RV Snowbird Season Four Begins!

Susan O'Hanlon
Nov 16
8 min read

Welcome to Snowbird Season Four! We are on the road again, and so happy to have you along for the ride! Before we begin, I want to point out that we’ll be sharing our Snowbird Season Four a little differently this year. Rather than posting monthly about our travels, I’ll be adding content to this blog post so all the information from Season Four is in one place. You can check back whenever you’d like for updates, and follow me on Facebook and Instagram (@SusanOHanlonPottery) for announcements of new blog content.

At the same time, I’ll be creating some blog content specific to RV Living for RV’ers who might benefit from our experience but are not personally invested in our travel adventures. Content in these posts will include:

in-depth campground reviews,
RV modifications to optimize space and functionality,
our experiences and impressions of camp hosting and work camping,
healthful eating on the road,
fueling creativity through RV adventures,
RV trip planning tips using RVLifePro,
RV modifications for warmth and comfort,
and so much more!

If you’re looking for the type of content mentioned above, you’ll find it in other entries on our blog. Be sure to subscribe so you’ll get notifications when I post new content.

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For now, our followers are anxious for news on the beginning of Snowbird Season Four.

So … let’s buckle up and get started!

A map of our Snowbird Season Four journey

As you can see from the map above, Snowbird Season Four will take us southeast, where we’ll revisit some of our favorite spots and explore some new campgrounds as well. If all goes according to plan, we’ll be on the road for about 5-1/2 months.

There are a few big changes for us this year:

1 - We’ll be volunteering in exchange for campsite accommodations for three months of our journey. We’re excited to serve the community of campers that we love, and hoping to foster new friendships among our fellow volunteers along the way.

2 - Maggie (our RV) and Max (our car) are hitched! We are finally set up for flat towing, and I’m especially excited to have wheels for interim grocery runs, exploring beyond the campgrounds we stay in, and driving the photographer to the photo shoot.

Snowbird Season Four started one day later than expected, because packing takes sooooo long! We left four weeks ago and made our first stop was the Shady Maple parking lot (huge and empty on a Sunday) to get more familiar with flat towing and turning radiuses. We battled fierce winds and decided to call it a day once we cleared Harrisburg (about 1.5 hours from our home … LOL … but at least we were en route!). The lovely folks at Cracker Barrel in Carlisle, PA rolled out the RV red carpet and we parked there for the night, starting out early the next day and driving through more extreme wind to call that day done at a Cracker Barrel in Virginia. Later than we planned but still within our reservation window, we arrived at Lake Powhatan Recreation Area, just south of Asheville, NC.

Nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains and just a few minutes from the parkway, the park was beautiful and the surrounding area stunning. We took full advantage of our tow vehicle, driving the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway in both directions and seeing some amazing vistas. Naturally, I tried to time these excursions for sunset.

We ventured out one evening to a microbrewery for a Beatles sing-along. The finale, Hey Jude, brought back memories of when Steve and I were gifted tickets (shout out to Bea!) to see Paul McCartney perform live. Paul closed out that fabulous night with “Hey Jude” and, way up there in the nosebleed section of Veterans’ Stadium, we felt the reverberation of thousands of voices singing in unison as cigarette lighters swayed in time to the music.

Always up for adventure, Steve and I hiked seven hundred feet up a mountain trail to an observation tower on one of the tallest peaks in the area to witness the sun setting over the Blue Ridge Mountains in 360 degrees of utter glory. It was bitterly cold and extremely windy, but neither of us really wanted to venture higher up the rickety observation tower, so we snuggled on a landing about halfway up while we bid farewell to a beautiful day - and then hustled back down the mountain path before full dark set in because neither of us had thought to bring a flashlight and our phones were nearly dead.

As we drove the Blue Ridge Parkway, we witnessed some of the destruction caused in this area just one year ago. A mountain of felled trees caught my eye as we drove into the city, and it reminded me of the mountains of rusted automobiles at the “car eater” in South Philadelphia from my childhood. Then, my brothers and I would glue ourselves to the window of our family’s 1963 Volkswagen Bug, filled with the thrill of victory if we were fortunate enough to witness the car compactor in action.

As we passed this mountain of felled trees, I felt utterly bereft by the scope of loss these trees represented for the environment, as well as the devastation they represented for members of the Asheville community. I would soon learn (from a lovely couple who shared a sunrise along the Blue Ridge Parkway with me on their 50th wedding anniversary) that every community in the area has it’s own massive pile of felled trees from the disaster, and that one nearby town’s pile had spontaneously combusted just a week or so before our visit. So much hardship these communities have endured!

