Adventurenet.net

Is it better for things to go wrong at the beginning of a camping trip or at the end of a camping trip? I ask because I run into a lot of problems today.

Sunday September 14th, 2025

Waking up in Shenandoah national park be like:

Luckily I brought coffee that I don’t have to brew.

Very early this morning someone accidentally set off their car alarm.

This made me smile.

I’ve done the same thing and I was so embarrassed.

It didn’t really bother me so I’m hoping that when I did it in Texas it didn’t bother the campers there.

Back to getting up. Let’s head to the shower area.

The showers are part of the camp store. As I approach I can hear some kids complaining “We walked all the way over here!”

They spot me and say “The store is closed.”

Luckily I am not here for the store, time to grab a shower.

$5 in quarters to get this bad boy started.

Why did they put a bear on this sign?

Look, I know that there are black bears in the area and that’s probably why it’s on there, but it looks like they’re trying to say that jamming up the machine by inserting multiple quarters at the same time is punishable by bear. Or that the bear is cautiously inserting the quarters.

Or something.

The bear feels weird on the sign.

Time to get into the shower.

Good water pressure.

Bad water temperature.

Great privacy.

What’s with crappy water heaters at park showers?

I had this same problem at the last New York state park I camped at.

Don’t get me wrong, the water was warm, so it’s good enough.

I do have one other small complaint as well.

The bench and the quarter machine are the only places to set things down in this shower room that will (probably) remain dry.

A shelf and some hooks would be a fantastic upgrade for this room.

I discovered this flaw as I inserted my final quarter into the machine which caused the shower to instantly turn on, full blast and pointed at the end of the bench where the blue bag with my dirty clothes are sitting.

They got a little bit wet.

But the shower is a success and I don’t think the slightly damp clothes bag will be a problem.

I haven’t figured out what to do with the rest of my day, yet.

There are some caves nearby, but the tours are expensive.

I think I’ll find something else to do.

The campsite next to me had an interesting setup.

A full family pulled in with a pickup truck camper thing that lifted up from the bed of the truck.

They also put up a quick hammock.

The arrived at the park after dark and were gone before 9am.

That’s efficient!

I suspect they’re like me and making a trek across the US.

Did I mention that when I pick campsites I just get the ones nearest to the restroom?

I took this picture of the restroom near my campsite to add to Google maps.

I need to do some more shopping and I’d like to go out and see some of the nearby sites.

I’m just going to head towards Charlottesville and figure it out when I get there.

The road that goes through Shenandoah has a lot of pull over overlooks.

On the way to Charlottesville I see a sign for Standardsville, Virginia.

My wife works for a television standards department, so I pull in to see if I can get any swag.

I also send some postcards.

This Nathan’s postcard went to my pal Tony in Michigan to share my camping woes.

And this postcard also went to Tony to discuss Shenandoah night life.

And then there’s this postcard.

It’s not logged in my notes.

I think this is one that I sent to my partner about finding Standardsville, Virginia.

Unfortunately most of this town is closed today.

No swag for Standardsville.

I did get a receipt from a gas station, though, which I have given to my wife and she has told me that she will post it on her cubical wall.

So.

Charlottesville.

Not a whole lot of parking here.

I was able to find a McDonalds parking lot after about 30 minutes which was good, because I was putting serious consideration into just going back to the park.

With a little bit of poking around I found a few interesting sites nearby, but I have decided to focus primarily on visiting Monticello, the home of slave-owning, clock inventing, 3rd US president: Thomas Jefferson.

Monticello is also the place on the back of a nickel.

Oh! A stick bug!

What a cool insect!

Tour time!

First a quick shuttle ride to the house.

I mentioned that clock invention part, right?

The clock is in this main entry on the back of the house.

The weights for the clock hang on very long ropes and you an see one of the sets of weights in the picture above.

Here’s the clock above the entry door.

Ol’ TJ figured out how to make the weights work for 7 days so that he could mark the day of the week with the weights.

But his calculations were off by a little bit and so to fix the problem, he drilled two holes in the ground to let the weights continue to drop into the floors below.

Oops.

Check out this dumbwaiter built into the side of the fireplace to bring wine up from the cellar.

Ritzy.

Here’s that side of the house from the nickel.

Our tour guide was super familiar.

I think that either I went to school with her, or that I saw her on a YouTube science show.

A fantastic tour.

Oh! A crow!

I’ve never actually seen one before!

Neat!

Now time for some Wegmans.

I’ve heard great things about this store.

It’s my first time shopping at one.

After a successful shopping trip, time to head back to camp.

Oh.

I think my Styrofoam cooler is leaking.

It’s damp in the back of the car.

I’ll need to investigate this when I get back to the park.

My wash cloth is still damp despite hanging from the bench.

It’s a little bit humid and there hasn’t been much wind.

I also need to figure out my campsite for tomorrow.

