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Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mtns byway of West Virginia to Kentucky

Do you remember the old Disney animated movie Snow White? Or maybe you saw that movie from the late 90’s, starring Johnny Deep, Sleepy Hollow? The woods at Shenandoah National Park seemed to be quiet and eerie but beautiful, much like a movie. The fog lingered a bit too long near the ground and the forest was filled with bizarre vines and leaning trees, all small in stature but dense with plant life.

 

Shenandoah National Park

 

We drove by many animals on the road much like the animals Snow White would have danced and sung with, this included 7 deer (oddly close to the road and seemingly fearless), 3 rabbits, a possum and some sort of small rodents would run across the road every once in awhile. The Shenandoah National Park is based on a large ridge (the Blue Ridge Mountain line) and it seemed to have it’s own climate because it is higher up on the ridge. As we drove it started to rain a very icy, cold rain and within minutes the windshield froze. The road became a cold slip n’ slide. Every few minutes we would have to stop our 15mph drive to de-ice the window since the defroster/heater is sort of a non-working luxury in our 1980’s VW Van.

We slept in the park, in what was advertised as the only opened campground, named Big Meadows. When we arrived late at night it appeared to be closed already but we decided it was too late to keep travelling. The weather was not going to get any better. We woke to a dark, gloomy overcast sky and a very glassy, forested paradise surrounding us. We had parked the van near a heated shower, bathroom and laundry room combo building. This seemed heavenly to us since we have not bathed in a few days. Shannon packed a small bag full of things like soap and towels and started her swift dart towards the building, unsuccessfully dodging the raindrops.

 

Rosie is icy

 

 

Icy Pine Needles

Shannon slipped and fell hard on the icy cement but desperate for a bathroom. Meanwhile James chatted with David, an older man that liked the challenge of walking around in the elements of weather in gore-tex. We missed out. Two older ladies that were some sort of park service sub-contractor had closed the building up for winter and refused to let us use the facilities. Shannon cried “ I have to poo, please let us in!” but it was useless. So Shannon took her morning crap in a place they may not discover until winter has thawed, it was her gift to them since they were so kind.

 

The ice here was magical, it covered everything in a thick layer of clear and it created icicles. Ice seems almost parasitic, growing slowly around anything that would provide surface. Our van was dripping with this magic, full of ripples, icicles and all. Soon a park ranger came and found us to tell us we needed to leave. Shenandoah National Park is now closed for the winter and the road ahead was dangerous so we would need to join a car caravan down to the nearest town. James put the chains on Rosie, an ironic happenstance. Chains in Virginia?

The nearest town was Luray, Virginia a small town with all the necessities. We met Howard at Evergreen Outfitters, a small outdoor supplier and he was kind enough to sell us more wool socks at a good price. We ate at a small restaurant/café in town and met the café owner that told us a story about when he lived in his VW Van after the Vietnam War as a student in college. In many of the small towns we pass through it is very obvious we are not locals and we often get attentions, for better or worse.

We are now continuing on to Kentucky. Passing historical and natural landmarks on the way. We are hoping for the Daniel Boone National Forest. Battling rains, car accidents and Virginia’s famed after Thanksgiving weekend Sunday traffic. The weather advisory predicts more ice and snow in Kentucky and Tennessee so let’s pray for a miracle heat wave.

 

Ranger is shutting down the park

James talking to the park ranger

 

 

From Lil’ Rhody to DC

We left a very cold and rainy Rhode Island and drove south to a warmer NYC, more specifically to Inwood. We came to see Sal (aka. Salad) & his beefy, large, sweetheart cat named Dante. Shannon knows Sal from her first summer at RISD.  He was one of her first East Coast friends and it has almost been 10 years! It was really nice to see Sal even though it was so briefly.

Salad & Shannon in ShangriLa

We had a nice meal, walked around Inwood Hill Park with Luna, visited the dog park and then engaged in some “experimental” cat and dog games back at Sal’s apartment. Dante had never seen a dog before and Luna is about half the size of Dante so we thought this would be a good chance to bond. It appeared the only common interest both Luna and Dante have is cat treats. It was sad to say goodbye, but DC was a far drive and we wanted to try to make it before it was too late.

