First Night Truck Camping in My 29 Year Old Chevrolet

In today's episode, I'm switching out my Volvo XC90 for a 1997 Chevrolet Tahoe. While I am taking the Chevy because my car is currently out of commission, I may be testing this setup for a future road trip. In this episode, I'll be camping in a valley within a valley in Virginia. Also, stick around for a camping setup tour, a little sightseeing, and watch me try to start a fire. If you're new here, hi, I'm Sydney, and usually I'm camping around the country in my Volvo XC90, but like I mentioned, I kind of ran her into the ground a little bit, so she's on the bench right now. So anyways, I kick this episode off heading to a place called Elizabeth Furnace. First stop of the day is a place called Elizabeth Furnace. Dang, this lighting is great, isn't it? Hold on, let me get out of the car. Grab my shoes. I think I'm just gonna throw this hoodie on. It's actually not as cold out as I thought it would be today. I'm actually fine in a t-shirt and a long-sleeve shirt, but I'm just gonna put this on because I feel like I have to. Does that lock it? Oh yeah, I am in a new rig. It's not new by any means, but it sits in our driveway 80% of the time, and since my car needs 100,000 repairs, I took this one and I'm gonna camp in it after this. I just walked past a closed gate. I'm really hoping that the forest road I'm supposed to be camping on isn't closed as well. I'm gonna be bummed if the campground I'm camping on is closed because I'm not gonna be able to get out and camp probably within the next two weeks because of all the snow that's coming. So hopefully I can find a place to camp later. So I'm coming up on a homestead. I found a sign. It says the Elizabeth Furnace Cabin. This cabin is one of the few wooden structures remaining from the early 1800s when Elizabeth Furnace was active. Pig Iron was king. In its heyday, Elizabeth Furnace Pig Iron supported an entire community. The Elizabeth Furnace Cabin is a combo of several buildings from that community. In 1936, the Civilian Conservation Corps began construction on the Elizabeth Furnace Recreation Area. They moved logs from several buildings across Passage Creek and constructed an administration building we now call the Elizabeth Furnace Cabin. It says that all these notches are different because it came from five or six different cabins or buildings. I'm going to try to find the furnace. I just picked a direction and started walking so hopefully I can find this furnace soon or else I'm gonna turn back because I gotta go. I'm losing daylight and I still have to cook dinner. I'm like, oh will it be around the bend? I keep saying that and I just keep going and I don't think it's here. Apparently there's one path here that goes like 280 miles and I might be on that one by accident. I would have seen it by now. It said it wasn't too far from the parking lot. Okay, I'm gonna turn around, give it one more go, and then I have to move on. Also, don't come at me for my slippers. They're really warm. Okay, but look how beautiful this is. I love it. Oh no, I found a sign. Oh, okay, this way. Dang, I was walking through the backwoods back there. Okay, Elizabeth Furnace, when pig iron was king. Stack ruins like Elizabeth Furnace are common throughout Virginia. At one time, the Massanutten Mountain had eight active iron furnaces. Toward the end of the 1880s, charcoal furnaces were replaced with coke furnaces. But I see it. It's down there. It's actually a lot bigger than I thought it would be. This says, during the summer months, Elizabeth Furnace was kept charged all day and all night, as much as three tons of pig iron were smelted daily. Wow, it goes from there to there. So I guess there was a bridge going from here to there. Men called fillers were kept busy carrying the charge, iron, ore, charcoal, and limestone across the bridge to the landing platform near the top of the stack. The charge would then be dumped into the furnace stack. Elizabeth Furnace, everyone. Okay, now it's time to actually get to camp. Also, I never said where I was or am. I'm in a valley within a valley. I'm in Shenandoah Valley, but I'm in a place called Valley Fort or Fort Valley. I can't remember. So it's like a valley within the greater valley, and it is so pretty. There's like no wind at all today. Where I live, it said it was going to get really windy this afternoon, and since I'm in between two mountains right now, I'm blocked, and it's actually, it's making it feel very warm. Well, very warm, relatively. It's supposed to be like 10 degrees max at night the next week or two, so this was the warmest day I could find to go camping, and it feels way warmer than it is because I'm trapped in between two mountains right now. So I just made it onto the camp road, and I fear I see something that I do not want to see. It is a closed road sign. Okay, I did mark a spot down here, though, on this offshoot, so we'll see if it pans out. Oh wait, that's a spot I can't bear. I'm gonna take this spot over here. Dang, this is tight quarters, though. I don't know. I'm going to figure out how to get my car in here, and