More Wandering 2017

Red River Gorge, Kentucky, May 7-14

7 May 2017, Sunday

After much preparation we are on the road at 1 pm for our shakedown journey aboard Vincent…VanGo, that is… our new 4 wheel drive Sprinter cargo van. O and I are accompanied on this trip by G, now a New York City refugee seeking new paths forward. Since this is a short trip I researched places not too far away that would be scenic, provide lots of day hiking opportunities, and would be geologically interesting. I settled on the Red River Gorge in Kentucky, home to the highest concentration of natural arches east of the Mississippi. We get a bit of a late start today as G is returning home this morning from a contradance in Chatham, NY. O and I aren’t quite done loading Vincent anyway. I need to pack the last of our food supplies in our Yeti cooler. 

Our van arrived at the end of December 2016, after a nine month wait. He is currently classified as a truck, a heavy duty truck at that.  O and I ordered windows for Vincent that open and have screens. The windows give him that sleek all-glass look on the sides. (CycleVan in NJ did an excellent job with installation.)  Now that we have windows, Vince can eventually be reclassified as a passenger van, after an enhanced vehicle safety inspection. “Yep! Those are windows! Looks like a passenger van to me. $250.00 please.” We also have had the forward part of Vincent’s cargo area covered by Abilitrax flooring. This was installed by Brunswick Mobility in NJ. Very friendly staff and excellent work! Now we can put in as many as 6 extra seats if needed. The seats fold compactly. We plan to take two seats with us on our cross-country journey. On this trip we are also using two seats, one as a sort of storage area behind the driver’s seat, and one for our additional passenger, G.

We head west from home along the PA Turnpike and then turn south towards Cumberland, MD where we stop at Patrick’s Pub for dinner. Our sandwiches and draft beers are quite good. From Cumberland we have only 70 miles more to Morgantown, WV where we stop for the night. We have been driving through intermittent showers all afternoon. The sun falls behind the mountain ridges as we drive this last stretch, leaving a golden rim above the hills. Above are patches of darkening blue sky and the ragged remains of gray rain clouds and virga. Ahead of us are two great arches of rose-colored clouds beckoning us westward.