 

Dante & Luna licking a cat treat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We drove for a while through New Jersey, the longest stretch of nothing interesting. Truck stop after truck stop blurred past us, sometimes they changed locations on the road and you would see a truck stop moved over to the middle of the road, like an island. We stopped a few times. The gas station we stopped at on the New Jersey Turnpike was strange, lots of weird people and the gas pumping system seemed like an odd set up. But despite the strange factor the food at this truck stop was exotic. Fresh, homemade dill pickles in the free condiment bar, hush puppies and “disco fries” were on the menu. Disco fries are basically an American version of poutine (or gravy & cheese on fries). I decided to make alterna-coffee by adding the free packets of dark hot coco to my decaf coffee with a smidge of the vanilla milk alternative. I highly recommend, not ever doing this, you might vomit.

We woke up in the parking lot of the Tyson’s Corner Center a large mall in Vienna, Virginia in what felt like a summer heat in May (but its Nov). We stripped off layers of winter clothes and then we did some minor window shopping in the mall in the morning (they had a LL Bean store) and then decided to head into DC. We spent time in the following locations, in viewing order:

National World War II Memorial

Washington Monument

National Museum of Natural History

National Gallery of Art

National Gallery of Art, Sculpture Garden

 

Shannon w/Magdalena Abakanowicz Sculpture

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The White House (from afar, they had a huge xmas tree)

We were basically speed-visiting museums, fighting through crowds of slow moving mothers with huge strollers. We are now attempting to head West towards Shenandoah National Park.

James at the Washington Monument, in DC

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving, giving thanks and shopping

We went to Brattleboro, VT to visit our favorite antique store Twice Upon A Time and on the way we made a few stops. One of which was Dutton Farms, a small farm stand. We bought fresh apples, VT’s own Grafton 4 year old cheddar (for the most affordable price ever seen), fresh apple cider for $3 a gallon and homemade apple cider doughnuts for dipping in the hot apple cider. They had the most amazing looking root veggies.

We heard a rattling noise and it was worrisome so we took the car in to Cheshire Tire in Keene, NH to have an oil change and see what the noise was. They seemed inexperienced with older VWs however they made a valid point, something was wrong with the axel.  There are two VW repair shops in the Keene, NH area. One of which is John’s Car Corner. We had visited John’s Car Corner and met with John and his employees. Everyone seemed nice but the parts they charged us for was really too much money for what it was, rusty and old and their advice re: what we needed in terms of parts was very wrong. It was a frustrating experience. While we were driving back to Keene, we saw three old VW Vans sitting on the side of the road. They were a similar model and year as Rosie and we were hoping for some parts so we pulled over to explore. It turned out to be another VW repair shop, Volkspart.

At Volkspart in New Hampshire

We met with Peter Dexter from Volkspart (located in Westmoreland, NH) a few days later and took Rosie to his shop. Peter was far more helpful they we could have wished for. He helped us realize that the CV joint in the left axel was dry and about to snap and needed replacing. ASAP. We sat and talked with him as he took used parts and rebuilt Rosie’s left axel. It was pretty interesting, we learned about axels, about VWs and Waxoyl, a product that coats the car in a wax to help prevent corrosion in snowy or icy conditions. Peter is a skier (a powder hound) and hopefully we will see him soon on the slopes of Tahoe, when he comes out West.

 

 

On Thanksgiving, we woke up hoping to finally start the road trip but realizing we would probably need to

James w/Anna & Todd on Thanksgiving

wait one more day. We drove with Trevor (James’s younger brother) in Rosie and met up with James’s parents at Todd’s (James’s older brother) house. Todd and his wife Anna and their two kids Keiran and Kaila live in Saunderstown, RI. Very near the Gilbert Stuart Museum and house (Shannon’s distant relative).  Thanksgiving was very nice. We had dinner early and then lounged for a while. Basking in the high caloric intake and cable TV.

