campsites Archives - Page 3 of 3 -

Keowee Toxaway

November 2, 2014 Drew

We spent the last three nights at Keowee Toxaway State Park. They were by far the coldest, but also the best nights so far!

The drive down to Keowee Toxaway was really pretty. The steep and windy roads of the North Carolina Blue Ridge gradually straightened and stretched out into the Cherokee foothills. The leaves are in a wonderful sort of middle stage between fall and winter – some are still hard at work clinging to the branches, while many have fallen, covering the road in orange and red layers. The pictures (and my lack of any decent photo editing skills) don’t really do it justice.

The Jeep is certainly glad to be out of the mountains as well. I’ve noticed that it likes to drink a lot of gas while we tow this camper. I started the drive with a quarter tank thinking I would stop at the next station. That station never seemed to arrive; I was getting a little nervous as the needle crept lower, so Noelle checked the Google maps.

The Google said there was one location for gas a little way off our route. We made the turn, found the town, and found the station – except it wasn’t a gas station anymore. It was more just a decrepit old building and a decaying concrete lot… I went a little further down the road and spotted a nice modern gas station just in time – whew!

As we got back on the scenic highway 11, we passed not one but TWO gas stations right off the main highway – the moral of this story is that Google Maps sucks. Oh, and I should probably start looking for gas stations at a half tank from now on!

We eventually pulled into Keowee Toxaway State Park – this place is beautiful. It’s on a lake, it has hills, it has trees (watch out for falling walnuts, those things are deadly!), it has electrical and water hookups, and its only $16.50 a night – sweet!

Also, this campground was pretty empty, unlike most of the other “RV” places we stayed at. Most of the campers at those places looked more-or-less permanent. I kind of wanted to camp, not live in a trailer park…

We took it easy this weekend; got some work done, made some good camp food, hung out. We went and saw the lake, and did the 1.5 mile nature hike. At one point a deer came trotting down the path to say hello to Noelle. I got a decent picture of it too (I know I need to get one of those sun shade things for the stupid camera to fix the glare spots).

We had a great three days here, and this is the first place that we are honestly a little sad to say goodbye to – I hope we can find more places like this. It’s starting to get pretty damn cold at night, so we’d better be heading further south soon!

North Carolina

Carl Sandburg Home

October 30, 2014 Drew

We’re starting to head a little bit further south. We stopped at the Carl Sandburg Home, made a pit stop in Saluda, NC, and found a really decent campground for the night.

We left our first 3 night camping stint really happy with the way things are working out. The camper is doing really well; the systems are functioning properly. It is cozy and comfortable inside, and we’ve gotten few nice comments from the other campsite guests.

The work I did extending the electrical connections seems to work perfectly, the cord doesn’t pull out of the end anymore. But… now the driver’s side taillight doesn’t turn on (except when you turn the lights on). We tested it when I was done wiring everything up and it worked fine. Either something broke in the 2 days since I wired the connector back together, or something broke. Either way… something is broke!

Pulling into a Cracker Barrel with a rig – it doesn’t get any better than that!

We stopped by the Carl Sandburg home on the way to our next site. Noelle and I definitely seem to have a thing for big old houses. This was another $5 each to get another personal tour through the mansion. I’m not exactly an expert on poetry, but the words and life of the Sandburg’s seem sometimes very relevant to us on this little journey we’re on.

Oh, and they had a goat farm! She wants one…

A nice little stop in Saluda, NC before heading to the campground – sweet!

We have a general goal of going down the Cherokee Foothills Scenic Highway 11, so hopefully more on that to come.

North Carolina

Old Fort, NC

October 27, 2014 Drew

Day 2 started out cold and crisp. We packed up camp, and headed down the road to Old Fort, North Carolina – not without incident of course!

The first thing I noticed this morning was the red glow of the check oil light in the Jeep. It has come on before, but it still made me nervous. Are we running low on oil? Is the oil pump going bad? Are we going to die here all alone in the crazy campsite?!

The answer is probably not – I checked the oil level after getting out onto the main highway. Everything seems ok, and the light went out after I started up the car again.

