June 6, 2025 • 22 mins
Today Noodles and I camp in the Haze of the Blue Ridge Mountains to answer the following questions:
What are the blue ridge mountains?
Why are they worth exploring?
Why has this section of the country long been steeped in mystery, supernatural stories and the occasional strain of true crime.
We also answer listener questions including:
- What place would you not revisit?
- What’s a funny story from the road?
- What makes van life worth it?
- Do you have a favorite Noodles story?
Recommendations:
The absolute best brewery tour of Asheville NC (trust me):
https://www.beercitybrewerytoursavl.com/
My personal favorite brewery in Asheville:
Great civil war site in Chattanooga, TN:
https://www.lookoutmountain.com/
Top 5 places to catch a sunset:
https://www.southeasttennessee.com/hiking-to-lookout-mountains-sunset-rock/
Follow our insta for more recommendations - backroad_odyssey
Works Cited:
https://www.britannica.com/place/Appalachian-National-Scenic-Trail
https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/geography-environment/blue-ridge-mountains/
https://blueridgetales.com/tales-of-the-moon-eyed-people/
https://www.nps.gov/blri/learn/nature/mountains.htm
https://hendersonvillebest.com/have-you-ever-wondered-how-the-blue-ridge-mountains-got-their-name/
https://friendsofblueridge.org/our-mountains/mountains-history/
https://www.historichotels.org/us/hotels-resorts/omni-grove-park-inn/ghost-stories.php
https://www.exploreasheville.com/article/top-10-haunted-spots-asheville
Noah and Noodles here!
We want to extend a heartfelt thanks to every listener of Backroad Odyssey.
Your support fuels our passion and inspires us to keep sharing stories and discover overlooked locations.
Follow each adventure visually at:
https://www.instagram.com/backroadsodyssey/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Van Life Diaries.
I'm your host, noah, joined asalways by my dog and co-host,
noodles the Woodle.
If you've been with the show,welcome back.
If you're new here, welcome.
Thanks for traveling with usToday.
I'm very excited about our topicbecause we dive deep into the
haze of the Blue Ridge Mountainsand ask ourselves the following
(00:25):
questions what exactly are theBlue Ridge Mountains?
Why are they worth exploring?
And, last but certainly notleast, why has this small
section of the country long beensteeped in mystery and
supernatural stories and theoccasional strands of true crime
For all you true crimeenthusiasts out there?
(00:48):
On that note, hop in the vanand join Noodles and I in our
research trip through theSmokies.
Cruisin' down the street, Iwonder where this road would
lead.
Where this road would lead somany possibilities.
Care to share what you think.
(01:09):
Oh, noodle, what do you see?
Back road odyssey.
Distant mountains lurk beneatha blue haze.
Waking birds signal the comingsun.
As a nearby stream lulls youback to sleep, you don't resist
(01:33):
the pull to rest.
Any worry you have lies beyondthe surrounding heights.
Such is life.
Slow and contained here in theBlue Ridge Mountains.
(01:54):
We're currently driving thenortheastern section of the
Great Smoky Mountain NationalPark, far and away the most
visited national park in the US.
But you wouldn't guess thiswhere I'm at because it's pretty
sparse.
The entrance I took is long,hilly and uneven gravel Stuff's
flying everywhere across theband.
(02:15):
But I digress.
Here we get to my firstquestion.
Okay, we've all heard the song,john Denver almost having West
Virginia, blue Ridge Mountains,shenandoah River, etc.
But what are the Blue RidgeMountains?
You know?
How are they different from,let's say, the Appalachian
(02:36):
Mountains?
The Appalachian Mountains,inland from America's east coast
, once stood as tall as themodern-day Rocky Mountains, but
they've been through it.
They're old.
Over millions of years, erosionfrom ice, wind and water
sculpted the relatively tamemountains we see today, an
(03:00):
unbroken chain stretching fromthe state of Maine to the Gulf
of Mexico, and one narrowsection of this ancient mountain
range is what we're here totalk about today.
