Chattanooga, Tennesse

On the 28 we arrived in Chattanooga Tennesse in the afternoon, we were actually camping on a site just across the Georgia state line. The campsite was very nice and the people as well, there was trails and I was able to take one with the dog, she likes the forest and is very good tracking back, I took an alternate trail and she took me back to the original one.

We woke up on the morning of the 29 with beautiful blue skies but it was cold and windy, nevertheless we went to Rock City atop lookout mountain. It consist in a series of trail trough the rock formations with suspensions bridges and everything and it culminates with lover's leap a viewpoint from which you can see seven states. It is allowed to take the dog on the trails and it was fun to take her along. We went back to camp for lunch, left the dog there and went back to lookout mountain to explore the caverns of Ruby Falls. A nice 45 minutes hike 450 feet underground to get to the falls and another 45 minute hike to get back. The good thing is that they have an elevator to travel from the surface to the first hall of the cavern and to get back to the surface. All the lights in the cavern are solar powered by an array on the roofs of the buildings on the surface.

Next stop will be our first destination near Destin, Florida.

The road

As predicted we left on friday october 26 in he morning. When we got to the border they pulled us aside for the regular verification, they go inside the trailer with a dog and look around, but this time they sent us inside for a random check, we must have been uninteresting because after a few minutes and barely any questions they sent us on our way.

Usually we stop for groceries in Plattsburgh but this time we decided to just drive on and take care of groceries later. We took the 88 to cross from the 87 to the 81, a road that we discovered last year and that is a very good alternative. We had quite a bit of driving to do on that first day and on the 81 we got stuck in traffic, when I say stuck we did 5 miles in 1 hour, at that point we had enough gas to drive 30 miles we were getting ready to exit to refuel, by the time we got to the exit to refuel we had only enough gas for 10 miles we were running on vapors.

We finally got to the campground, we had stop there last year and it was nice and very quiet we were almost alone in he place. As we approached the campground we noticed all the lights and activities, we get there and the parking is full of people, it's now around seven and we have no reservations. We were lucky we got the last available spot in the overflow section.

As we watched the news we are following the progress of hurricane sandy that is still in he Atlantic at that time.

The next day we drove to Whiteville Virginia near the Tennesse state line. We had a cloudy day but all in all it was another nice long drive. By that time the hurricane is at the same level as us but in he Atlantic, there is a state of emergency in place, it is quite evident as we are driving on the 81 going south we see at least 200 utility trucks from all over the place driving north to be ready for the storm going inland. That night we sleep in Whiteville and the next day we drive all the way to Chattanooga. We arrived just in time, if we had left a day latter we would still be stuck somewhere in Virginia where they got as much as 3 feet of snow in the mountains.

November 2012 Roadtrip: Getting Ready

November 2012 itinerary

 

So here it is, this year itinerary. Unlike last year where we drove 17,000 km and spent 21 days in the car, this year we will spend 2 weeks at two different locations. Our main destinations are Destin and Key Largo both of them in Florida, we will also do a visit of Chattanooga in Tennesse where we plan to visit Rock City and Ruby Falls. This trip will be more oriented on relaxing then exploring, I plan on diving a lot since both destinations are good spots but Key Largo is a divers paradise. I'm brigning my portable outside kitchen, complete even with an induction burner since we will setup for 2 weeks periods and cooking the local food is always fun. We are also taking our bikes with us to go to the beach and do some bike trails. I research ahead of time so I already have some activities on deck for our first week in Destin like a shrimp boil party on the beach and movie in the park in the town of watercolor.

The trailer is ready, the GPS updated and the waypoints entered, the bikes are ready to load. We are ready to go, the departure is next friday morning. This year on this trip I expect the internet to be a bit difficult and sometimes inexistant but I will post as often as possible. One thing for sure I plan on taking many pictures. I upgraded my underwater camera but have not tried it yet, now I can take pictures and video at any depth that I can dive. I'm kind of nervous since I haven't dove with it yet and it's a bit bulky, it weight outside of the water is around 12 pounds but under water it's neutraly buoyant. I have to assemble the housing and dive with it without the camera inside to make sure all my gaskets are watertight. This will be my first dive.