March-April 2014 Trip Leg 3

Thursday 3/20/14 We departed the Rally grounds at 9:30 AM and arrived at the state park about 2PM and set up on site 1 in loop 1 after checking in at the office. Our site is on the banks of Lake Hartwell, a very large lake with a great view. To bad I don’t have a kayak.

Friday 3/21/14 We drove into Anderson SC to Cracker Barrel for a great breakfast followed by a stop at a McDonalds to use their free WiFi. Next was a stop at a car wash to get the road grime off the “toad” followed by a stop at an auto parts store to get some 2000 grit wet/dry sandpaper. Then we stopped at Walmart to stock up on groceries before returning to the CG. One of the tips I learned at the FMCA rally was using 2000 grit sandpaper to bring back the clarity in the headlight lenses when they begin to fog. The lenses on the “toad” were getting fairly bad. After 30 minutes of sanding on each lenses they looked much better but were still a little hazy. I then decided to polish them with 303 and then they were almost as clear as new.  I did the same on the lenses for the MH. I think I will contact the lady that put on the seminar that discussed using the sandpaper and tell her about also using 303 as a final step. The remainder of the afternoon was spent reading and relaxing.

03/22/14 Saturday After breakfast we took the trash and rode our bicycles 1.5 miles to the trash dumpsters. We rode our bicycles 4 miles before returning to our campsite. I think this is the only CG we have ever stayed where there was not either a container in the CG to place your trash or it was picked up near your site. What even makes this even stranger is there is a cleaning crew that comes every morning about 8:30 to clean the bathhouses and they are driving a pickup truck, so why couldn’t they also collect the trash form a trash container. We read and relaxed until it was time to cook supper. I cooked chicken in my Dutch Oven. Wow was it tender. After eating I built a campfire and we enjoyed it for awhile.

03/23/14 Sunday Lena make blueberry pancakes for breakfast. Mummm good. Today we read, relaxed and watched the NASCAR race. The CG loop we are in was full all weekend but by nightfall everyone has departed except one other and us.

03/24/14 Monday Let me vent just a little. There was a couple of ladies (I guess) and one young boy that setup a tent Friday afternoon in the site next to us. They had never set up their tent before arriving and it took over an hour to set it up while they read the instructions. That is not my reason for the venting. After nightfall Sunday night they packed up and departed. When we looked out this morning they had left all their weekend trash in the fire ring along with a number of burnt soft drink cans and aluminum foil and some of their trash was scattered around the campsite. This sure was not a good teaching lesson for the young boy that was one of the “ladies” son. Leaving your trash on your campsite is just one of my pet peeves. I just see it as lazy and inconsiderate. I believe you should leave your campsite as clean or cleaner than you found it.

We drove to the nearby Lake Hartwell Dam to get a better look at it and get some photos. The lake has 56,000 acres of surface water. Then we drove into Anderson to get some groceries and find a WiFi site. When we returned the other camper had departed so we have the entire 16 site loop to ourselves.

03/25/14 Tuesday Lena wanted to go to IHOP to try their Crème Filled Crepes for breakfast so we drove into Anderson. After eating we went to The UPS Store to ship our GPS to Rand McNally. They said they would repair it or replace it even though it was a year out of warranty and they paid for the shipping. Shortly after returning to the CG the wind really whipped up blowing in the 24 degree weather that is coming tonight. I had to take up everything outside to keep the wind from blowing it away. The weather report indicated winds over 30MPH and since we were sitting beside a large lake we were getting the wind full force coming across the lake. There were whitecaps all over the lake.

03/25/14 Wednesday A quite day with sunshine, no wind and a very calm lake.

03/26/14 Thursday We broke camp at 9:30AM and drove to the dump station. It is difficult to get into the dump station with a 40’ MH the way they have it laid out and I can’t even imagine how a 5th wheel or travel trailer would do it coming from anything other than loop 2 or 3. Needless to say we don’t plan to return to the CG. It has potential but I doubt the state will put any money in it to realize that potential.

March-April 2014 Trip Leg 2

Sunday 3 /16/14 We met 19 other Tiffin Rvs at the Perry Middle School so we could caravan in and park together at the rally. By the time we got to the parking area it was raining even harder and the area where we were to be parked was getting very wet. We were fourth in line of our group and was the last to get parked in the designated area due to the wet ground. By the time I got the MH setup the area all around it was standing in water a couple of inches deep. What a mess. After the rain finally stopped we walked up to check out the area where the seminars were to be held and check in and get our welcome bag.

Monday 3/17/14 Well it is still raining lightly. We attended some of the RV related seminars today.

Tuesday 3/18/14 It is cool today but it not raining and finally the sun came out in the mid afternoon while we attended more of the RV related seminars and checked out a few of the vendors that were selling RV related products. The entertainment for the night was Jeanne Robertson. She is a very funny speaker. She had the crowd in tears most of the time.

Wednesday 3/19/14 Again the day started off very cool, around 47 degrees as we attended more of the education seminars. By mid afternoon the sun was a welcome sight. After we attended all the seminars we wanted to attend we did some shopping with the vendors and then toured some of the new Tiffin motor homes before returning to ours for the night.

Thursday 3/20/14 We did not plan to attend any of the seminars today and had finished our shopping so decided to leave one day early and miss the mass exodus on Friday morning when most of the 2500 motor homes would be leaving. We had reservations at Sadlers Creek State Park near Anderson S.C. for Friday through the following Thursday so I called and got permission to come in one day early.

March-April 2014 Trip Leg 1

Friday 3/14/14 We began our 2014 camping season this morning. We had prepared the MH during the week for an early morning departure. This will be a multi-leg trip.

We got everything hooked up and ready to leave only to discovered that our Rand McNally RV 7710 GPS was not working so I had to get our old Tom Tom out of the other car to use on the trip. It is not as good a GPS for an RV but will have to do until we can get the RV GPS fixed or replaced. It is only two years old so for $389 it should last more than two camping seasons. We finally pulled out about 8:30AM. The outside temperature was 24 degrees but it supposed to warm up to the 60’s today.

We arrived at A.H. Stevens State Park in Crawfordville GA about 3:30PM. After registering we drove the short distance to the CG and picked site 18. A nice pull through. The sites all have two 30amp and one 20amp electrical connections and water with a dump station on the way out of the CG. The sites are all level, large and the parking areas are covered in gravel. All sites could easily accommodate a 40’ MH. Each site has a concrete picnic table, grill, lantern pole and a fire ring. There are several pull through sites among the 25 total sites. The street is paved asphalt and the entire CG is very clean and neat. The CG was built by the CCC during the depression as park of President Roosevelt’s New Deal. The CG is about 3 miles off I-20.

Saturday 3/15/14 After breakfast we took a ride on our bicycles around some of the park. Later in the day we relaxed and read books on our Kindles.

Sunday 3/16/14 We had breakfast, broke camp, dumped the holding tanks and depart for Perry, GA at 8AM to attend a Family Motor Coach Rally. It started raining sometime during the night and continued until about 3PM.