The Blue Ridge Mountains, which, as only a section of the
Appalachians, traverse througheight states Pennsylvania,
(03:22):
maryland, west Virginia,virginia, north Carolina, south
Carolina, tennessee and Georgia.
It's this section of states,this section of the Appalachian
Mountains in particular, that,because of its unique temperate
climate, rolling and gentlecharacter and abundant wildlife,
remained attractive andaccessible to people residing
(03:47):
near the area.
Humans first arrived in thearea probably as early as 12,000
years ago.
The Iroquois, shawnee andCherokee all lived and hunted
the area for generations, withthe latter of them residing for
thousands of years in what's nowthe Great Smoky Mountain
(04:08):
National Park.
I'm currently in the middle of astream deep inside Great Smoky
Mountain National Park.
Here's a question.
I have now standing in the verycold but crystal clear water.
This whole area is relativelytemperate, beautiful, secluded.
(04:34):
Why would anybody leave thisplace?
Some didn't have a choice.
In what's becoming a trend inthe stories we tell on this
podcast, the established tribesthroughout the Blue Ridge area
are forced west onto unfamiliarlands.
(04:56):
The ancestral slopes they onceknew are then left behind as
desolate land for others toconquer Open ground.
The repurposed land thenbecomes a site for civil war
skirmishes, logging operations,the establishment of cities, a
national park.
(05:16):
History happens, but remarkably, this hazy subsection of
America's Appalachians, itsflowing creeks, gentle slopes
and lush forests, largely endure.
They remain relativelyuntouched.
Today, nearly 85% of the BlueRidge Mountains are covered in
(05:43):
forests.
Mountains are covered inforests.
Okay, so we're pulled over.
There's a bull elk on the sideof the road just grazing,
hanging out, and huge antlers.
(06:03):
Really they're always moremassive than you think they are,
especially up close.
But looking around and goingfor a little hike, the forests,
the nature, the streams, theanimals all here are just
fantastic and slightlyunexpected for a lot of people.
You know it's funny.
The West, the Pacific Northwest, far north, all have
reputations for nature, forgrandiosity, for wildlife.
(06:25):
But here in eastern Tennessee,western North Carolina, all
along, these mountains, I'd say,are overlooked, particularly if
you drive or hike up to anoverlook and view the
never-ending layers of blue hazymountains stretching to the
(06:49):
horizon.
And this brings us to our nextquestion what makes the Blue
Ridge Mountains live up to itsnamesake?
The term Blue Ridge Mountainscan be traced back to the
Cherokee term for their hazymountain home, shaw Canoogie, or
the Land of Blue Smoke.
(07:11):
And this blue smoke, this haze,isn't an illusion of distance
or a trick of the eyes.
The blue character of the BlueRidge Mountains is caused by the
area's deep biologicaldiversity.
The truly wild amount ofvegetation in the Blue Ridge
(07:34):
area, more than 700 varieties oftrees and plants, grow in such
numbers so close together thatthey then collectively release
enough organic compounds tochange the nature of the
surrounding air.
These concentrated compoundsform vapors at normal
(07:56):
temperatures, which then reactwith the natural ozone molecules
already in the air, and thiscompound cocktail then scatters
incoming light from the sunmaking.
Then the mountains appear blue,hence the Blue Ridge Mountains.
(08:25):
I've been driving the Blue RidgeParkway, a scenic byway that
goes from the Smokies all theway up to Virginia.
It's really long.
I'm a bit north.
What is it east of Asheville,north Carolina, thought I'd stop
and record at one of these hereoverlooks.
(08:46):
The Blue Ridge Mountains ingeneral have two coinciding,
coexisting reputations.
On one hand they'rebreathtaking, deeply relaxing,
filled with nature, beautiful.