New River Gorge state park sites can’t be reserved in advance.

They’re first come, first served.

If possible, I’d like to arrive as the park opens.

I tend to fall asleep when the sun goes down while camping, which causes me to wake up around four in the morning when this happens, so leaving early isn’t out of the question.

It’s about three or four hours away.

I’ll need to figure out how to disable this rental car’s headlights if I do that, though.

Then again, it will be a Monday so camping isn’t likely to a crowded affair.

Not to mention the sites here at Shenandoah didn’t even fully fill in on the weekend.

I think it will be fine to show up whenever.

We’ll see how the night goes.

Oh! More deer!

I think I missed lunch at the restaurant.

I checked the calendar and they should be open, but I don’t see anyone.

Ahhh, they’re closed between lunch and dinner.

Weird, but I’ll wait in the lobby area as they should be opening in about 15 minutes.

I’m so hungry.

Cool lodge.

I ask my server what she suggests and we decide on a nice s’mores drink and a turkey dinner.

A little bit school lunchy (the food, not the drink), but it hits the spot.

Ahhh.

time to figure out how to spend the rest of my night.

Wait.

I forgot to check on that leaking water cooler.

Aw hell.

It is leaking.

The back of the car is pretty damp.

Luckily it didn’t flood and some paper towels will be enough to clean up the mess, but what the fuck.

I’ve had this thing for a day and a half.

It’s late enough now that the park stores are closed and by the time I could get to any nearby towns their stores will be closed as well.

I can’t leave food out because this is bear country and so I am facing a conundrum.

I have food that needs to stay refrigerated and I can’t just throw it away somewhere.

I don’t have a bear box at my campsite.

I can’t buy another cooler.

My only option is to leave the food in the car overnight without refrigerating it.

Annoying.

I’ll make some sloppy Joes to get through that and some cheese tonight.

It will mostly be the American cheese going to waste.

I dump out the cooler, wipe up the back of the car, and get started on the fire.

Oh! I brought the fire starters that I made!

Let’s see how well these work.

Let’s keep it simple.

Two logs.

I’ll soak them with charcoal starter and place one of the fire starters below them.

These are made with strike anywhere matches, but I figure I’ll just start it with an oven lighter.

Well that’s off to a good start.

Noting the paper towels are the ones used to wipe up the water from the back of the rental car.

I put them over the fire to dry them out.

I’ll toss them into the fire when it’s big enough or when the paper towels are dry enough.

Well heck, that fire’s really going.

No kindling.

Right. With that out of the way, time to get started on the sloppy joes.

First we’ll break out my handy dandy dollar store multi-tool to cut open the meat package.

I love this stupid thing.

Laying out all of the food that I need to wipe off and store in the car over night.

I’ll need to toss out that creamer, too.

I am so full.

I ate two burgers and then focused on eating the rest of the meat without buns, because I am stuffed.

The cast iron is a great item on car camping trips.

I’m loving the new dishware that I bought at REI in Manhattan, too.

Let’s check out this cooler.

I haven’t been able to find the leak.

Not seeing anything on the bottom.

Oh wait, there’s a bit there that looks like a finger nail clipping.

Yep. There’s the leak.

Who made this crappy cooler?

Cryopak?

Your cooler is whack.

I will be avoiding in the future.

(Kidding, kidding. I’m sure the cooler is just old and took a small beating in the back of the car. I suspect it twisted during a hard turn and caused the crack.)

Oh, I need to put out the fire.

I don’t have a bucket.

I should get a bucket.

I can use the broken cooler for now…

Which I dumped the water out of an hour ago.

*sigh*

I fill it up with water a second time and put out the fire.

Oh hell, the washing cloth never finished drying out either.

It’s scented so it needs to stay in the car as well, but I don’t want to get a wet funk going on in there, so I’ll stick it in a resealable plastic bag.

Another thing to get warm and smelly during the night.

Great.

(Props to the pringles in the background. A fantastic road trip snack.)

Whatever.

I’m full.

I had a great day.

The food loss is minimal.

The rental car isn’t damaged.

Note to self: buy camping pajamas so that I don’t have to sleep:

• Nude
• In underwear only
• In clothes

Did I mention that I wore a new pair of button-up jeans for the first time today?

Trying to navigate buttons instead of a zipper while holding onto things and trying to use a urinal caused me to accidentally pee on my belt.

Which I then had to waddle over to the sink to wash off before buttoning up my pants.

I am so glad that no one walked in on me during this moment.

Today is dume.

Whatever.

Time to relax and read some Exceptional X-Men before bed.

I started a subscription to this at my apartment, but I’ve gone back and bought the first handful of issues as well. There’s a gap of about 4 comics that I’m missing in the middle.

We’ll see if I make it that far during this trip, but I may want to deal with that.

I’m sure there’s some comic book stores that I’ll be going past during this trip.

A problem for tomorrow Levi.

Good night dear reader.