North Carolina & Virginia

5 June –

We are at Carolina Beach in North Carolina in a small family camp with internet. Before leaving the camp we published the blog and did some bookings for later in our trip. We returned to the State Park and, as it was nearer the beach, we biked along a greenway to it. Carolina Beach was very much like a less sophisticated version of Myrtle Beach. Not as many hotels and more modest apartments. There was a boardwalk, and shops in old Mexican style buildings. We rode to the next beach before returning to the main beach for an ice-cream which melted before we got out of the shop!   Back at the camp we relaxed in the shade as it clouded over and thunder clapped. No rain but very humid. It was very hot in the night as we are not on power we could not cool “Ernie” down with the aircon.

6 June –

Heard on the radio that it was 77F (26C) at 7:00am. No wonder we slept poorly. We drove back thru the city of Wilmington where we shopped and headed inland. This is the last time we will be on the coast for several weeks. A 90 mile trip to a State park at the Neuse River that was deserted. We were the only ones there. We went for a walk before the forecast rain settled in. Sitting under our awning we were fascinated by the fireflies with their bright flashes of yellow light. We had never seen them during the day as they usually only come out just before dark. It rained all night but it was much cooler.

7 June –

Cleared before breakfast and the sun peaked thru. The forest after the rain with the sun shining thru the wet leaves was beautiful. Another 90 mile drive N.W. into central North Carolina. We camped at yet another State Park at Jordan Lake. The camp was huge and we got a powered site. It was a short bike ride down to a nice swimming beach where we enjoyed the sun and the water.

8 June –

A nice cool night. We continued N.W. for 100 miles around the large city of Greensboro and then onto some smaller country roads and into the foot hills of the Appalachian Mountains. This is beautiful country with many farms, forests and many small rural towns. We camped for the night at Hanging Rock State Park. After lunch we decided to hike the trail to the Hanging Rock outlook. It was a great walk in cool conditions with a spectacular views at the outlook. We hiked a couple of trails to another outlook and then back to “Ernie”.

To our surprise we had hiked 5.5 miles mostly up hill. It was my birthday so we cooked beautiful steaks for dinner and a few celebratory drinks. (Plastic mugs again as yet another “Alcohol Prohibited” park. Boy these state park people are wouzers!)

9 June –

There is a lake with a nice beach here and stills some waterfalls to see so we stayed another night. Packed our lunch and walked to two waterfalls. They were not large but very pretty. Back to the beach where we had to pay an entrance fee ($5 each). The water was great after our hiking and we enjoyed a couple of hours relaxing in the shade. We cooked dinner (burgers) over the fire.

10 June –

More nice roads and cute little towns in the hills. It was only a short drive to our next camp over the North Carolina/ Virginia border. On the way we spied a large (high) carwash and gave “Ernie” his well-deserved and belated wash. Our camp is in a Virginian State Park and expensive but we have power. Down at a very small lake we tried again to solve our e-reader download problems with not much success. We cooled off in the lake and will attack this problem again tomorrow as we are going to a private camp.

11 June –

Up a steep road thru forest and onto the Blue Ridge Parkway. This road follows the spine of the Appalachian Mountains from The Great Smoky N.P. in the south to The Shenandoah N.P. in the north a distance of 475 miles. We will follow the Parkway for 170 miles to The Shenandoah N.P. stopping several times on the way. The road was beautiful, winding its way thru the forests with views over the mountains. There is no camping on this part of the road so we dropped off the Parkway into the city of Roanoke where we have a private camp booked. The camp was old but with good internet and we were able to solve our e-reader problems and download some library books. The bad news for Val was that there was no laundry so she had to do a big wash by hand. The camp was at the Dixie Caverns and we went on a tour of the limestone caves. They were very good with some great formations. Unfortunately they turned the internet off when they closed the office so we could not skype the kids.

12 June –

We had some broken eggs (thanks Walmart) so I made scrambled eggs for breakfast. We retraced our route back onto the Parkway after a quick shop. This road is remarkable thru the beautiful forests with views of the valleys on both sides. It has a speed restriction of 45mph and has very little traffic. Mostly groups on Harley Davison motor bikes and exotic sports cars enjoying the views at a leisurely pace. We stopped at a camp high in the hills for the night. It was quite cool in the night.

13 June –

Today we are 1/3 thru our trip. Seems unbelievable! Back on the Parkway for 70 miles drive stopping for a walk to the Falling Water Cascade and at a couple of viewpoints.

