{"id":1147,"date":"2021-05-11T16:14:49","date_gmt":"2021-05-11T21:14:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.longlivethemonkey.com\/blog\/?p=1147"},"modified":"2021-05-28T12:24:10","modified_gmt":"2021-05-28T17:24:10","slug":"diary-of-rv-trip-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.longlivethemonkey.com\/blog\/?p=1147","title":{"rendered":"Diary Of RV Trip 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A lot of time went into the making of this trip. Heidi, Bri, and I have been playing Dominion online since the pandemic. Earlier this year (2021) we wanted to do a vacation that was &#8220;covid friendly.&#8221; Since Bri had always wanted to do an RV trip, Heidi and I went along with it. We let him plan the whole thing which was probably a mistake&#8230; we just let him go at it with the assumption that he knows what we like&#8230; which he did.<\/p>\n<p>We had several mishaps during the trip like forgetting the pillows and having to drive almost two hours out of the way to pick up and drop off a rental car. But we had a great time but it was very stressful at times (at least the driving was). But we had a lot of fun and have a lot of good memories.<\/p>\n<p>Pictures:<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/yearscollage.com\/user\/niles38?set_id=39\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Years Collage - Niles38 - RV Trip (NC, AL, KY) May 2021\">http:\/\/yearscollage.com\/user\/niles38?set_id=39<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Anyway, here&#8217;s a diary of what I did on the trip&#8230;<\/p>\n<h2>Friday, April 30, 2021<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Worked from home for a few hours<\/li>\n<li>Heidi came over<\/li>\n<li>Got the RV, went through the whole spiel about &#8220;how to RV&#8221;&#8230; thinking to myself they need to have a degree program in this shit<\/li>\n<li>Went home and started to pack, neighbors came over to check the RV out<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Saturday, May 1, 2021<\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Left around 6 am<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Realized we forgot the pillows!<\/li>\n<li>Went all the way to some airport to pick up the rental car<\/li>\n<li>I picked up the rental car by myself and drove to Walmart (ewww! First time I&#8217;ve even step foot in a Walmart much less buy something in like 15 years!), got pillows, beer, and other supplies, and other shit<\/li>\n<li>Got to KOA and relaxed, I built the fire<\/li>\n<li>Couldn&#8217;t sleep, tried to sleep in rental car; half way through the night I was cold so I went back in the RV<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sunday, May 2, 2021<\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My back hurt in the morning after the sleep on the top bed<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Went to the Fontana Dam with everyone and dogs<\/li>\n<li>Walked around Cherokee<\/li>\n<li>Cherokee memorial<\/li>\n<li>Went to Firehouse Subs where there was an order for &#8220;Trump&#8221; (a Trump guy said his order was for Trump; he had a Trump patch on his biker vest)<\/li>\n<li>Heidi went for a walk so Bri and I could do adult things<\/li>\n<li>Dominion at night before rain<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Monday, May 3, 2021<\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Back hurt in the morning after sleep on top again<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Heidi watches dogs while Bri and I went out<\/li>\n<li>It was rainy all day<\/li>\n<li>Tried to go to Mingo falls (but it was closed); dudes who walked down said don&#8217;t waste a trip up<\/li>\n<li>Scary one way gravel road next to creek to get out of the place<\/li>\n<li>Went to Mingus Mill; a nice guy there gave us a tour<\/li>\n<li>Drove through Smokey Mountain National Park<\/li>\n<li>Camera broke before Laurel Falls!<\/li>\n<li>Did the hike up to Laurel Falls; no one wearing masks<\/li>\n<li>Went into smallish town in Tennessee to get gas; no one wearing masks walking around like it&#8217;s Marti Gras&#8230; got out of there fast!<\/li>\n<li>On the way back noticed a &#8220;Native Brews&#8221; sign<\/li>\n<li>Ate at Native Brews<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tuesday, May 4, 2021<\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Returned rental 3 hours out of the way; I drove rental back by myself; met up with Heidi and Bri<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Got on the road<\/li>\n<li>Bad wind and rain<\/li>\n<li>Bad accident which caused traffic<\/li>\n<li>Heidi panic attack<\/li>\n<li>We drove through GA for like 10 minutes (very strange)<\/li>\n<li>Canceled rental for Alabama since we weren&#8217;t going to make the time<\/li>\n<li>I drove through nasty rain storm to get to Alabama; hazard lights on the whole time<\/li>\n<li>Drank at night outside after rain<\/li>\n<li>Decided that I will sleep on the table bed which had to have been built for a midget (excuse me, small person) since I had to sleep catty cornered<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wednesday, May 5, 