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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July 4th week roadtrip. Cedar Island, Harkers Island, Beaufort and Cape Lookout National Seashore.

We arrived at Cedar Island RV Resort on Tuesday, July 3rd and explored the southern Outer Banks and surrounding islands for the next 5 days.  Cedar Island is on Hwy 12, on the mainland side where you take the ferry to Ocracoke Island on the Outer Banks.  The ferry takes about 2.5 hours one way to Ocracoke. You can check out the NC ferry system at NCferry.org. This is a very rural and beautiful area of North Carolina.  We had a great time exploring Harkers Island, downtown Beaufort and a day trip by ferry to Cape Lookout.

 

Cedar Island RV Resort-the Gateway to the Outer Banks

The campground is located beside the state ferry facility and was purchased by a family from Ohio about a year ago.  There is also a motel and restaurant that is connected to the campground and some remodeling is being. The restaurant (Sharky’s) is open and busy nightly.

 

No pool, WiFi (only at Sharky’s), no cable.  We had a back-in full hook up site on the bay side.  Sites are small, but ours (54) was level . Verizon service was poor at campground, I understand that US Cellular works good in the area.  They offered golf carts and kayak rentals and have a small boat ramp in the campground.  There is also a state wildlife boat ramp beside the campground.  They have horses and have beach rides for a fee. This was a great home base to work from to go to all the areas that we explored for the week.  The owners are making an effort to improve the campground and there long range plans sounds exciting.

One plus for the campground is that they had access to a beach area on the sound that was just beautiful!  We were able to drive the jeep out and park on the beach and just about had the whole area to ourselves!  We saw alot of the wild horses while we were there.

Wild horses on beach near campground.

They are located at 3557 Cedar Island Rd, Cedar Island NC 28520.           (252)515-0201.

Harkers Island NC and Beaufort Water Front

To take a break from all the fun and sun on the beach, we decided to take a day and visit Harkers Island and Beaufort.

It has been a long time since I have been to Harkers Island, and all I really remember about the trip was that it rainy and cold.  I was a young teenager and attended the  christening of a 84 foot boat that was build there on Harkers Island by the Rose Brothers.   The boat belonged to Ray (Red) Nabors from Fayetteville that my Mom worked for. It was a big event and even had the Governor of North Carolina attend.

We checked out the  island and stopped at a gift shop that I failed to get the name of.  There was an older lady working the cash register and being that the island is not very big, I figured she probably lived their her whole life.  I asked her if she remembered Red and his boat, the Atlas.  She said that it sounded familiar, but that her husband knew a lot about the boats that were built on the island and most folks that had lived there.  I found him outside in his workshop making duck decoys.  Small world we live in, he remembered the Atlas and that Red lived beside them on the island.  Red has been dead probably over 30 years ago and he said that Red’s lady friend still owned the land.

Harkers Island is located northeast of Morehead City, Atlantic Beach area off Hwy 70.  The island’s land mass covers about 3.9 square miles. Their industries have been fishing, boat building, waterfowl decoy carving and tourism.  Originally name Davers Lie and Craney Island, it was occupied by Native Americans of the Coree Tribe when the first European explorers arrived in the 16th century

The island was named after Ebenezer Harker who purchased it in 1730 and moved there with his family and built a plantation and boat yard.

Separated from the mainland for centuries, many Harker Island residents speak a distinct dialect of English, earning them the nickname “Hoi tolkers” High Tider.  A lot of “Down East” folk speak this dialect today.

The island saw an influx of new residents after the hurricanes in 1896 and 1899 devastated the communities on the nearby Core Banks and Shackleford Banks.

The first public road to extend the length of the island, Harkers Island Dr. was built in 1926 and paved by the county in 1936.  The road and post office were connected to the mainland by ferry service until the Earl C Davis Memorial Bridge was built in 1941.  This bridge ran from the small town of Straits to the northwestern end of the island.

Harkers Island Visitor Center is located at the end of the island, a good place to learn more of the history of the island and area.  Also this is where the passenger ferry is located for going over to Cape Lookout Lighthouse and Shackleford Banks to see the wild horses. There is also the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum & Heritage Center.  You can learn about the areas waterfowl decoy carvings, exhibits of work boats and commercial fishing industry.

