Thursday • February 8
At 7pm EST, we departed from New Jersey, heading south on I-95, passing through Baltimore and DC. It wasn’t until nearly 2am that we reached our first AirBNB: a cozy tiny home nestled in the mountains of Virginia.
Friday • February 9
The next morning, we were pleasantly surprised by the beautiful scenery in the daylight. With a restful night’s sleep behind us, we enjoyed fresh eggs from our host’s chickens and the company of their friendly goats roaming around their pen.
Initially, we planned to hike dog-friendly trails in Shenandoah National Park, but the trails were farther away than expected. We decided to save that for another time and continued our journey with over 5 hours of driving ahead.
Along the way on I-81, we stopped for some fresh coffee at a local roaster, Roadmap Coffeeworks, and took a moment to stretch our legs at New River Trail State Park.
As evening approached, we traversed the Great Smoky Mountains, passing through Pigeon Forge, a quintessential tourist town. Although, if you click that link, you could understand that it can’t be missed… It’s just maybe a bit over-the-top. I’ll speak for both of us when I say there was some relief when we passed through that chaos and found ourselves winding through some quiet mountain roads instead.
Our accommodations at Tremont Lodge in Townsend featured a fireplace, perfect for the chilly mountain weather. Despite the weather, the long drive called for a cold beer. We indulged in some impressive local brews from Peaceful Side Social and ended the night with a cozy fire (thanks to a very diligent Bram) and The Office reruns.
Saturday • February 10
The following morning, we packed up and made our way to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We were set on visiting one of the park’s official welcome centers about an hour away from the lodge. We spent about 30 minutes driving through one of the park’s beautiful main roads when we stumbled upon Sugarlands Visitor Center first and decided to stop in.
It turns out that one of the park’s only dog-friendly trails was just behind this visitor center. So, we were in luck and decided to take the hike, making the best of the rainy weather. After about two hours of exploring the trail and the visitor center, we got back on the road.
What’s a road trip without taking some quirky detours? I was clicking around Google Maps when I found a place called Murphy, North Carolina and it was conveniently on the way to our next stop (via the scenic route.) Sadly, the park rangers had blocked off the main road we needed to take out through the park to get to there – so no fun photo ops for Mr. Murph in front of Murphy Town Hall or Murphy Park. We settled on making our way straight down to Alabama instead. (If anyone reads this and passes through Murphy, NC sometime, please send us a picture <3)
Our final stop before we settled in New Orleans: Sweet Home Alabama. We stopped about 45 minutes northeast from Birmingham, Alabama. I guess it’s important for us to note that we are avoiding major cities for overnight stays as we have a car loaded up with many goodies that would be:
- too much of a hassle to unload every time we stopped
- too risky to leave packed and unattended
The AirBNB was called Clover Cabin and my oh my was it a treat! It was another tiny home on a homestead, this time in the hills of Alabama. The host had a bunch of chickens, two goats (I’m sensing a theme here), and lots of property with trails to explore. It ended up raining all night long, but it was that perfect kind of pouring rain that just sends you into a deep sleep.
Sunday • February 11
In the morning, Murphy and one of the goats had many staring contests with one another. We let them say some hellos and eventually, goodbye. It was time for us to start our final drive to New Orleans.
I took the wheel for the remaining 5.5hr leg of the trip. We passed through Birmingham and Tuscaloosa in Alabama, were welcomed in Mississippi with Tornado Watch alerts, and finally made it past the storm and through to Lake Pontchartrain, north of The Big Easy.
We arrived in the vibrant city of New Orleans just before dark. After unpacking the car, it was time to head into the French Quarter to do our first bit of exploring – but more on that to come in the next update. 🙂
Ciao for now. Bean, Bram & Murph
Life on the Reis 
Leave a comment