2021<\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bri Bri got pan cakes at the Market place in KOA<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Walked around KOA<\/li>\n<li>Did laundry and played cornhole; talked to the owner of the KOA<\/li>\n<li>Debated food; nothing around; no one delivered not even Dominos<\/li>\n<li>Decided to drive to store and get food<\/li>\n<li>Bri and I did some adult things in the Publix parking lot while Heidi got the groceries<\/li>\n<li>Walked around KOA when we got back; cinco de mayo food<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thursday, May 6, 2021<\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Breakfast and coffee outside<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Heidi went for a run<\/li>\n<li>Went and did kayaking around lake<\/li>\n<li>Birds divebombing us around bridge where their homes are<\/li>\n<li>Walked and chill; of course drank<\/li>\n<li>Tried to grill but severe thunderstorms<\/li>\n<li>Lando kept me awake at night\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 tried to do adult things but it rocked the trailer too much and woke up Heidi&#8230; blamed it on the wind and the dogs<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Friday, May 7, 2021<\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Got on road to KY<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Got rental car<\/li>\n<li>I found yet another fucking Walmart (all they got out there) drove there and got cupcakes for Heidi&#8217;s birthday<\/li>\n<li>Went to the KOA store&#8230; everyone was super nice; offered to drive me back to RV since I bought 4 six packs of beer<\/li>\n<li>Walked around and played on bounce thing<\/li>\n<li>Ordered from New Jersey pizza\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 story&#8230; they did not deliver :( But ordered pizza from somewhere a little closer who did deliver<\/li>\n<li>Played Dominion and got on Fri night call for a few minutes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Saturday, May 8, 2021<\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Drove to random bourbon place but it wasn&#8217;t there!<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Drove to Wilderness Trails distillery and did a tasting<\/li>\n<li>Went to little Mexican place which had awesome food; dogs were welcome too<\/li>\n<li>Went to Four Roses but they were sold out<\/li>\n<li>Went to Wild Turkey distillery; Heidi and Bri drank so I could drive<\/li>\n<li>Debated what we were going to do on Monday; Heidi made some calls and set up a KOA for Monday night<\/li>\n<li>Bri and I went out on a date night but the first BBQ place didn&#8217;t wear masks (very scary!) so we went to another joint that had masks<\/li>\n<li>Heidi went for a walk so Bri and I could do adult things<\/li>\n<li>Played Dominion<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sunday, May 9, 2021<\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Went to Cumberland Falls with dogs; just Bri and I<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Drove through Boone National Forest; stopping at interesting places<\/li>\n<li>Came back, rain, the mind, and drank<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Monday, May 10, 2021<\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Had shower and got on road ASAP<\/li>\n<li>Part way through I did calculation from home and from KOA to home<\/li>\n<li>The KOA we booked ended up being another 2 hours total versus just hammering it out and going home being 1 more hour<\/li>\n<li>Decided to head directly home instead<\/li>\n<li>I drove the final leg which was all of Maryland; drove by our college, Frostburg &lt;3<\/li>\n<li>Got home around 6:30; unpacked and cleaned<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A lot of time went into the making of this trip. Heidi, Bri, and I have been playing Dominion online since the pandemic. Earlier this year (2021) we wanted to do a vacation that was &#8220;covid friendly.&#8221; Since Bri had always wanted to do an RV trip, Heidi and I went along with it. We [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61,29,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diary","category-personal","category-vacation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.longlivethemonkey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.longlivethemonkey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.longlivethemonkey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.longlivethemonkey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.longlivethemonkey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1147"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.longlivethemonkey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1160,"href":"https:\/\/www.longlivethemonkey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1147\/revisions\/1160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.longlivethemonkey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.longlivethemonkey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.longlivethemonkey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}