 

 

Its Black Friday, 4:15am and the alarm clock went off. Shannon and James tiptoe out of the room we are staying in at, in Todd and Anna’s house and sneak past Luna, who is snoring under the covers still. Rosie is covered in ice. James starts scrapping and Shannon establishes her mummy nest of woolen blankets, just

Black Friday in Rhode Island, 5:15am

like our previous, Montreal-style drive. We had a very rough idea of what we are hunting for and where to go. Todd gave us written directions the day before and we attempted to follow them. Unfortunately Rhode Island fails to put street signs on small streets, not very helpful. We eventually found the store but it really was shear luck. We showed up fashionably late, missing the 5am door opening by fifteen minutes. The store was chaos inside. Old ladies with shopping carts filled to the brim pushing their way thru crowds of people trying to get the next great deal, women blindly grabbing the $8 special sale coats in bulk, Nitendo Wii’s were one per customer since this is a holiday and all…  It was a bit upsetting situation and a stressful one, between the early morning hours and our lack of sleep, the crowds in the store and the shopping frenzy. We bought a new GPS with travel case for a mere $100, saving $75. Yay! No more getting lost and frustrated. After the shopping we ate nearby at Snoopy’s Diner.

 

Snoopy's Diner, RI

 

A classic sliver car-style diner with a 1950’s interior in various shades of green with a pink tiled floor and more American flags then necessary. Snoopy’s Diner had the best cinnamon roll known to man, some greasy eggs and coffee. Then back to the house with the warm bed with Luna snoring away under the covers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are now going south for a brief stop in Inwood, NYC to see Dante and Sal.  I wish we could stay longer in NYC since between the two of us, we know a lot of people we would both like to see. We are also sad we missed the Katie Vida and the Vida clan in Connecticut during their holy, high holiday of Thanksgiving and the famed mother Vida pie bake (one pie per diner). And tonight we hope to be near Washington, DC if traffic permits.

 

Don & Sue McConchie, James

 

Trevor in the backseat w/ Luna

 

 

 

We are still here!

Hi! (This is Shannon writing, not James) I have never blogged before and something feels unnatural or odd about this but I realized we have been slacking on the blog posts since I met up with James, so here it goes…

We are currently in Keene, New Hampshire. We have been here for a few days so James can visit with his family before they move to San Diego. Also the VW Van is at the shop being checked on, everything is fine it is just getting a tune up, a review by a mechanic and some fresh oil. 

James picked me up from the Vermont Studio Center (VSC) on Nov 20th in the evening and we drove to Burlington, VT. We went to the cheapest hotel because it was too cold to camp in the van. Here we met Zackin, the very devout Christian desk clerk at the La Quinta Inn. He is an art and antiquities collector, he owns Gallery Musee, works evenings at La Quinta Inn and he still finds time to go to church six times a week! Zackin was curious about my artwork since he heard I had been at VSC. We chatted for a while and then he gave us a key card for the room. We dragged Luna and our gear to the 3rd floor only to find a very dirty hotel room not yet visited by housekeeping, towels and trash were everywhere and the bed was in a state of shock because the sheets and blankets seemed to have been vomited by the bed. I had James and Luna wait there as I went back to get a different hotel room. My 2nd hotel room seemed to have the same problem, housekeeping overlooked the room and the last people staying in the room seemed to have been in a metal band or something. I walked back to Zackin again, waited as he helped others and he then upgraded us to our 3rd, more fancy hotel room.

 

Burton Factory Store in Burlington, VT

We woke up early and drove to the Burton Factory. James wanted to return his broken snowboard for recycling, something Burton does not seem to do (yet). Also he had a broken snowboarding bag and we were hoping he could exchange it. Sorry to say but Burton is not a nice company and failed to provide any sort of reimbursement for a poorly designed, expensive snowboarding bag the broke before it was ever used due to a misplaced zipper. James has his allegiances for Burton snowboarding gear because it is a New England company and his sentiment runs deep; I however I would care to disagree with his love for Burton. I spent a fair amount of time walking around, looking at the 2009 Burton gear and I could honestly someone at Burton needs to rethink the creative direction because the “16 year old-look” is not hooking me.

From the Burton factory we started north, towards our goal of Montreal, Canada. At the border we failed to provide rabies paperwork (the vaccination rabies tag was not enough) for Luna so we had to get out and talk with Canadian customs officers. In the waiting room I saw Kate and her boyfriend from VSC. She told us how they had been waiting for over 45 minutes. It seemed we were going to have to be there for a while so we curled up in a corner so we could people watch in the lobby. Eventually, Kate and her boyfriend were released and we said our goodbyes. The customs officers called us up and started to lecture us (this was probably their third lecture at this point) about the need to have rabies papers in the future. They let us go and we all jumped back into the van and drove far away.

