A Weekend at Richard B. Russell State Park in our U-haul Camper

This past weekend we planned a camping trip with some friends to visit Richard B. Russell State Park. The park sits on the edge of Lake Russell, a 26k+ acre lake with about 540 miles of undeveloped shoreline. The lake sits on the Savannah River on the border between Georgia and South Carolina. There are two camping options: Richard B. Russell State Park in Georgia or Calhoun Falls State Park in South Carolina. We opted for Richard B Russell since it was closer.

The lake feels really private and quiet due to the fact that the Army Corps of Engineers keeps a 300 foot right of way around the lake that prevents any development on the lake shore. So unlike places like Lake Oconee or Lake Lanier where the shoreline is dotted with giant homes and docks, all you see is forests. This also translates to less wake when you're out on the water. I saw a lot of bass boats on the lake and for good reason and the state record Striper was caught on these waters.  The only boats I saw that weren't bass boats were the ones at the campground docks. I even took our canoe out with the little ones for a bit since the water was so calm. Now granted, we were there the 4th weekend in September, which is probably not peak season.

The campground has 28 sites with water/electric hookups. There are also 20 cottages at the park. We were in site 22 with friends in 23 and 24 across the road from us. Our site was comfortable for our small camper and a tent. We were not far from the bathhouse. Note there is only a single bathhouse though for all 28 sites to share. It does have a laundry and showers. The campground has WiFi via access points scattered about. There was a nice group picnic shelter behind our site also. A few of the sites do overlook the lake but there's still a walk down to the beach/docks via various paths. Most folks beached their boats, though I saw a few pontoons tied up at a couple of the docks available. There is a boat ramp in the campground and a parking area for boat trailers so that you don't have to figure out how to cram that into your site with the camper. The one downside is that the road through the campground is a single large loop and is hilly. This makes it a bit challenging for kids with bikes/scooters to ride around. Combine that with some folks driving too fast to see over hill or around the curve and it makes the campground a bit less kid friendly than others we've been in.

There is a day use area that's not far via boat from the campground but does require about 5 mins via car. The day use area has covered pavilions, playgrounds in shade of trees, picnic areas, and a nice beach. (We were the only ones on the beach the morning we went.) The beach area was clean but there are no trees/shady areas near it. I saw two pavilions off to the sides that you could retreat to for shade. So bring a beach tent or umbrella if you need shelter from the sun. A short walk from the beach is a boat dock so if you want to use the boat to get there from the campground (it's about 2 mins via boat) you have a place to tie up. The beach and water were very clean and clear. The kids loved chasing minnows in the water.

Overall, we had a great weekend and the staff we interacted with were very nice and helpful. The kids had a fun time and really enjoyed playing in the lake. We don't always go with other families but it was nice to have 5 families and let the kids play together and roam between the sites. We all agreed it was definitely a place to come back to for a weekend.

Epic Adventure 2: The Journey Begins... (Part 1 of 6)

Three years ago we took our camper out on what we called our first epic adventure. This time we were going farther and for longer. That previous ten day trip to South Dakota and back was the longest road trip we'd made since having kids. We had a blast and it proved to us that we could handle long road trips as a family with our little camper. As soon as we got home, we started discussing what other adventures we'd like to tackle. Life has been busy in the past few years. My wife has gone back to school and my job has changed and gotten busier. This summer we knew my wife had a break in her schedule and wasn't going to be taking classes. So we set it as the target for our next epic adventure with our family and little camper. Unlike my first epic adventure post, I'm going to split this one up in to multiple posts because an epic adventure deserves a bit more space. So sit back and I hope you enjoy the tale.

My wife grew up like a lot of young girls in 80s as a big fan of Anne of Green Gables. This love of the book and the movies, would make it her heart's desire to see the land of Anne some day: Prince Edward Island. This became a life long dream of hers that would hopefully come to fruition this summer if I could make it happen. I spent the spring planning routes and details for the trip and prepping the camper and our tow vehicle for it's longest voyage yet. This journey was going to be close to 4000 miles.

We had wanted to get the camper painted since we got her but had never made it a priority. I decided in May to get her painted and cleaned up before the trip. I also did some other maintenance jobs on the camper like new tires/wheels and adding a second spare tire. I also spent some time really focusing on how I would pack for this trip. As we learned with our first long haul, when you have to use your camper to sleep in along the way to the destination, you can't store everything in it unless you want to shuffle stuff between the car and camper all the time. Some maintenance and modifications were done to our Kia Sorento (tow vehicle) also in preparation.

