Shenandoah in July: Why Big Meadows Won Us Over (8/16/2026)

We decided to go camping in Shenandoah National Park for a few days during the last week of July. We booked a spot at the Big Meadows Campground and headed off with our new Airstream World Traveler. I am happy to report that we had a blast – an absolutely wonderful time. The campground is huge with 221 camp sites, and it was mostly full, but it never felt crowded. It is just down from the Big Meadows Lodge. The temperatures were at least 10 degrees cooler than in the lowlands. It was in the mid-70s (22 degrees C) during the day and low 60s at night. It is off-grid, but we never missed the electricity that would be needed to run the air conditioner.

After arrival we spent two full days there. Friday evening was very busy, but that’s understandable, the park being so close to Washington, DC. We left on Saturday, so I have no idea what that looked like during the rest of the weekend.

We did three hikes: one up the highest peak in the park (Hawksbill Peak – 4051 feet), the other around the lodge on the Appalachian Trail, and the final one to the visitor center and back from our campsite (the Story of Forest Trail). On the first evening we walked on the main trail though Big Meadows. We left our dogs in the camper during the Big Meadows walk and Story of Forest Trail walk. The temperatures were sufficiently cool, so we were not afraid of them overheating.

On Friday evening we decided to treat ourselves to dinner at the lodge. Cooking in the Airstream is easy enough and usually very good, but it was nice to go on a date. My wife ordered smoked chicken and I had the trout. Both meals were good; the chicken was so generous that it came back home with us and was enjoyed a second time. I washed my trout down with a Big Meadows IPA, specially brewed for the lodge. For dessert we had blackberry ice cream enjoyed on the deck while watching the sun set. We were visited by a Chinese lantern fly, a pest that is slowly invading the eastern U.S.A. and wreaking havoc on the natural ecosystems.

Our overall opinion is that we need to return. It was delightful. This was our third camping trip in the Blue Ridge, this one in the National Park and the other two were along the Parkway in Virginia: the Peaks of Otter and Rocky Knob Campgrounds. While they were all off-grid, and we liked all three, Big Meadows was our favorite. The other two are tied for second.

Over the past three years we have camped quite a bit and if you are a regular reader, you must have noticed that we do not often stay in National Parks. The reason for this is that National Parks often do not allow dogs, and we always travel with our two beasts. The only other one we stayed in was Big Bend National Park which we absolutely love. But even there, no dogs allowed on the trails.

It is such a shame what the current administration is doing in Big Bend National Park. They are bulldozing a perimeter road and there is talk of constructing the famous border wall, completely screwing up the ecosystem. And this is an area with the lowest number of illegal crossings. It would take days of wandering in the desert to get somewhere.

It is not the case that we avoid U.S. Government camp sites. We love U.S. Army Corps of Engineers sites. In fact, one of our favorite sites was the East Totten Trail Campground (and <here>) in North Dakota.

Wow, although we are no longer camping rookies, we are still Airstream newbies and learning a lot. Where will our next trip go to?

Sunset on the Big Meadows

Big Meadows

Our site at the campgound

Below the Lodge

Hawksbill Peak

Virginia Campgrounds (8/4/2026)

I have spent some time in state parks and campgrounds in Virginia and surrounding states. I wrote about it a long time ago <here>. That was 2016 and I think that it is time to update this after 10 years. It includes a couple of additional state parks that we visited and a few that I forgot in the initial post.