On another, slightly darkerhand, they're known for their
tendency towards isolation fromeverything else.
(09:08):
They're paranormal stories and,yes, true crime.
And actually where I'm at now,the parkway has a ton of stories
about ghosts and tunnels andunexplained noises.
I lean a bit less towards thelatter, darker reputation that
(09:30):
comes with what people imaginethe Blue Ridge Mountains to be,
but I think it's worth exploringBecause it's part of the
picture.
It completes the story.
(10:03):
The Cherokee held the Blue Ridgearea in high spiritual regard.
It was a sacred place, a placethought to be slightly outside
your own control, a truly wildplace.
The blue haze of their home Tothe Cherokee, cloaked both good
and evil spirits.
Descending valleys heldmysteries as well.
The darkness brought out theunexplained Flocks of ravens
would signal theliver-harvesting entity
Spearfinger.
The fearsome shrills of thehybrid lion-woman, the Wampus
(10:27):
Cat, would strike fear into thehearts of those unfortunate
enough to hear it.
The mountains were then, to theCherokee, a place to thrive and
to cherish, but also a place tobe feared, to be respected, and
the stories brought about bythe mystery of these hazy
(10:48):
mountains continue well beyondthe legends and fables of the
Cherokee.
We're walking along Omni GrovePark in Asheville, north
Carolina.
It's a place with history.
It's hosted presidents,important figures and generally
(11:09):
well-to-do people looking torelax a little bit, but also is
the reported home to a spiritsimply known as the Pink Lady.
After falling two stories to anearly death in the 1920s.
The Pink Lady, whose nameremains hidden I couldn't find
it anywhere has been movingobjects and awakening guests by
(11:33):
tickling their feet Not the mostwelcome wake-up call, I'd say
their feet.
Not the most welcome wake-upcall, I'd say.
But hotel employees and guestshave been reporting a lingering,
dense pink smoke roaming aroundthe halls of this hidden
mountain retreat.
And this is just one example.
But beyond Asheville.
Deep in the mountains we've gotMothman, the Flatwoods Monster,
(11:59):
bigfoot, the stories regardingthe Brown Mountain Lights and
sometimes stories about otherhumans doing terrible things Far
from the safety of the cities.
The slopes and dense blue hazeof the mountains have also
concealed its share of crime,not least of which being the
(12:22):
Blue Ridge murders, an unsolvedcase of three friends whose
bodies were found lying alongLake Summit in the mountains of
North Carolina.
The Blue Ridge bloodshed,murder on the Blue Ridge Parkway
, among other dark stories,provide other examples of the
(12:43):
sometimes sinister reputation ofthe Blue Ridge Mountains.
But let's not overshoot thepoint.
Maybe the reason these storiesexist and have existed and have
existed is because this area ofthe Appalachians remains
relatively untouched, upholdsits isolation and therefore
(13:10):
remains out of our control.
The ghosts, monsters, murderers, what have you?
All could be created or at thevery least intensified by the
(13:32):
simple fact that the Blue RidgeMountains belong to themselves.
I'm at my campsite for the night, by the fire, by the creek, or
creek, by the stream.
The sun's going down.
Here's what I'll say.
Noodles and I have been drivingaround the Blue Ridge Mountain
area for well over a week now,taking in the views, hiking
(13:57):
Occasionally, feeling a bituncomfortable with late-night
forest bathroom trips Fornoodles, but I've found that to
focus on either one of these, tofocus solely on either
reputation of the Blue RidgeMountains the good the bad is to
(14:20):
miss the point.
It's overlooking the entirepicture that this small,
beautiful, sometimes mysteriouspart of the country should be
both enjoyed and respected.
Distant mountains lurk beneatha blue haze.
(14:42):
Retreating birds signal thecoming of darkness.
You've heard the stories.
It'll look down as nightintensifies.
The light of your small fire.
It's all right, you think toyourself here as sure as the
(15:06):
night.
