Travel Days and Stormy Weather, Again!

After 3 weeks of travel, we arrived in Florida for the winter. Yes, that is correct, we took 3 weeks to drive from Pennsylvania to Florida. We like to take our time and stay for awhile at most of our stops. No need to rush; we stop and smell the roses along the way. I don’t know about roses, but we did enjoy the fall scenery during our travels.

View at our first stop in virginia. The mountains in the distance blend into the gray clouds so it was hard to capture in a picture.

Our first stop was just for one night in Virginia. We found a truck stop near Lexington, VA that has a small campground on our way north in the spring, so decided to stop there again. The campground is small with narrow spaces but they are level and long enough to stay hooked up to the truck. The price is reasonable and while the campground itself isn’t very scenic; the area certainly is. We like Lexington; it is an historic quaint town; definitely worth a visit. This time we were there on a Sunday so not much was open but we found a good place for dinner and drinks. Perfect way to relax after a day of travel.

I had to zoom a bit to capture the mountains.

The next day, we headed to Forest Lake, a Thousand Trails campground not too far from Lexington, NC for a 3 night stay. We really like this campground; it is large with a beautiful setting around a small lake. This time, we got a site in the new section and had a very large paved site. Perfect! Other than a few trips into town for shopping, we stayed at the campground and just enjoyed the surroundings.

From there, we headed to South Carolina for a 2 week stop at The Oaks at Point South, another Thousand Trails campground that we have visited in the past. This campground is small with tight sites but being in low country, it is a perfect spot to stay and visit the area. The biggest worry with the campground was acorns dinging the camper and truck and squirrels causing damage. Squirrels were everywhere and we saw one run up the ladder to the roof as soon as we were parked. I think it was laughing at us!

View from the trail at The oaks. We didn’t see any alligators but other campers saw a few in the ponds.

We spent a few days visiting Beaufort, SC and the surrounding countryside. There are many historic sites in the area and I had read about ruins of a church nearby so we decided to visit it. It was a very pretty drive under live oak trees lining the road to the ruins and the property around the ruins was beautiful. After our visit, we decided to make a stop at the Carolina Cider Company for some cider. They had pie too so we had to buy one. What a treat. The spiced apple cider was delicious too especially served warm. Definitely worth a stop if you are in the area.

A little information about the church ruins

Our purchases: Honey, Spiced Apple cider and praline apple pie

When we were in this area in the past, we read about Harold’s Country Club but hadn’t been able to fit in a visit. This restaurant is in an old gas station and isn’t much to look at, but it gets great reviews so we wanted to try it out. It is only open Thursday through Saturday and has a limited menu. Saturday was steak night so we decided to go then. You need to call for a reservation and you tell them how you want your steaks cooked and pick between two seating times. Everyone lines up at their time, pays, and goes through the line to get their food, cafeteria style. It was different, very casual atmosphere and not much by way of decor; but the steaks were quite delicious.

Unfortunately, Hurricane Nicole decided to visit while we were there. It was downgraded to a tropical storm before it hit our area, but was still considered a dangerous storm. Definitely a dilemma when living in a RV, do we stay or go somewhere else. It looked like the storm covered such a wide area so we felt it could be worse if we headed inland so we decided to stay put. By the time the storm got to us, the winds were not expected to be too bad but there was a risk of tornadoes and heavy rainfall. Flooding was a concern as well. It definitely isn’t safe to be in an RV during a tornado. When we stopped in this same park last spring, we had severe thunderstorms with tornadoes that hit the area. As much as I love this area, the weather doesn’t seem to love us.

Most of the other campers stayed in the park, but since our weather radio was alerting with a tornado warning, we decided to get a hotel room for the night. We closed up the slides on the fifth wheel, and left it in the campground. We were less than a mile away but felt more secured in a solid building. Luckily all was fine; although a tornado touched down briefly about 35 miles north of us. As much as I enjoy visiting low country, I am not sure we will stop again any time soon.

After the storm, cooler temperatures rolled in. We were ready for warm sunshine so I was happy to head further south to Florida. I think we took the cold weather with us though. Our first stop was St. Augustine for 3 nights at the St. Augustine Beach KOA. I was really hoping for warm sunny beach weather. The weather forecast was cloudy and cool temps, not expected to get much warmer than 60 degrees. It was pretty windy, cool and cloudy the day we arrived, but luckily the sun came out the next 2 days so it wasn’t too cool for touring around town and visiting the beach. We visited The Conch House for drinks and dinner after we had set up at the campground. My friend Susan had recommended it to me so we had to give it a try. I loved the outdoor seating area but it was a bit too cool and windy to eat there so we sat inside. I definitely want to come back and try it when it is a warm and sunny day.

Susan recommended the drinks but most were sweet rum drinks which I don’t like so i opted for the bloody mary which was quite good.

one of the prettiest birds i have seen. I am told this is a female or immature anhinga. It seemed to live on this water feature at the koa.

St. Augustine is a wonderful town to visit. So much history there but it is definitely a tourist town; crowded and expensive. We lucked out with our timing though and avoided the really busy times. We visited the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument not long after it opened so there wasn’t a crowd. We spent a bit of time touring the fort and just before we left; numerous school groups arrived. We finished just in time before it got crowded. The parking lot was fairly empty when we arrived and was full when we left.

Castillo de San Marcos National Monument

Luckily it was a public lot, so we were able to leave the car there and walk through the historic town. I wanted to see a few of the buildings in town, like the oldest school house and oldest house, but every site was a separate charge to go inside. We decided not to spend money on those tours so just got a few pictures of the outside. I did go inside a few historic churches that were free to enter and they were beautiful. After walking around town for awhile, we stopped for lunch at Harry’s Seafood and Grill. It was a great choice; we both had delicious meals.

After a day of touring, we relaxed at the campground the next day and Tim did some shopping for us. While he was shopping, I walked the dog to the beach. Definitely saw some damage from Nicole. As I approached the beach, it looked like a rocky shoreline but as I got closer, I could see that it was chunks of concrete instead. Some people were climbing over the rocks and concrete but I just stayed at the edge and watched the water for awhile. Even with the damage, it was still beautiful. Love watching the waves roll in.

we left the day before nights of lights started but we got to see the tini martini bar deorated for the event.

We have 2 more places to visit, Sebastian/Vero Beach and Orlando, before we settle into our winter home at Three Flags in Wildwood. More to come on our winter in Florida in future posts.

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Travel Days and Stormy Weather, Again!

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