Tag Archives: Airstream

Current destination reached.

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We left Lake Sinclair in Georgia and got back on the road heading to North Carolina.  My initial thought was to go, via back roads, to Spartanburg SC.  We were well into the drive and Roxie starting looking through Passport America as we had just recently joined.  She found a nice park in Northern SC so we called them up.  They had a spot for us but we had to be there by 7 pm!  We thought we could make it but according to our Nav unit, we would be 15 min late.  I looked at their website and it specifically said no campers after 7 pm.  Change in plan again.  We looked for something close to where we were and found Table Rock State Park that was close.

We pulled into the park and talked to a camp host about spots and he seemed unsure if there were any spots available even though we could see numerous ones.  He contacted the ranger and were told any spot other than 57.  The camp host recommended spot 8 as it was long and level.  We took it.  It turned out to be a great choice!

The spot was right next to a creek that was loud enough for us to hear all night.  We opened all the windows in the back just so we could hear it.  Here are some shots of the site and creek.

We also had some visits from the local insect population.  The first shot appeared to be some type of dragonfly but the wings were a dark color and much more fluid.  The next two shots were, what I thought to be, a stick on my tire but turned out to be some type of stick walker insect.

Before we left we stopped off to take a quick hike to one of their numerous waterfalls:

Time to push on the next morning.  North Carolina is a horizontal state.  Wider than tall, unlike some of the vertical states we breezed through earlier.  It would take a bit to get across and we also were shooting to get to our current destination on Saturday.  We left SC and into NC.  We dumped our tanks at Table Rock but didn’t fill up the fresh water tank.  My 50′ hose developed a leak and was ‘decommissioned’ but I wanted to get another one.  There was a Camping World on our path.  We stopped there but they did not have the hose I wanted and I was also able to fill the fresh water tank!  We stayed the night at a Walmart in Greensboro, NC.

The next day was one of the work/down days you get when traveling this long.  We had to do laundry and Roxie was lucky enough to get a dental appointment for a cleaning.  She was overdue by a month or two.  We took the trailer all around Greensboro, or so it seemed, to take care of all this.  Since we were so busy during that day we only went 80 miles to Durham NC and another Walmart parking lot (actually an Ashley furniture):

We were only about 200 miles away now but still were shooting for Saturday.  We worked on getting a wedding gift and headed out only 90 miles to a campground with hookups.  This enabled us to get the trailer all ready for extended ‘moochdocking’ at Roxie’s cousins.

For you unleaded fuel fans I found this in SC:

And here is a synopsis of State signs (except Louisiana):

Back on the road.

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We know that we needed to get on the road soon because we needed to be in NC (1600 miles) by the 17th, preferably earlier.   But there was still one more thing we wanted to do.  San Antonio!  We went down to see the Alamo and the Riverwalk:

I remember Roxie getting scared on the trip back when lightning went off directly above our truck with the successive very loud thunder!

We left on 6/1 and did not stay the full month so we didn’t get the full value of our monthly rent but we did what we needed to do.

The first leg was up to Nacogdoches, TX for 2 nights.  This is where Roxie’s father was born along with all of his siblings.  She wanted to look around the town and visit a few cemeteries.  Nacogdoches is a nice little town with Stephen F Austin University where we did some research in the East Texas History room.

The odd weather continued.  One evening it was coming down the hardest I had ever seen.  We were in a restaurant lobby and Roxie did not want to wait but it was pouring down and no one else was braving it.  A nice man walked Roxie to our truck but I got soaked.  We stayed at an RV park that was a bit out of town (Camp Tonkawa).  It was very quiet with many animals roaming around (Deer, peacocks, guinea hens, cats, ants, etc.) and they also had a cold spring that was nice and attracted locals for the swimming.

Leaving Nacogdoches we needed to head a lot of East and a bit of North so each day before leaving I would try to find a path that went on back US highways, state highways or county roads.  I tried to avoid the Interstates for extended traveling for the most part.

One of our stops took us through Coushatta LA right at lunch time.  We found a great little spot for southern home cooked food (BBQ for me!).  The York Chop.  The owner’s last name is York, hence the play on names.  The food was great but I really loved how it looked from the outside.  Typical for this area:

I really didn’t know how far we were going or where after we hit Monroe LA.  It is on I20 so we drove the Interstate for a while as Roxie scouted out campsites.  She found one at a Military Museum south of Vicksburg MS and that was our plan.  However, the longer that we drove, the more we just wanted to stop.  We opted to stay in Vicksburg at the Cracker Barrel.

The next day had us heading to Montgomery AL along I20.  Since we were still on an eastward trajectory this seemed appropriate.  We took off the Interstate and onto US80 that would take us through Selma AL!  I ensured that our track would also take us over the Edmund Pettis bridge.  Even though we didn’t stop (Roxie took a video that I will post) it was kind of surreal driving over it.  We will return when we aren’t under time pressure.  That night we stayed at an RV park south of Montgomery.  It was OK.  We thought we might spend two nights there to do some sightseeing in Montgomery so we disconnected.  We went to eat that the Waffle House just up the road.

We thought we might spend two nights there to do some sightseeing in Montgomery so we disconnected.  We went to eat that the Waffle House just up the road.  When we got into the truck the skies opened up!  As we were driving down the freeway back to the trailer it was the hardest rain I have EVER driven in!

We chose to push on the next day to Macon GA.  Stopped at a Starbucks on the way to use their WiFi to take care of some bills and other ‘housekeeping’.  We had planned on staying at the Macon GA WalMart as our Camp and RV app said it was allowed.  Alas, the security guard said they stopped doing that last month.  Now what.  Roxie very deftly found us a spot in a National Recreation Area in Lake Sinclair GA.  Very nice campground, $15, nearly empty, electric and water.  Score.

It was a bit steep to back in at an angle like that but I turned on 4×4 and turned off the limited slip and it worked just fine.

5 nights and 5 states.  Wow, but we only were averaging under 250 a day.   Might need to turn it down a notch or two.  But not too much farther to go.