The sun always rises, the birdsalways wake here in the Blue
Ridge Mountains.
(15:41):
With that said, let's get toLister Questions.
What place would you notrevisit?
That's a great question and areally hard question at the same
time, because you can go to aplace and have a bad experience.
That's not representative ofthe entirety of where you go.
But if I had to answer, I loveNew Mexico I really do.
(16:06):
It's one of my top ten states.
But Albuquerque I did notparticularly enjoy the couple
days that I spent there, and youknow who knows, I could go back
, but it was one of those timeswhere I got there and just
didn't feel comfortable.
I didn't really understand whatthe city was.
(16:26):
But maybe in the future, youknow, I can try again.
But I would have a hard timegoing out of my way to revisit
Albuquerque, new Mexico.
What's a funny story from theroad?
Oh, there's a lot.
There really is, especiallywhen I think about noodles.
(16:47):
But this goes way back before.
I had noodles two plus yearsago, something like that, and I
was still getting used to thevan, still getting used to where
I should stay, what I should dowhen I go somewhere, and I was
in the beaches of Galveston,texas.
There's a series of beach thatyou can park on and I get there
(17:11):
and get stuck immediately andluckily there's a lot of people
already there, so they helped meout after a bit.
Um, but I'm like, all right, I'mnot going to go into deep sand
again and I park and, you know,work a little bit, take some
pictures and go back in the vanand I was facing the ocean.
(17:32):
It really was a beautiful view.
I could hear the waves, it wasjust great.
I was like, wow, this is whatit's about.
You know what I really coulduse like a nice breeze, a nice
sea breeze.
So I open my window next towhere my bed is and put down the
bug screen and for 30 minutesI'm like, wow, this is so nice
(17:55):
and all the lights are out atthis point and it's getting dark
and I didn't realize that therewas a huge rip in the bug
screen and I turn on the light.
I hear like buzzing.
I turn the light and there'sliterally like 40 mosquitoes
zooming around, like differentbugs zooming around inside my
van, and I'm like, ah, uh, I, Ispent the next 10 minutes trying
(18:19):
to get rid of them and, um,it's funny in retrospect, but,
man, it just was one of thosereality checks where you're like
, all right, yeah, you need tomake sure everything's working
before you use it when you're onthe road.
And, yeah, funny, not funny,but that's the first story that
came to mind, especially withoutnoodles.
(18:44):
Do you have a favorite noodlesStory?
Yeah, I do.
I told this story actually inan earlier episode about Descend
10, which is a van lifegathering festival in Oregon,
and, without repeating myself,basically, I went to this
festival.
Everybody brings their van,everybody brings their dogs.
(19:05):
There's music, there's foodthat people share.
It's fantastic.
I really enjoyed myself, butdogs are supposed to be on
leashes and I was doing great upuntil one of the last days when
, during a concert which wasright by where we were parked
for the weekend, noodles sprintsout of the van and weaves
between all the people who arelistening to this kind of
(19:27):
bluegrass band and it took, youknow, 15 minutes to try and
catch her.
She's just playing.
She's not being mean orwhatever, but when I do finally
catch Noodles, everybody startsto clap, including the band, and
that is a really good memorythat I have about Noodles, even
(19:49):
though she was a naughty girl.
What makes Van life worth it?
My first response is it keepsyou on your toes.
For me, as somebody who has alot of anxiety, it makes you
think about what you're doingfor the day.
You have to do your chores, youknow, otherwise you're not
(20:10):
going to be comfortable, and itmakes you appreciate the good
times, not only on the road butin life too, because van life is
hard and it can be very hardand lonely and you can feel
depressed, but when you wake upwith a great view and take your
(20:32):
dog for a walk and find a coolplace that I can share with all
of you who I appreciate so much,it does kind of pull you out of
it, you know, and that's 20%,it's the 80-20 rule of van life.
It's 20% of the time really.