At first this part of Canada seems no different then the USA, but after about 10 minutes all the signs were in French and it finally felt like all that middle school and high school French might pay off after all.

 

Mummified in the very cold VW Van

We drove forever; it was freezing because James had accidentally removed this cardboard piece under the front grill that we think was there because it was blocking the direct airflow from coming into the car. This means it felt like the AC was on but it was only like 20 degrees outside. I wrapped Luna and myself in woolen blankets because the air was too cold. We looked like mummies.

I have decided Montreal is the lovechild-city between Boston, Las Vegas and something French, maybe Paris? We spent very little time here in Montreal because of the scary Montreal aggressive drivers, the lack of parking for large vans and us not having a adequate map of the area. I learned about Les Habitants or Habs. We ate at a pub, poutine (gravy on the side please) and flamms (flat bread with cheese and veggie toppings). Anyways after hanging out in Montreal for awhile we decided to try to go to Keene, NH. The drive down was even colder then our drive up and both James and I were needed coffee stops pretty much ever hour so our hands and feet could defrost despite our useless woolen socks and gloves. Poor Luna doesn’t drink coffee, yet so she was a pupsicle.

 

James and Keiran at the sugar house eating pancakes

 

Eventually we made it to Keene, and now here we are! We have been here for a couple days. James’s young niece and nephew were in Keene for a few days and now James’s brother Trevor is here. We had an early “fake” Thanksgiving with James’s parents, uncle and aunt and cousins since we are intending to be out of town and on the road for the actual Thanksgiving day. We ate pancakes with James’s four year old nephew Keiran at a local sugar house (this is where they make maple syrup). We saw an Ani Difranco Concert in Hartford, CT with James’s friend Paula since she had an extra ticket. We also have been doing lots of updating of VW parts, visiting pick & pulls and just prepping in general for the longer drive ahead! I will post a few pics but more can be found on the link to the Flickr page you can find on the sidebar.    

John's VW pick and pull yard, look at all the sad vans...

James meets the interactive pony in the grocery store

  

At the Ani DiFranco Concert in Hartford, CT with Paula

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Part 2, now the trip begins!

Greetings and salutations from very cold- Burlington, VT!

 

This is now the second part of the journey where Shannon and I will be simultaneously blogging about the adventures, or dare I say it again “Avanture”? First I’ll need to fill you all in from my departure from Edwards, CO to Chicago, Chicago to Rochester, and Rochester to NH/VT. Thanks to all who have been reading, and the kind friends and family that have been putting me up for a night so Luna and I didn’t need to sleep in Rosie the entire trip. Thanks for your support and comments as we continue this journey. Thankfully Shannon’s computer is fully functional and the rest of this trip should be blogged on a daily or every other day basis. So lets catch everyone up, and then continue to infinity and beyond!

 

Edwards, CO to Chicago, IL

I spent the entire day in Edwards with my cousin Danielle and her husband Sid, and my to little cousins Ella and lil’ Sid. It was a great time to be in the Rocky Mountains, with the sun shining after a week of unsettled weather and the temps were perfect. We spent the day catching up, visiting the dog park with Luna and Maggie (the family lab). Danielle is working as a second grade teacher and Sid is the owner and proprietor of the Ski Bar in Vail Village. All in all it was a great day that was initially about riding the slopes, and then turned into catching up with family and all of us sharing our love for the mountains and the fluffy white stuff. Some pics of Danielle and her family.