We turned off the Parkway about 15 miles before the end at the Shenandoah National Park and down to a forest camp in a valley at Sherando Lake. We have the last power site here so it was good to charge everything up before heading into the National Park. We rode to yet another swimming/beach area and spent a couple of hours relaxing. There are now many families starting their summer holidays.

14 June –

Back on the Blue Ridge Parkway for the last 14 miles before entering the Shenandoah National Park. We drove on to Loft Mountain Camping ground where we have booked for a couple of nights. The ranger at the mobile visitors centre told us of a couple of trails which we will do. We have a great site overlooking the Appalachian Ranges.  We walked thru our site to an outlook to see the sun set over the mountains and valleys.

15 June –

It was a little more overcast today so we packed our sandwiches and drove 3 miles south along the Skyline Drive to a trail head down into the Doyle River. We followed a loop trail passed a couple of picturesque waterfalls. There are many Black Bears in the N.P. so we have broken out our “Bear Bell” to not surprise any. Suddenly between the trail and the river we spied a bear. We took photos and walked passed it. He/She did not seem very concerned and carried on eating. We climbed out of the Doyle River valley and followed the Jones River up hill to another great waterfall where we stopped for lunch. It was another steady climb back to the parking area and “Ernie”. The loop had taken us 3 ½ hours and we covered 6.5 miles. Before heading back to our camp at Loft Mountain we gathered some firewood and had a great fire after dinner.

16 June –

The speed limit on the Skyline Drive is 35mph so although the distances are not great they do take some time as there are many stops for the views. Before reaching our next camp we parked and did a 3.3 mile walk down to the highest waterfall in the park at South River. Our next camp was at Lewis Mountain where we relaxed after our walk. There were a few claps of thunder and eventually the rain set in. There were a lot of people walking the Appalachian Trail which extends the length of the N.P. basically following the road. Many of them were in small tents at this camp and we felt sorry for them as the rain became torrential. Not much fun for them!!

17 June –

We woke to a mist over the mountain. We had only a short drive planned (6 miles) to our next camp at Big Meadow, where because it is Friday we will spend the next 2 nights. The mist was right down and we struggled to find the camp and the registration office. It cleared enough for us to get a good site and then came down again so we spent the morning in “Ernie” cleaning and reading. After lunch the sun broke thru so we cycled down the big visitors centre where we looked at the exhibits and watched a video. The whole of the Shenandoah N.P and the Skyline drive were all developed in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corp. This employed men during the depression and many of the parks were developed by the C.C.C. There were quite a few deer wandering thru our camp site with babies in tow.

18 June –

We left our camp site for a short drive to a trail head which took us down to the Rose River. It was a great 4.4 mile walk following the river which cascaded down the valley. We ate our lunch at the Dark Hollow Falls before climbing back up to the road. We bought firewood and lit a very poor smoky fire eventually having to cooking dinner inside. There was a ranger talk on the bear family so we walked to the amphitheatre and learned a little more about bears.

19 June –

A beautiful morning and as it is Father’s Day here Val cooked pancakes for breakfast. The camp has been full for the weekend so we joined the exodus and headed to our last camp in the N.P. at Mathews Arms. On the way we found out why there were very few large RVs or 5th Wheelers in this part of the park when we came to a tunnel with 12’8’’ clearance. We are 12’ so went straight thru.  Most people are only around in the weekends so this camp was almost deserted. The bears are so bad here that they have some bear traps set up to catch and relocate them. The ranger told us that one bear has learned to open car doors using the door handle. Very smart bear! They discourage bear feeding (purposeful or accidental) with huge fines. The saying is a “fed bear is a dead bear”. We collected some wood and had one of our best camp fires ever.

20 June –

We headed out of the Shenandoah National Park and spent a slightly frustrating day getting a tyre replaced (rumbling noises), shopping, getting LPG and whiskey and bourbon.  We discovered that “hard liquor” is only available at the state run liquor shops in Virginia. It all has to be done at some time. The private camp we ended up at is in Winchester and we relaxed in a very nice swimming pool.  Poor internet so we still have not published this blog.

21 June –

We are booked into a camp in Washington DC in two night’s time. We stopped at a small State Park

which turned out to be an historical farm with no camping. After a quick look around we continued on to the Prince William Forest camp where we booked in for two nights. Another late lunch, getting use to those! We had a thunder storm and some rain which cleared so we had dinner outside.