We had talked about this trip for many years and had roughed out ideas of how to make it happen. Since I work remote, I could work some of the trip but I didn't want to be buried in my work the entire time. So a plan developed in which I would solo with our dog and work/camp up toward Maine. My wife and the kids would fly up and meet me later. Flights to Manchester, New Hampshire were cheaper than Maine so we booked and planned for me to pick them up there. Then we would head off for Prince Edward Island and work our way home through Acadia and some New England states trying to visit some friends and family along the way.

On June 24th, I left out of our Georgia home and said good bye to the wife and kids. Zelda (our dog) and I were packed and ready to begin. I drove the first day to Apex, NC, where a cousin of mine had moved to and got to spend the night with their family. It been a few years since I'd seen them so was great to catch up. I arrived just in time for a gully washer that revealed a leak with the new window I had installed. So there was something else to fix when I had time.

On Sunday, I left Apex and headed for Washington, D.C. My corporate home office is located there and I thought I'd stop in for a couple days and check on the rest of my team at work. The driving was good, the weather was nice that day. I took the I295 bypass north around Richmond as it was supposed to be faster but I had to slow down due to the road being rough and causing a lot of trailer bounce. I hate the bounce of concrete roads; much prefer the smoothness of asphalt. It seemed like every bridge transition had a major dip which would cause a lot of bounce. So I'm not sure that I really saved much time due to having to drive slower.

Basically the site was all gravel under nice shady trees.

In DC, one of the closest campgrounds is the Cherry Hill Park. Technically, it's in College Park, MD. but it's near the I495 perimeter and I95 on the north side of DC. It's not far from the Greenbelt metro station so you can ride the metro into the city (which I always do when I fly in for work). Cherry Hill Park has a lot of amenities. They have a camp store, cafe, 2 pools, splash pad, hot tub, fishing pond, laundry rooms, movie theater and an exercise room. There are also several playgrounds for the little ones. All the sites are full hookup except for the tent only sites and Wifi and cable are included. Of course you are paying a premium for location and all these features. With my GoodSam discount it came to $63/night for a small shady back-in site. However, that's a lot cheaper than a hotel in DC I can tell you. It's less than half of what my hotel cost per night for my previous trip in March up there. The staff was very friendly. I had asked about late checkout option and they told me I could check out at 6pm for a half-day fee when I had originally booked my site. I called the office while I was there just to verify that they were still ok with me staying late. The lady told me yes. She then called me back a few minutes later because she forgot to mention the cost and wanted to make sure I was ok with that (which of course I was since they'd told me that originally).

Zelda got to ride in the kids seat for the
first week while it was just the 2 of us.
Enjoying her setup with the kids book box,
Doubles as water cup holder and dog food mat 

I ended up in site 1512. I had asked for a shady site and this site fit the bill. It was also extra wide compared to most of the other sites. Across from me were some tent only sites. I walked around the campground and it's huge. I can only guess they probably have over 100 sites. Some of the sites are definitely close together almost like a parking lot but they do have grass and a fair number of trees around the campground. There are 3 bath houses and the one that was closest to me was still a bit of a hike to get to. One nice touch is that they have street lanterns on the end of each row with a sidewalk path. So I didn't even feel like I needed to use my headlamp at night walking to the bathroom.

The weather was refreshing in D.C. The first night it got down to around 60F and a bit cooler the second night. Highs were low 80sF the first day and high 70sF the second. There was also a good breeze most of the time which made it feel amazing. The week before they'd been in the 90sF so I was happy the weather had shifted cooler for a bit. Having camped in Georgia in 90sF with no AC, I can tell you it's not fun.

Tuesday late afternoon after a full day of work and meetings, it was time to head on and put some miles between me and DC. I was adjusting my schedule to work in the mornings and drive in the late afternoon/evenings. I had till 4pm on Friday to make it to Manchester with no real solid plans in between other than some conference calls and meetings I was going to need to pull over and deal with along the way.

The adventure continues with Epic Adventure 2: The Soloing Stride (Part 2).

Camping Where the Fish are...

