Leaving Charleston behind, it would be a 229 mile drive to our next destination, Camping World Racing Resort in Concord, NC, a campground that we had stayed at before. Our drive started out pleasant enough but as we approached the city of Charlotte, NC, there was very heavy traffic, possibly due to some type of sporting event that day. Oh, well, we would get there eventually!

It would be a two night stay at Camping World Racing Resort on site #I23.

Good thing because the weather forecast for our 2nd day there wasn’t so great!

Fortunately, the bad weather didn’t interfere with our plans to stock up on supplies at the nearby BJ’s. And since we hadn’t been to an Ikea in a very long time, we decided to pay a visit to their nearby store. Or perhaps it was the thoughts of Swedish meatballs for lunch that lured us to visit the store! Somehow we managed to escape without purchasing anything other than lunch!

It would be a 138 mile drive to our next destination, Simple Site RV in Rocky Mount, VA. Simple, that’s for sure! Small campground with only 9 gravel pull thru, full hookup sites and no amenities. They claim to be the most affordable RV Parks near Blue Ridge Parkway! For what you get (basically nothing except a full hookup), their daily rate of $50 seems a little high.

Our next few nights at a campground where we have stayed many times before would be a lot more enjoyable!  to Endless Caverns RV Resort in New Market, VA which would be our home for three nights on site E52, a very long pull thru site on the side of the hill.

Read about our previous visits in these posts – Another Endless Visit and Endless Exploring. Since we initially stayed here back in 2014, there have been many improvements made to the resort. They now have cabins, pickleball courts, disc golf, a jumping pad, a corn hole court, a heated swimming pool, a playground, a camp store, hiking trails and of course, for an additional cost, their historic cave tours. Lots to do at the resort as well as in the surrounding area! Plus if you are a member (we are), there is a 50% Passport America discount. Be aware that it is only valid for one night Sunday through Thursday.

Except for enjoying a roaring campfire and the beautiful surrounding scenery from our perch on the hillside, we didn’t take advantage of any of the resort’s amenities. Instead we opted to explore the area, visiting a few of the places we had been before.

After enjoying ham and cheese omelets for breakfast at the Southern Kitchen in downtown New Market,

we headed to Mt. Jackson for another visit to Route 11 Potato Chips. Although they don’t give tours, visitors can watch the chips being made through large windows overlooking their production floor. On our previous visit in 2024 they weren’t in production so we didn’t get to see how the chips were made but we did get to sample their delicious chips.

On this day, we were in luck so we were able to see how the chips were produced, flavored and packaged. Unfortunately, photos of the production floor are not allowed. But they do have a video on their website. Of course, we didn’t leave empty handed!

And another favorite spot we like to visit is the Meems Bottom Covered Bridge! Here’s a video of our playing chicken with a massive piece of farm equipment followed by our driving across the covered bridge!

From there, we drove to the enchanting town of Luray, located in Virginia’s famous Shenandoah Valley, where the famous Luray Caverns are located. Back in 2000, before we were RV’ers and bloggers, we had visited these gorgeous caverns as well as the Car & Carriage Caravan Museum.

See our other photos from our visit to this spectacular attraction.

And even though it was a somewhat cloudy day, we couldn’t resist entering Shenandoah National Park at the Thornton Gap entrance so we could take a drive on Skyline Drive, a 105-mile scenic roadway that runs north to south through Shenandoah National Park.  

One of the highlights of the drive was a stop at Mary’s Rock Tunnel, located at mile 32.2, the only vehicular tunnel in the park. The tunnel was constructed in 1932 by workers employed with the Civilian Conservation Corps. Drill, blast, clear. Drill, blast, clear. That was the mantra of the workers as they carved through 600 feet of solid granite using 1000 pounds of dynamite per day on the eastern slopes of Mary’s Rock, a 3,514-foot tall mountain. The end result – a two lane 670 foot long tunnel and only 12 ft 8 in high. Certainly not RV friendly! BTW, you can read about our previous visit to Shenandoah Valley National Park and driving on a different section of Skyline Drive in 2018.

It was getting late in the afternoon – definitely time to head back to Endless Caverns. One final campfire!

One more quick overnight stop in Wilkes Barre, PA at the Mohegan Sun. One of our complaints about this place is that the parking lot is fairly hilly so sometimes it is hard find a level parking space but luckily it worked out. Not much else to report here – just a quiet and lazy night.

Facing a 300 mile drive on the last leg of our journey back to RI, the next morning we were on our way early. Thankfully it was a relatively uneventful drive. By late afternoon, we had arrived. Woo hoo!