Moving south to warmer weather-we hope

Wednesday November 6-Friday November 8, 2013
Santee State Park
Santee, SC

 

WEDNESDAY

 

 

We left Charlottesville at 12:12PM on Wednesday and drove 158 miles on a combination of I 64 and I 95 to arrive at RV Resort at Carolina Crossroads in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina.  We had stayed here a couple of other times in years past when it was just opening and had nothing but the sites and a little check in booth.  We stopped because of the Passport America rate of $21.50 for 30 amps FHU.  But when I went to register, I was told that they don’t honor PPA in November.  On the PPA website it says available only Monday-Thursday, for only one night and not in April or October.  So I thought we were great, 1 Wednesday night in November.   When I suggested they might want  to  update the Passport site if it was incorrect, I was told “we’re going to drop Passport anyway”.  The man at the desk was quite surly.  But we had a gravel  pull through over night site for $30 which is ok for the convenience of being right off 95 but it was his attitude I found offensive so I emailed PPA and was amazed at how quickly they got back to me and are investigating the situation.  This is an excellent park for an overnight coming down I 95 as it  is far enough off the road to be very quiet.  We may well stay here again but be aware not to expect the PPA discount and I suggest you call ahead to see just what the rules are if it matters to you.  I was  not back in camera groove yet so I borrow this shot off of the web.  It looks exactly like our site although there were fewer rigs there Wednesday night.

 

 

THURSDAY 

 

 

We were up and on the road by 9:00 for another 159 mile drive further on down I-95 where we stayed right by the South Carolina line at Sleepy Bear’s RV  Park in Lumberton.  We should have driven on  to Santee State Park and skipped this. 

It would have been 281 miles for us in one day which is pretty unusual but we were up and  out early enough since there was nothing to do but disconnect.   The drive down I-95 was extremely easy so we could have gone another 2.5 hours and still been at Santee by late afternoon.  We’ve found that keeping Winnona at 50-55mph improves her gas mileage as much as 1.5 mpg.

After we got to Sleepy Bear so early in the day we were really wishing we had just gone on.  But we  didn’t. 

Sleepy Bear is a Good Sam park so we got a 10% discount on a gravel pull through FHU.  Cost about the same as yesterday.  $29.70.  The site is a lot like yesterday’s too.  But this park isn’t nearly as nice and is pretty much ON I-95.  We can see it out the windows and definitely hear it. 

 

 

 

Unlike the guy at Crossroads, the folks who run this park are very friendly and accommodating but the  park  is quite run down.  You can see some “vintage” rigs all lined up in their “storage area” in the Duckie view.  That’s a tractor trailer on I95 right behind the Airstream.  

Sleepy Bear is ok  for an overnight but if we come from Charlottesville down this way again I think we’ll just go on to our next destination.

We did run into several of Winnona’s maiden aunts though.  They seemed a bit sad to be stuck here.   One was a more distant relative and the other was a seriously vintage Brave.  They are a great size I think especially for singles. I wonder why no one makes this sort of  RV anymore.

 

Great Aunt Mable

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great Aunt Matilda

 

 

FRIDAY

 

With only a 122 mile drive, even with dragging our feet we arrived  at Santee State Park by noon which was intentional since David has to have a blood draw  today before starting back  on his main medication, revlimid.  

Once we got set up, he drove  over to Orangeburg  22 miles away and got  it taken care  of.  Although we have to plan  our travels around these blood draws, he is thankful for the ability to get this blood work done in  many places around the country.

Santee State Park is right on HUGE 110,000 acre Lake Marion.  That’s it right behind Winnona.  We haven’t seen much of the park yet but we know there are 3 short hiking trails and of course the huge lake and a 7.5 mile sandy bike trail which I assume is more for “mountain” bikes than hybrids even though there is nothing remotely like a mountain here.   We also haven’t seen the other campground.  Santee State Park has two.  We are in  Lake Shore.  The other and smaller one, Cypress View,  is about 4 miles away near the camp store and ranger’s station.

What we have seen so far is that the park is rustic,  similar to Hunting Island with a lake rather than an ocean shore.   The roads are sandy and sketchy so if you are bringing in a big rig you want to be careful and go very slowly.  We can kayak right off the lake shore behind Winnona.  SWEET!  IF the winds die down that is.  I’ll let you know more after our week-end experience.  

On  Monday we move to Edisto Island.   So far we haven’t found any warmer weather.  It was in the low 30’s last night and the upper 30’s tonight.  Wonder what the weather’s like when winter actually comes here.   Maybe we should cut and run directly to Florida. :-)

 

Lake Marion shore directly behind Winnona.

Footnote:  David wants to go to Yosemite this next summer.  If any of you have been there and have advice for us particularly about the best route into the park and where to camp for 35’ Winnona and Ruby on her dolly, please let me know.