Charlotte
10/16 – 10/17
I was asked to guest play with some of my old baseball friends. The tournament was in Charlotte, so we were like, why not. We brought the RV because we would be starting our next trip right after. My mom had booked us a spot at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. There weren’t any events going on, but I did see some tricked-out mustangs. This worked out perfectly because my brother goes to school in Charlotte, so we actually had a cookout with his friends after Sunday’s games.
Tennessee
10/18
We moved from Charlotte, NC, to Pigeon Forge, TN. The drive was 4hr through the mountains. The NC mountains are always beautiful to stop and look at because of the fall foliage. It’s hard to find a super nice campground, but my mom secured three nights at the Ridge RV Resort in Pigeon Forge. The best part about this campground is that there was a gym. My dad and I are planning to work out every day. After we settled, I hit the Cal Ripken Experience located in Pigeon Forge, TN. I had the batting cages to myself; as a matter of fact, I had the whole complex to myself.
I was supposed to come here and play baseball when I was 13, but Covid ruined that. At least I got to hit and see the complex. After hitting, we went to Pigeon Forge’s Titanic museum with authentic artifacts from the ship. We got to visit, and it was quite an experience. I enjoyed the bridge room (Where the captain controls the boat). The museum created a realistic space with the same water temp and same size icebergs on the sinking night. When you enter the room, you walk into the bridge room. But once you step outside the bridge room. It becomes freezing just like it was that night on the titanic. They also have some water to touch to resemble the water temp of that night. This was very cool. We were starving after, so we went to Bennett’s b-b-q. We got bbq chicken, pulled pork, ribs, and coleslaw. Everything was perfect.
10/19
We started the day by going to visit the Tail of The Dragon. This is a road that stretches 11 miles and includes 318 curves. The road connects the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee and the Cherokee National Forest in North Carolina. It’s a thrilling ride that’s also fun and scenic. People will drive at their own pace with motorcycles or cars. Some people will even try to see how fast they can complete the road. This is the exciting part because you get to see psychopaths drive 50 MPH on bikes making turns that scrap their knee pads. We pulled off the road when we entered NC. We found a small mountain town named Bryson, NC. it has a population of 1,458. Many travelers will stop by and go on the scenic train ride up the mountains. After lunch, We grabbed lunch and headed back to our campground. In the evening, I did some throwing and hit the gym.
10/20
We took a hike through Smokey’s National Park. It was a guided tour; she helped us learn about the park’s ecosystem and other fascinating components that created this park. She told us about the wild mushrooms, bears, rules, and what to do in the area. The rule that stuck out to me the most was how dogs were prohibited in the park because owners don’t pick up after them, and they’re loud. The whole hike took about 3 hours, but you can do it in about 45 minutes. She talked too much; my mom and dad also agreed. We went for lunch at a b-b-q place and just chilled the rest of the day. We finished watching the titanic. It’s an accurate movie based on the Titanic. The film and the museum both accurately told and showed the events. Suppose you ever decide to visit the Titanic Museum. In that case, I don’t think it necessary to watch the movie. Still, I think you should have an idea of what the Titanic was and what happened to better understand the experience.
10/21
We moved campground today. We traveled from Pigeon Forge to Goodlettsville. It’s about a 4 hr drive through the mountains with excellent mountain scenery. After we arrived, we drove into Nashville. Nashville is only 20 minutes from the campground in Goodlettsville, making it very convenient to go in and out of Nashville. We drove around Nashville and tried Hattie B’s Hot Chicken. Nashville Hot Chicken is supposedly super spicy and tasty. They have different heat levels, ranging from southern style to shut the cluck up. I got mild because I was trying to enjoy my food, but we also tried hot, which had a little kick. We weren’t daring enough to try shut the cluck up but looking back at it, I’m glad we didn’t. It looked very red in the pictures, which usually means tons of spice and pain. We came back and packed up because my dad and I were heading home for a baseball tournament this weekend.
10/22 – 10/24
I enjoy going home for the weekend. I like the RV life, but nothing beats being home. When I’m home, it feels like life is somewhat normal. I wake up in my own room, have space, and were not always on the go. We all need space right, especially from our parents. Everything about home beats the RV as a home. I don’t dislike the RV, but there are some things I don’t like about it. It’s was a busy weekend for my dad and me. I played some baseball, and I had a friend over.
On the other hand, my dad was checking out all of the recent construction being done on the house and making sure they were on task. My mom stayed with the dogs this weekend. This would be the last time at home for 20 days. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but it feels like a decade.
