We had a route planned to get to Rockford, Illinois for our last campsite of the trip, but we soon found out that roads were out in every direction.

Well, we wish we could've stayed in North Carolina for days, but we had to start heading home.

The hills were much bigger in Northern North Carolina. 
That's because they're mountains. Well, I guess so are the ones in Virginia.
Apparently there's a mile high bridge on top of Grandfather Mountain. Next time.

They always said that Viriginia was for lovers, so it was fitting that we'd camp here someday.

Next we headed south for our last night in West Virginia.

Next we went to a campsite above the Greenbrier State Forest.
We met our host Joshua at the bottom and followed him up the nerve wracking drive to the top.
You can tell I was focusing intently as I forced my little Honda Insight up the steep incline.
We survived. Although the weather was misty and a little chilly. 
We took the short walk up to our campsite to set up camp. 
Meadow doesn't always like wearing backpacks, but I love when she's willing to hike in with her sleeping bag.
We'd picked up some take out Mexican in a town on the road in. Yuengling and some Mexican classics. It just seemed right.
After dinner we explored the area. The camp host, Joshua mentioned there were old logging trails we could take along the property. 
This site is called Mountaintop Solitude. We really did feel all alone up here atop West Virginia.

We saw these bug nests on a lot of the trees.

Day 1  Scott had gotten a lucky gig to check out some off the beaten path campsites for Hipcamp. Our trip was going to bring us to the Appalachians. We packed our car full and headed east "early" Friday morning.

Early for us is never that early, but at least we got out on the road at a decent hour.
While driving through Madison we stopped at Cabela's to pick up a few more supplies that we would need.
Our original plan was to make it to Indiana Sand Dunes tonight. Scott mentioned that if we drive through Milwaukee we could skip the Chicago tolls. I agreed and then he asked if we could stop in Cudahy to say hi to the folks. I said we might as well stay the night. 
When we got there we went to Tsing Tao with my dad, my childhood favorite restaurant. It's in an old Ihop and has a great buffet at any time of the day. 
Sorry Scott, I wasn't impressed.
That's because your pretentious.
Anyways, Meadow decided she didn't want to eat with her grandpoppy and me. So, Bro…