Oh no worries, I did go ride just not under the original circumstances as I initially planned. I left Edwards around 2pm knowing there would be very little opportunity to hike far with sun slipping away, let alone lift operation. I drove towards Loveland Pass and as the sun began to sink I looked for the best resort to poach a line. I made it to Copper Mountain, right as the lifts were closing and ski patrol was cleaning up the slope.  I got up about 1200′ before Hagan, a ski patroller came and told me he was sorry he was captain of the “No fun Police” I smiled at him and looked down the slope and said “Man, I got at least 3 minutes of turns- how is that No fun?” We then chatted a bit about backcountry, and I tried to convince him to let me hike up another couple hundred feet, but he wasn’t having it. So down I went on day 2 of the 2009 season. I proceeded directly to the bar and had my victory beer for all my hard effort and small reward. I continued on towards Denver and decided to detour to look at Buffalo Bills grave, it was unfortunately closed and I couldn’t get beyond the gate that was at the entrance to the site. I did manage get a beautiful view of Denver at night from “lookout mountain” where Buff Bills grave is located

I continued on and managed to get beyond Ogallala NE to camp for the night

 

Nebraska, land of frozen cow poo and corn

Now I don’t want to knock this place too much, but for the first Forty frozen miles of this state it totally smelled like cow poo. Now I’m not one to hate too much on the cows, but for it to smell that strongly in freezing temps means they gots tons, and I mean TONS of shit in a giant pile where the middle is nice and toasty, and the outer layer is frozen. This was one of the longer parts of the 14 hour driving stint I undertook to make it to Chicago. I did stop at this cheezy, yet cool “Fort Cody Trading Post” tourist trap on the NE and CO border. There were tons of cool trinkets, and even… a two headed calf!

 

 

Iowa, land of roadkill and suicidal deer

Im not sure what exactly is up with this state, but I saw the following dead on the side of the road. 1 cow, 2 deer, 1 skunk, and 1 what appeared to be a fox. This is where I began to intermittently get snowed on as I approached Chi town. BY far the most interesting thing about my journey in this state was the fact that I hit a deer. Yes, I hit a deer, full on at about 55 miles an hour. This young buck jumped out in front of Rosie and I swerved and counter swerved to which point I nailed that deer in the hind quarters. Now I don’t know how many of you have ever been in a VW van, but you are right there, all up in the front with about 7 inches from you to the absolute nose of the car. That deer was right up in my face, I could have opened the window and touched it. The sound of the impact was horrible, and I thought the journey might be ending here in cold snowy Iowa in the middle of no where. After calming down I walked outside to asses the damage. DAMN was Rosie lucky.. all the deer had damaged was a plastic corner piece of the front bumper, which can easily be replaced, other than that she sustained no injuries and after a quick call to my friend Dave in Chicago to tell him about this crazy experience, all was well and on to Chi-town.

 

Chicago 

I like Chicago. I have two close friends from college that live there (David and Mike). Every time I have the opportunity to hang out with one or both of these guys I automatically know it will be a blast. My time in Chicago was too short, Dave and Mike both had to work, and I had some much needed sleep to catch up on. I woke up the next day, and of course took Dave’s motorcycle for a spin an to get the blood flowing. I then packed up and headed over to where Dave and Mike both work Truway. Dave is part owner of Truway and gave me a tour of his phenomenal shop. You want something bent or shaped out of metal, call these guys. Heres a pic of Dave and I in front of the exhaust system for their new 2000 watt laser. Basically this thing will be able to cut through anything, and its ginormous. It was great to catch up with Dave and Mike, but it was way too short, after some goodbyes I carried on towards Rochester.

 

Rochester, NY

Ahhh Rochester (aka. ROC), you love to hate it, but for some reason you love it. Rochester is the town of my Alma Mater, RIT. I spent a good five and a half years in this town trying to get educated and learning about the finer points of being a twenty something in college in a place that is pretty grey and has absolutely no women (this is me talking from my younger years of course now that I have a happy relationship , I love you bubs!). The goal for my actual stop in the ROC was to gain copies of my transcripts to apply for graduate school this fall. As with any place you spend a good amount of time at thousands of memories flooded in and it was really good to be back at place I felt very familiar in. I managed to meet up with my old boss Mark Fragale of the RIT sportszone. This is the place I spent my last two years of school learning the finer points of Television and video production. It was great to catch up with Mark, and see some familiar faces. I spent the rest of the day putzing around the campus trying to find one of my old teachers for a recommendation to grad school. I was going to make the 6 hour drive that evening after I went to meet with my wrestling coach. I showed up at 5pm when practice started, and of course coach proceeded to yell “JAMES go get dressed we start practice now”. I rolled around for a bit and knocked some naive college kids around, but damn am I out of shape, or at least wrestling a 20 year old makes me feel out of shape. I busted out early after I had fully beaten myself up, and right after my shower I heard from my long lost friend Leith. I made the trek over to his place to hang with him and his wife Noeme. After catching up and some beers and the worlds best pirogues I decided to turn in rather than make the drive back to New Hampshire. I managed to catch up with some other friends briefly the next day then about 2 pm I made the drive for the McConchie homestead in NH. Heres some pics of the ROC.