It's been a busy, hot summer and I haven't had much time to get the family out for a camping trip. I was looking forward to the fall in hopes of getting one in when work and the weather cooled down. A couple months ago some guy friends and I began discussing a big family camp out. The last time we'd done this as a group, only two of us had kids. So we each cataloged our gear and booked a couple sites at Moccasin Creek State Park on Lake Burton in North Georgia.

My wife and another mom came along while the other moms stayed back with their younger kids (<1yr). We ended up with 8 adults and 11 children (most of them under 6yrs old). This was going to be many of the kids first time camping. As someone who's camped from hammocks and tarps to tents and our camper, I had the most gear and was able to cover us with 2 large tents to sleep most of the folks. We took our camper for our family and also because it made for a great way to haul a lot of the gear. We setup on two sites with our camper and large tent at one, and the other large tent and a smaller one on the other site. (Oh and I forgot to mention we took our 3 dogs which was another reason for taking the U-haul.)

Moccasin Creek State Park is located on Lake Burton in the North Georgia mountains. It's about half-way between the towns of Helen and Clayton. Moccasin Creek SP sits on the edge of Lake Burton where Moccasin Creek dumps into the lake. The park only has 54 camp sites; there are no cabins. The campground is relatively flat and well shaded for the most part. There is a boat ramp to put in boats and a couple docks to tie them up at so you don't have to necessarily put them in every day. There is also boat trailer parking at the campground. Unlike many of the other state parks in Georgia, this park isn't open year round (it's closed from Dec 1 through March 15).

We were setup on sites 14 and 25, which were the last 2 sites available when we booked. They also happen to be ADA sites and close to the restrooms (which was a bonus with little ones). While our sites were not near each other (unfortunately), most of the sites are fairly close together. Our neighbors were super friendly. They were from Athens and had camped there for 20 yrs. They seemed to know or be friends with everyone at the campground and were gracious enough to spot us a can of beans so we'd have enough for dinner one night. They had to be the nicest campground neighbors I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. So if you want to camp with friends, book in advance and you might get a few sites next to one another. If you want a bit of privacy, sites 37-39 might be the best option. Sites 1-5 are right on Moccasin Creek, but there's a walkway between you and the creek that folks use for accessing the creek for fishing. There is a church (Boat Church as it's referred to) that meets at the open air pavilion on Sunday mornings for a service right on the lake. Anyone is welcome from boaters on the lake to campground guests. I wasn't able to attend the service due to having to pack all the gear up, but we were close enough I could still hear them singing the old hymns which was nice. Depending on when you need to leave on a Sunday, you may want to plan to leave before or after the service. There are an influx of cars for the service which could make maneuvering a larger rig more challenging if you're near the pavilion. Most of the cars were gone by the time we left (which was probably 30 minutes after the service was over).

There is a section of the creek at the park that is only for kids and 65+ to fish. The hatchery next door has some stocked fishing ponds and we took the kids over there for some fun fishing Saturday morning. Each of my kids caught 3 small fish within an hour. They loved it and were so excited. I had to hold them at 3 each cause I could tell it was going to become a competition that might go all day.

Later in the afternoon we loaded up the kids and made our way over to Wildcat Creek to a sliding rock section on the creek. The water was really cold but the kids didn't seem to care. With some hammocks up for adults to relax in, we spent a good while there that afternoon. Eventually, we packed it in and headed home to fry some chicken strips up for dinner.

Moccasin Creek State Park, as I mentioned, is right next to the Lake Burton Fish Hatchery. The hatchery raises trout and stocks Lake Burton and many of the trout streams in North Georgia. Here's a great video on what they do: (Lake Burton Fish Hatchery Video). On Sunday after we packed up camp, we took the kids over to the hatchery to look around. John, the hatchery manager (gentleman in the video), came out to talk to the kids. I wasn't expecting there to be anyone around on a Sunday morning. It was a nice surprise when he came out and engaged our small group to tell us about what they did there and answer questions. He even grabbed a bowl of fish food and let the kids feed the brown trout they were going to be releasing in a couple weeks! He's been working there for over 10 yrs.  He is a super nice man and really engaging with children. So if you stop by, tell him hi.

With the gear, dogs, and kids packed up, we started our trek homeward. We will definitely keep this place in mind for future trips. I'm thinking of coming back in the spring when they're stocking the creek so the kids can take a try at fishing for brown trout. Maybe we can even watch them loading up the fish in the trucks to release. I think the kids would get a kick out of that. Hopefully, next time we can stay longer as I think 2 nights was not enough time for us.