I'll see you when I do that. I made it! First things first is food. Actually, I'll show you my car and then food. Okay, I'm gonna make this as quick as possible because I'm losing daylight, but this is a 1997, I believe, a Chevy Tahoe. I don't really know the engine or any of that, sorry. Here she is. She got me here safe and sound. This is just what the front looks like. Very cute, very old, very retro. I just have a bunch of my camera gear right here, and then go to the back. I'm gonna have to find that bungee. Oh wait, it's up there, but this has to be bungeed shut, but whatever, I'll do that later. So this is what we have back here. Oh, I need to take this firewood out. I have, like, my jackets and blankets, and my mattress is under here. As you can see, I've got another sleeping bag, and then I have my power station, my water, and then just other stuff that I needed. I even brought a heater to plug in. We'll see how much power this takes or if I'll even need it. I think it's actually supposed to only get down to, like, 35 here, so I should be fine with everything. This morning when I went to put all my stuff in, it was filled with wood chips because my dad uses it to get firewood, so I had to clean all that out, but yeah, I cleaned it out pretty well, I think. Power bank. Oh, I need the bungee. Now that it has served its use, I'm making sure things don't fly around back here on the drive. Okay, cannot forget that I put my keys there. That was almost bad. I'm just gonna get all the firewood out of here really quickly, and then I'm gonna start chopping onions because I'm making French onion soup, and then I'm gonna make a fire. We'll see how that goes. Oh my gosh, I just realized I have not had water since, like, 11 a.m. this morning. I'm sliding all over the place with these slippers, so it's okay if anybody made fun of me. That's grand. Great. Just great. It's okay. I want to make it in this pot. The last time I used it, I think, was in South Dakota. I don't even think I was filming, sorry. I didn't mean to leave you guys out. Should I cook this on the ground? I don't- I don't want to cook it on the carpet, and I think cooking on the carpet is probably a bad idea. I think I'm fine cooking it on here. I just have to watch myself. I also brought a fire extinguisher, so I should be good. Did I mention I was cooking French onion soup? I don't know if I did. If I did, sorry. But yeah, that's what I'm making. It's gonna take a while. Should I start a fire while I'm cooking? That'd be so fun, right? Yeah. Dinner has been started. Okay, I'm going to make a fire. I just realized I forgot to bring newspaper, but luckily I did grab some fire starter. If it didn't fall out of my car. Well, I got matches. Let's get this out. I don't know where the fire starter is, but I'm just gonna put these here. I found the fire starter. Aw, look how cute my campsite is. I don't know, it feels really good to be back camping. I'm so happy right now. Okay. Okay, I should not have worn slippers. Okay, I think I'm gonna do like some chimney method. Or not chimney, is that what it's called? Like Lincoln Logs type thing. Gosh, I have no idea how much of this stuff like I should use. I don't really know. Burn, baby, burn. Come on. I don't know how to start a fire, I guess. I don't have any newspaper. It should be in smaller blocks. I guess that would make sense. I have no clue. I mean, I have a tiny clue, but this is what I got. I forgot that I have paper towels, so this will actually be perfect. Hey, we got fire. Almost. Come on, catch the wood on fire. That's what you're supposed to be doing. That's what this is. This might not work as well as I thought it would. Come on, catch the wood on fire. Good, good. Come on, come on, catch, catch. No way this goes out. You can't even see me. I'm gonna go grab my flashlight. Maybe I need to turn the heat up? I don't know. I'm trying to caramelize them. Okay, wait, the fire starter is on fire now. Okay, I'm gonna keep feeding it. Come on, catch. I'm kind of trying. I think my structure was just all wrong. It's kind of coming along. It is cold out here. I don't know if you can see my breath. Turn this up. Nope, too much. I'm getting kind of cold, so I'm gonna put my my gloves on. Look how pretty the moon is. Wow, that's beautiful. Look at that. I finally got it. It is actually cold, so I'm gonna put on a vest. Oh, should I put on? Yeah, because I still want to wear this. I got a vest for Christmas, so I'm gonna put that on. I'm also gonna wear this hat on. Hopefully this will help. I do not have service right now, or else I would look up up the weather. Do I look crazy with my bangs? What do I even look like? Okay, I think that's more normal, but I think I still look weird, but I don't care. All right, I need to be right here by the fire. Yeah, what do we got here? Okay, we're getting there. I went to go move a log, and I just like burned through the glove, so sorry I ruined your gloves, mom. I think the cold is starting to affect my camera. Okay, I'm gonna heat up or heat up the car technically with this. Yay, it's working. How many watts does it