Migrating South for the Winter!

We just stayed at a couple parks on our way south for the winter.  Last year our experiences in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas convinced us that Florida is the ONLY place to be during December/January/February...everywhere else is just too cold!  At least when you have flexibility to be just about wherever you want to be :-).  We've been in Arizona over the winter before and it's quite nice as well but farther away than Aaron wants to drive right now...so Florida it is!

Now I'm sure you're thinking...it's not December yet!  Well, the other half of this is that my sister is all set up in St. Augustine now, so we figured we'd spend some time in northern Florida (which is also not quite warm enough ;-)) before heading back to the Orlando area.  So, time to head south!

Our first stop was Lake Myers RV Resort in Mocksville, North Carolina.  This is a Thousand Trails resort, just a little out of our way south, but since it's 'free' (with our paid membership), we thought it was worth checking out.  I have to say, this is the most atypical Thousand Trails resort we've visited.  Most Thousand Trails resorts are roughly RV parking lots, with varying degrees of vegetation between relatively close, uniform, level, and parallel sites set out in a grid.  This 'campground' was spread out over a series of winding one-way roads, with sites of varying size spread throughout.  Most sites were unlevel and it took us 30 minutes to figure out how to park the RV to get it level - and even then we had to use wooden blocks under the wheels.  Most (90%?) of the sites were occupied by permanent residents.  We were lucky to get one of the very few 50amp sites.  Most of the pictures you can find online of this resort are out of date...it looks like it was quite the vacation spot 10 years ago, with fancy water slides through the woods, extensive boat rentals, a grill, and multiple pools open to the public (with paid admission).  Now the amenities are only available to campers, and the water slides are cracked and full of leaves, and they've ripped away the boat docks (only one lonely paddleboat remains).  The pools and grill still look great, but again are only available to campers/residents.  Overall a very odd place, and due to the distance from I-77, winding roads, and unlevel campsites, we probably won't be back.

Our campsite at Lake Myers - very close to the neighbors and
not level at all!

Walking in the leaf-filled former water slides in the woods

While we were there, we took the opportunity to visit nearby Fort Dobbs, which was pretty cool!  The fort dates back to the days when western North Carolina was on the frontier of the country, and it played a small part in the French and Indian War.  They recently (last few years) finished the reconstruction of the fort itself, and with the 45 minute guided tour you can really learn a lot of history about this site and the area.  I learned what a 'mess' was (a group of soldiers that bunked and cooked together) and finally understood how a flintlock worked in addition to all the unique stuff specific to the fort.  We thoroughly enjoyed it!  

Outside the reconstructed fort

Our tour guide demonstrating the use
of a flintlock.

Our next stop on the way south was at the Oaks at Point South, another Thousand Trails park that we've visited a few times in the past, in Yemassee, South Carolina.  This is a standard Thousand Trails park of typical layout, right off the interstate, and we enjoyed our convenient stay as always.  The only downside is that they only had ONE working dryer in the laundry room, so when I tried to do some laundry (in one of four working washing machines) I had to bring it back to the RV to dry...

Nice level site at the Oaks at Point South

Next stop, Florida!

Heading North - South Carolina Edition

We spent the last of our RV days at The Oaks at Point South in South Carolina.  We stayed here once before on our way down to Florida.  We quite enjoy this Thousand Trails park with its wooded campground and nice lake-side walking trail.

Unfortunately Aaron's phone absolutely died and we lost a few pictures so all I have to share are the few that I took.  We took lots of walks around the adjacent lake and saw lots of turtles and a few alligators.  This was the first time I've seen alligators in South Carolina!

Alligator #1

One of MANY turtles

Alligator #2

With the Coronavirus, social distancing, stay at home directives, and massive closures, we didn't even try to explore the area.  We stayed put in our RV or hiked the trails we could walk to.

When we left this campsite we made the LONG haul the rest of the way (we were on the road 7.5 hours) to my family's farm to park the RV and follow the rest of the world in staying at home and not traveling.  This was the longest and farthest we had driven the RV in one day - longer than each leg of our 3-day mad rush from Greenville, SC to Clearwater, FL when we first bought the RV, the previous record holders.  We were smarter about it this time than that mad rush, stopping for a break at every rest stop (with thorough handwashing of course!) and napping as needed (this is why it took 7.5 hours).

Now that we're settled for the duration of the pandemic, this blog will shift from our traveling adventures to our repair adventures...we have a long list of things Aaron wants to work on while we're parked, and I'll post updates on what he's doing.

Heading South & Thoughts on Thousand Trails

We had a couple of short stops this week as we continued our trek to Florida.  First was The Oaks at Point South (Thousand Trails), and second was Kathryn Abbey Hanna City Park.

The Oaks was a nice RV park in South Carolina.  Overall clean, all pull-through sites, and relatively spacious sites (for an RV 'parking lot').  Like the last Thousand Trails park we visited in Williamsburg, the campground was quite wooded, giving more of an illusion of privacy than you actually had.  We had some neat neighbors from Canada also trekking to Florida.  This RV park also had the relatively unique feature of a walking trail around a neighboring lake.

It was interesting to contrast this to our previous private and beautiful spot at Cheraw State Park.  We've watched a lot of RV YouTube videos and it's fairly common for people to share their thoughts on staying in RV parks like the Thousand Trails collection vs. boondocking or staying in state/national parks.  I feel like most people express a strong preference for the state/national parks, though we've personally met a lot of happy Thousand Trails campers.  I'm thinking there are some pretty strong pluses to both...pros for Thousand Trails: (1) it's 'free' on a per night basis (you pay an annual membership); (2) they are almost always very close to an interstate, so there is minimal motor home driving on narrow winding country roads or crowded city streets; (3) you almost always get full hookups (50A power, water, sewer); (4) you almost always have a reasonably priced on-site laundromat; (5) the sites are typically level.  Pros for national/state parks: (1) they tend to be BEAUTIFUL; (2) the sites tend to be private; (3) they usually have a lot of hiking trails and/or other natural outdoor activities; (4) they usually have fire rings and frequently grills on each site.  The pros for each, negated, become the cons for the other category.  So I think I like both.  The state parks are refreshing for the soul, but the RV parks involve less stressful travel days and make it a lot easier to get chores done.

The Oaks at South Point was kind of in the middle of nowhere, but the weather was pretty decent so we went walking a lot and set out to explore.  We stopped by the visitor center, where they directed us to some impressive ruins of Old Sheldon Church, and where we learned about a nearby Spanish settlement (Santa Elena) that pre-dated Jamestown.  We attempted to learn more about the settlement first hand, but the site itself was on a marine base and thus inaccessible to us, and a museum in downtown Beaufort was inexplicably closed in the middle of the day.  Still, it was neat to learn that the site even existed.

After The Oaks, we FINALLY made it to Florida and stayed at Jacksonville's Kathryn Abbey Hanna Park.  This park was beautiful; the campground was sandwiched between a lake and the beach, both on park property and within walking distance.  Unfortunately a cold front had just moved in and it was too cold to do much more than take a quick picture at the ocean.  We learned here that although the peak season for southern Florida is in the winter, the peak season for northern Florida is in the summer just like the rest of the country.  The campground was not even half full, which made it wonderfully quiet and peaceful.  The roads to get to the campsites though were narrow, windy, and a bit scary in a 40ft long, 9ft wide motor home!

At our next stop we should finally be far enough south in Florida to escape the cold!