Category: Backroads Across America
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Backroads Across America: Squeezing in Our Campground
We’re spending the night in southern Virginia where spring is just beginning to show its colors. Our campsite was surrounded by trees, but there was barely a leaf to be seen. It looked quite winter-like. A good night for what Reg calls “Comfort Food.” Although he rolled his eyes when I dropped this in our…
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Backroads Across America: Blue Ridge Parkway Leads to Sierra Nevada
We awoke to gray skies and drizzle, so decided to take a sneak peek at the Blue Ridge Parkway this morning. Our hope has been to drive a small part of the 469 mile scenic highway on our way to West Virginia. Today was not the best day for views, but we definitely gained valuable…
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Backroads Across America: USA’s Biggest Home
It is the Gilded Age and you have become one of the world’s richest people by means of the shipping and railroad industries. What do you do with your riches? If you are George Vanderbilt, you spend 1889-1895 building America’s biggest house near Asheville, North Carolina. The Biltmore Estate, by the numbers: 255 rooms, 2.4…
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Backroads Across America: Scenes From the Rearview Mirror
Today was a turning point…literally. This morning we headed left out of Hickory Knob State Park Campground, where we spent the last two nights, and watched as South Carolina disappeared behind us. Today marks the point of our trip when we get serious about heading west and eventually returning home to Oregon. Hickory Knob was…
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Backroads Across America: These Stores Fit the Bill
We wish we had 99 cents for every one of these stores we have seen since Texas. Virtually every town has had at least one, usually both. In some places, they are two of very few businesses still open. In larger places, retail activity has moved from downtown to places like…(drumroll?) Walmart.
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Backroads Across America: Charming Charleston, South Carolina
Since leaving home we’ve logged over 4,000 miles in the Tacoma. It was time to cash in on the last of the free oil changes Toyota offered when we bought the truck. Reg set his alarm for 6:00 this morning, so we were up and on the road early to make the 7:15 appointment on the…
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Backroads Across America: A Day at the Beach
The Isle of Palms near Charleston, SC, hosts miles of huge beachfront homes fronting small dunes and miles of beautiful beaches. Today, the water was warm, almost matching the near 80-degree air temperature. We toured Fort Moultrie, which, along with Fort Sumter, was built to protect Charleston Harbor. Some of the cannons could fire balls weighing…
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Backroads Across America: Crossover Hookups!?
Notes from the road Cowboy bar: Get on your motorcycle, drive to Bandera, Texas, in the Hill Country just north of San Antonio. The 11th Street Cowboy Bar is not to be missed. Backroads? Have we been true to our blog title? Mostly. We found it tough in Arizona and New Mexico. There aren’t as…
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Backroads Across America: It’s the East Coast!
Cross country, coast to coast, backroads across America — whatever you call it, we have alas made it to the East Coast! The Mt. Pleasant KOA (photos above), just east of Charleston, SC, is our home for the next three nights. We will have to cope with 80 degrees and low humidity. This is yet…
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