E.J.
Explorer
I'll preface this with a big thanks with the planning to 97tjguzzy and GravelRocks, saw some awesome stuff based off ya'll's suggestions :beer:
My little family just had a blast meandering close to 2000 miles from Atlanta, GA to Sandusky, OH and back. Along the way was lots of camping, not enough wheeling, popped in on some extended family, made some new friends, and one drive through safari.
loaded up and ready to roll
Our first stop was a visit to my father-in-law’s house in Asheville, NC. We took a nice fire road drive through Pisgah national forest up to the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Let's roll
Navigating through Pisgah
Well a nice drive until we noticed smoke coming out of the hood. Ugg, the car had split a CV boot and threw grease on the exhaust pipe. Took it easy into town and picked up some supplies for a redneck repair job. Let’s just say I over-analyzed the situation and compounded the problem.
Not ammused
Set out the next day for Laurel Springs NC without a whole lot of confidence in my repair job. My wife’s navigational abilities had us get off at the wrong exit early on right at a mall with a big department store auto service center. I figured screw it I’ll just have them pop in a new axle and we’ll be on our way in a few hours, got a mall to wander around and whatnot blah blah blah. Six hours and two axles later we hit the road with an awesome new clicking sound from the front end and not so nice feelings for the big department store auto service center. Bad idea taking a parts picky car with a decent amount of mods to a shop that should just stick to oil changes. At this point we decide to turn around and limp home and at least salvage the weekend by camping a few nights along the way. Rolled back to Pisgah (clicky sound is dying down now), all of the dispersed campsites are full. Make our way to North Mills River campground at dusk, they are booked solid. After parading my now cranky two year old in front of the camp host he agreed to let us boondock in their overflow parking lot. Whew.
Boondock breakfast
Had a pretty decent night’s sleep. Ate breakfast and packed it in early. Started heading south, the car was acting 90% normal. Said screw it again and turned back north, ditching the original route we replaced two days of scenic dirt road driving with four hours of interstate highway. By God we were going to West Virginia.
Getting back on track on the Blue Ridge Parkway
Pulled in to my buddy from offroadsubarus.com's West Virginia spot late afternoon. Had a super awesome stay there, can't wait to get up there for some wheeling. The beers were especially tasty, I got down with my DO mac’n’cheese and one of the other folks staying there whipped up some yummy kabobs. Good times.
Seperated at birth?
Now we're camping
DO Monkey bread
Next stop was AEP ReCreation Land in SE Ohio. Got to the area a little late to really explore around for the ideal spot. Let’s just say our neighbors might have been a little redneck. We’d stay there again during the offseason hopefully in a more secluded spot.
My little family just had a blast meandering close to 2000 miles from Atlanta, GA to Sandusky, OH and back. Along the way was lots of camping, not enough wheeling, popped in on some extended family, made some new friends, and one drive through safari.
loaded up and ready to roll
Our first stop was a visit to my father-in-law’s house in Asheville, NC. We took a nice fire road drive through Pisgah national forest up to the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Let's roll
Navigating through Pisgah
Well a nice drive until we noticed smoke coming out of the hood. Ugg, the car had split a CV boot and threw grease on the exhaust pipe. Took it easy into town and picked up some supplies for a redneck repair job. Let’s just say I over-analyzed the situation and compounded the problem.
Not ammused
Set out the next day for Laurel Springs NC without a whole lot of confidence in my repair job. My wife’s navigational abilities had us get off at the wrong exit early on right at a mall with a big department store auto service center. I figured screw it I’ll just have them pop in a new axle and we’ll be on our way in a few hours, got a mall to wander around and whatnot blah blah blah. Six hours and two axles later we hit the road with an awesome new clicking sound from the front end and not so nice feelings for the big department store auto service center. Bad idea taking a parts picky car with a decent amount of mods to a shop that should just stick to oil changes. At this point we decide to turn around and limp home and at least salvage the weekend by camping a few nights along the way. Rolled back to Pisgah (clicky sound is dying down now), all of the dispersed campsites are full. Make our way to North Mills River campground at dusk, they are booked solid. After parading my now cranky two year old in front of the camp host he agreed to let us boondock in their overflow parking lot. Whew.
Boondock breakfast
Had a pretty decent night’s sleep. Ate breakfast and packed it in early. Started heading south, the car was acting 90% normal. Said screw it again and turned back north, ditching the original route we replaced two days of scenic dirt road driving with four hours of interstate highway. By God we were going to West Virginia.
Getting back on track on the Blue Ridge Parkway
Pulled in to my buddy from offroadsubarus.com's West Virginia spot late afternoon. Had a super awesome stay there, can't wait to get up there for some wheeling. The beers were especially tasty, I got down with my DO mac’n’cheese and one of the other folks staying there whipped up some yummy kabobs. Good times.
Seperated at birth?
Now we're camping
DO Monkey bread
Next stop was AEP ReCreation Land in SE Ohio. Got to the area a little late to really explore around for the ideal spot. Let’s just say our neighbors might have been a little redneck. We’d stay there again during the offseason hopefully in a more secluded spot.
Looks like it will be great bonding to have an off road adventure with my family and being around them all the time.