Asheville is home to a thriving arts community, and The River Arts District was particularly hard hit in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. One of my favorite toolmakers (shout out to Michael Sherrill and Mud Tools for their amazing ribs, sponges, and more!) lost almost everything in this catastrophe, and I’ve followed their first-hand account of the devastation on social media, as well as their progress towards rebuilding.

While it nearly broke my heart to witness this level of devastation first hand, even a year after the event, we were also encouraged by evidence of how these communities have pulled together to rebuild from the devastating flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. They’ve overcome personal and ideological differences to recognize the humanity in everyone, banding together for the common good. I wish society as a whole could do that without a natural disaster (or a disaster of another kind) as the impetus.

I went on two solo expeditions along the Blue Ridge Parkway with my tripod and DSLR camera in search of sunrise vistas each day, too.

We also spent some time relaxing, organizing the supplies that had been hastily stashed for our departure, and - of course - feeding the pups’ love for adventurous walks in the great outdoors. Since Steve is in need of a new hip, we’re sticking mostly to the roads, but the pups don’t seem to mind. Oakley and Bandit are both likely about twelve now and are starting to slow down a bit (to which we say, “It’s about time!”). Bandit will still go for miles if there are trails involved, but he’s equally content to chill in Maggie, especially if there’s a chill in the air outside.

Dogs walking along a road in a state park

Our second stop was at a relatively new park in North Carolina. It’s name (Gorges State Park) refers to the river gorges in the area, but is aptly pronounced as gorgeous because everything about this park was beyond gorgeous!

The vistas of the Smoky Mountains were devine, and I found a few spots to take photos within the campground at sunrise and sunset.

We enjoyed an adventurous hike and tested out our new hiking poles en route to Rainbow Falls, which was well worth the effort to get there! Along this challenging hike, I met photographer John Chester setting up for a shoot. I commended him on his dedication, because he had hiked quite a ways with some hefty equipment to get the shots he was after. He smiled, and said “Great photos don’t come to photographer!”

Because John was 100% correct, and because we could (yay for a tow vehicle!), we took a day trip to see more waterfalls in the vicinity. On this excursion, I took my DSLR and got some amazing shots. Many still need to be reviewed and edited, but I included a few of my DSLR photos below. The first one, of Silver Run Falls, is my favorite picture of the day.

As I often do, I offered to take photos of couples and families struggling with selfies at various stops along the way. At Dry Falls, where viewers can walk behind the waterfall, a young couple asked me to take their photo. When the young man handed me his phone, he pointed out that it was in video mode and asked me to keep it rolling. He nodded nervously when I asked if there was a reason and, after faking a selfie, got down on one knee and proposed to his lovely partner. She said yes and showed off her ring as I hastened to wipe the tears from my eyes. It was only as we got into our car that I realized I had gotten their names, but let’s all take a moment to wish the happy young (nameless) couple many years of joy as they embark on their new life together!

Mountain Vista near the Highlands in North Carolina

Feeling celebratory following this experience, we drove through the Highlands area and found an ice cream shop with fabulous reviews. There, we enjoyed a delectable concoction unlike anything I’ve encountered in my quest for discovering the world’s finest ice cream. Kate at Crossroads Custard in Cashier, NC did not disappoint!

This delectable concoction starts with exceptional soft serve custard in either chocolate or vanilla. One of a host of flavorings are mixed into the custard, which is then extruded a second time into a waffle cone or bowl so freshly made it’s still warm in your hand. I had coconut flavor added to chocolate custard, topped with dark chocolate and served in a waffle bowl. It was divine!

Following our stay at Gorges State Park, we headed South to Indian Springs State Park, where we are currently serving our first of three months as volunteers for the Georgia State Parks. We are paired with a lovely couple from the region and share responsibility as Camp Hosts for a new loop in this beautiful park. Our first few days on the job have been enlightening, but we’re getting into the groove. (You’ll be able to read all about our experiences as Camp Hosts in a future blog post.) While the dogs aren’t thrilled that the majority of our steps every day are not in service of their love for long walks, we’re enjoying the experience and the freedom to call this beautiful park home for an entire month.

Camp Host Site 206 at Indian Springs State Park in Flovilla, GA

When we depart here, we’ll head down to the panhandle of Florida for the R&R portion of our adventure, and then return to volunteer at another park in Georgia for January and February before starting our journey home.

Next up is Florida’s Emerald Coast! I’ll be sharing new content and photos in this post in the coming weeks, so stay tuned. I hope this new format serves everyone well, and I welcome your feedback as we continue our journey.

As always, it’s so great to have you along for the ride with us. Thanks for joining us for Snowbird Season Four!