Tubing on the Edisto River in SC.

Just a little update on a recent three night trip to Givhans Ferry State Park on the Edisto River near Ridgeville South Carolina. The park is located about 35 miles west of Charleston S.C.

Nice little state park with access to the river. It has tent and RV sites, picnic areas for families and larger groups and also a hiking trail and small gift shop.

We used Edisto River Adventures for our tubes and shuttle service. They have a little shop there at the State Park. Best to make reservations online in advance. We went on Saturday at 10:00am and they said they had over 300 tubes rentals going out that afternoon. Saturday and Sunday the park’s visitor parking lot was full.

We hit the river there at the state park access. The river level was down, so the float down to the exit point was about 3 hours. Just a nice easy cruise down the river.

We exited the river at Edisto River Adventures, where they had sandy beaches, recreation area and a Food Truck on site. There were shuttle buses standing by to take us back to the state park.

Probably next time we come, we’ll bring our own tubes and park a vehicle at a public boat ramp down below Edisto River Adventures to transport us back to the state park. It appears that a lot of folks are doing this to save expense on the rental equipment.

The weather was ok, hot days and we had a couple evenings of showers. Most of the RV sites are full hook ups and spacious sites. Bathhouse was nearby and clean. Park hosts and park staff were nice.

As a side note, if you are ever in the Ridgeville area be sure to check out Christina’s Pizza and Subs. Just a small pizza restaurant beside the railroad. Probably the best pizza I have ever had and Christina is very pleasant to talk with! She is closed on Sunday and Monday.

We enjoyed our stay and plan to come back for the tubing and pizza!

Thanks for visiting our site and please check back soon for more updates of our travels seeking fun and sun!

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Edisto State Park, Nov. 7-11 2019

Tammy and I met friends and family at Edisto State Park over Veteran’s Day weekend. The park is located on Edisto Island, which is south of Charleston S. C. It is one of four SC State Parks located on the ocean. 

The park contains 1255 acres, 4 miles of ADA accessible hiking and biking trails and 1.5 miles of beach access. 

There are 2 campgrounds in the state park. They have  one on the oceanfront and the other near the salt marsh. A total of 112 RV campsites with water and electric with 20/30/50 service. Spacious sites with hard packed sand, fire pit and picnic table. They have several sites that will accommodate rigs up to 40 feet. 

We camped in the oceanfront area. The bathhouse was in good condition and kept clean by the volunteer staff everyday. I love camping in state parks, you always see a variety of people and campers.  There were Tiffin motorhomes, 5th wheels, travel trailers and a bunch of small teardrop trailers. We camped on site 71, which was located in the shady area. If we come back again in the fall, we will go to the other end of the campground which had no trees.  It would have been warmer there in the direct sun. 

On Friday we explored the local area before our friends arrived.  Edisto Island is not very commercial, there is only one grocery store, a couple beach shops, and a ABC Store. These were located on the main road at the oceanfront area. At the other end of the island they do have a golf course and resort hotel.  I really liked the laid back community feel. Most of the homes on the island are rentals.  

We also visited Botany Bay Plantation Heritage Preserve/Wildlife Management Area.  I will have pictures and write up in the future!

The rest of the  weekend was filled with good food and good times with family and friends, walking on the beach looking for shells. Tammy and Tina spent time gathering small oyster shells to make christmas (shell) trees. Besides the regular variety of shells, we found some Lettered Olive shells, which is the South Carolina State Shell  They are pretty cool looking.  

We live in a beach town in N.C. and when we are not on a road trip, we are on the beach enjoying the fun and sun. We are able to drive out on a section of Carolina Beach and really enjoy the convenience of it, but it is really crowded with people. And when we camp at other beaches that are kind of out of the way of the main stream, it sure is fun!

We enjoyed our stay at Edisto Beach and look forward to returning sometime.  This is a campground that I would recommend to fellow RV’s that enjoy camping near the beach. 