The island is a beautiful, laid back place, off the beaten path to visit, sorry I didn’t take no pictures of the area.

Thanks for visiting our site, and please check back for our posting on our trip to Cape Lookout National Seashore.

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2018 A New Beginning

As we approach a new year we usually reflect on the past and set goals for the future.  I have been slack in my posting and sharing, so one of my resolutions is to be more active in posting what we are up too.

2017 was a good year and I thank God for all the blessings that my family and I have received.  We all have had good health, no issues, and have been able to hit the road in the motorhome for a good number of trips this past camping season. Some of the places we visited were the usual Myrtle Beach trips.  We also traveled to Roanoke Rapids NC, Sylvia NC, Savannah GA, Charleston SC, Statesville NC.

Dry Camped at the Statesville Airport for Balloon fest

We visited downtown Savannah, floated down the Tuskagee River in the NC mountains, attended the NC Balloonfest in Statesville and checked out the Christmas lights in Charleston SC. The rest of the trips were in the Myrtle Beach area for some sun and fun.

We have cabin fever, the weather here in Wilmington has been cold last week and the forecast for the first week of January to only be in the mid 30’s and drops to the teens a couple of nights. This is not normal for our area and it keeps me close to a heater.

Yesterday it did warm up to the lower 50’s and i was able to get out in the motorhome and run down to Fort Fisher to charge up the chassis battery and roll the tires a bit.  Doesn’t do the motorhome good to sit up and not be used.  Can’t wait for out Easter trip to  Lexington VA area for a few days with friends and family.

The days are getting longer now, and I have a few minutes when I get home to get some sunset shots.  The cloud formation has really be wild the last couple of days and I was able to get a couple good shots.  I wanted to get down to the waterfront this pass weekend, but didn’t make it. Hopefully next week I’ll make it.

As we move into the new year, one of my goals is to get back on track of visiting the state parks in North Carolina and take advantage of what the state offers in great places to hike and explore the great outdoors. I want to stay off the couch and exercise more this year.

Got a couple of projects that I am working on and will share them with you in the near future.

Until next time, thanks for visiting our site and please come back.

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Myrtle Beach Travel Park June 9-11 2017

One of my bad habits is procrastination and it got me in trouble this weekend. I stopped by the storage lot Friday morning on the way to work to start  up (LP) the refrigerator for our road trip this weekend and  I noticed that the chassis battery was dead.   I have been jumping it the last couple of trips.  Usually when I get it started, and then drive some it would charge up enough to start the rest of the weekend.

When we were ready to leave the campground Sunday, it wouldn’t start, so I jumped it with my little jump box and everything was ok.  I even bragged to Ricky how good the box was working and had used it a couple of times and hadn’t needed to recharge

Well we stopped and unloaded at the house before I took it back to the storage lot and I shut the engine off thinking it would start back up.  Well that’s what I get for thinking.  It took about 10 minutes to unload and I gave Tammy a quick kiss and went out to the motorhome and it wouldn’t start.  It was so dead it wouldn’t even click.  So being the Boy Scout I am, I grabbed my trusty little jump box and hooked it up and went back inside to start it up.  I turned the key and all I got was a couple of clicks. Went back out to recheck the connections and saw that the jump box was under low power.

Well I got the charge cable for jump box, went inside to put it on charge while the motorhome sits in front of house blocking half the street.  Neighbors really love me now.   Everyone that could help was out of place so I called AAA for a jump. I was worried that they wouldn’t respond because I don’t have the RV on it. I didn’t think I would need them being that we had Good Sam Road Assistance.  I figured that AAA would be quicker for a jump.  I called them and they would jump the RV but my plan does not cover tire change or towing. Will look into adding the RV plan to our account being that 95 percent of our travels are in NC.

Within 30 mins Keith with AAA arrived and give me a jump and I got rolling to the storage lot and cleared the street. Now as a side note, when we moved from Fayetteville to Wilmington, during the downsizing I got rid of my jumper cables.  When you are downsizing you have to be careful and be particular about what you get rid of.  And if I had kept my jump box charged I wouldn’t have needed jumper cables.

