Raleigh Oaks RV Resort near Four Oak, NC
Day 1 Wednesday February 2, 2022 We finally are able to get away for a few days. This will be our first trip since October 2021. The motorhome has not been moved from the RV Barn since then, which is not the best scenario for a motor vehicle. This will also be the first time we have ever taken a motorhome trip in February. The weather promises to be half-way decent this week.
Our trip is only about 75 miles from home and check in time is 1PM so we left home at 11AM and took our time getting to Raleigh Oaks RV Resort in Four Oaks NC which is a little town near Smithfield and Selma NC. We have never stayed at this location before but have passed by it numerous times. We arrived about 12:30PM, picked up our reservation papers and pulled into site number 1 right at the entrance.
This park has over 150 RV sites, 35 cottages, two pools, spa, pickleball court, putt-putt golf, etc. It is a nice facility and is only one of two Good Sams rated 10 out of 10 RV facilities in the state of NC. The streets and site parking pads are all packed gravel. Of course the pools and some of their other functions are closed for the season or because of COVID. For me to call a RV park a Resort it must have paved streets and site parking pads but the gravel is so much better than dirt and mud than many parks have. We were a little surprised to see that most of the RV sites are occupied, which for the time of year we thought was kind of strange. They do allow long term stays here so after observing things for awhile we believe that a lot of the people here are working in the area and staying here in their RVs rather than staying in a hotel. That way the family can travel with them to their job sites and have a comfortable place to stay. Some places that allow long term stays are unkempt and trashy but not here. The facility is very neat and well maintained otherwise they could not get a 10 rating from Good Sams. This time of the year there is a lot less RV travelers so if the resort didn't have some long term stays their income would be a lot less.
Our site is a long pull-through site so we were able to pull in and setup before unhooking the Toad. The temperature was warm and the sun was out so I sat outside with my iPad for awhile. Quite a change from the cold and snow just a few days ago.
My search of the area on Goggle Maps showed a local country store named Barefoot's Country Store and Grill so we decided to give it a try for a late lunch/early supper. It was the typical local country store that sells everything from gasoline to fishing worms and about everything in between. I got the daily special of two grilled pork chops with fried squash and onion rings and Lena got fried chicken and fried squash and sweet potato fries. The food was good and the fried squash was as good as I have ever had. I can't say much for the plastic eating utensils though. The knife was so flimsy I had to pick up my pork chops with my hand to eat them.
One of the locals came in and was using the lottery machine that was beside our table to check his “stack” of lottery tickets. He checked all of them and out of the whole stack that he had spent about $80 on he won $2. Better luck next time.
Day 2 Thursday February 3, 2022 We were in this area April 2021 and we found a nice Coffee Shop named Coffee on Raiford in Selma, so we went there this morning for a Latte and cinnamon bun. In case you haven't noticed we usually search out coffee shops in areas we travel to if we are going to be there a few days. This is a really neat coffee shop. They are in the older/historic part of town in a building the owners renovated. They did a really good job on the renovations. They have several small tables and there is one small table in a little side hall with two chairs and in the back there is a small room with a couch and two padded arm chairs which makes it very cozy. Sometimes some of the local business people will have a small meeting in this room. Selma is like other small towns, in that they are trying to revive the older part of downtown with small shops and businesses.
On the way back we stopped at Walmart to pick up a few items. Then we stopped at the Outlet Mall beside I95 to get some chair cushions for our chairs that we have on the front porch at home. We have never seen so many chair cushions to choose from. The we returned to the campground (CG). We did a few maintenance items on the motorhome and then sat outside and read on our iPads for awhile. Really enjoying this warmer weather but it is going to change in a few days.
We do hear some traffic noise from highway 701 than runs right in the front of the CG but the CG itself is very quite.