The state park is located at 8377 State Cabin Rd., Edisto Island, S.C.  843-869-2156

Thanks for visiting our site and please check back soon for more updates of our travels seeking fun and sun!

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Cape Fear Kite Festival at Fort Fisher State Recreation Area

Tammy and I went to the annual Kite Festival at Ft Fisher today and we enjoyed a beautiful morning watching grown folks fly kites. The weather was great, sunny with a good breeze blowing off the beach. This was organized as a “fun fly” without competitions or rules other than safety to unofficially wrap up the kite-flying year.

This year we were able to walk among the flyers and had the chance to talk with a couple  from Maryland that had come in for the weekend to fly their kites.  They travel up and down the east coast attending numerous kite festivals during the year.

With the good weather today, when we left about 11:30am the beach area was getting pretty crowed with spectators and parking had overflowed out of the parking lot.

I enjoyed being on the beach with Tammy and was able to take photos with my camera and take some videos with the go pro.  Hopefully I will get good enough with the editing process to post some stuff to YouTube!

The festival is in it’s 12th year and is always held on the first weekend of November, so mark your calendar and join Tammy and I next year.

Thanks for visiting our site, and come back again!

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Memorial Day Weekend Roadtrip – May 25-29 2017

Tammy and I left Wilmington after work on Thursday and headed to The RV Resort at Carolina Crossroads off I-95 near Roanoke Rapids NC.  This is about 179 miles from Wilmington and a good 3 hour drive.

We traveled to Smithfield NC and stopped at a Walmart for the night being that we weren’t  supposed to be at the campground until Friday.

If we are traveling over a couple of hours away from home, we like to leave the evening before and break up the trip.  We arrived at the Walmart just after dark and found other big trucks and a couple of campers already there. So we found us a spot and shut it down for the evening after we did a little shopping at Walmart. This was a 24 hour store, which has  traffic moving around all night but I like the fact that there is movement and the parking lot is lit all night.  Helps that the generator dampens the noise.

I was up early getting the bugs off the front of the motorhome and checking things out and  we were on the road by 8:00am and moved over to Carolina Outlet which is on I-95 at exit 97.  We parked there until they opened at 10:00 and did a little shopping for Tammy.

We only had to travel 74 miles north on I-95, traffic was light and we just took our time.  The campground is only

Copilot Jupie

about a mile off the interstate behind the Roanoke Rapids Theater, which was opened by Dolly Parton’s brother Randy.  The place has a lot of history and has a big “for sale” sign in front.

Being that the campground is so close to the interstate, it is very convenient for RV’ers looking for quick overnight only stay while they are traveling north or south. They advertise “express check-in” and $32.00 overnight rate. The site behind us changed occupants every night.

I knew when I saw this sign pulling in, I was in trouble. It’s a “no no” in most campgrounds to wash your camper.  This is the first one that said it was alright, I have seen a couple that would charge you a fee and one that had an area to wash your RV at.  All we had to do was provide the brush and bucket.  That’s the first thing Tammy wanted to do, was wash the motorhome….which was needed being that the location we store ours in is very dusty and it had been awhile since I was able to wash it. And then on Sunday afternoon she decided we needed to clean the underside of our awning.

This was a nice campground, paved pull thru sites with a patio, 50 amp service with ok cable and wi-fi.   The bathhouses were on the small side, but clean.  Nice pool and hot tub, with a covered area with pool table and other games.  They had gazebos located thru out the campground on selected sites and if you were good enough, you could set up where you could step out of the camper onto the gazebo. The campground had a lot of long term campers (there is a big gas line project going on in the area) in the back, however the place is quite at night and the whole holiday weekend we were there.

 

The girls picked this location, being that we hadn’t been there before.  There is not much to do in the area (I did pick up another state park) but would be a good place to work out of and I wouldn’t have a problem staying there again.  The rate was $42.00 a night and gave a Good Sam discount.  We were with Ricky and Tina, Randy and Teresa and had a good weekend resting, eating and having good fellowship.  The weather was good, with no rain in our area. On Saturday, we went over to Medco Mountain State Park which was about 20 minutes away in Hollister NC.