18th Century Colonial Market Faire at Fort Yargo State Park

Every year in the Spring, the Fort Yargo Historical Society puts on their 18th Century Colonial Market Faire at Fort Yargo State Park. I have heard about it but had never been. This weekend we decided to go. We had half the day free and my son didn't have a ball game so we decided to go see what it was all about. Fort Yargo is one of those state parks with tons of things to do: boating, fishing, mountain biking, camping, cabins, yurts, hiking, putt putt, etc. (Fort Yargo is also one of Georgia's First Time Camper Parks which is pretty awesome since there's so much to do there.) I wish we had planned more in advance and taken "CC" over there to camp for the weekend.

A. H. Stephens State Park in our U-haul Fiberglass Camper

This past weekend, we decided to take a quick camping getaway to a state park that's about an hour from our house. We wanted to go somewhere close and just relax. We're fortunate enough to live in the middle of four state parks that are within an hour of us. You can actually draw an almost square box between the four parks and we'd be right smack in the middle. So we picked one of those parks to take advantage of the ability to get there quick. Less time on the road means more time for relaxing! We decided to go to  A. H. Stephens State Park in Crawfordville, Georgia.

We had never been to A. H Stephens State Park before but I had some friends who live about 30 mins from it say they like to go there. One of the perks that I heard was that it's not crowded. I can say that proved to be true while we were there. The campground has about 25 RV/Camper/Tent sites with 30/20 amp electric and water. There are a fair number of pull-through sites for those who don't like to back up. Most of the pads are large and would fit any fiberglass rig easily. I had enough room on our pad that I could have put the screen room behind the camper or next to it. Including the camp hosts and us, there were 6 campers in the campground this past weekend. We settled into site 4. The bathhouse was clean and it's on the outside of the loop. The inside of the loop has an old tower built by the CCC to be used as a fire tire and a water tower to hold water pumped up from one of the springs. There's also a large lawn area on the inside of the loop perfect for kids or playing games that includes a playground, horseshoe pits (w/horseshoes), sand volleyball area, and a public water spigot and dishwater disposal area. There are a lot of tall pines in the campground and I found a couple next to our site that were the perfect width for my hammock. In retrospect, I should have picked the site next to us (6) which was a pull-through just for the reason that it had better shade.

Camping in Georgia in July is not for the faint of heart. It's HOT! We hit the 90s this past weekend and combine that with the high humidity down here and it's like living in a sauna. The mornings and evenings were fine. But the middle of the day was scorching. Our camper doesn't have air conditioning. So we're left with the Fantastic Fan and a tower fan that I take when it's hot. Tower fans are great for campers. They may be a bit more expensive than a box fan but when space is a premium like it is in our little Uhaul fiberglass camper, they fit the bill. I strongly recommend them. The nice thing about the tower fan was that I could also move it outside with extension cord and set it up under our screen room for some airflow. We found some water balloons at the camp store for the afternoons to cool us down. I discovered that the little faucet in our camper is a perfect size for filling water balloons!

On Saturday afternoon, we decided to do a tour of Liberty Hall to do something out of the heat. For those who may not know, Liberty Hall in Crawfordville, Georgia was the home of Alexander Hamilton Stephens. Stephens was a politician for Georgia back before the Civil War. He was against secession but once Georgia and the other states seceded, he became the Vice President of the Confederacy. Stephens always wanted a peaceful end to the war whereas Jefferson Davis didn't. The two men did not get along. Stephens was also a good friend to Lincoln. Later after the war, Stephens ended up becoming governor of Georgia for about 4 months before he died. We enjoyed the tour and the air conditioning for the afternoon.

Crawfordville sits in Taliaferro County in Georgia. It's a tiny county and the least populous one in the state. So there's not much there to do except relax around the campsite. I had a great time talking with Ranger Michael who grew up there and is probably one of the most personable rangers I've ever met. The county has so few people that they only have one school K-12. Interestingly, they do year round school. We did find one bright spot just outside of town south of I-20 on Hwy 22. A BBQ joint called Heavy's. It's only open Friday - Sunday but the food is good and the plates are huge. My kids are now referring to it as the restaurant with the loaves of bread on the table. True southern BBQ hospitality with loves of Sunbeam just sitting on every table is a kids dream. The place has a lot of character between old trucks and farm equipment outside, to a hunter's lodge feel inside. (I swear there were more animals on the wall than at the zoo in Athens.) (EDIT: Come to find out, they filmed the bar scene in Sweet Home Alabama at Heavy's.)