1. Hungry Mother – This park has great cabins and great hiking. We stayed there in a cabin one time and camped there once. The camping was done during the partial solar eclipse of 2024. We enjoyed both stays, camping was good. Restrooms were clean and well maintained. This is one of my favorite parks
2. Grayson Highlands – We camped there twice once more than 10 years ago in a tent and once in our Transit. It takes some driving to get there; it is remote. It felt Alpine and yes if you like to hike it is great. It is a day hike from Mount Rogers the highest peak in Virginia. It is also on the Appalachian Trail. In the tent we were visited by the wild ponies, while at the slightly lower campground we spotted a bear. Restrooms are clean and well maintained.
3. New River Trail – A great (mountain) bike and walking trail that I visit a lot. Just look in my label list for Draper and you will find lots of entries ranging from the descriptive to the philosophical.
4. Shot Tower – On the New River Trail, just interesting to visit.
5. Claytor Lake – I visited this one for one or two hours for a hike and to look around. If you have a bass boat and like fishing, this one is for you. They have nice looking modern cabins. This one is not for us; we like hiking and biking.
6. Douthat – Another very favorite state park. We have been here twice, and stayed in log cabins that were built in the 1930s, or camp. Great trails for hiking. We absolutely love the place. I have multiple short entries and photos in my blog on this park; just look at the labels.
7. Shenandoah River – Another great park. Stayed here three times, twice in spring and once in late summer. We enjoyed it tremendously. We combined nature hiking with visiting some of the wonderful wineries in this area.
8. Sky Meadows – When we visited, this was only a hiking park with access to the Appalachian Trail, and I am not sure if this has changed. We had a great afternoon hike on the trail. I went solo another time.
9. Westmoreland – Nice park, along the Potomac River, near some nice wineries, Washington’s birthplace, and general Lee’s home. In other words there is a lot to do and a lot of history and culture to be had. On the beach you can even find geologic shark teeth. We stayed in a cabin three times and camped once. We had a lot of fun during all visits.
10. Belle Isle – A very new park; it is very flat and good for walking. We visited twice, once for a hike and we camped the other time. Make sure you have tick protection during the hikes.
11. York River – This is our home state park. It has great hiking, kayaking, canoeing, mountain biking, and riding trails. No camping or cabins. We enjoy going there and walking through the marshes and we kayaked there as well.
12. Kiptopeke – Looks great. We just drove through it to the shore to look at the concrete ships that were sunk as breakwaters just off the shore.
13. First Landing – A great park with great hiking trails. Cabins are really nice here. We stayed there once.
14. False Cape – We spent a day in March walking from Virginia Beach to North Carolina and back. It was all along the beach, looking at wild horses and shore birds.
15. Chippokes Plantation – Another “home state park”, although I’ve only been their once for the annual peanut festival. It looks nice for the rest, and we really need to rent one of the cabins one of these days.
16. Pocahontas – We go there for retreats of our church, and DCR had their annual personnel award ceremony there. It is great hiking, biking and kayaking/canoeing.
17. Holiday Lake – I was there once for a conference. It was nice. Not much else to say about it. It was far removed from everywhere.
18. High Bridge – This is another bike trail. I did this a number of times and started in Farmville. I have a number of blog entries on this park as well.
19. Twin Lakes – Interesting, this is an historic black state park. The cabin we stayed in was right at the lake and was really nice. It is more a recreational park. Hiking was fair and not well developed. We visited right after a storm and there were a lot of trees down. The story is that camping in a trailer or RV might be interesting, access is difficult.
20. Occoneechee – This is a park on a lake near North Carolina (Kerr Lake). You can guess that this is a park for people who have a bass boat and fish. It is a new park with great cabins but not many trails. We enjoyed our stay, but should have brought the kayaks instead of the mountain bikes. I actually wrote about it <here> in my blog.
21. James River – One of our favorites. It is a dark sky park. We rented a cabin twice. But we visited the camping areas and they looked good. This place has some wonderful hikes. It is very remote, bring everything you need.
22. Machicomoco – This park is 20 minutes from our home. It is brand new and developed to celebrate Pocahontas and Native Americans who lived in this general area. We go there at times to go hiking. It has a camping area which looks nice but very exposed and has little shade.
23. Caledon – We visited this park once for a hike. It is on the Potomac near Fredericksburg. The hike that we did was great.
24. Natural Tunnel – This is probably the most remote park (at least from where we live). It is almost at the point where Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky meet. We were camping there and loved it so much that we asked to stay another two days. The hiking is magnificent. One minor issue were the stink bugs that we picked up.
25. Clinch River – Located in SW Virginia, I visited the area (St. Paul) and went on a day hike one morning after visiting the region for work. This is a protected river watershed and at the time of my visit there were some trails but no amenities yet.
26. Bear Creek Lake – Another park in fairly remote central Virginia. Good hiking, a nice lake for fishing and swimming. We stayed in a cabin which was good, very much like all the other modern cabins in the park system. Friends of ours stayed there but were not enthralled by this park. At the time of our stay, it was important that it was relatively close to Richmond (about an hour and a half).
27. Fairy Stone – Another remote park, known for its famous fairy stones. We tent camped here once. It is a nice park with some great hikes. We never found a fairy stone but did find an arrowhead. Like with James River State Park, I would bring in everything. It is a drive to the store, but then again, the store is near the fairy stone area, which is actually not located on the state park.

Wow, this is quite the list. Virginia has 44 state parks, and we visited 27 of them. We stayed or camped (sometimes both) in 13 of them; we just hiked or visited the other 14. Feel free to add your likes, dislikes and additional campgrounds below in the comment section.