10/25
I am back in Nashville. We arrived early so we could do things throughout the day. We decided to visit the Andrew Jackson Hermitage. Andrew Jackson was the 7th President of the United States. The hermitage is only 20 minutes from our campground and has many exciting things to learn about and look at. You even get to visit his old house and see where Andrew Jackson raised his family and made memories. Some more about Andrew Jackson and the hermitage would be nice! After, we drove to d-bats so my dad and I could take some bp. The facility was very nice. We stopped at J. Alexander’s for dinner, which was decent.
10/26
Today was our last day in the Nashville area, and we wanted to do a tour. We heard about a trolley tour that takes you through downtown Nashville and shows you some points of interest. We were on our way to the trolleys pickup location when Some guy was advertising tours. He gave us a reasonably good deal and promised to show us everything the trolley would and more. He even gave us a little secret. The secret is that the trolley tours are just taking your money and will drop you off in a location that is not suited for tourists, and he was not lying. He showed us tons of cool spots such as the Vanderbilt baseball field, Taylor Swift’s first apartment, Skulls Kitchen, and the Printer’s Alley area. Skulls Kitchen is a restaurant that has live music and great food. Elvis Presley, Etta James, and Johnny Cash have all played there on the famous checkered floor. He even let us stop and take a look inside. After the fantastic tour, we actually managed to score a reservation there for this evening. We drove back to the RV and threw some baseball while the mechanic was fixing the hydraulic issue in the RV. We had to be back at Skulls around 6:00 pm. The atmosphere is very much like a bar. It’s a full-service restaurant with great music and fun people. The tuna tartare and the lamb were delicious, the Jazz music wasn’t all that good. To be honest, I’m not a Jazz type of guy.
10/27
We moved from Nashville to Chattanooga. The drive was only 2hrs long. Once we arrived, we hooked up and headed to Rock city. This is a 4,100 ft trail in the mountains with these beautiful rock formations. It is located on Lookout Mountain. Lookout Mountain received its name because you can see seven states from it. It once used to be somebody’s backyard, but now it’s a very touristy spot. I totally recommend it; it’s tough to justify how incredible this place is, so I will share the link to take a look at it yourself with images (seerockcity.com). We booked a game of top golf for tonight. We ate there, hit some golf balls, and had a very good time.
10/28
We visited Ride The Incline. It has one of the steepest railway inclines. The ride lasts 15 minutes… You will experience amazing views of the Tennessee Valley and a lookout over Chattanooga, TN. The twist is that you will experience 72% grades up a mountain. The train only goes about 7 mph, but you’re not going for the speed but mainly for the experience and the views. I can definitely say that the hype was there. The views were phenomenal, and the grade was thrilling but amazing; my dad would say otherwise! The railway isn’t too far from Ruby Falls, so we decided to hit both attractions today. Ruby Falls is a waterfall 1,000ft under sea level in a mountain. The fall was impressive; It’s crazy how there is a fall under a mountain. It’s not the remarkable size of the fall, but it was more of the wow factor. It’s rare to see a waterfall underground that you can visit. We stopped by some batting cages on the way back, and I threw a bullpen. We stayed in and watched a movie and had a good night.
10/29
The campground we’re staying at in Chattanooga has lovely owners. The owner is an older man and sells high-dollar coaches such as Prevost’s. Prevost when new can sell upwards of 1.5 million. The reason they’re so expensive is due to the conversion and chassis. They take one standard transportation bus, use the chassis, and sell it to a conversion company. The company then outfits it like an RV. Prevost makes excellent chassis that are top of the line. He had a Prevost in the warehouse and let us tour it. The interior is like how older people style their houses. Not a big fan of it, and the technology inside the coach isn’t better than ours. I understand the hype for the newer Prevost, but not for this one in particular.
We went to downtown Chattanooga and tried to find a restaurant to eat at. There are plenty of restaurants to choose from in every city or town we go to. We all try to find a restaurant with a good menu, and we decide based on the choices. Tonight was my choice. I found Easy Bistro; it’s an oyster bar with delicious menu items. My mom and dad shared a whole fish, and they said it was phenomenal. I think we all agreed I had chosen one of the best restaurants so far on our trips. We keep a score of who chooses the best based on the food, ambiance, and experience. I’m currently in the lead, and I intend to keep it that way.
10/31
Today was very uneventful. We watched a movie, and that was about it. My dad likes Stephen King, so we watched Dead Zone. A film based on Stephen King’s book. The movie is about a man in a 5yr coma and experiences brain damage. The spin is that he can now see the future of somebody’s life with one handshake. He used his ability to help and save people. I rate it a 7/10 due to its lack of jokes and action scenes.