Day 3 Friday February 4, 2022 We really didn't know until this trip that Four Oaks was actually a small town. We thought it was just a community named Four Oaks. So this morning we drove the 4 miles or so to the little town. Our coffee shop search listed Stanfield's General Store as an old time general store with typical general store items and antiques with a coffee shop. You wouldn't think of an old general store serving specialty coffees so we thought we would give it a try this morning. They make a good Latte and had a few bakery items so we got a couple of Lattes, a cinnamon bun and a apple turnover and shared them.
You just don't normally see an old pot bellied heater in a coffee shop. They also had a old Coca Cola drink box that was probably 70 years old or older that was still keeping soft drinks cold.
After we left the general store we stopped at a Primitive Baptist Church on the edge of town to get a photograph. The lady in the house next door came over and introduced herself as the wife of the pastor of the church. Then we stopped at the House - Autry facility to get a photograph of their sign. We thought about going in to see if they had any free Hush Puppy samples but we didn't.
We didn't see much else in town that interested us so we returned to the CG for the day.
Day 4 Saturday February 5, 2022 The temperature today was much colder and windy so we weren't able to set outside comfortably. Instead we enjoyed relaxing inside the MH and surfing the WEB and reading. The CG has WiFi but like most CG WiFi it is usable but not very fast. The Off the Hog food truck came to the CG at 2PM and set up just across the driveway from us so we decided to give them a try. We hadn't had any good BBQ pork in awhile. I got the three Pork Tacos and Lena got Pulled Pork with slaw, cheese over pork skins. It was a different way to eat BBQ pork and it was really good. We weren't able to eat it all so we have leftovers for later. The food truck did a good business until they left at 6PM.
Day 5 Sunday February 6, 2022 Today was much like yesterday, cold, windy and rainy. We didn't go anywhere just did some reading and watched some of the Mike and Molly Marathon on the TV.
Day 6 Monday February 7, 2022 Cracker Barrel was on the agenda today for breakfast. It is just up the road beside I95 in the Outlet Mall parking lot. I don't usually eat a really big breakfast but I broke that habit today. I had two pancakes, two scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, country ham, fried apples and a biscuit and lots of coffee. It was still cold and rainy today so we returned to the CG for the remainder of the day.
Day 7 Tuesday February 8, 2022 We returned to Coffee on Raiford for our last Latte fix before heading home tomorrow. We stopped at Ronnie's General Store just up the road from the CG to check it out. We have passed it many times but never stopped. It is a more modern store than the one we visited in Four Oaks but has a large selection of items, from clothes to vegetables and about everything in between. It also has large truck diesel fuel pumps that we could get to if we ever need fuel while passing by. Still a little too cold to enjoy setting outside so we enjoyed the remainder of the day inside.
Most of the Rvs in the CG use LP gas for heat and it has been cold the last few days so the CG staff have been busy refilling LP gas bottle for them. Our MH is all electric and uses either electricity for the heat pumps or if it is too cold for the heat pumps to produce much heat we use a system called Aqua Hot that works like a furnace with heat outlets in several places in the MH at floor level. It uses both electricity and diesel fuel. The electric setting will not produce enough heat on a cold night so we use the diesel setting. It uses diesel from the same tank as the engine does and our diesel tanks hold 150 gallons so if it is full we can go a long time before needing a fill up. Plus we have an electric fireplace that produces a lot of heat. If the CG electricity was to go out we would have to crank the MH generator which also using diesel fuel from the same fuel tank.
Day 8 Wednesday February 9, 2022 Well our short get-away is ending today so we took our time and packed up after the sun came out and warmed things up nicely. We departed about 11 AM and headed home but we stopped in Wallace to fuel up. We got $200.00 of diesel for $3.809 a gallon. I didn't fill the tank but maybe the price will drop before we take another trip. I checked my records and two years ago in January we purchased $200.00 of diesel at Wallace and got 30 more gallon for the same money. The fuel price today was $1.37 a gallon more than two years ago in January. THANK YOU BIDEN. UGG!!!!