pull? Oh, 750. Dang, my dad was right. This thing is only gonna last two hours at that rate. The cold is starting to affect my cameras, so they actually died. So I'm waiting for them to heat up, and this is done. I'll show you what it looks like. So my onions are done. I'm going to add water and beef, a beef bouillon cube. I'm not measuring here. I'm just gonna pour some water in there. I'm gonna pour one of these in there. I have some pepper, and I have salt and garlic in here. Oh, uh-oh. Well, this might be really garlicky now. That's okay. My stove is out of butane, so I have to replace this really quickly, and I did turn on my car because I wanted to save my battery in the heater for later, and this car's heater is so good, so I'm gonna turn that on in a second and heat this whole entire car up. The soup is over here because I didn't want to put it on the ground. I didn't want to get dirty, so this is the soup. Dang, you can't really tell with the lighting, but yeah, that's the fire. I'm gonna put that out really quickly, actually. Dang, guys, it is cold out here. I don't think it's actually that cold, though. Just my extremities are a little cold. No! It's burning, isn't it? Oh, that's not where you're supposed to be. Oh my gosh, I just tasted the soup for the first time. That is good. Soup, soup good. Okay, your duty is done here. Oh, I surprisingly didn't ruin my slippers today. None of my other GoPros want to stay on, um, so these are my cameras. I don't even know if you can see me very well. Look, I think it turned out pretty good. I'm excited to eat it. Look at that. French onion soup, everybody. Chef! Okay, might burn my tongue really bad. Oh, okay, it's fine. Oh my gosh, that's so good. Oh my gosh, only took about like two hours. Another thing that I wanted to say is that I don't know when the next time I'm going to be camping is in my car, or either cars, because there's a huge snowstorm coming this weekend and on top of that, it's not going to get, like, at night, it's going to be like 10 degrees for the next at least week, so probably two weeks, and I wanted to go, uh, I had some road trips planned. I wanted to go into the Appalachian Mountains, but they might be covered in snow and this rig is only two-wheel drive, so I don't know when the next time I'm actually going to be able to post is besides this video. I just finished my soup. She's empty. I'm going to get tucked in, I think, yeah. I have the heater going right now, and then I also have this, uh, 10 degrees sleeping bag, so I'm gonna get that out. I believe, yes, okay, it does zip all the way down. Okay, my GoPros keep dying. I just don't think I'm gonna bother with them anymore because I'm almost about to, um, just like get tucked in and watch YouTube for the night, so I'm gonna be boring anyways, but, uh, yeah, I want this and in a blanket mode. Look at that. Got my PJs on too. That heater is very nice. Thanks for letting me steal that, Dad. Oh, that is so cold. This isn't as rough as I thought it would be, actually. The paper towel is pretty soft. Wow, I look really scary with that mascara. There's only so much you can do about it. This Tahoe has so much room. I actually love it. Should I steal it instead of my Volvo? My dad's gonna be like, I don't know. Would you guys take a 97 Tahoe across the country with 115,000 miles on it? I just want to say that I'm so, like, grateful and I love my life so much when I get to do this. Like, you're telling me that I can go wherever I want and do whatever I want and make videos about it? All the heat is gonna escape. Um, I'm heating my pillow up and I'm going to get under my covers. I'm gonna watch, I'm gonna watch some YouTube that I have downloaded. Also, it's only 7 45 right now. It feels like it's 11 p.m, but no. I do have to get up early, though. That is another thing I have to remember to do. I have to get up pretty early tomorrow. Ew, ew. Don't ask me why I have three 7 a.m alarms. I'm ridiculous about alarms. Sorry. Okay. I'm pretty toasty, like, underneath just my covers. I just turned the heater on for one more second because, um, I think I'm about to conk soon, so I want to get it warm again right before I go to sleep. Um, yeah. I'll tell you, uh, how comfortable or not comfortable I was in the morning. Hi. Wow. Um, that is really bright. Like, good morning. I slept terrible. I probably only slept for, like, four hours, but I'm gonna throw this one. I actually had to de-layer last night. I had to take, um, a sweatshirt off and I had to, like, take my sleeping bag off. Um, I didn't have my heater on either, so just body heat, I guess. But I had a terrible time falling asleep. I don't really know why. It's not like I was uncomfortable, you know? That's really hard. Let's get out of here, my friends. Okay, um, I will see you when I see you. We're supposed to get, like, 2 to 72 inches of snow this weekend, uh, and it will probably be around for a while. But thank you all for watching. I'm going to skedaddle on home. I naturally woke up, by the way, at 6 because I slept like a pile of shizzle. Okay, much love to you all. I will talk to you soon.