We had a wonderful time. And even though I didn't get the opportunity this time to fish at any of the 3 lakes, Ranger Michael assures me the fishing is good. And he has 3 large bass mounted on the wall in the station that he's personally caught to prove it. So if you want a quiet place to camp along I-20/US-278 and like a bit of history, you might give this place a try for a night or two.

Our First Year with the Camper

So I thought I'd take a break from the maintenance and upgrade posts to talk about our adventures. So we got to take our camper out within 2 months after we bought her for the first time. I fixed the floor and got a new spare and spare mount before we headed out. Also, we opted to purchase a few things like water filter wheel chocks, etc. That we didn't have since we'd never owned a camper before.

For our first trip out, we decided to go somewhere close. You know just in case something happened and we needed to go back home. We ended up going to Hard Labor Creek State Park here in Georgia. It's about 30-45 mins away so not bad at all. Where we live, we are actually are about 20-45 mins from 4 different state parks. Well we got there, got set up and had a blast. The park was doing special events that weekend and we got to do a hayride tour with a park ranger and learn about the history of the park. The weather was perfect. We ended up in site #41 (technically a tent site but with hookups). It was way at the end of the last loop but I liked how quiet it was out there. It backs up to the creek and you're on a wedge of land between the beaver pond and the creek.We had some lovely neighbors with an old Airstream next to us and ended up touring each others campers (though touring their's took a bit more time than touring ours). The other nice thing about being way in the back is there's a small loop and the kids had fun riding their bikes around it.

Unfortunately, that trip was getting later into the fall so we didn't have another chance to go camping till the spring. Our next trip ended up being to fiberglass egg camper rally in Townsend, Tennessee (called the Eggsscursion). We again had great weather and enjoyed touring all the other fiberglass campers and meeting new friends. We took away a lot of great ideas and learned some neat tricks for camping with an camper.

I had tons of gear for tent camping from over the years. But I wasn't ready for camping with electricity. One of the tips we picked up was how useful an electric kettle can be. When traveling with kids this is a real winner, you can quickly boil water for hot cocoa, oatmeal or tea.

We packed up the camper yet again and headed to Myrtle Beach, SC about a month later. My mom's family is from there and it's like a second home to me. I feel like a practically grew up there. I've seen it change so much over the years. It had been a while since we'd been over there and seen the family. So I was excited at the opportunity to catch up with everyone and eat some good seafood. I'm not big on crowds and since I know the area well, I opted to stay south where it's not so busy. I got us reservations to camp at Huntington Beach State Park, one of my favorite places on the coast over there. It's the location of the winter home of the sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington (many locals refer to it as the castle). Huntington and her husband founded Brookgreen Gardens which is across the hwy from the park. A definite must see place if you're in the area. We ended up in site #45 and it was a close walk to the bathhouse which had been redone recently and was one of the nicer ones I've ever been in. This time we had a bit of a freak cold spell during the night and I found out the propane heater was a bit finicky to work with. (We have since packed a small ceramic heater that keeps the place really warm without glow or too much noise.)

Our next adventure happened about a month later. My wife was doing the Callaway Gardens triathlon over Father's Day weekend. So we decided to take the camper down there and stayed at F.D.Roosevelt State Park. Again we had gorgeous weather and a great time. We ended up in loop 6, site #611. It was close to the bathhouse but required backing uphill at an angle to get into and a bit of work to level the trailer. It was my wife's first triathlon and she did great! We also met some great campground neighbors who were there for the triathlon also. While we were there, the rangers had a great program for the kids about reptiles. I love that the state parks in Georgia offer so many great programs and events. We will definitely go back to FDR in the future. Next time I hope to do some hiking.

After that work kept me pretty locked up for the rest of the summer so we ended out our first year with the camper with some good use and great success. Along the way we discovered what worked and didn't work. We continue to make adjustments to what we pack as I learn how to camp with electricity and how to pack for 4 in a tiny camper. More adventures await...