 

All to soon it was time to come back home on Monday morning, after being treated with sausage and biscuits for breakfast  by Randy and Teresa it was time to say our goodbyes and head back to the port city.

Ok, so a lot of RV’ers have a US map displayed somewhere on their RV showing different colors in the states that they have traveled with their RV. Well Tammy has joked that we should get us one.  I have told her we didn’t need to get one,  that I would be embarrassed being that we have only been in NC and SC with our campers.

Well she did get us a cute little pillow that has a US map on it that you can use a permanent marker to show what states you have visited.

Well ours now has the state of Virginia on it, we were only 8 miles from the state line and I couldn’t resist going.  We made it to the state line and I took the first exit and gassed up at a Pilot Truck Stop before returning to North Carolina.

We got back into Wilmington around 3:30pm after an easy trip home stopping at a rest area on I-95 where we took a break and had lunch.

Tammy and I are looking forward to when we will be able to hit the road for more then just the weekend seeking fun and sun!  Thanks for visiting our site and please stop by again!

 

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Easter Weekend at Briarcliff RV Resort

Tammy and I finally got back on the road to spend Easter weekend down in Mrytle Beach SC at Briarcliffe RV Resort with our good friends Mark and Jane.

This was our first overnight trip this year and I spent Tuesday and Wednesday getting the motorhome ready. I drained the antifreeze out of the fresh water tank and closed all the connections. We keep it at a storage facility so I don’t have access to water, which meant I couldn’t put water pressure to the system until we got to the campground. So we are crossing our fingers that when we hook up that the motorhome doesn’t become a sprinkler system.

I also installed a Tire Monitoring Pressure System  (TMPS) on the motorhome.  It’s a neat wireless system that monitors each tire’s air pressure and temperature.  Most causes of tire failure on the road are the tires running to hot or to much or to little air pressure.  It took me awhile to get it programmed, but works good and let’s you see the air pressure and temperature of each tire as up roll down the road.  It also alarms when a tire get’s out of the settings.

We left Wilmington on Thursday morning and headed south on Highway 17 to Myrtle Beach SC, planning to stay until Sunday. Weather was good and traffic was light. Briarcliffe is located on N. Kings Highway, beside Barefoot Landing and the GPS took us around on Hwy 31 and Hwy 22.  This dumped us back on Kings Highway south of the campground  and being that we were towing the Jeep, we had an easy left turn into the campground.

Check in was simple and painless except for the price, rates this time of the year are running about $73.00 a night and they also have a high tax which is added in.  Their store was small and the office was only open from 8:30am – 5:00pm during the month of April.

Campground entrance

Everything locks up at 5:00pm, the only way to enter the campground is entering the gate and you have to give a $10.00 deposit for the gate key. This is also a membership campground and a lot of the folks I talked with were members.  It sounded like a good deal if you wanted to go there a lot.  Check out their website for further information.

We were on site 159, easy to find and back into with the help of my lovely co-pilot Tammy.  All sites are paved with a patio and full hook ups with cable. This campground had the best wi-fi that we have ever had. Nothing fancy about this campground, our site was full of leaves and they provided “rake stations” that you could get a yard broom to clean your site. No I’m not kidding, I forgot to take a picture of it. Also no trash pick up, they do provide dumpsters to take your trash too

Now to be fair it was a nice campground and we would go back sometime.  They have a nice clubhouse and pool located at the back of the campground on the Inter-coastal Waterway with a boat ramp, they also had a small kids putt putt course. They have church services on Sunday at the clubhouse also. The back of the campground had park models set up and some long term RV’s. The area was very clean and everyone had things fixed up real nice. It looked like most of the folks back there were retired. Saw a lot of New York and Pennsylvania license plates parked around.

