In this day‑three family staycation vlog, Victor (Speaker A) takes his children Henry, Rebecca, and mentions friends Jonah and Lily on a trip to Western North Carolina. They start at Graveyard Fields on the Blue Ridge Parkway, unsure whether the wild blueberries are in season. After checking online and scouting the area, the kids discover abundant blueberries, prompting plans for a wild blueberry cobbler. Victor reflects on how having older children makes the outing easier compared to when they had younger kids. The family then heads to a hidden swimming spot they call “Pothole Creek” (also referred to as Paw Paw Creek), describing the secluded, off‑map nature of the location and enjoying a picnic. They discuss snack choices, noting brands and oil ingredients (avocado oil, sunflower oil, soy). Mid‑day, they realize they are locked out of their Suburban in Pisgah Forest. Victor contacts a local locksmith, “Bigfoot Roadside,” who arrives and explains the lock‑out procedure. While waiting, the kids swim in the creek. The vlog ends with Victor highlighting the day’s “highlights,” expressing enthusiasm for the secret spot, the cobbler, and the overall staycation experience, and hinting at future plans to explore the virgin forest nearby.
Chapters
You want this? Day 3 staycation in the most beautiful place on earth, Western North Carolina. Gearing up with snacks as if there's not going to be snacks out there for wild blueberry picking. Is there a bathroom?
Yeah.
Oh, that's nice. Graveyard Fields off the Blue Ridge Parkway. You've not ever been here.
I got you a fruit strip.
Wait till you see. You can eat all you can eat berries. Think the berries are in this year, Beck? It's hit or miss. I have no idea. I see 2 people. Where are they at? Looks like maybe they're picking. Rebecca looked it up online to see if anybody posted, hey, on Facebook or something, that the berries are in or not.
Oh, it came up with our video.
It was our video from 2016. We're coming up later than usual, but turns out we're early. Is that funny? Is that funny to see Mom like that?
Found one already?
There's one, but it's kind of— oh boy, that's not a good sign, huh?
These are They're all blueberry bushes here, except for that mountain laurel. I'm not seeing much. I don't see anybody with pails walking out of here. You never know if they had a blueberry harvest this year. Like, are we early? Are we late? But it looks like we're probably late.
But everything online was saying late August.
Yeah, but I don't even see any signs of fruit. So there's one.
It's good.
Now look. This is telling me maybe we are late.
It could be that we're late.
Well, that was— I mean, early.
Early.
That we're too early.
There's one saying we're early. There's just not a bounty though.
You got a bag? Yeah.
Is that a good score?
Yeah, for mustard.
Yeah, looks like we're gonna have enough for a cobbler. You the bag boy? Let me have it.
Open up. Oh look, there's two right there that you can get.
Low-hanging fruit, Henry.
There it is, get them.
You told me to taste one. Thank you.
They're done.
They're so good. Are you eating them or bagging them?
I'm bagging.
I'm happy to say we were very mistaken. There are blueberries everywhere. Wow. Yeah, having older kids, that's key, man. We divide Divided and conquered. Boy, it was a lot different when we came here before, wasn't it? It's like having a bunch of Henrys.
Oh, you're tiny.
That's enough, let's go. And now, because we have older kids, we're gonna get us a blueberry cobbler. Wild blueberry cobbler.
That'll be fun.
That'll be, that'll be dessert tonight.
This is what happened when we had little kids. We each had one in every one of our arms. Man, it is nice having older kids. Jonah makes the cobbler, Lily makes the ice cream, and you make the dinner. Why don't you want to make the cobbler? Well, the time before that it was excellent. Little ones sure are a lot of fun though. Jonah, you afraid we're lost?
No, we're lost.
Hey, we'd be able to eat for a while. We just have to walk straight up that mountain. The Blue Ridge Parkway's along there. Hey, you think the Cherokee came up here and camped out for a couple of weeks? I don't know if blueberries were here that far back. You don't think so? No. Mom did not choose a name path. Booby traps. Back on. Whoa! Up, down. Next up, a super local spot. This is not going to be on your tourist map. Josiah and I discovered this on his man trip, and now we're going to take the whole family. We call it Pothole Creek. I don't know if that's the right name, but we're going to stick with it so nobody will know where this is at. Not on the maps. And we're not giving away any secrets, sorry, because there ain't gonna be nobody there and it's gonna be a really cool spot. So we're picnicking out of the back of the car. We got some family friends coming. That'll be fun. That's another reason for a staycation, right? Friends can come. I'm loving this staycation. Deep, you get your own bed. Like tonight we're gonna make ice cream on our ice cream maker. Vacation for the win, man. You just got a plate of chips. This vacation, isn't it? So what are the splurges for vacation that we don't normally do back?
