What truly fires my imagination, especially in trying and unprecedented times in the current state of our nation, is the ability of nature herself to reinvigorate the human spirit. After much efforts with balancing my professional career with grad school, we decided to take a break and book a reservation with nature. One of our favorite getaways here in Virginia is the Shenandoah River State Park. This place has it all; to name a few, more than 1,600 acres along 5.2 miles of shoreline, large riverside picnic area, picnic shelters, trails, river access, riverfront tent campsites, a campground with water and electric sites, cabins, and four yurts!

One of the main motives to do this recharge in nature was because we decided to upgrade to a more convenient pop-up tent, a four-person Gazelle T4 hub tent. Don’t get me wrong, we loved our Ozark Trail 12-Person Base Camp Tent with Light but with just two of us, it only made sense to downsize to a more manageable tent. The pop-up camping tent provides 61 square feet of floor space and stands 78” tall – sleeping four people with spare space for other gear. We ended up using the spare space as a sunroom/balcony of sorts (since it was just two of us). The reviews mention that the T4 can be fully assembled in 90 seconds; and I couldn’t agree more! Check out the video below! The tent had quite the perfect amount of space that we were looking for. With the tear down, after initial confusion on which end was supposed to go in the bag, it was rather quite quick as well (it may have been longer than 90 seconds but I’m sure the bickering back and forth on which end goes first is the reason for the lapse 😊).

Our stay consisted of a blistering heat wave that would have been unbearable was it not for the shade and river access the campgrounds provided; my two personal favorite spots is campground site 1 or 2. Site 2 provides a direct access to the river via a man-made path from our site; for those of us that didn’t want to converge at the local river entry due to social distancing measures in place. After set-up, we kicked it with some White Claws (I tend to try the ‘trend’ of the moment), grilled some food, took a dip in the river, took in the sunset, and welcomed the much needed cooler weather as night approached.

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We wrapped up the last day by taking in the spectacular view at Culler’s Overlook. The recharge and small pocket in time while camping overall reinvigorated my spirit, reminded me the power that simplicity brings to oneself, and motivated me as I looked forward to 32. There is no doubt that our 30s is truly just the beginning in our journey in life. So, let’s do this. Onward.

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Thanks for reading, Folks!