Next time I'll post some more details on non-state park campgrounds in Virginia.

A little bit of a teaser.  Recently we camped in the Shenandoah National Park.  This photograph was taken there, but more about that in a future post.

Rooting for the World (7/19/2026)

I have been watching the FIFA World Cup and rooting for the country of my birth, the Congo, which was eliminated; the country where I grew up, Curaçao, also eliminated; the country of my original nationality, the Netherlands, eliminated as well; the United States, the country of my current citizenship, eliminated in a somewhat embarrassing way; and Belgium, because when I was born, the Congo was still a Belgian colony. No wonder I feel somewhat conflicted. Am I a man without a country, a man with too many countries, or simply a man of the world? Let’s assume it is the latter: a man of the world, free to root for any football team I choose.

As you may know, I have traveled extensively, lived in at least eight countries, and experienced a great deal. Let’s not even talk about all the countries I have visited. The other day, at our UU church, we did a word association exercise. When I heard the word “free,” it took me back to a day in late April or early May of 1979. We had been under a two- to three-week siege in Uganda, fearing for our lives almost daily. One day, just after noon, we heard tanks and heavy equipment approaching the front gate of the Leprosy Center where we worked. At first, we feared this might be the end. Then, suddenly, we realized they were Tanzanian soldiers. We had been liberated. We were free. The compound erupted with screaming, celebrating people. It was amazing to witness. We celebrated for the next couple of days. The strangest part came that on the evening of our liberation, when we listened to a Radio Netherlands broadcast. After the news, our names were announced as missing, with a request that we call home if possible. That moment captured what freedom meant.

In every country where I have lived, I have experienced something special—some moment that felt like freedom. I may not remember the earliest ones. We left the Congo when I was one and a half, moved to Belgium, and left there when I was three. Perhaps my birth itself was a kind of freedom: freedom from my mother’s womb and into life. My first real memory of freedom came on December 5, 1956, in Curaçao. I was three and a half years old when my father told me Sinterklaas had brought me a brother. Sinterklaas is the Dutch equivalent of Santa, except that we celebrate him on December 5. My brother was born that day, and I still remember my disappointment. I had asked Sinterklaas for a sister, but he gave me a brother.

The moments when I felt most free during my youth were usually spent in or on the water—swimming or sailing—or alone in nature, strolling through the bush and observing the world around me. I think I was awkward, a loner, and a bit of an introvert, with maybe one or two friends. I was never bullied or ostracized, but I do remember feeling different. My first-grade teacher told my parents, and me, that I was highly intelligent and would become a professor. My second-grade teacher hated me. I received many beatings from her with a ruler. I am sure I was no sweetheart, but she broke a yardstick on my behind almost every week. Corporal punishment was common in those days, especially in her classroom. I complained to my mother, and she told me, “The next time she does it, get up and walk out of the class to the principal.” Well, I got up—but instead of going to the principal, I walked home, more than an hour in the stifling tropical heat. Free at last. The teacher never reported my absence, so my mother eventually reported it to the principal. Things improved after that: freedom from the daily beatings. I still remember the teacher’s first name: Babs.

Has my ultimate freedom come with retirement? I wish. I am now the president of our church, I still have a mortgage, and I now have a loan for the Airstream. In addition, I depend on the government for Social Security and Medicare. I pay taxes and need a license to drive. I had better stop here. No, I am not a libertarian, but I am as free as I can be—or at least as free as I can feel. Maybe freedom is not the absence of obligations, but the moments I spend on the water, in nature, and out in the world: listening to a concert, traveling, and camping. I hope you feel free too.

We were happy to watch Spain win, although it would have been wonderful for Messi and Argentina as well. We had no strong favorite, which left us free to watch the game without bias and without ties to either country.

We were kayaking the other day (after a long hiatus).  It felt great to be on the water again!

I believe in you (07/04/2026)

We are about to celebrate the 250th anniversary of this country that I adopted as my home. We should be celebrating, but why? This country is being run by a narcissistic egomaniac who waged a war and let the other side win. He is only in this game for his glory, and his handlers let him while they pull their racist and capitalistic strings. Our leader is just their puppet as long as they feed his ego and his wallet.

On July 4th we will be celebrating the USA’s independence; the signing of the Declaration of Independence from England. Three of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were Unitarian – my religion-: Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, while Benjamin Franklin had a Unitarian leaning. One of the items that upsets me currently is that Unitarian Universalism was relegated to the ranks of non-religion, and the military does not even allow chaplains from our denomination among their ranks. You can imagine how upsetting this is to me. Our daughter is a Unitarian minister, and she served as a chaplain. Moreover, I have a leadership role in our church at the moment.

