Hitched and Rolling

I owe all of you an apology.

As you will see, this post ends on or around New Year’s Day 2026 – that is, January 1, 2026. But I write this apology addendum in August of 2026, just over 8 months later. Some of what you are about to read was written in real time, and some was filled in later. I apologize because this is far too late to be posting the final post of this blog. To those of you that followed the trip, I dropped the ball on this capstone post, and effectively left you hanging, and for that I am sorry.

Without further ado:

We arrived after dark, so my assessment is somewhat limited, but my initial impression of Savannah is that it is like a movie set. Our “accomodation” (abandoned parking lot) was adequate and after making that determination and changing out cloths we called an Uber to pick us up and bring us into town. We got dropped off by our uber around 9pm in the historic district and walked the streets under a half moon. I felt like I was in a place that was half New Orleans and half Richmond, which, geographically, is not terribly inaccurate. Oversized streets lined with quiet, historic brick mansions and kerosine lamps. A towering canopy of ancient-seeming trees and the Spanish Moss that hung from them created a sort of tunnel through which the clomp clomp clomp clomp of horse drawn carriages emerged and returned. It felt more like a movie set than universal studios, where we took a set tour in Los Angeles. We stopped at a lovely English Pub as we meandered towards the water where the nightlife is more concentrated, and finally, after another stop for some light food and drinks, took a cab back to our van, which we had left at a harvest host brewery outside of town in an industrial park. I was enamored by the city for its unique charm.

In the morning we walked around Savannah some more and got breakfast at a diner that was in the park. We walked around and checked out the architecture which is really unique and pretty, but somehow in the-morning-after the intoxicating charm had worn, and my feet hurt. Onward! Next stop: Asheville.

On our way towards Asheville we stopped for gas and as I was conveniently on the phone, Bre decided to try her hand at emptying the latrine by herself. My absenteeism proved painful, as there was some kind of basically-catastrophic spillage in the restroom, and our first-time tank emptier returned flatly angry, accusatory even.

We did not reach Asheville in one shot. Instead we stopped in a suburb of Atlanta to visit my friend Kochan for an early dinner. Like many stops on the tour, we were enjoying the company too much to take a photo, but we had a nice meal of pizza before continuing towards Asheville. We slept somewhere between Atlanta and Asheville at a golf-course hotel (which miraculously was open at 11pm to accept non-scheduled checkins in the pro shop). In the morning we were on the road again.

On our way to Asheville, we found ourselves close enough to the blue ridge parkway that a detour made sense. We rode the parkway for a few miles until we saw a nice pull off where we stopped for a hike. The hike was absolutely beautiful and reminded me almost exactly of Shenandoah. It was FREEZING so we bundled up and hit the trail. Bre was genuinely terrified that a tree would fall over and hurt us, so we picked our way up the windy ridge with some level of caution and awareness, stopping periodically to let particularly violent gusts pass. The summit, only about a mile from the car, was spectacular, and we felt accomplished as I shed a layer and tied it around my waist for the walk back down.

After hiking back down the way we came, and then driving back the way we came, we passed for the second time a unique-looking hotdog restaurant and decided to pull in and reward the peculiar decor with our patronage. It seemed like a hole in the wall NASCAR themed hot dog joint in the middle of rural North Carolina – and it turned out to be exactly what it seemed like.

When we arrived in Asheville we checked into our hotel and decided to leave the heat in the empty van on overnight, as the van’s owner had instructed if we suspected it might drop below freezing. I am glad we did because it ended up getting down into the 20s that night.

We explored a beer district in Asheville and had a lot of fun trying the town’s various beer oddities. I had a flight at a sour-only brewery and we split a pepperoni pizza, but for the first time on the trip I was under the weather – my stomach was not cooperating. I do not suspect any connection to the hot dogs.

After a fun evening in the frigid mountains we hit the road and headed a few hours over to Raleigh where we went to visit Meg and Willy. Meg was a combat medic in the Army who did two tours in the middle east – in other words, she is a massive badass, and she had her husband Willy just moved to Raleigh with their new baby Jo. It was great to see them and check out their awesome house. We warmed up with some delicious mulled wine and Meg made a fantastic dinner. After dinner we all hung out in the baby’s playroom (apparently the quietest room in the house, noise-insulated from the baby’s bedroom) while the baby slept. After a few glasses of wine I was asking Meg about life on a military base in the middle east and she was kind enough to humor me with some insight. Thank you to our service members!!! Incredible. Such a fun evening.

In the morning we did what we are best at – hitting the road. Today we were heading to Virginia, which is where the van typically lives (where we rented it), and so for that reason kind of represents a full-circle-ness to the trip. Its starting to smell like home!

