New River Gorge
Bear Mountain Cabins & Campground
On Sunday I made the drive from the Shenandoah National Park area to the New River Gorge area to the Bear Mountain Cabins & Campground. 
The campground was beautiful and not very busy during the week which was nice, plus it was less than five minutes away from the New River Gorge’s Canyon Rim Visitor Center. It also worked out well for my parents since there were Mom approved cabins (read: cabins with indoor plumbing) in the campground for them to stay at.
Shenandoah National Park
Loft Mountain Campground
After leaving Williamsburg, VA, I made the three hour drive up to the Loft Mountain Campground inside Shenandoah National Park. 
This campground was unusual in that while it was fairly large and had over 200 sites, it was not setup well for RVs as most sites had the camp side stuff like picnic tables, fire pits, and bear proof food storage on the wrong side for RVs. While not the end of the world since most of my time was not spent at the camp site, it was still inconvenient. Three nights with zero hookups was the longest I’ve done that, and I think it went pretty well (at least from a no hookups perspective), so that was a good experience. I knew water wouldn’t be a problem, as I can pretty easily do three or four nights without refilling the fresh or dumping the other thanks, but I wasn’t sure how well the battery would hold up since it was a very shaded site, so I didn’t think I would get much help from the solar panels. Fortunately a lot of the leaves had started to fall, so I was able to at least recharge the battery a bit every day. Assuming the same amount of sun I got while I was there, I could probably have gone six or seven days before needing to worry about breaking out the generator. There was also very little cell service at the campground, I would occasionally get enough service for some texts to come in, but it was pretty difficult to send them. It did give me a good chance to try out the recent iMessage feature that allows sending messages via satellite, it was pretty cool to see that work. Fortunately the weather was just about perfect, mid 70s during the day down to low 40s at night, so no AC necessary. The sites were nice and secluded though, and it was pretty convenient being in the park as it can take a long time just to drive to some trailheads from the entrances. A large benefit of being in the park and not having electricity at the campground was the great night time sky viewing. Not the greatest picture since I didn’t have a tripod or anywhere to stabilize my phone against, but it gives you some idea of what I was able to see. 
Williamsburg, VA
Truck Upgrade
I decided I think I like having a trailer to be able to go around and visit new places and to have a “home” at the end of a day of hiking, so I upgraded my truck from a F-150 to a F-250 to help tow my trailer better. 
It is the exact same color and trim level, so other than being bigger (taller and longer), it looks pretty similar. It has a diesel engine too, which is a first for me. I never felt like my F-150 didn’t have enough power to pull my trailer, but the new truck is heavier duty so it doesn’t get pushed around by the trailer in windy conditions, and the diesel engine brake is amazing for maintaining speed while going down hill without having to worry about burning up the standard brakes. Another nice feature of having a diesel engine is the ability to use the truck lanes at truck stops, which makes refueling so much faster (much larger fuel nozzles fill my 35 gallon tank in a little over a minute), and safer and easier (getting in and out without worrying about cars and just being able to pull straight through every time).
Hocking Hills
Hocking Hills, Ohio
I was fortunate enough to find another stretch of nice looking weather at the end of August, so I got a last minute reservation for three nights at the Hocking Hills State Park Campground starting Monday, August 28th. It was about a two hour and 45 minute drive and about 144 miles, with a decent amount of that being off interstates, although there was still a lot of four lane divided highways too. Overall it was pretty hilly (not surprising based on the name of the area), but a pretty easy drive. One thing to keep in mind if I go back is when approaching Adelphi, maybe ignore Google’s directions and stay on the main roads instead of taking Cremery Hill Road. It’s not impossible to drive, but is tighter than I would like. The campground itself was just fine: 
Since I got a last minute reservation, the site was a little shorter than I would normally go for and it wasn’t very wide, but fortunately I didn’t have anybody immediately next to me while I was there. It was also an electric only site, which I didn’t experience much last year, so I’m still trying to figure out my water requirements. Approximately 10 gallons a day was a little short for quick showers/drinking/dishes without changing my habits really, so it should probably be closer to 13-15, or be more strict with how I use the water. Thanks to my parents, as part of my birthday present, I now have a five gallon water container so I can more easily grab a few gallons if I run short again.
