Virginia - North Carolina: Sunday - Thursday, Nov. 13-17, 2022 | |
With a major cold-snap coming, we had to dig into the bowels of V-Jer to winterize the plumbing. These are the low-point valves that we open to complete the draining of the water system. | |
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Sunday, November 13, 2022
We start our slow homeward bound trek today. We left the tidewater, tideland, Capes, Sounds, swamps, and Spanish moss behind. Our first inland stop is at Jones Lake State Park. As far as I could make out, Jones Lake is a natural lake, not a reservoir.
The weather outlook is starting to look ominous in a different way - cold. A polar-vortex arctic-freeze cold-snap, or some such thing, is due to arrive in a couple of days. It promises cool 45º cloudless daytime skies, which isn’t an issue, but the nightly hard frosts are. V-Jer is not a 4-season camper. The problem is the water system. The tanks and some plumbing are not set up for freezing temps. We have camped when the night dipped down to 28º without freezing up the tanks. The Alde furnace throws off enough heat to seep down into the tanks and exposed plumbing. However, with nightly temperature forecasts to settle in at 18º, we are concerned.
On our way to Jones Lake we stopped at Walmart and bought some RV anti-freeze. We are going to have to winterize the water system. V-Jer’s furnace works fine in the cold. We will stay toasty warm in the camper, but once winterized, we will have to use portable water jugs inside V-Jer.
To that end, we bought a 2-gallon water jug with a spigot. It fits nicely on the counter top. We stocked up on foods that don’t require a lot of dishes to wash, like sandwich fixin’s and some canned soups, etc.. And yes, I know it isn’t green, but we picked up a bunch of disposable bowls, plates, and plasticware. We have the microwave and can heat up stuff on/in the disposable plates/bowls. Even when boondocking, we can run the microwave on the generator.
Most campgrounds on the way home have showers. I hope they are heated and decent. Otherwise, it is spit-bath time. In a pinch, we can always heat up water on the stove to help out in that way. You know, I’m going to get a kick out of this winter-camping thing. It will be a new adventure. We will be all smug, when we will be all snug in our warm cocoon, thanking the stars that we aren’t tent camping at 18º. There are still a couple of days before we have to winterize, so we will enjoy a day or two of warmth.
With the drive inland, our planning and shopping, the day was pretty well shot. Oh yeah, Jones Lake State Park has terrific showers. Even though we won’t winterize for a couple of days yet, we do use the park showers when the facilities are so nice.
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The camp sites were as level as a billiard table. | Notice that we have complete hookups including electric, water, and sewer. The irony being that this site, with all the amenities, is perfect for solar power boondocking. | |
Monday, November 14, 2022
The days are starting to meld together. After 6 weeks on the road, our rhythm is a finely tuned metronome. In close quarters, you either get on each other’s nerves or you interact with a smug precision. We have achieved the latter. Each day I start the day giddy with how awesome life on the road is. Wanda is a terrific partner as we explore something new everyday. This retirement-thing is pretty damn wonderful. It makes me wonder why it is wasted on the elderly. Oh well, better late than never. We must figure out a way to stay healthy to stretch this out as long as possible. So far, knock on wood.
With that, we took a long hike around Jones Lake. It is still warm enough to have to choose between shorts and long pants. I chose long and regretted it. What a spectacular day. The hike, the highlight of the day, was easy, all flat ground. The woods varied from stands of pine to deciduous, mostly oaks. The lake was blue and beautiful. I can’t say it was a spectacular hike, but it was a tremendously pleasant hike.
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Tuesday, November 15, 2022
Moving day again. We headed to Badin Lake National Campground in the Uwharrie Mountains in the heart of North Carolina. These mountains are worn down relics of the oldest mountains in the state. They only rise 700’ to 900’ above sea level. Still, they are rugged and very remote. This is good ole boy country. Guns, camouflage clothing, muddy 4-wheel drive vehicles, stars and bars, and thick southern accents rule.
It is time to winterize. To that end, we took a last shower in V-Jer to use up some of the water in the tank. We drained the remaining water in the grey-water tank into the portable tank. Badin Lake Campground didn’t have a water dump and we had to find one. The campground host informed us that another nearby national campground had one.
Our fresh-water tank has a very slow water drain. It can take hours to drain. Knowing this, I opened up the drain and kept it open overnight. Tomorrow will be the winterizing day.