Our weather was beautiful, it rained just a little on Thursday evening and after that it was clear sailing.  Had a great time with our friends Mark & Jane who are enjoying their Forest River FR-3. We had good times exploring the campground, riding our bicycles checking out our neighbors and the area. Also enjoyed good food, had some time to rest and enjoy the slower pace for a couple of days.

Mark & Jane enjoying the afternoon.

However, I did contribute to the local economy a little bit to much. If you are familiar with Myrtle Beach SC, you know that it is very commercial  and a vacation hotspot. The campground is located right beside Barefoot Landing, so of course we had to go there, and Tanger Outlets, Camping World and the Kite store to name a few. But it was fun. Sometimes when we go camping for the weekend, we won’t even leave the campground, but these trips like this are different.

This was a great weekend, we had a lot of fun, enjoyed time with our friends and looking forward to the next trip seeking fun and sun!

Thanks for stopping by and please check  back!

 

 

Hammocks Beach State Park

Tammy and I hit the road to check out a campground in Swansboro NC, and took advantage of stopping by and checking out Hammocks Beach State Park which is off Highway 24 near Swansboro.

The state park is unique that the visitors center, kayak launching area and dock for ferry boat is the only thing on the mainland.  The main attraction is the three primitive  islands (Bear, Huggins and Jones) that are located off the mainland with one side facing the Atlantic ocean and the other being in the marsh lands. Bear Island is about 2.5 miles from the ferry dock and has primitive backpack camping, a designated swimming area, bird nesting areas, picnic shelters bathhouse and a concession stand which is open Memorial Day through Labor Day.

Bear Island contains 892 acres bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the south and by salt marshes, estuarine creeks and the Intracoastal Waterway to the north.  It has about 4 miles of white sandy beaches, shrub thickets and maritime forest.  Early in the twentieth century, Dr. William Sharpe, a neurosurgeon from New York, came to Bear Island to hunt.  He fell in love with the area and brought it after his retirement.  He intended to give the land to John Hurst who was his long time hunting guide.  Hurst persuaded him to donate it to the North Carolina Teachers’ Association, which was an organization of African American teachers.  In 1950 the group attempted to develop the Island, but limited funds and the island’s remoteness rendered their efforts unsuccessful.  In 1961 the association donated the island to the state of North Carolina for a park.

Huggins Park is located east of Bear Island, at the mouth of Bogue Inlet and is visible from downtown Swansboro. The island consists of 115 acres of upland area and 96 acres of lowland marsh.  It is home to a maritime swamp-forest and is listed as a “Globally Rare and Significant Area.”  It is ric in North Carolina’s  coastal history being a American Indian fishing and hunting ground to being home to a Confederate six-cannon battery from 1861-62.

Jones Island has 23 acres, located along the mouth of the White Oak River and is visible from the Swansboro Highway 24 bridge.  It is a unique coastal fringe evergreen forest island containing a small wetland area. The eastern painted bunting, a considerable rare breeding bird for North Carolina is known to nest there.

We took a few minutes to visit the Visitors Center and browse the exhibits and informationthey had on the islands about the local birds and sea shells that are found in the area.

Checking out the displays

The Visitors Center

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is at the kayak launch looking toward one of the islands.

 

Most of your state parks have hiking trails, well this one has kayaking trails instead.  They have marked trails though the marshy wetlands.  Two lead to Bear Island,  one takes you to the east side of the island and the second branches off the first and follows the island along the sound front to the ferry basin.  The third takes you around Huggins Island.

If you like backpack camping along with canoeing or kayaking, this would be a good state park for you.  The wind was blowing hard the day we were there and it was cold.  This definitely would be a warm, calm day adventure place.

So if you are ever in North Carolina around the Jacksonville, Camp Lejeune, or Swansboro areas be sure to check this state park out.

Oh, the campground we went to look at was a bust, we’ll be in the Myrtle Beach SC area for Easter.

Thanks for stopping by and please come back!