Chips. We don't normally do stuff— sandwiches, chips. I bought these baseballs, uh, canned chocolate truffles, or we did Giggles one day. We did lollipops. We're getting wild, like junkier food. I'm relaxed a little bit on some of the oils that are being consumed.
Your Siete brand is done in avocado oil, so that's good. So what oil is he talking about? Is the seed oil in that granola bar?
Sunflower oil. It says it may contain soy.
May?
Heck, don't they know? Well, it's probably made in the factory with soy.
It's got sugar in it. We probably wouldn't eat this much sugar.
Yeah, normally when you do staycation, you're gonna have leftovers from last week. Oh, you went right for the rice. That's good because I'm not eating the rice. You probably shouldn't though. Well, there's our phones. All right, there's our keys. We're locked out. Thankfully we had friends today and they're gonna let me borrow their van, phone, and call a locksmith while they hit the first swimming hole. And hopefully we'll get this situated by the second. We are deep in the woods. Hopefully I don't have to go too far out of here to get some reception. 10 minutes out from where we were. Well, first guy is not gonna be able to help us for a long time, like after 5. Second guy I couldn't call. Suddenly we don't have any reception. Lock myself out of my Suburban up in, uh, Pisgah Forest. You service that area?
Yes, I do.
Cool. You available right now?
Yes.
Heck yeah. Beautiful place to be broke down though. Hopefully the fella finds us all right. I'm gonna go check on the family, update them. He'll be here about 2:45. I had to go almost to the entrance of Pisgah.
Did you get the car unlocked?
Not yet. I'm gonna go meet him now. What have you been doing?
We just went upstream. We're about to go downstream.
Okay. The absolute earliest that gentleman can be here. Hopefully he makes it there okay. I'm not gonna miss him though, so we're gonna hang out. It'll probably be a minute. Did I hear a big truck? No. Shoot, the kids are back. Why'd y'all come back? We thought it'd be done. This could be it if you missed this turn. Nope, it's not it. They've been swimming in a swimming hole off the road. I really like Paw Paw Creek. I don't want to miss it, but this is partly my fault, leaving the key in there. I mean, I didn't think anybody would shut the doors and lock it not knowing where the key's at. I think it was Henry. He knows nothing about this. To him, nothing's changed. Every day's Saturday, including today. Wait, back up.
Might be him.
Is it a truck?
Probably.
Is it a truck? Yes. Oh, it's a truck. It's it. All right, Bigfoot Roadside. It's gonna be an easy or hard one.
Won't be too hard, won't be too easy, so average.
Well, they're getting their school lesson today. What's the name of your business?
Bigfoot Roadside.
Bigfoot Roadside. All right, you wedged it first, then he's gonna pump it, and you're gonna stick a pole in there and just hit the unlock button.
Oh, tell me which way to go.
This way.
Little back.
Now down. You want him to hit the, uh, you want to hit the top part of it. Get in there. You got no clue. Right there.
I got a little kid that wants to learn how to— he lives in McCall. He's my riding buddy when it comes to this stuff.
Yeah, he's looking at the other side to get his gaze.
Yeah, there we go.
There it goes. You got it.
Don't open door yet.
What would happen if you open the door with that bag? Can you really?
So if he were to open that window, I could shatter a window because it's under so much pressure.
Wow, Mr. Brown, you would try to do that, wouldn't you? Wow. Oh great, how do you think everybody else will like it? I think they'll like it. Do you think it'll be a nice surprise treat for them? I guess. You need me to carry you?
Mom, how would you describe—
oh great, one pothole in the waterfall, one right there in the middle. There's a mild one down there. Oh, there's a real You little one right there.
Wow. I can tell it's about 2 feet down, but probably about 8 feet deep. This is so cool.
Do you know what my highlight is today? Paw Hole Creek. Getting locked out of her car. That was fun.
Thankfully we had friends here. Yeah, it would have been '90s style. Yeah, going down to—
we would have had to go use a telephone. We are back home. Beautiful One and Lily made a nice meal with all our stuff in our kitchen. That's key, isn't it? Our own kitchen on vacation. I think we've hacked into something. You can't stay on farm though. We tried that last year and we didn't do any vacations. We saw too much to be done and We just end up doing anything. We did— we didn't rest. Vacation but leave the house. She's out tomorrow. You're gonna stay home from tomorrow's?
I think so.
Okay, big drive. I think it's worth it. 2 hours and 25 minutes for a little 2-mile trot in the woods. But it's a very special woods. It's a virgin forest, and I don't think these kids have ever been there. These are big trees. The West Coast is not the only place with some big trees. We're gonna see these big trees. That's tomorrow. Happy day.