 

 

Reflections on my solo journey across the USA

Just do it, Everyone should do this once. Its an opportunity to meet new people, explore new places and gain some great memories. I won’t ever forget the kindness and camaraderie from others on the road like Gary Love, and good ol’ Walton from Alabama. Nor will I forget the longest 14 hour drive I have ever taken. Regardless this is experience so far has been well worth all of the sacrifices I have made in order to be able to do this. I have thoroughly enjoyed this trip so far, and now with another co-pilot and finally someone to talk to I know the journey will get only better! Thanks for reading and I hope all is well with everyone out there tuning in.

-James

The Journey Continues…

Wow what a journey so far…. but its not done yet

I unfortunately have to get on the road to my next destination, Rochester but heres a quick synopsis.

The Pic Gary Love Took

Colorado a Quick ride at copper mtn, and cold as all hell. It was great to see my cousins

Nebraska, for the first 40 miles it smells cow dung

corn…

Iowa, land of roadkill

We hit a deer, yes WE HIT A DEER, but were ok, and so is Rosie thankfully

The Battle of Rosie

Greetings From Edwards Colorado!

This has been quite a journey and “Avanture” so far. Unfortunately the hard drive has died on my computer, and the ability to blog, at least this first part of the journey untill I meet up with Shannon will be sparce due to the lack of internet, but in all honesty for the past three days the lack of my computer has been the least of my worries.

Wednesday, Nov 15th.

American Ingenuity

The Departure from the bay was all within time. I gave myself the honest leeway of hoping to be on the road by 10 but believed in all honesty that noon would be more of a realistic time. As I crossed the Bay Bridge I noticed that the steering on the van seemed to have a little more “play” than I would call normal. I had planned on stopping in Oakland at my close Friend and Puzzle maker extraordaniare Lee Krasnow’s to say hello. When I pulled in and told him I had noticed the steering he immediately jumped under the van and noticed this:

This is the “shredded” Coupling disc, its a rubber joint that has reinforced string inside it that is an integral part for steering. After a few phone calls to the local VW places no one had this part in stock. A quick talk to lee we decided to use some American ingenuity and his awesome work shop and laser to fabricate our own. After a few calculations and designs we cut one out exactly to size.

Some test driving and checking of the high density plastics strength in the different stress positions indicated this would work well, if not better than the original rubber piece and with only two hours lost the journey began. The loss of a few hours and getting stuck in a bit of traffic during rush hour allowed me to get into the middle of nevada, but not after first stopping in the Sierras to see some of the seasons first snow at Boreal Mountain and on top of Donner Lake to snap this shot

Day one had me ending at a truck Stop in Valmy, Nevada with about 3.5 hours less driving than I had planned. It was an interesting start to the journey, but definitely not the end.

 

 

Day 2

Vapor Locked in Valmy

Valmy is pretty much, well not much, other than a truck rest stop, and a gas station. I woke up bright and early and tried to start Rosie, to which she refused. Having had a similar experience in Sandy, OR on Rosies maiden voyage to Mt. Hood (See Brian Feulner’s blog The Inrepid Soul for the full story). After waiting a little bit and using some Ignition spray to help get Rosie going we were back in business, and on the road to get as far beyond Salt Lake city as possible. Here’s a few snapshots, Luna in Valmy and some cool caves in the rocks right at the border of Nevada and Utah.

The day ended with this being the route and a beautiful shot of the “Balanced Rock” in the Arches National Park. I managed to get well beyond Salt Lake city right around rush hour on Thursday.

 

Day 3

Utah, Arches  National Park, if your gonna get stuck at least its somewhere that looks damn cool

Upon waking in the morning after a late evening trying to take cool night pictures and a dinner of egg burritos I woke to find the red rocks of the Arches surrounding me here are some of the shots I took.