20 rule of van life it's 20% ofthe time really, but in my view
(20:57):
it's worth it because thosetimes are great and I wouldn't
change it for the world.
So that's what makes van lifefor me worth it.
It's Noah here.
Thank you for traveling with usthis week, noodles, and I
always appreciate every minuteyou spend with us.
So the Blue Ridge Mountains ifyou haven't been, go, enjoy it,
(21:20):
respect it, take it all in.
It really is such an amazingpart of the country Asheville,
Chattanooga, the hikes, the lorebehind it, the history Couldn't
recommend it more.
I will put some of myrecommendations for the week
plus that we spent there in theshow notes.
(21:42):
So check that out and, if youfind value in the show, if you'd
like to see us continue toimprove, put the research and
the work we'd like to into eachepisode.
Rating and reviewing isgenuinely the best thing you can
do to help.
So we really do appreciate that.
With that said, where to nextBe good to each other?
Welcome to Van Life Diaries.
I'm your host, noah, joined asalways by my dog and co-host,
noodles the Woodle.
If you've been with the show,welcome back.
If you're new here, welcome.
Thanks for traveling with usToday.
I'm very excited about our topicbecause we dive deep into the
haze of the Blue Ridge Mountainsand ask ourselves the following
(00:25):
questions what exactly are theBlue Ridge Mountains?
Why are they worth exploring?
And, last but certainly notleast, why has this small
section of the country long beensteeped in mystery and
supernatural stories and theoccasional strands of true crime
For all you true crimeenthusiasts out there?
(00:48):
On that note, hop in the vanand join Noodles and I in our
research trip through theSmokies.
Cruisin' down the street, Iwonder where this road would
lead.
Where this road would lead somany possibilities.
Care to share what you think.
(01:09):
Oh, noodle, what do you see?
Back road odyssey.
Distant mountains lurk beneatha blue haze.
Waking birds signal the comingsun.
As a nearby stream lulls youback to sleep, you don't resist
(01:33):
the pull to rest.
Any worry you have lies beyondthe surrounding heights.
Such is life.
Slow and contained here in theBlue Ridge Mountains.
(01:54):
We're currently driving thenortheastern section of the
Great Smoky Mountain NationalPark, far and away the most
visited national park in the US.
But you wouldn't guess thiswhere I'm at because it's pretty
sparse.
The entrance I took is long,hilly and uneven gravel Stuff's
flying everywhere across theband.
(02:15):
But I digress.
Here we get to my firstquestion.
Okay, we've all heard the song,john Denver almost having West
Virginia, blue Ridge Mountains,shenandoah River, etc.
But what are the Blue RidgeMountains?
You know?
How are they different from,let's say, the Appalachian
(02:36):
Mountains?
The Appalachian Mountains,inland from America's east coast
, once stood as tall as themodern-day Rocky Mountains, but
they've been through it.
They're old.
Over millions of years, erosionfrom ice, wind and water
sculpted the relatively tamemountains we see today, an
(03:00):
unbroken chain stretching fromthe state of Maine to the Gulf
of Mexico, and one narrowsection of this ancient mountain
range is what we're here totalk about today.
The Blue Ridge Mountains, which, as only a section of the
Appalachians, traverse througheight states Pennsylvania,
(03:22):
maryland, west Virginia,virginia, north Carolina, south
Carolina, tennessee and Georgia.
It's this section of states,this section of the Appalachian
Mountains in particular, that,because of its unique temperate
climate, rolling and gentlecharacter and abundant wildlife,
remained attractive andaccessible to people residing
(03:47):
near the area.
Humans first arrived in thearea probably as early as 12,000
years ago.
The Iroquois, shawnee andCherokee all lived and hunted
the area for generations, withthe latter of them residing for
thousands of years in what's nowthe Great Smoky Mountain
(04:08):
National Park.
I'm currently in the middle of astream deep inside Great Smoky
Mountain National Park.