22 June –

In the morning I cut Val’s hair and then we went for a bike ride into the forest. The US Marine elite training facility at Quantico (which crops up in Jack Reacher novels) is all around this forest. We locked our bikes and walked to a small waterfall on the Quantico River.  After lunch we went to the very nice pool in this camp with the laundry beside it and filled in the time while the washing was being done by swimming and sunbathing. A very relaxing day which may be a good thing as tomorrow we have to drive around the busy roads of Washington DC to our camp. Could be a bit stressful!

South Carolina

21 May –

We followed the directions of the camp staff into the city of Charleston about 10 miles away and found easy parking on the waterfront. Charleston is a harbour city on the Cooper and Ashley Rivers. We walked along the waterfront marvelling at the magnificent houses. These were built before the Civil War and are huge with many balconies and roman columns. This must have been a
very rich town with the plantation owners and the traders. There are hundreds of these houses stretching many streets away from the waterfront. There are even older houses painted in rainbow pastel colours closer to the old town. We wandered thru the markets and stopped for lunch at “Bubba Gump”.
This is a chain of restaurant specialising in (you guessed) shrimps. The place is themed as Forrest Gump and the shrimps were great. Back along the waterfront and parks to “Ernie”. A great day!

22 May – We drove back thru Charleston and across a huge single span suspension bridge over the

harbour and thru the northern suburbs. Lots of trees and shrubs line the streets and we have decided that this is a lovely city. Others must have thought the some of the first battles in the War of Independence and the Civil War were fought here. Only a short drive to our camp in the Francis Marion National Forest beside the Inter-coastal Waterway. This is a series of natural and man made channels which run from Key West to Boston (2000 miles) allowing small craft to travel safely up the east coast.

23 May –

We turn inland as our plan is to loop thru the interior of South Carolina. We will return to the coast later. It was a great drive on country roads thru the Francis Marion Forest around Lake Marion to the Santee State Park on the shores of the lake. We rode a 7 mile bike track along the lake shore and back to “Ernie”. My bike developed a “loose pedal” which we fixed. It was a good time to do a bit of bike maintenance. In the evening a cool wind came off the lake so we went inside for dinner.

24 May –

It was a beautiful morning as the cool wind had dropped in the night. We continued on inland and stopped at the small Congaree National Park. This National Park is the last remaining area of
hardwood floodplain forest. The brown meandering Congaree River floods every year putting the forest underwater and replenishing the ecosystem. Surprisingly huge trees (Loblolly Pines and Cypress) flourish in this swampy environment. We watched the usual video giving us an understanding of the forest and then walked a long (2.4 mile) boardwalk thru the unique forest. It was well worth the detour into this National Park. Back on the road for a slow trip (accidents, roadworks and detours) to a State Park on the outskirts of Columbia where we got a great site. As the night was warm and we found some firewood, lit a camp fire and toasted s’mores.

25 May –

We have decided this will be “Ernie’s Day”. Our Head of Communications (Val) researched places to get an oil filter change and tyre pressures checked, and get the chip in the windscreen fixed. A bonus would be if we could wash “Ernie”. Things never go quite as planned starting with the place we had booked for an oil change. Despite assuring us on the phone that they would do the job as we waited on arrival they said it would several hours. We then got the run around by several people until finding a great oil change place that did the job straight away. The windscreen people were booked for 2:00pm so we had lunch thinking we could be on the road by 3:00pm. Wrong again! The chip was not a repair but a new windscreen. Thank god we had it insured. Unfortunately they did not have the windscreen so it could not be done until tomorrow. We drove back to our nice camp for another night. We are under huge Loblolly Pines. These are very tall straight trees used for ships masts.

26 May –

Back to the windscreen place where they took 2 hours to do the job. We went for a walk in the historic district of the town to fill in time. Eventually we were on the road again for a 2 hour drive to a State Park near the South/North Carolina border. Poor old “Ernie” is still waiting for that wash.  Perhaps next week!

27 May –

This is Friday of Memorial Weekend, the traditional start of the camping season, so we had to book a State Park very early on in our trip for this time. We shopped and continued over the North/South Carolina border to Jones Lake State Park. This is quite a different state park with only a few (20) sites which have no electricity or water. We had a great site with a nice mix of sun and shade.  The weather forecast for the long weekend is not good with a tropical storm forming near Charleston. We rode down to the lake where there is a small sandy beach. The swimming was great in the tea coloured water.

