In the world of RVing, you can select a motorized RV which has the driving compartment within the vehicle. They are constructed on a motor vehicle chassis. Alternatively, you can select a towable RVs which rely on a separate vehicle with a driving compartment to pull it. With a towable RV (trailer), you disconnect your trailer when you get to your site and then use your tow vehicle for local travel. Most Motorized RVers travel with a "toad". When they get to their campsite, they disconnect their toad and use it for local travel. As I mentioned earlier, we selected not to have a toad and just brought our bikes.
One thing we did notice at our first campsite was the selection people made regarding their toads
. Personally, I was thinking I would want something very small, light – a subcompact. Much to our amazement, we saw many, many toads that were Honda CRVs. As you may know, Casey and I currently own a Honda CRV. It looks “tan” in color, but technically it is Mohave Mist. Now, there were not many folks camping this time of year. Most of the spaces were unused. However, at our first campsite we saw three – yes three Mohave Mist CRVs which were toads. Look at the pictures of two of them below. Casey's theory is that these toads were selected to match the color scheme of the RV. I believe that this is a sign from God that we are destined to have a motorized RV and use our Mohave Mist CRV as our toad!
I previously described boondocking. What I learned after two days of it was that you can fairly rapidly run out of water and fill up your grey water holding tank. Frankly, we used the campsite restrooms for many of our black water needs, so the black water holding tank did not fill up very quickly
. As part of the departure ritual, prior to leaving the campsite, we drove over to the dump station where we emptied the two holding tanks and filled up the fresh water tank. My assessment is, if you take a shower each day, a couple will need to visit the dump station every 2-3 days. It’s included as part of the camping fees and conveniently located. Just a chore you need to be prepared to do fairly regularly when boondocking.
On our drive to our next campsite, Meadows of Dan, we saw a flock of wild turkeys. I commented to Casey that they will be much bigger by Thanksgiving! We took in some of the beautiful vistas riding along the “Crest of the Blue Ridge”.
We stopped at the Virginia Explore Park which is located right off of the Blue Ridge Parkway at milepost 115. The Explore Park is home to a Blue Ridge Parkway visitor center. The most current websites and printed literature boasts that the visitor center has many exhibits throughout the year and there is no charge for admittance into the gallery or exhibits of the visitor center
. They advertise that there is no fee to visit the Outdoor Living History Museum, and other outdoor activities. They talk of a restaurant, mountain bike trails, hiking trails, and more. What a disappointment! The visitor’s center was the only building open. There, we were informed that four years ago they basically closed the place down and boarded up everything due to funding/revenue issues. Asking if we could hike to view the outdoor exhibits, we were informed the hiking trails were closed since they are not maintained. We could look at the boarded up buildings if we like! They had an informative 20 minute movie which we watched and enjoyed.
Just prior to our campsite, we stopped at Mabry Mill. Mabry mill has a fully operational, restored mill and exhibits on rural life in Appalachia. Please check out the photos and videos.
Our next campsite destination was the Meadows of Dan campground. This facility is a private one. I wanted to stay in a privately run RV site in order to experience having a campsite with full “shore” power, city water and dump site
. They also advertised a heated restroom with hot and cold running water, showers and a laundry room. Many private RV campgrounds have a lot of amenities for vacationing and children – pools, game rooms, expansive playgrounds, a camp store, etc. These places can cost $50/day. Meadows of Dan was $33/day. It was a fine facility with the minimum requirements.
We spent the next full day at the Meadows of Dan. One of the known deficiencies of many private campsites is that they are not located in the place you really want to visit. They often have very little in the way of trails, waterfalls, views, lakes or rivers, etc.
The original plan was to ride our bikes to a trail on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The parkway entrance was very close to the campsite. We rode our bikes into “town”, shopped for some supplies and had lunch at a BBQ joint. As it turns out, the closest trail to our campsite was Mabry Mill, which we had already fully explored. Rather than challenge ourselves with a longer bike ride on a Parkway that had no bike path, no shoulders, skinny vehicle lanes and filled with crazy RV drivers, we relaxed at the campsite for the day.
Make sure to watch the 4 videos. They must be selected manually and do not appear in Slideshow Mode.
Journey to Meadows of Dan Campsite
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Meadows of Dan, Old Dominion, United States
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2025-02-11