I walked around the rock and decided I would go find the “real” arches before I got on the road to head off to Edwards, CO to go meet up with my cousin and her family.

I went over to Rosie packed her up and the battle began again… She would not start. Thinking of my experience from the previous day I began the routine of the few different things that I had tried the day before. Once I realized I would be sitting again for a little bit, I decided to pull out my rock shoes and take advantage of the wonderous rocks around me. As I was about to walk over to the Balanced rock a guy came up and began to ask about the van. As I began to converse further about the van’s troubles he asked what I was going to do and I said ” I think Im going to go and climb”. “Up there!?” he asked pointing up to the top of the balanced rock, I had already checked it out, and said I was thinking about it, but hadn’t fully convinced myself, until Gary said I’d love to get a shot of you up there. I had randomly stumbled upon Gary Love, professional photographer. Well I climbed up there and Gary took what I would call one of the most amazing silhouetted photos that I have ever had the honor of being the subject of. Unfortunately you’ll all have to wait till I can convert the RAW image he gave me on disc, but here are some of the shots I took up top from about 200 feet up!

This day drew on and on and on… I woke up at 7 am and the above pictures were taken around 10 am. After a somewhat sketchy climb back down the balanced rock (why is it climbing down sucks even more than how bad you’ve convinced yourself it will be?) I began troubleshooting Rosie again. 

After an extremely long day and multiple attempts and help from Gary, I decided to do what you should do with any finicky old car, wait it out a bit, I mean maybe I flooded it, I sure as hell sprayed a lot of starting fluid into it. I really had no clue, but it seems the pattern is Rosie will drive however long I want once she gets going, but once we stop, she definitely wants to hang out for a while. 

Sweet home Alabama,

Thank god for Walton, yup Waltion from Alabama, a good ol boy came to help his fellow American and in 10 minutes flat he had figured out the issue. SO first things first, if you have an old VW no matter how it ran the day before if it doesn’t start this is your check list;

1. Spark

2. Fuel

3. Air

Even though I had started fine the day before, and I had even checked this earlier, Walton managed to figure out that I wasn’t getting any spark. This is a simple test, but he took it a step further and continued to figure exactly where the error was occurring. It is in my shotty old wires and this seems to be the culprit for Rosies finickieness. Walton bid me farewell and I continued to try and fix the wires, well with the right amount of fiddling and luck Rosie put aside her attitude and decided the journey must go on! 

So day threes route looked as such;

I am now in Edwards CO. at my cousin Danielle Towelle’s house with her husband Sid and two kids. I plan on spending a few hours with them Saturday and then continuing on to ride some snow saturday afternoon and then on beyond Denver. Thanks for reading, and check back in.

-James

 

 

Day One, The Departure

After Countless hours of planning and shopping and re-planning the trip is on. Luna and I will be trying to leave San Francisco and making the 10+ hour 736 mile drive to Salt Lake City. This one will be quite intense but I’m hoping my anticipation and excitement will pull me through to SLC in good spirits and time so I can get a good nights rest before I make the next jump to Edwards, CO to visit my Cousin Dani and her family.

Here’s a pretty map showing route 1

Welcome to A”van”ture

Hi and welcome to a Van-ture,

This is the soon to be blogged about A”Van”ture of James McConchie, Shannon, and Luna the lovable Boston Terrier. As we all move into the next chapter of our countries story, we individually will be moving into the next chapter in the way we live our lives. We hope to try and capture a little bit of the attitude of America as we travel across the country meeting and greeting everyone as we go.

 James and Luna will be departing San Francisco around the (15th-19th) of November taking a mid-northerly route through Colorado to New Hampshire. On the return James, Shannon, and Luna will take a more scenic tour on a more Southernly route. 

Please stay tuned for James’ Departure and blogs as he makes his way across the country back to NH and VT to meet Shannon and his family. We know there will be plenty to write about. 

 

Heres a few of the things James will be seeing on the first leg of the journey

Sierra Nevada Mtns

Salt Lake City, and Arches National Park

Colorado and the Rockies

VAIL, PLEASE SNOW before we show up

Chicago, IL

Rochester, NY

Burton Snowboard Factory!