North Carolina
11/01-
We’re back in NC. We moved to Asheville today, its nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains, making it a popular winter and summer destination. The Swannanoa river runs directly through the campground. It has trout and other fish, making it a great spot to fly fish. My dad and I threw some baseball next to the river, and we even saw a monkey. These people had a pet monkey in their camper. That’s something you never see. We saw it from far and got a pic, but we didn’t have the time to go say hi. I wish we could have.
11/02-
We started the morning off by eating breakfast with our Experiential Learning Consultant. He lives in Asheville, and since we were in the area, it made the most sense. We talked about our travels, what I’ve enjoyed and learned. After our little meeting, we made our way to Catawba Falls with the dogs. The trail follows the river up to the fall, creating gorgeous views. We climbed the rocky area up to the fall with the dogs. It was challenging, but we pulled through. After some pictures and admiring, we made our way back down. The dogs were a little clueless on the way down, and we were trying to do it as safely as possible with people coming up the same way. We managed to get down safely, and we took some pictures of the fall and the fall foliage. We made a dinner reservation at Curate. It’s supposedly the best restaurant in the Asheville area. We have a few places similar to it back in Raleigh, like Mateo or Barcelona. These restaurants are all tapas, and they’re all excellent. In my opinion, Barcelona is the better restaurant because of the better tasting dishes and a wider variety of tapas.
11/3
The Biltmore is one of the largest privately-owned homes in the U.S. it has about 175,000 sq ft of living space. In the 175,000 sq ft. There are 250 rooms, 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces, and if that doesn’t justify the house. It sits on about an 8,000-acre lot. We had the chance to tour it, and it was huge. The front gate or the start of the property was about 2 miles from the house, and the main rooms had 20 to 30 ft high ceilings. These are just some of the house’s features that stood out to me. They also claim to have the first indoor swimming pool & and bowling alley at a residential home in the late 1800s. The Biltmore also has a pretty garden, but we didn’t come at the right time. I hope I get to visit someday in the summer when the visibility is good, and the plants are vibrant. We did catch some beautiful fall foliage on the drive back from the Biltmore. We drove into downtown Asheville and ate and visited some art galleries. We went back home, and I did some running.
South Carolina
11/4 – 11/7
We spent the weekend in Charleston, SC. I was supposed to have a three-day tournament with my team, but we only had 2 games, equivalent to a 1-day tournament. We played Friday night; conditions were 39 degrees and rain. I pitched very well in those conditions, and I dominated up on the mound. Saturday was our team breakfast and games in the afternoon. We found out at about 10 am that all games had been canceled for the day, so we went to sky zone and had some fun! Kiawah is actually one of our favorite summertime vacation spots. My dad rented out a cage near Kiawah island for some practice. Most of the team drove up after sky zone to hit before Sunday’s game. It was weird being so close and not actually going. The game on Sunday did not get canceled, and I pitched once again. My pitching this weekend was phenomenal, and I even broke someone’s wood bat.
11/8
After three days of horrible weather in Charleston, it was time to move to Savannah, Georgia. Once we arrived at Creek fire camping resort, we got some tacos for lunch, and I did some work back at the RV. My dad and I hit at this outdoor cage. I have a Perfect Game showcase this weekend, so I’m making sure I’m extra prepared. We got home and then ate dinner.
Georgia
11/9
Today, we got a tour of Savannah. I didn’t like the tour, but my parents enjoyed it. Savannah was the first city that was planned. During the civil war, General William Sherman did his march to the sea. He started off by burning Atlanta and then made his way to Savannah. Once he arrived, he realized that Savannah was too beautiful to burn, so he decided to give the city to President Lincoln as a Christmas present. James Oglethorpe laid the city out in 1733. He laid it in such a way that allowed the streets to form squares in the city. Savannah had 24 original squares; 22 squares exist today. The squares were used as town meeting places and centers of business? Most squares have history, gardens, and beautiful oak trees. These oak trees are very famous in Savannah because of their size and life expectancy. Most squares have Spanish moss, but the Johnson square lacks it. He told us the Johnson square is haunted like Savannah. The actual reason is that the wind coming into Johnson square causes the moss to not stick to the trees. The most fascinating thing I learned is how Georgia oaks are protected heavily by the GOV. If someone was to damage, kill, or puncture the tree.
