Season 1 Going Coastal Tour
August, 2020-February, 2021
August 2020 was our official start of our RV full time living. Our plan was to visit a few friends in along the way of our route. And that's what we did! I think that's the best part of RV'ing because we can stop at a campground somewhere close to people we know, meet up for dinner and catch up and still feel that connection of friendship grow. Along the way, we would also get to visit so many different parks, historic museums, and learn more about ourselves as a couple leaving in a very small space.
We were on the road for 179 days and we traveled 4,474 miles. We visited 12 different states and saw lots of friends along the way. We stayed in 3 Corp of Engineer locations in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Alabama. We visited two Harvest Host locations. One was in Muskogee Oklahoma, Pecan Creek Winery and the other was in Lake Charles, Louisiana at the Crying Eagle Brewery. We stayed in two state parks in Mississippi and Tennessee and one city park in Jacksonville, Florida. We mooch docked in two different locations, one was in Madisonville, LA at a friend's home and the other was at our son's home, in Conroe, TX. We stayed at 4 different Kampgrounds of America (KOA's) in Myrtle Beach, SC, Asheville, NC, Louisville, KY and Meridian, MS and all of them were wonderful stays. And our longest stays were for 62 days in Port Aransas, TX at the Gulf Waters RV Resort and 30 days in Navarre, FL at Santa Rosa RV Resort. Both RV resorts had excellent amenities and beautiful views. Unfortunately, our stay in Navarre was marred by Hurricane Sandy but we survived the hurricane in our Hurricane!
We stayed 15 nights in state parks, COE's or city parks and we averaged about $20 a night. This is definitely a great savings and for the 2022 season, I am booking more city, state and national parks. I love the reservation system through Recreation.gov and ReserveAmerica as it helps you pick a spot but also you can put in your rig size and see if the site is compatible to your needs. I wanted to book us into Hunting Island SP in Beaufort, SC but the largest sites they have are for something less than 20'. Make sure you check out these specs before you book your site.
Next, we stayed at 16 different commercial or private campgrounds for a total of 148 nights. Our average stay was around $49 which I was pretty happy with for our first year. We are members of Good Sam which gives you a 10% discount of your stay with participating campgrounds and also we have a membership to KOA which allows a 10% discount of your stay and as you accumulate points on your stays you can get discounts off your bill. We are also members of Escapees and Passport America.
The states we visited were Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky.
Places we got to visit along the way. In Texas, we visited the Longhorn Caverns State Park and hiked through the wilderness area nearby. In Oklahoma we met up with friends in Muskogee and enjoyed crushing grapes at a winery. We even have a YouTube video for that experience. In Arkansas, we hiked a trail in Maumelle and stayed at a very nice COE park. Next we stayed in Memphis and for the first time ever, did the tour of Elvis Presley's Graceland and the museum areas across the street. While it is kinda pricey, I loved every bit of it. In Mississippi and parts of Tennessee, we visited Shiloh National Military Park and enjoyed walking through the battle areas. We learned so much there! We also visited Helen Keller's home, Ivy Green, in Tuscumbia, AL along with our friends that live in Florence, AL. Helen Keller's home is on the National Historic Landmark and it was a real treat for me since my education background is with working with children and adults with blindness or visual impairments. I would definitely do that tour again. In Alabama, we stayed at a COE outside of Montgomery and the most beautiful location but got overrun by ants. I couldn't believe how quickly it happened. We learned about putting down Terro first before setting up the rig. But our visit wasn't ruined! We had plans to visit the National Memorial for Peace and Justice but it was closed on a Monday, so we headed over to the Rosa Parks Museum and took in the historical significance of the Civil Rights movement.
