First let me just admit that this trip was doomed before it even began. It clearly resided in the realm of catastrophies. We should have recognized the forboding signs… First the truuuck decided to throw a battery warning so we took it to our mechanic. Alternator failure. A new one was ordered & installed just under a week before our camping trip was due to commence. Sadly it suffered “infant mortality” and popped after 30 minutes. Mechanic ordered another one, due Monday.

Meanwhile back at the ranch one of our freezers died, causing a panicked reshuffle of meats & cheeses to the remaining duo. Mind you, this death occured a week before our next half cow is due to arrive… Auspiciously awful timing indeed.

Speaking of awful timing, the replacement alternator did not show up til Wednesday morning, which coincidentally was also the day our camping reservation started. We finally picked up the truck and loaded the camper to hit the road at 3:30.

We arrived at Big Meadows campground in Shenandoah National Park shortly after 5pm. It was a balmy 42 degrees. We walked the boys then got to work installing the replacement carbon monoxide detector. Once that was done we fired up the propane heater as Shenandoah is pure boondocking – no electric – and it was supposed to be 28 degrees overnight.

The heater worked delightfully, and we were toasty little campers! But by morning light the propane tank(s) were sadly also a tad on the light side. We walked over to the lodge for breakfast, then to the camp store/gas station to see about refilling our propane. One would *think* that an RV propane refill station would be a no brainer/money maker in a campground without electric, but sadly, no… When we arrived back to the camper the heat was off as all propane was completely exhausted.

So our lovely autumn sojourn in prime leaf peeping season was sadly cut short. The one bright side is our new yeti 3000 battery backup for the camper works brilliantly! And the views during the drive home were simply sublime!

The best part is that falls beauty continued to enchant us even when we arrived home! The views from our decks are amazing! A delightfully brilliant kaleidoscope of fall colors!

This is undoubtably the most majestic display we’ve seen in several years.