We left Wilmington after work on Friday, had no problems crossing the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge and taking Highway 17 south to Myrtle Beach SC.  The campground is located at 10108 Kings Rd, and convenient to Walmart, Tanger Outlets and Bass Pro Shop. Google maps puts it 69 miles away and taking 1 hour 23 mins.  Traffic was not bad for a Friday evening and we made it in to the campground before dark and got set up for the weekend.

We met Ricky and Tina at the campground and enjoyed a nice easy weekend, and didn’t leave the campground till Sunday when we came home. The weather was beautiful and we spent most of Saturday on the beach enjoying the fun and sun. There was a nice breeze that kept the temperature very pleasant. This was good because Myrtle Beach does not allow canopies on the beach like we use in NC and a umbrella doesn’t work to good sometimes when the wind picks up.

This campground is on the beach and our favorite in the Myrtle Beach area, it’s on the north end and easy to get in and out of.  The sites are all pull thru, full hooks with cable and have a covered picnic table. The sites are on the small side and if you have big rigs beside you sometimes it’s tight getting into it. If we had taken the jeep, we would have filled up the site from street to street.  They have a bunch of bathhouses and are always very clean.  This is one of the few places we go that I use campground showers.

Tina and Ricky cooking Saturday night supper

Campground Office

There is a lot to do at the campground and they always have activities going on.  They have a large pool with a lazy river, kiddy pool and hot tub.  They even have a smaller enclosed pool which is nice in the winter.   This campground is very popular for the snowbirds. They have a nice camp store, arcade and food grille.  They also have a small lake in the middle of the campground. There is something for everyone to do, young or old.    They have a guard shack at the entrance greeting everyone that enters and security that patrols at night.

As always time goes by quickly when you are having fun, and before we knew it, we had to raise the jacks and come back home.  We had a great weekend seeking fun and sun!   Thanks for visiting our site and please stop by 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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Willow Tree RV Resort, Longs SC April 28-30 2017

 

Breakfast table discussion.

We have been going to Willow Tree for the last couple of years and usually visit in the spring and fall.  The campground has large sites, I believe these sites are about as large as we have ever stayed in.   Most campground utilize smaller sites trying to fit in as many units they can.

All sites are paved pull-thur with a patio, no cable and slow wifi. As a side note our Verizon signal was slow too. This is probably the cleanest campground we have been too. They have a  camp store, laundry, game, and exercise rooms. Large pool, hot tub and a lake for swimming and fishing. There are some long term units and it’s a favorite snow bird location.

We met three other couples from Hope Mills and Fayetteville NC. Most of our camping weekends are with one or more of these families. They all arrived by dark on Friday evening and we were excitedly waiting for the arrival of our friends, who have purchased a new 40FT Tiffin DP.  They purchased the Tiffin at Lazy Days in Florida during April and this was there first camping trip.  They rolled in and set up like pros and the coach sure is pretty and I know that they will enjoy it. They are in the process of downsizing and selling there home to become full timers.  Both plan to retire in December.

No better way to start Saturday, then with Barbara and Robert cooking the sausage and bacon for breakfast.  Jane flipped the pancakes for everyone.  LOL  all I had to do was show up.  A time of fellowship was had and then it was time for Robert to give me a in depth tour of the outside bay areas of his Tiffin and all the cool gadgets it has.  All I can say is…..I was impressed!  That coach has a lot more “stuff” than our Windsport does.  The day was beautiful with plenty of sunshine, it was a little windy which kept a good breeze going.  Had time to tinker around the motorhome and even got in a bike ride around the campground.

For our Saturday night potluck, everyone brought ingredients for a “low

Everybody busy!!

country boil.”  Ricky, with Tina taking care of the timer fixed up a pot of potatoes, sausage, corn and shrimp that was enjoyed by all.  The wind calmed down by dark and we were able to enjoy time together around the fire ring.  Ricky popped us some popcorn for dessert.

All to soon, it was Sunday morning and time to pack up for our return trip back home.  The weekends always seems to be so short when you are out enjoying time with friends and on the road with the motorhome. Check out time was 12:00 so it was back to reality as we hit the road back to Wilmington where we got things put up and got ready for the work week to began.

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 come back.

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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!