Here's a question.
I have now standing in the verycold but crystal clear water.
This whole area is relativelytemperate, beautiful, secluded.
(04:34):
Why would anybody leave thisplace?
Some didn't have a choice.
In what's becoming a trend inthe stories we tell on this
podcast, the established tribesthroughout the Blue Ridge area
are forced west onto unfamiliarlands.
(04:56):
The ancestral slopes they onceknew are then left behind as
desolate land for others toconquer Open ground.
The repurposed land thenbecomes a site for civil war
skirmishes, logging operations,the establishment of cities, a
national park.
(05:16):
History happens, but remarkably, this hazy subsection of
America's Appalachians, itsflowing creeks, gentle slopes
and lush forests, largely endure.
They remain relativelyuntouched.
Today, nearly 85% of the BlueRidge Mountains are covered in
(05:43):
forests.
Mountains are covered inforests.
Okay, so we're pulled over.
There's a bull elk on the sideof the road just grazing,
hanging out, and huge antlers.
(06:03):
Really they're always moremassive than you think they are,
especially up close.
But looking around and goingfor a little hike, the forests,
the nature, the streams, theanimals all here are just
fantastic and slightlyunexpected for a lot of people.
You know it's funny.
The West, the Pacific Northwest, far north, all have
reputations for nature, forgrandiosity, for wildlife.
(06:25):
But here in eastern Tennessee,western North Carolina, all
along, these mountains, I'd say,are overlooked, particularly if
you drive or hike up to anoverlook and view the
never-ending layers of blue hazymountains stretching to the
(06:49):
horizon.
And this brings us to our nextquestion what makes the Blue
Ridge Mountains live up to itsnamesake?
The term Blue Ridge Mountainscan be traced back to the
Cherokee term for their hazymountain home, shaw Canoogie, or
the Land of Blue Smoke.
(07:11):
And this blue smoke, this haze,isn't an illusion of distance
or a trick of the eyes.
The blue character of the BlueRidge Mountains is caused by the
area's deep biologicaldiversity.
The truly wild amount ofvegetation in the Blue Ridge
(07:34):
area, more than 700 varieties oftrees and plants, grow in such
numbers so close together thatthey then collectively release
enough organic compounds tochange the nature of the
surrounding air.
These concentrated compoundsform vapors at normal
(07:56):
temperatures, which then reactwith the natural ozone molecules
already in the air, and thiscompound cocktail then scatters
incoming light from the sunmaking.
Then the mountains appear blue,hence the Blue Ridge Mountains.
(08:25):
I've been driving the Blue RidgeParkway, a scenic byway that
goes from the Smokies all theway up to Virginia.
It's really long.
I'm a bit north.
What is it east of Asheville,north Carolina, thought I'd stop
and record at one of these hereoverlooks.
(08:46):
The Blue Ridge Mountains ingeneral have two coinciding,
coexisting reputations.
On one hand they'rebreathtaking, deeply relaxing,
filled with nature, beautiful.
On another, slightly darkerhand, they're known for their
tendency towards isolation fromeverything else.
(09:08):
They're paranormal stories and,yes, true crime.
And actually where I'm at now,the parkway has a ton of stories
about ghosts and tunnels andunexplained noises.
I lean a bit less towards thelatter, darker reputation that
(09:30):
comes with what people imaginethe Blue Ridge Mountains to be,
but I think it's worth exploringBecause it's part of the
picture.
It completes the story.
(10:03):
The Cherokee held the Blue Ridgearea in high spiritual regard.
It was a sacred place, a placethought to be slightly outside
your own control, a truly wildplace.
The blue haze of their home Tothe Cherokee, cloaked both good
and evil spirits.
Descending valleys heldmysteries as well.
The darkness brought out theunexplained Flocks of ravens
would signal theliver-harvesting entity
Spearfinger.
