Big Meadows Campground Shenandoah National Park in Virginia

May 16-20, 2021

Leaving Assateague Island was sad, but I was excited to move on to Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.

Unfortunately, my car battery was dead again the morning I was heading out. 🥺 I’m very grateful that the campground is closely monitored to protect the ponies because a Park Ranger drove by about five minutes later. He radioed for help and two very nice Park Rangers arrived to jumpstart it within ten minutes. At that point, I knew I had to find somewhere to replace the battery. I made it to an Advance Auto Parts shop, an hour before closing. I was expecting to make an appointment for the next day. The manager is a woman about my age and she’s been there for about 15 years. She assured me that she could do it for me then! When she looked up the battery details for my car, she frowned. According to their information, this replacement can take 45+ minutes and they’re not supposed to do an installation that takes that long. I asked for her recommendations for a garage. She smiled and said “Honey, I’m not sending you away tonight! I’m going to replace your battery and it won’t take me 45 minutes!” She was right! She finished it in 25 minutes and wouldn’t accept a tip from me! I wrote a glowing review (minus the details) on their website. I hope she saw it!

I didn’t have camping reservations for the next two nights because I thought I’d be delayed by the car repair. Most Cabela’s sporting goods stores allow overnight parking for travelers, so that was our solution! There was even a beautiful sunset across the parking lot!

As I approached Shenandoah National Park, my GPS became very intermittent. I’d been aware of that possibility, so I’d written down the directions. What I hadn’t realized was how scary the drive up to the campground would be for me. It was 51 miles and almost 2 hours on a WINDING mountainside road. Have I mentioned that I’m very afraid of heights??? I was TERRIFIED. 🥺 I hadn’t had enough sleep and it was drizzling and foggy. I had to keep going because I was too frightened to cross the road to an overlook rest stop. By the time I got to the visitor center, I was emotionally and physically drained.

Just as I walked into the visitor center, a friend called to welcome me to Shenandoah! Before I started this journey, I added the Life 360 app to my phone. My sister, my niece and this good friend are all monitoring my travels in real time. I let them know my next destination and they can make sure I’m on track and safe. It’s been a huge comfort to know that I’m not “alone”. 💝

The campground was really nice. Sadly, I was too traumatized by the drive up to explore any of the park, so we stayed in our campsite. Between all of the daily warnings from the Park Rangers about bears in the area and already fearing the drive back down the mountain, I didn’t really enjoy it as much as I had hoped. 🥺 As it turned out, the drive down wasn’t bad because the weather was clear and I knew what to expect.

Next stop: Horseshoe Point in Henry, VA

Hugs from South Carolina! 🤗

Wendy & Maddie 💕