Our first stop in the great state of Virginia was Andy and Anna’s house. Andy and Anna are good friends of Bre’s, who grew up with Anna in Rappahannock. Their house is one of my favorite houses I have ever visited. Andy and Anna have an eye for a distinct type of art and decor such that their house simply feels good for the soul when you enter. It is like a functional, living, welcoming art museum, and one that I enjoy thoroughly. It was wonderful to see them and hang out, and we had fun playing with the girls who were very excited to see the most popular member of the hitched and rolling crew, “Duke Dog”.

As the day turned towards evening we went over to Claire and Greg’s house, which is also in Richmond just a few minutes away. Claire and Greg were kind enough to host everyone for the evening because today was New Year’s Eve. Greg used his new saw to demolish the Christmas tree, which made for an entertaining operation, and we had a great time doing that and moving the pieces out the curb where they were now appropriately sized for pickup and disposal. As the night continued someone broke out “Twister” and I got a manicure of blue and pink. I did not partake in the game of Twister but I respect those two did; frankly I forgot how difficult the game is.

As the evening turned towards night Andy had one of the more brilliant parenting ideas that I have ever seen. The girls (4 and 2, roughly) really wanted to stay up and watch the ball drop for new years, but for a variety of possibly-obvious reasons Andy and Anna did not want that to happen. In a stroke of genius hereto unseen by this non-parent, Andy decided to go on youtube and search “2023 new years ball dropping”. He was able to find a 10 or 15 minute countdown to midnight video, which he put on the TV around 8PM. It worked perfectly! The girls were quite pleased that they were able to stay up to see the ball drop and all parties were satisfied. Because the girls needed to go to sleep we went back home shortly thereafter. Before our last night in the van and after the girls went to bed, we invited Andy and Anna over (invited over might be a misnomer because we were practically in their driveway) for a tour of our ambulating domicile and a glass of wine. All in all a wonderful new years eve in Richmond!

So there you have it. Hitched and Rolling was complete. Now, the only thing to do was drive a couple hours back to DC.


But… we didn’t want to!
The van rental agreement said that we had one more day until we needed to be back so I suggested a “bonus night”. Bre quickly accepted my suggestion and it was settled that we would stay one final night in Shenandoah. BUT A quick look at the map and a slow start in the morning rendered that untenable. So we decided to go to Big Sky Meadows state park. We spent the day meandering across rural Virginia in that direction. Only problem is that when we got there, we learned that Sky Meadows does not allow car camping. Whoops. Whats life on the road without a little self-imposed adversity.

I quickly hopped on the harvestHosts app and found that there was a farm a few minutes away at which we might be able to camp. Somehow, it was already dusk when I called the Host. I think he was a little caught off guard because he usually requires more notice, but I explained the situation and he said I was welcome to come on down. So we did.

When we pulled into Steves farm we were so pleasantly surprised. This property is absolutely fantastic. He has cattle and a sold meat that he had raised and had processed up the street. We purchased some steaks, sausages and jerky and talked with Steve for about an hour. A very nice guy who I think was glad that we had asked to stop by as well – a win win – he liked our set up and van and enjoyed hearing about the trip.

In the morning I was texting with my friend (and our wedding minister) Bryan Clubb. Bryan looked up our location and said that we were close to his parents house and that I should text them. I had no idea we were close and immediately texted his dad Chris who just so happens to be one of 2 (MAYBE 3) people that acutally read this blog. Having followed this adventure Chris was no stranger to the trip and he and Mrs. Clubb soon texted back that they would love to meet up. We selected a location near their house and on our route and decided to meet in about an hour.

The Clubbs were nice enough to bring us coffee and we had a wonderful meeting at the local park. The dogs got to play and Mr. and Mrs. Clubb got an enthusiastic tour of the van, which they were probably not as into as I was. As I said, Mr. Clubb has been one of our loyal followers so I think it was fun for him to see the van that he has read about. His support actually dates back to the Appalachian Trail blog that I made, so he knows the history of my relationship with Bre better than most. What a fun and fitting way to end the trip, a worthy and wonderful final stop!

Chris, I’m sorry that I took so long to get this post up. I would love to make an excuse but unfortunately one does not exist. Thank you for your support (and for the coffee)!

Well folks – there you have it. The trip ended and so must this blog. Thank you so much to everyone who supported us, both in life and on the trip. This was a really cool way to start our marriage. It was not always easy. It was not always fun. But it was mostly fun, and we made some wonderful memories visiting friends all across the country, memories that we will cherish for a lifetime. We really felt the love from all of the people who we visited and who came to the wedding, and I just could not be more grateful for the community (nationally-distributed as it may be) that Bre and I have as a foundation to start our new life together.

Cheers and thank you,
Brad and Bre