The long-time reader might recall the seed that led to this entire RVing adventure for us.
A single seed
Running the 2014 Charlotte Spartan Sprint
I run Spartan Races. I like running them. I run most of the ones within easy driving distance from our house. I’ve strongly considered expanding the radius I’m willing to go, but that becomes a bit more challenging. My girls almost always accompany me, which means dragging them farther away. It means more time, more hotel costs. But that started a thought.
“It would be pretty fun to travel around the country and do races all over the place.”
That was the seed.
So it always gives me a particular kick to take a trip in Qubie for the purpose I originally envisioned enjoying her for. I got to do that this past weekend with a trip to central Virginia for the 2018 Virginia Spartan Super obstacle course race. We had a lovely, perfect day for driving Friday afternoon for the short, 3 hour trip to a cozy campground, James River State Park. I’d booked a truly enormous pull-through site a long time ago and it worked perfectly for us. I didn’t even unhook Subie, just drove right into the site with her still attached.
We had a restful evening, slept well, and Cat and I proceeded to get well and truly lost on the park’s trail system the following day for our daily exercise. We weren’t completely lost, but my planned 3 miler to shake the legs out in preparation for my race the following day turned into an almost 7 miler because of some poorly marked trails. I talked to one of the rangers later that day who, when hearing of my story, said “oh yeah, that section of the trail [that we needed to take to return to the RV campground] got closed down a while back and we never updated the markings.” No, you sure didn’t.
We spent part of the afternoon exploring nearby Lynchburg where, honestly, nothing was going on. Cat got it in her head that it was home to Virginia Tech so we thought we’d take Julia on a sort of college visit, but subsequent Googling showed us our error (it’s in Blacksburg). After finding a geocache and wandering a bit, we made the tactical decision to head back to Qubie and have a quiet evening at the campground rather than extend the visit.
Finishing with the traditional double-pointy fingers over the fire jump.
Sunday morning we piled in the car and went to the race venue at Infinity Downs. I had an enjoyable race, performed pretty well, and the girls were awesome in their support. I didn’t waste a whole lot of time afterwards since we still had to get home, so I got briefly cleaned up forgoing the traditional after-race free beer and we drove back to the park. After showering, a quick lunch, and breaking camp we were back on the road home. I have to say, with very, very little exception our route through Virginia and North Carolina took us on very nice roads and Qubie was quite comfy, primarily Virginia 29 and 86. Good surfaces and smooth sailing.
We got home at roughly 6PM, got Qubie unpacked, and had the evening to relax before starting the week again. Perfect trip!
Musings revisited
I’d mentioned previously that we’ve started thinking more about our future plans when Julia no longer travels with us, and how it might be time for an upgrade but I had been backing away from that recently. This trip even more firmly cemented it. I think I’m almost completely convinced that Qubie is just right for us, now and in the future. We were sitting in her this weekend and I looked around and there’s nothing I’d change! Moreover, none of the current Tiffin models even up to the Allegro Bus are as appealing to me! Why “upgrade” to something I like less?
So, unless something changes drastically in the next few years, Qubie will remain our lovely rolling home. I can’t wait to see where she takes us next.
Shallow Roots 