We took off from our home at 12:15PM and headed to Pedro, OH to camp at Iron Ridge – Lake Vesuvius Campground in Wayne National Forest. Our ETA was 6:09PM and with a few stretch breaks and gas fill ups, we pulled into a spot at 7:07PM.
We decided to stop for a stretch break and happened to pull into the West Virginia Welcome Center in White Sulfur Springs which had a scenic walk. We took the walk, because we have plenty of time to explore, turns out it was really a few feet to the Greenbrier Hotel Overlook. The hotel opened in 1778 and is still open today. It was magnificent from afar.
We started with a full tank of gas and only stopped once for gas in Berkley, OH. Glad we did as we had 50 miles to empty, and the next 2 gas stops were temporarily closed. Someone posted that you need to get gas any time after 1/2 a tank of gas, and we plan to follow that rule from now on.
Arrived at the Iron Ridge – Lake Vesuvius Campground after driving by the entrance and having to go miles out of the way to find a place to turn a 15ft camper hauled by a 19+ft truck, it was not easy, but Mike pulled it off and no traffic was stopped in the process.
There was no one to check us in and plenty of open spots, no reservations needed. We found our site and realized it was going to be a lengthy process to back it in, angled at an awkward angle. It took a while to get it in place, but Mike has the patience of a saint with my bad directions. We had a great many obstacles to avoid: a camp site post, waterspout, water ditches, mud and tree stumps not to mention that the loop was one way and not conducive to backing in. 20 minutes later we were leveling it and then setting up camp for the night.
Pros: level paved pad, clean handicapped bathrooms, quiet.
Cons: backing into the site, waterspout was nowhere near the camper, not close to the lake, no soap in bathroom nor paper towels, 1 bathroom stall and 1 shower per gender for the area we were in.
Things that we appreciated today: Blue Ridge Parkway was breathtaking and truly blue. The weather was sunny with a few clouds here and there but great for driving all day. We bought a WiFi package for the F150 which we used when our phones would not connect to our Xfinity accounts. No traffic jams, accidents, or idiots on the road. Our second, newly added solar panel stayed securely attached and helped charge our battery from the 90% we left with to 100% by the time we arrived at our campsite.
Things to add to the truck: hand sanitizer, travel tissues, chip clip
Tolls: Our first toll was in WV and it was actual toll booths which we have not seen in a very long time. We are used to the ones where you do not stop or even slow down as the toll is collected overhead. $4.25 for the toll. The lanes felt very narrow.
Weather: started out at 70° in Richmond, VA and went to 83° in West Virginia up to the high of the day, 89° in Huntington, WV
Food: Lunch of Italian grinders which we packed and ate at the Welcome Center. Supper was Rice A Roni! Yum!
State(s) Driven Thru: VA, WV, OH
Check out the Trek to the Northwest spreadsheet if you are interested in specific details about cost of gas, odometer readings, cost of places we stayed etc. We are keeping the spreadsheet for our own records but are happy to share with others. If you want a detail that we did not share, drop us a comment and we will add it if we can!
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