Nomads, day 34 (10/4/2023)

We are home after 34 days on the road and let me tell you it feels good to us weary van travelers. This is how day 34 transpired:

Day 34: Natural Tunnel State Park – Gate City – Abingdon – Salem – Home

On the evening of our 33rd day it came to our attention that our battery was dead. I had put a bug-screen in the passenger window and lowering the window resulted in partial opening. After a little I figured out that it wasn’t a malfunctioning window, but a dead battery. I tried to start the vehicle but to no avail. I approached the folks next to us and they had one of those starting gizmos. We made a deal that we would try to use it in the morning; however, that did not ease that evening’s sleep.

Now try to jump a Ford Transit Van. We finally found out that the battery is located underneath the driver’s seat. However, you don’t jump the vehicle on that; you could not sit in the seat and turn the key. After looking under the hood we found a place for the positive jumper cable to attach to, but the negative was not to be found. We clamped it to the body of the vehicle; no that did not work. Back to the manual: jumping the battery, page 188. Ah, there is this one bolt sticking out underneath the hood hinge where you need to attach it too. Which bolt? The photograph is very unclear. Let’s try this one; success!!! We can get on our way.

Breakfast in Gate City and off we go. Gate City, the county seat of Scott County is a lovely little town, and we may need to return to explore it. We drove a few miles through Tennessee (Bloomingdale) and then permanently back into Virginia. I had to drive through Abingdon, a town I like a lot and to show Donna around. We eventually made a brief stop at the start of the Virginia Creeper Trail, fleetingly walked a short distance on the trail with the dogs. It is a six-hour drive home from there, so without further hesitation it was on to home. A quick burger in Salem and a gas and coffee stop interrupted the drive which got us home around 5:30.

We found that our home was in great shape. It smelled good, probably thanks to the dehumidifier we had installed in the crawlspace just before leaving. The dogs were happy and so were we. Thirty-four days on the road is long (yes, we stayed for a week at our daughter’s and slept in a real bed). The home survived, my bonsai trees are looking great; in all, we are happy campers (pardon the pun).

This is the end of this series of my travel blog. I still plan to write a summary post, in which I will try to summarize the trip, discuss some of our experiences and what we learned. So, stay tuned.

The beginning of the Creeper

I was so happy to be able to Donna this 150-year-old (or older) white oak at the beginning of the trail