I stopped a few minutes later at an Autozone to look into picking up a new electrical 7 pin connector. That’s when I noticed that the wires had pulled out of the current setup again. It looked like the cord had been dragging a bit on the ground, and caused the thing to pull out of the connectors. I bought some stuff at the Zone and ziptied the electrical cord a little tighter to the trailer tongue.

As we pulled into Old Fort, I took a fairly sharp right turn, and the brake controller switched to ‘n.c.’; the cables had pulled out again! This time, it was because they stretched too far. So basically, I can’t win – the cord is either too long and drags, or too short and pulls. For like the 5^th time I pulled the 7 pin connector apart and reassembled. At least I’m getting pretty good at that.

Old Fort was pretty cool. There is a big arrowhead monument next to an old train station-turned-museum. The lady at the museum was really nice, but everything else in the town was closed because it’s Monday. You don’t do anything around here on Monday don’tcha know.

We kept going to our new campsite – the cord pulled out again, but I said screw it. We were only about a mile from the site. This place is better than the first night. It’s a “Passport” site, so we are getting a 50% discounted rate. They have free wifi, and all the RV hookups you could want. We spent the afternoon and evening just hanging out. Noelle kept organizing the camper, and I went around testing all the components. Everything seems to be working pretty well – the electrical is in good shape, the fridge and water heater work. The plumbing seems secure – the sinks and shower work! Everything drains out to the sewer pipe, so as of now, we are a fully functioning RV – sweet!

I also spent some time adding about a foot of length to the trailer wire connection. I’m hoping this will solve the issue of the wires pulling out.

We’ve had another successful day on the road, and a really great night of camping. We’re hoping to do some sightseeing up in them mountains tomorrow!

North Carolina

Shakedown Cruise: Day One

October 26, 2014 Drew

We finally did it, we’re on the road, headed out for our shakedown cruise! We didn’t quite leave by the morning, but as of this afternoon, we are now officially on the road.

The day began with the final loading of the camper and Jeep. I have been having trouble finding the right hitch setup, and today was no different. I can’t use a normal style and length mount because the ball sits too low and is right under the spare tire with no room for the camper tongue. I tried a hitch extender from Harbor Freight, but it was too long, and the chains and electrical didn’t reach. This morning, I tried just an extra long mount from Camping World, but it was still a bit too far for the electrical, and it still interfered with the spare tire – looks like I’m going to have to just take the tire off the back and go from there.

I also needed to calibrate the electronic brake controller. A quick Google search told me what I needed to do, and the trailer brakes seem to be working as intended.

With the hitch, and the brakes all figured out, we hit the road. We’re heading west to the Apalachian mountains – where I’m told beautiful fall colors abound!

As we drive through the some traffic before leaving the town, we start to hear a “squeak squeak squeak” coming from the front passenger wheel. It only happens when driving slow, but it’s definitely there. Nothing short of a total breakdown is stopping us now though! Noelle and I look at each other and agree; the wheel will literally need to fall off before we stop this damn car!

We soon made it out into the country. The North Carolina countryside is beautiful, and keeping off the insterstate is really going to help us connect with the places we drive though. I did make one bad decision to stop at St. James Lake State Park before we arrived at the campsite – it involved a long windy road up a steep hill – not a great decision on my part.

We made it back down, and eventually got to our first campsite – Success!

This is the first thing I notice when I get out of the car – the electrical connector from the trailer has fallen apart and is trailing on the ground – uh oh. It looks fixable though, and another quick Google confirms that I just need to get the wires reconnected to the right terminals. A little bit later, we have working taillights and turn signals – success again!

We’re staying at a Yogi Bear campsite close to Marion, NC. The campsite is decent – but honestly at almost $40 for a night (and that is the discounted price), I was expecting a little more. I think camping might be a bit more expensive than people make it sound!

The ducks were actually really loud – like unusually loud – is that normal??

As I’m writing this post in our cozy little camper, we’ve had a great first night. It might be bad sign that I had to pull the tool bag out first thing, but we’re still here, and we’re still on the road! Onwards to day 2!