You can be fined tens of thousands of dollars, and the tree would basically belong to you. Meaning you would pay for the tree to be installed and kept. The oak trees live for about 200 years, the city was replanted over a hundred years ago… they are keeping a close watch on them! After independence, Savannah became highly profitable by discovering that their soil was favorable for cotton. Slavery & cotton plantation flourished, the old southern fortunes were being made, and the town’s architecture became more and more exceptional. For many years, The streets are still flanked with beautiful antebellum mansions that are now historically protected by the Savannah historical society. Many of the world cotton prices were fixed at the Savannah Cotton exchange by the bluff. It became an important trading port, and Slaves entered the US through the Port of Savannah. This is how the Fortune of the South became dependent on slavery and why it became vital for them to stand up against abolition during the Civil War.
11/11
Wow! The Prohibition museum is next level. It’s located near shops right in downtown Savannah, and it’s the only one in the U.S. The Prohibition was on January 17, 1920. when alcohol was banned, No one could produce it, transport it, or sell it. Of course, people were doing it illegally by making moonshine. U.S alcohol consumption increased during this period, and people loved the moonshine. Some people thought the moonshine was too harsh, so they decided to mix their drinks. This created cocktails, and people started to love having alcohol with mixers. The popularly known racing league “NASCAR” evolved from this era. Moonshiners hired drivers to deliver moonshine based on their delivery times. They would race two drivers, and whoever had the fastest time would get to drive the moonshine. Al Capone was a gangster in Chicago and took advantage of Prohibition. He would buy tons of moonshine and then take it to his nightclubs and sell it. Al Capone would kill anybody in his way. Let me rephrase that Al Capone’s men would kill people that Al Capone wanted dead. Al Capone wasn’t a big fan of getting caught and people standing in his way. If somebody tried to compete with his nightclub or do something he didn’t like, Pow dead!
Interestingly, George Washington was one of the largest whiskey distillers during his time. His distillery produced 11,000 gallons in the year 1799. This has been one of my favorites of many museums so far! I enjoyed the different waxed people in the museum. It made the museum feel very real and exciting.
11/12
Today was very uneventful. We have a list of movies we have collected on our trips so far. Whenever someone tells us about this movie related to this part of our travels, we write it down and watch it. Recently we had a tour in Savannah, and it included many references from Forest Gump. So we were like, why not? We watched it and saw some clips filmed in Savannah. This is cool because you get to see movies that were filmed in places you’ve been to. We also watched a Salem Witch documentary because we went to the Salem Witch Trials location. We watch Deliverance while in the Blue Ridge Mountains. We watched the untouchables after visiting the prohibition museum in Savannah.
11/13
Today is our 90th day in the RV. The days go by so fast. We do so much during the day, and by the time you know it, it’s already 6:00 pm. We’ve stayed at 21 campgrounds and visited 7 states. 21 campground in 90 days that means lots of moving! Every campground is different, so I’m a big fan of changing campgrounds. Some are nice, and some are horrible. The nice ones have spacious lots for the RV, a concrete patio, a fire pit, and many amenities. The bad ones have little space and are usually very crowded and have nothing to do around them. It doesn’t affect us too much because we’re out and about, but sometimes, we enjoy coming home to a nice campground. We’ve used about 1,300 gallons of diesel during our 6,000 miles. Our MPG is 6.5, almost 4x less than the average car. We run through gas, so we have to stop at truck stops. Since being on the road, I have gained respect for all the truckers. My favorite thing I’ve done is flying the plane back in Sanford, Maine. My least favorite activities are the hikes and trails. I hate hiking, like I really hate hiking. It brings no fun or joy to me, and I would instead do something more fun. If I could find one positive thing about hiking, it would be how our dogs get so excited and make monkey noises. She almost explodes inside because it’s like sensory overload with smells.
11/14
Yesterday and today was my very first Perfect Game baseball showcase. Perfect Game is an organization that helps kids get recruited to colleges. They video you, input your data, write some info about your gameplay, and they then can a score from their grading system 1-10. 1 meaning the kid should stop baseball and 10 meaning the kid is gonna play MLB if he continues his progression. I’ve yet to get my grade, but I did get some numbers. My exit velo, which is how hard the ball comes off the bat, reached 80mph. This is the 90th percentile for my class which is insanely good. I will be getting my grade in the next couple of weeks, and I’m excited to see what they give me.
11/15-11/16
The showcase is now over, so we’re heading back home for Thanksgiving with the family. We made a two-day stop to see my older brother in college. We ate dinner with him and his friends. We also watched the new movie Eternals. The second day, we decorated his room a bit. We added light strips, smart bulbs, and light panels on his walls. He said he really doesn’t need them, but I think he really appreciated it because now he and his friends hang in his room more often than before.
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