Front Royal, Virginia

I had grand dreams of our first time…camping on our road trip that is. It also happened to be our first day on the road and we were a bit overzealous with the pavement we were planning to cover. Our goal was to make it from Rhode Island to Shenandoah National Park before the sunset, a quick 9 HOUR drive. Tim said if he had learned one thing on his previous road trip in Australia, it was that you should never set up camp and cook in the dark. Ready, set, drive!

We rolled into Virginia at 8:15 as the sun was setting, found out the National Park was full and had very little cell phone service. Tim’s words of wisdom quickly changed to, everything looks the same once it gets dark….and he was right. He found us a camp site down the road, with the perfect name, Gooney Creek. We set up camp with the last few minutes of daylight, cooked chicken and rice by headlamp and enjoyed a glass of wine from Sonoma Valley. Here’s to our no plan game plan!

Cheapest Gas: $2.19 (somewhere in Virginia)