All three signers of the Declaration of Independence that I mentioned above, believed in a God, but not in a trinity that most if not all Christians believe in. Over the years this has evolved and after the merger with the Universalists the church embraces all believes including pagans, atheists and humanists. One of my favorite sayings now is that we UUs believe in each other.

How celebratory am I, are you, should we be? I more or less permanently moved here in 1986, and I did not grow up with the 4th. I eventually became a citizen in 1994; studied the constitution and history for my citizen’s test. Ever since I retired as a naturalist instructor, I have been into studying Lewis and Clark, Jefferson, the abolitionist movement, women’s suffrage, and of late Lincoln. I should be celebratory with all that has been achieved in this country and in my life over the years, but I feel lukewarm. It feels like we are going back on all the progress that was made in the past. I feel saddened and concerned.

How about you? I am sure there will be people out there that are celebrating because they think things are going great. Some of you may party because you are just a party animal. Others will be like me ambivalent about the current state of affairs, or just down on it. Whatever you do this weekend, take time to reflect on where we are as a country and maybe even you personally. What do you think is the outlook for the future, again yours, your family, society, this country and the world.

From Transit to Silver Bullet (06/27/2026)

(with some excuses for some repeats).

After three years of camping, we realized we enjoyed it enough to up our game. Our Transit van was a lot of fun, but it had a low roof. As we often tell people, changing clothes — or putting on clean underwear while lying down on the bed — was getting old. So, we have been looking at campers since we got back from our trip to Michigan last year. We've visited dealers and found a few that we liked. 

And then I started to do my research. Online research can be fun, especially Reddit. There were a lot of good and bad comments about the brands we had been considering. Some folks really liked one manufacturer, others thought that they were crap. Did we want a slide-out? The questions did not stop. Then the questions about weight and tongue weight. What kind of vehicle can tow such a behemoth? Do you need a weight distribution hitch (WDH for short) and anti-sway-bars? We even visited friends to look at their unit and setup; we wanted to know what their experience was. Our heads were spinning. 

We were almost ready to put our money on a 21 foot Imagine. We had some great conversations with the salesperson and were asked to put a refundable $2,000 down to lock it up while still thinking about it. That request turned the tide against the dealer. It felt, if not exactly like a scam, then at least like a way to apply psychological pressure. Then came the advice to have it inspected by a third party, even though it was new. It seems that the dealer that we were talking to did not allow that. And that did it. It even gave us stronger doubts about whether this was the right move. Is this particular dealer selling crap? The somewhat high-pressure sales approach and the refusal to have it inspected made us decide to look elsewhere. We ended up visiting the Airstream dealer that we had visited some 5 years ago. 

Yes, we ended up buying an Airstream. Our decision was based on the looks of these campers, but also on the quality and resale value. They are more expensive, but they felt right. After looking at various models we decided on a World Traveler, and the reason for that was the V-berth like beds, which makes it easier for us old folks to get in and out of bed in the middle of the night. We have now owned it for two and a half months. I wrote the first draft of the current post during our second trip in our new rig, while sitting at a campsite in the mountains of Virginia. All I can say is that this was the ultimate act of self-love, buying a new truck (Ford F-150) and an Airstream; a silver bullet. We named her Abigail, and then I read today that Abigail means: Father’s joy. Wow! 

The new Airstream and truck

What have I learned during these two camping trips, the drive home from the dealership, and the drive back and forth to the dealer for a small warranty job? First, it is definitively an upgrade from the Ford Transit we have camped in during the past three years. But then it is also less maneuverable than the Transit. You have to plan which gas station can handle you and the long setup we now own, or which parking lot is large enough for a shopping trip or lunch. We have to drive slower with a 22 ft (7+ meters) trailer behind us. When it comes to electricity, the camper has 300 watts solar and 200 watts storage in lithium batteries. The second site (Peaks of Otter) we camped at had no hookups (or shore power) and we never ran out of power. That site also had no water, and three days were about the limit of our freshwater tank. I have already researched how we can conserve water and we may be able to stretch it on our next trips. Lastly, we discovered that we are getting older. We are both in our early 70s and noticed that we need more breaks and limit the driving time to less than 4 hours (or less than 200 miles). We are just getting tired much earlier than the good old (younger?) days. Tired drivers are dangerous! 

From here on out, you will get occasional trip reports from an Airstream. We are definitely not slowing down and will report on some of the trips we will be making. Stay tuned!

Relaxing during our second trip