Mammoth Cave
Cave City, KY
Spring camping got away from me this year as my camper and truck both spent many weeks getting repairs, so I got a late start on camping this year. August 1-3 finally had a good looking forecast and a campground with availability that I was interested in, so I headed down to Singing Hills RV campground in Cave City, KY, which is just a few minutes down the road from Mammoth Cave National Park. It was a small park (no picture, sorry, I’m apparently out of practice), that wasn’t particularly nice, but was perfectly adequate and convenient to the National Park.
Final Stretch
Travel Day - Amarillo, TX
On Saturday I made the 300 mile, five hour drive to Amarillo, Texas for the night. I stayed at another Harvest Host, this time a winery called Bar Z. It turned out they were having their 7th Annual Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River Festival that night, so they had live music, a food truck, and you paid one cover fee and got to taste wine from three different wineries, mixed drinks from a local vodka distillery, a gift bag, plus a soft sided wine glass: 
It was a cool evening, but it was still nice to sit on their patio, especially since I got there towards the end of the festival and the rep from the distillery wanted to get rid of the rest of the vodka so I got a very healthy pour.
Albuquerque
Travel Day - Grants, NM
On Tuesday I got up and headed to Grants, New Mexico, with a stop at the Petrified Forest National Park along the way. It was a total of about 337 miles and about 6.5 hours of driving, not including the time I spent walking around in the park. It was the first time that I had the trailer with me while sight-seeing, and I am really glad I didn’t do that much before. There were a few lookouts I had to skip altogether because there wasn’t enough room to turn around, and some others that I had to skip because there wasn’t any available RV parking. It didn’t even seem particularly busy either, just bad timing on my part apparently. The trail around the Petrified Forest Visitor Center was nice though, some of the logs were absolutely beautiful: 
At the other end of the park is the Painted Desert, it was beautiful too: 
Scottsdale
Travel Day - Fort McDowell, AZ
I made the 103 mile drive from Sedona down to Fort McDowell, Arizona, which is just outside Scottsdale, in two hours. Somewhat surprisingly to me, I think this was the first drive I’ve had where I’ve actually been delayed in traffic. Thankfully it wasn’t much of a delay, probably only 15-20 minutes worth, but to be on the road for this long and not run in to any delays was a pretty good run. I expect this might get worse as I continue to drive between fairly large cities across the South to get back home. The campground is fairly decent, i.e. I actually have room to put out my awning, and I have a nice view of some mountains from the back of my campsite: 
Sedona
Travel Day - Camp Verde, AZ
On Sunday I made the 80 mile drive down to Camp Verde, Arizona in a little less than two hours. It has been really nice having these short drive days where I don’t have to deal with getting gas with my trailer hooked up. Even though it was a short drive by distance, it was from about 7000 feet down to about 3000 feet and the temperature adjusted accordingly. I got spoiled with almost perfect weather last week, highs of 80 during the day and lows in the 50s at night, but I’m back to 90+ during the day and mid 70s at night. This campground might be the smallest campsites yet, but the proximity to Sedona is very nice: 
Williams
Travel Day - Las Vegas, NV
On Saturday I made the 160 mile, three hour drive to Las Vegas, Nevada for the night. The campground wasn’t the nicest and didn’t seem to be in a great part of town, but the site was level enough that I didn’t have to unhook the trailer, and it was less than a 20 minute Uber to the strip, so it was adequate for the night: 
I met my friend Bridgette at Beer Park in front of the Paris hotel to watch the UK football game. The weather had cooled off a lot so we were able to comfortably sit outside, which was a nice change. It was great to see her and nice to have another UK fan to watch the game with!