Decided we better have a camp fire as who knows what it will be like tomorrow. Cooked cranskies, corn, onions, and bread rolls over the fire with s’mores to follow. This is another alcohol free camp but we are getting used to drink whiskey out of our plastic picnic cups!

28 May –

Pancakes for breakfast and then a 4 mile walk around the lake. Saw some fresh bear scat but no signs of the bear. The weather feels very hot as the humidity is high so back to the beach for a swim and a cool off. Had to beat a hasty retreat back to “Ernie” as it started to rain. The rain stopped so after dinner we went to the Visitors Centre for an extended episode of “Animal Plant” with David Attenborough. Very educational!

29 May –

It rained off and on all night so were up a couple of times opening and closing windows and vents. We put the awning up and sat outside after breakfast in the rain. Still very humid. The place emptied out as most families in tents got sick of the rain and went home. We went for a short walk to the fishing pier between showers and then spent the rest of the afternoon going inside and out depending on the rain. It cleared around dinner time so we grabbed the wood left behind by our neighbours and try to light a fire with little success.

30 May –

No rain in the night so we could keep the vents and windows open and get a good night’s sleep in the cool. We were due to leave this camp and go down to Myrtle Beach State Park but were a little concerned as the tropical storm (now downgraded to a depression) had moved north to Myrtle Beach. Decided to move on as we were still getting the odd shower any way. On the 90 mile drive back into South Carolina and the coast we passed huge long queues of traffic going the other way after their weekend. Myrtle Beach is a holiday destination with many hotels and amusement parks. The State Park is out of this area and on a great beach. Our plan is to stay here for 5 nights and enjoy the beach etc. When we arrived the weather had cleared (good decision) and we walked the beach. The surf was pounding in but lots of people were swimming. Hopefully now that the storm has got further north the surf will settle down tomorrow. We have a lovely site and looking forward to our time here.

31 May –

An overcast day with a forecast of tropical rain in the afternoon. After Val had done the laundry we biked around the State Park and discovered a cycleway into the town. We will explore that later. Managed to have lunch outside but we soon driven inside by heavy rain. We had a lightning flash and immediately the biggest explosion we have ever heard!  The lightning must have been right overhead. The rain stopped so we walked the camp and after dinner along the beach to the fishing pier where people were getting excited catching small sharks.

1 June –

An overcast morning with more rain forecast for the afternoon. We rode the cycleway into the Myrtle Beach town. The only shops appeared to be selling beach stuff. We rode down to the hotels and apartments, an area very much like Surfers Paradise. By now the sun had come out and there were lots of people on the beach in front of the hotels. We spied a restaurant on the beach that would be good to visit. After lunch the forecast tropical rain did not arrive so we spent a great afternoon enjoying our lovely beach. In the evening we walked the beach towards the town and found the restaurant which we hopefully dine at tomorrow.

2 June –

At last a sunny morning with a good forecast. Down to the beach before lunch and back in the heat of the day. Our intention was to go back to the beach after lunch but it clouded over and the thunder rumbled all afternoon. We spent some time planning the next bit of our trip thru North Carolina and into Virginia. Eventually we went to the beach but settled for a sit and a read returning as some spots of rain fell. Decided not to walk to the restaurant for dinner as there are still a few thunder storms around.

3 June –

Down to the beach early (for us) as the forecast in the afternoon is for more showers. We had some great swims in the surf and walked back to “Ernie” for lunch. The weather was clear with no clouds
so we headed back to the beach for another session of sun and surf. A beautiful evening so we set off for the walk along the beach to the restaurant. The tide was high so we had to divert around a stream flowing across the beach that would have got our good duds wet. We had a great meal sitting outside with the beach and the Atlantic Ocean as our view. We both had steaks and Key Lime Pie to follow. It was dark as we walked home so we were careful not to step on any turtles going to nest in the sand dunes. Easy as we did not see any!

4 June –

We have had a great 5 days in Myrtle Beach. Back on the road thru the tourist bits of Myrtle Beach and back over the South/North Carolina border to Carolina Beach. It was Saturday and we were hopeful for a site at the State Park but it was full so we settled for an old camping ground just down the road. It had internet and a laundry. Val did a wash and we spent a frustrating couple of hours trying to sort out a problem with downloading books into our e-readers. No luck! There was a nice pool so we got rid of our frustrations with a swim. Hopefully we can publish this blog.