a small, beautiful lake that was clear and refreshing – a gorgeous end to the day. On Tuesday July 11^th, we headed to Pisgah to bike the Mill River area and rode Spencer & Fletcher loop – another great area! Afterwards, we hit up Burning Blush Brewery for some brews & Venezuelan food truck goods. Absolutely delicious beer! Heading back to the camper to scoop Winnie up and change, we decided to hike to a waterfall that afternoon – Moore Cove Falls was in the Pisgah National Forest and just a 1.85 mile hike in to a cute little waterfall area. A perfect hike for Winnie, although she wanted nothing to do with the actual water. We decided to take the day off riding on Wednesday, so headed to Lake Julian to Paddleboard – so fun and even little Winnie came with us! No trip to the area is complete without visiting Sierra Nevada – and after our Paddle, we were thirsty!    

Fully freshened, we awoke early the next morning to head to Big Rock in Dupont Forrest and ended up doing a 10 ½ mile 1400 ft of vert loop, warming up on Wilke & Micajah then heading to Cedar Rock & Big Rock. A challenging, but awesome ride with amazing features of, you guessed it, rock! We headed back for lunch and a rest, then went to Brevard College campus to play a few holes of disc gulf before it started raining. Following day we decided to hike to High falls – a huge waterfall in Dupont State Forest. The steep hike down looped into a stream that the waterfall fed, and the massive falls came into site and we climbed down and sat right in them. It was extremely crowded, so after snapping a few pics, we headed back up just in time for the torrential down pour. Mike ended up carrying Winnie the mile plus up, as monsoon style rain fell from the sky. A wild afternoon! Due to the weather – and us having  not done wash since we arrived – we decided to head to the laundry mat in Brevard, grab a sandwich from town and head back to camp to hang up all of our bike stuff.

The next day, we headed to Lake Julian again to play disc golf on the course right on the lake, then we paddled and swam to cool off and headed back to Sierra Nevada for some more delicious beer and a fabulous lunch at the bar.  The last full-day in Brevard (July 16) we rode in Pisgah – I did a short little ride on lower black mountain then headed to Rock Creek to see the Gravity National Championships – a downhill race that was nuts to watch!  A great last night – the next morning we packed up, stopped at a local bike shop (Sycamore Cycles) to see a buddy of a buddy, then headed to the Ashville area! At this point, we had been on the road for a month and a few days!