The fearsome shrills of thehybrid lion-woman, the Wampus
(10:27):
Cat, would strike fear into thehearts of those unfortunate
enough to hear it.
The mountains were then, to theCherokee, a place to thrive and
to cherish, but also a place tobe feared, to be respected, and
the stories brought about bythe mystery of these hazy
(10:48):
mountains continue well beyondthe legends and fables of the
Cherokee.
We're walking along Omni GrovePark in Asheville, north
Carolina.
It's a place with history.
It's hosted presidents,important figures and generally
(11:09):
well-to-do people looking torelax a little bit, but also is
the reported home to a spiritsimply known as the Pink Lady.
After falling two stories to anearly death in the 1920s.
The Pink Lady, whose nameremains hidden I couldn't find
it anywhere has been movingobjects and awakening guests by
(11:33):
tickling their feet Not the mostwelcome wake-up call, I'd say
their feet.
Not the most welcome wake-upcall, I'd say.
But hotel employees and guestshave been reporting a lingering,
dense pink smoke roaming aroundthe halls of this hidden
mountain retreat.
And this is just one example.
But beyond Asheville.
Deep in the mountains we've gotMothman, the Flatwoods Monster,
(11:59):
bigfoot, the stories regardingthe Brown Mountain Lights and
sometimes stories about otherhumans doing terrible things Far
from the safety of the cities.
The slopes and dense blue hazeof the mountains have also
concealed its share of crime,not least of which being the
(12:22):
Blue Ridge murders, an unsolvedcase of three friends whose
bodies were found lying alongLake Summit in the mountains of
North Carolina.
The Blue Ridge bloodshed,murder on the Blue Ridge Parkway
, among other dark stories,provide other examples of the
(12:43):
sometimes sinister reputation ofthe Blue Ridge Mountains.
But let's not overshoot thepoint.
Maybe the reason these storiesexist and have existed and have
existed is because this area ofthe Appalachians remains
relatively untouched, upholdsits isolation and therefore
(13:10):
remains out of our control.
The ghosts, monsters, murderers, what have you?
All could be created or at thevery least intensified by the
(13:32):
simple fact that the Blue RidgeMountains belong to themselves.
I'm at my campsite for the night, by the fire, by the creek, or
creek, by the stream.
The sun's going down.
Here's what I'll say.
Noodles and I have been drivingaround the Blue Ridge Mountain
area for well over a week now,taking in the views, hiking
(13:57):
Occasionally, feeling a bituncomfortable with late-night
forest bathroom trips Fornoodles, but I've found that to
focus on either one of these, tofocus solely on either
reputation of the Blue RidgeMountains the good the bad is to
(14:20):
miss the point.
It's overlooking the entirepicture that this small,
beautiful, sometimes mysteriouspart of the country should be
both enjoyed and respected.
Distant mountains lurk beneatha blue haze.
(14:42):
Retreating birds signal thecoming of darkness.
You've heard the stories.
It'll look down as nightintensifies.
The light of your small fire.
It's all right, you think toyourself here as sure as the
(15:06):
night.
The sun always rises, the birdsalways wake here in the Blue
Ridge Mountains.
(15:41):
With that said, let's get toLister Questions.
What place would you notrevisit?
That's a great question and areally hard question at the same
time, because you can go to aplace and have a bad experience.
That's not representative ofthe entirety of where you go.
But if I had to answer, I loveNew Mexico I really do.
(16:06):
It's one of my top ten states.
But Albuquerque I did notparticularly enjoy the couple
days that I spent there, and youknow who knows, I could go back
, but it was one of those timeswhere I got there and just
didn't feel comfortable.
I didn't really understand whatthe city was.
(16:26):
But maybe in the future, youknow, I can try again.
But I would have a hard timegoing out of my way to revisit
Albuquerque, new Mexico.
What's a funny story from theroad?
Oh, there's a lot.
There really is, especiallywhen I think about noodles.
(16:47):
But this goes way back before.