From Alabama we headed to the Emerald Coast...Navarre Beach and our home for a month. We enjoyed our visit there so much and even went through the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. We had a little bit of water damage but overall, it didn't dampen our spirits. It did shut down the pool which I had been enjoying everyday we were there! After we made our way along the Florida Panhandle we discovered the area of Appalachicola. What a great find. It is called the Hidden Coast and for the best reasons. Very few people think about it. The people are laid back and friendly and there is so much to see and do. We loved it so much we are going back there in 2022! We met up with the parents of some of our friends, who took us in during Hurricane Sandy and had dinner with them in Tallahassee and enjoyed the park in town. Then it was on to Jacksonville, Florida where we stayed at the Kathryn Abbey Hanna Park. It was nestled right up to the Atlantic Coast and we could walk on the beach and enjoy the weather.
Georgia was lots of fun as we stayed at a very inexpensive park for three days. It was located close to the Golden Isles which encompasses Brunswick, GA along with the barrier islands of St. Simons Island, Sea Island and Jekyll Island. We had an awesome time exploring the old structures from the Colonial Georgia Frontier at Fort Frederica National Monument and around the Sea Isles. In South Carolina, we enjoyed time in Savannah on River Street and walking though the homes on Bay Street and the waterfront in Beaufort, SC. We found a cool bar to hang out at to listen to music called Hemingway's and I'm sure we will go again. Then it was north to Myrtle Beach and both Robert and I agree that it is just too commercialized for our tastes. We rode our bikes there and had a nice time but we were ready to start heading inland to North Carolina.
We have some wonderful friends that we met in St. Kitt's a few years back. Gretchen and Todd are just the kind of people you love hanging out with and we wanted to make sure to visit them. Todd designed our logo for us and it's just spectacular. (While I say this, I need to order some stickers this year). Todd and Gretchen had stayed at Norman Motorcoach RV Resort while they were having their condo built so they recommended it to us. It was really nice and they even came over and rented one of the cottages while we were there. I love friends like them! After seeing them, we headed to Asheville, NC and stayed at a pretty nice KOA. Lots of hiking to do there and because we were only there for two days we didn't go into the city but we did drive over to Bryson City and catch the Great Smokey Mountain Train. We also found a great place to hike around a local lake called Lake Junaluska.
From Asheville we started heading north through a portion of Tennessee. I had made reservations at Big Ridge State Park in Maynardsville, TN. What a beautiful location and we were there in late October. The color in the trees and the campground itself were fantastic and the hiking was wonderful there. I really wish we could have stayed longer but we were heading to Louisville to meet up with a friend of Robert's from college and his wife. Lisa and Ernie have been our dear friends for ever. Ernie was Robert's roommate at Texas A&M and Lisa and I became friends after she married Ernie. Lisa is a big camper and they pulled their Imagine trailer up to Louisville to meet us and do the Bourbon Trail. Even with the Covid restrictions we had a fabulous time. The KOA was a little crowded that weekend due to the fact it was Halloween but the park cleared out after the weekend was over. We stayed for 6 nights and just subbed and spoked out to any distillery we could get a tour of. We found up buying a lot of Jim Beam! Try the Cherry flavor Jim Beam! With a Coke, it's just like drinking a Cherry Cola!
Since we were now heading back to Texas, we spent two nights in Nashville with Ernie and Lisa and met up with her college friend from the United States Naval Academy. We hiked a trail that goes along the river in Nashville one day. We said our goodbyes in Nashville and we headed to Meridian MS to spend two nights and then to Madisonville, LA to stay with friends for another two nights. Cindy and Ralph Romaguera have been our friends since we both started attending Texas School, the largest photography school in the United States. Cindy has chickens and Ralph built her the cutest chicken coop EVER!
It was now time to get serious about heading home...our last stop before getting back into College Station was at another Harvest Host location called the Crying Eagle Brewery in Lake Charles, LA. It was sad to see the devastation that had occurred there because of several hurricanes. Houses were still without roofs and many businesses were closed. From Lake Charles it would be about a 4 hour drive to College Station where we would stay through Thanksgiving. On December the 1st, we broke camp and moved the rig to Gulf Waters RV Resort in Port Aransas where we would stay for the next 62 days. During that time, our friends Ernie and Lisa would bring their NEW 5th wheel down and camp with us for a week and enjoy beach time in December!
We wouldn't leave Port Aransas till February 1st of 2021, where we would start our next grand adventure! Going West this time for Season 2.