That’s it for today. It was a long drive, a slow setting up, we drove around the area to see the aged topography, prepared the tanks for winterizing, etc. Pretty lazy day.
|  |  | Lake Badin National Campground is a no-frills boondocking camp. The bathrooms, although flush toilets, were pretty gross. I was surprised that there were showers, however, they were in need of some maintenance. | We got the generator out. | |
Wednesday, November 16, 2022
It’s official. We are now winterized. Once the fresh-water tank is drained, which takes forever, the rest goes pretty well. We run the faucets until they run dry. We open up some low-point drains to get all the water out of the piping. Draining the hot water heater is the most crucial step. When that is drained, we throw the hot water heater bypass valve. That way we keep antifreeze out of the hot water tank. Without antifreeze, we have to be sure that tank is bone dry.
The next step is to introduce the antifreeze into the plumbing. We could put 4 gallons in the fresh-water tank and turn on the faucets until the water runs pink. Or, better yet, I could disconnect the hose from the fresh-water tank to the pump and suck the antifreeze directly into the plumbing, bypassing the fresh-water tank completely. That would make flushing out the system in the Spring insanely easier, plus we only use a gallon of antifreeze.
The last step is to put antifreeze down each drain to fill the traps. The whole procedure took about an hour and it went smoothly. The shower at Badin Lake is gross. It will be spit-bath tonight. Also, tonight will be our first hard-freeze. We are only one of three campers in the campground. We are boondocking. The tree cover is thick so we don’t get much solar. I brought out the generator and ran it for 2 hours to top off the batteries.
It sure seemed like we accomplished a lot, but when it comes to writing it down, it doesn’t amount to a lot of sentences. That should change in the upcoming days. We are going to Asheville, the art center of the Appalachians and the center of the great Pisgah National Forest. Pisgah is my new swear word - that darn Pisgah this and Pisgah that.
|  | Lake Badin is a large reservoir. |  |  | |
Thursday, November 17, 2022
It sunk down to 18º this morning and didn’t recover to above freezing until 11 am. Like cold blooded animals, this slowed us down to a crawl. We didn’t break camp until 11:30. Wanda made a version of her hot tea which we sipped on all morning. With the Celestial Seasons Carmel Apple tea used up, she switched to 2-parts Celestial Seasons Apple Cinnamon and 1-part Bigalow Vanilla something-or-other. Add a healthy dose of Irish Whiskey and a sprinkle of Cinnamon and we slowly but wonderfully came to life.
V-Jer stayed plenty toasty inside. I had the furnace set to 68º for sleeping. It was 69º inside when I rolled out of bed. Stepping outside for the first time was a slap in the face. Wow! It is a preview of life when we get back home.
The drive to Asheville was interesting. The mountains grew from the low Uwharrie hills to the more substantial Pisgah Mountains of the Appalachian chain. The beat-up trailer houses changed over to modest brick homes, to even nicer fenced-in ranch homes.
Our destination was Lake Powhatan National Campground about 10 miles south of Asheville. The campground layout was wonderful - each site was well isolated with tons of elbow room. The only downside was overhead tree canopy. As gorgeous as it was, it was not conducive to solar. We got out the generator. An hour or two a day will keep the batteries topped off. Our i2200 Honda Inverter is very quiet. When I walk out to the access road, I can’t hear it at all. The neighbors don’t hear a thing.
Since we are newly winterized, the best thing about the campground are the showers. Not only are they spotless and modern, they are very very very warm. The campground is run by kids - well, kids to us. They are all in their 20s. We are used to camp hosts being retired people and camp rangers to be 40s at least. Not at Lake Powhatan. Everyone running around cleaning, checking people in, and working in general were very young.
|  | Coming to the Appalachian Mountains. | Lake Powhatan National Campground features isolated wooded level camp sites. This is one of the premo National Campgrounds. There is one loop with electricity. This loop is boondocking only. It was $10 with our Senior discount. | Lake Powhatan is a small reservoir formed by damming up a tiny creek. | We will spend three days here. I have a long list of things to explore, from the city of Asheville to the waterfalls and trails in the surrounding Pisgah National Forest. The forecast continues to be 18º-20º at night and 45º-50º during the day. | |
Glossary of terms used for newcomers: 1) V-Jer. The name of our camper. 2) Saturn. The name of our Van. 3) Duende. Our mischievous gremlin that breaks things. 4) Tata. The good gremlin that helps us fix Duende’s dirty work. 5) The Black Hole. This is what we call Walmart because every time we go in for just a couple of items, we come out spending way more than we figured. 6) QT. Quaint Town. 7) Little Buddy. This is what we call our Dyson cordless stick vacuum. | | | | |