I had noodles two plus yearsago, something like that, and I
was still getting used to thevan, still getting used to where
I should stay, what I should dowhen I go somewhere, and I was
in the beaches of Galveston,texas.
There's a series of beach thatyou can park on and I get there
(17:11):
and get stuck immediately andluckily there's a lot of people
already there, so they helped meout after a bit.
Um, but I'm like, all right, I'mnot going to go into deep sand
again and I park and, you know,work a little bit, take some
pictures and go back in the vanand I was facing the ocean.
(17:32):
It really was a beautiful view.
I could hear the waves, it wasjust great.
I was like, wow, this is whatit's about.
You know what I really coulduse like a nice breeze, a nice
sea breeze.
So I open my window next towhere my bed is and put down the
bug screen and for 30 minutesI'm like, wow, this is so nice
(17:55):
and all the lights are out atthis point and it's getting dark
and I didn't realize that therewas a huge rip in the bug
screen and I turn on the light.
I hear like buzzing.
I turn the light and there'sliterally like 40 mosquitoes
zooming around, like differentbugs zooming around inside my
van, and I'm like, ah, uh, I, Ispent the next 10 minutes trying
(18:19):
to get rid of them and, um,it's funny in retrospect, but,
man, it just was one of thosereality checks where you're like
, all right, yeah, you need tomake sure everything's working
before you use it when you're onthe road.
And, yeah, funny, not funny,but that's the first story that
came to mind, especially withoutnoodles.
(18:44):
Do you have a favorite noodlesStory?
Yeah, I do.
I told this story actually inan earlier episode about Descend
10, which is a van lifegathering festival in Oregon,
and, without repeating myself,basically, I went to this
festival.
Everybody brings their van,everybody brings their dogs.
(19:05):
There's music, there's foodthat people share.
It's fantastic.
I really enjoyed myself, butdogs are supposed to be on
leashes and I was doing great upuntil one of the last days when
, during a concert which wasright by where we were parked
for the weekend, noodles sprintsout of the van and weaves
between all the people who arelistening to this kind of
(19:27):
bluegrass band and it took, youknow, 15 minutes to try and
catch her.
She's just playing.
She's not being mean orwhatever, but when I do finally
catch Noodles, everybody startsto clap, including the band, and
that is a really good memorythat I have about Noodles, even
(19:49):
though she was a naughty girl.
What makes Van life worth it?
My first response is it keepsyou on your toes.
For me, as somebody who has alot of anxiety, it makes you
think about what you're doingfor the day.
You have to do your chores, youknow, otherwise you're not
(20:10):
going to be comfortable, and itmakes you appreciate the good
times, not only on the road butin life too, because van life is
hard and it can be very hardand lonely and you can feel
depressed, but when you wake upwith a great view and take your
(20:32):
dog for a walk and find a coolplace that I can share with all
of you who I appreciate so much,it does kind of pull you out of
it, you know, and that's 20%,it's the 80-20 rule of van life.
It's 20% of the time really.
20 rule of van life it's 20% ofthe time really, but in my view
(20:57):
it's worth it because thosetimes are great and I wouldn't
change it for the world.
So that's what makes van lifefor me worth it.
It's Noah here.
Thank you for traveling with usthis week, noodles, and I
always appreciate every minuteyou spend with us.
So the Blue Ridge Mountains ifyou haven't been, go, enjoy it,
(21:20):
respect it, take it all in.
It really is such an amazingpart of the country Asheville,
Chattanooga, the hikes, the lorebehind it, the history Couldn't
recommend it more.
I will put some of myrecommendations for the week
plus that we spent there in theshow notes.
(21:42):
So check that out and, if youfind value in the show, if you'd
like to see us continue toimprove, put the research and
the work we'd like to into eachepisode.
Rating and reviewing isgenuinely the best thing you can
do to help.
So we really do appreciate that.
With that said, where to nextBe good to each other?
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