October 22, 2015
OBX Campground
Kill Devil Hills, NC

We've been doing some sightseeing the past few days and have gotten a good look at the area.

We drove the 40 or 50 miles down highway 12 to Cape Hatteras and saw the lighthouse.

We found it strange to be on a narrow strip of land bordered by ocean and not ever get a chance to see the ocean. The ocean shoreline has a tall dune that blocks your view. In town, it's the same but the coast is also covered with wall to wall houses or hotels. You have to find a public parking area and walk to the beach to get a view.

We stopped at Jennette's Pier in Nags Head to get a better view of the coast.

 

Here is a short video from the pier:

 

 

We spent a little time down on the beach.

 

 

And then made a short video of our theme song.

 

 

More fun tomorrow. We're heading north of Kitty Hawk to the town of Corolla for a tour of the wild horses.......

October 15,2015
OBX Campground
Kill Devil Hills, NC

Today we left Falls Lake and drove 215 miles east on highway 64 to the Outer Banks. It took us close to 5 hours to make the drive due to traveling secondary roads and going through several towns. OBX Campground is located on the Outer Banks just north of Nags Head and south of Kitty Hawk. The campground is on Colington Island. Here are a few pictures of the campground.

 It is a very basic campground with gravel roads and gravel sites but it is neatly maintained. It has nice grass areas and is bordered by water on one side. We have a nice view of the water out our side windows. There are no amenities and the daily rate is typical of a tourist area at $43 per night.

On 10/17 we traveled to one of the many public beach areas. You can still see some after effects of Joaquin. Even though it was 500 miles off shore the rain and flooding impacted the area. A section of highway 12 along the coast is still closed and the beach is still a little rough.

The water looked cold and the waves pounded the shore. Fishermen were the only ones near the water. Still the sun was out and the temps were in the upper 60s low 70s so it was a beautiful day.

We also took the opportunity to travel over to the Wright Brothers Memorial. It is just a mile or so from the campground. Being a Federal Park this was the first chance we had to use Marilyn's Senior Pass. The pass allowed us to get in for free and avoid the $4 entrance fee per person....that's $8 of the $10 cost for the pass recouped, not bad...hopefully we'll get to use that a lot more. One benefit of being 62.
Being born and raised in Dayton, Ohio we have a special appreciation for the Wright Brothers and enjoyed the memorial very much. There is a Visitors Center and museum which also includes the field where they lived, worked and flew the aircraft as well as a huge memorial on a hill overlooking the area and even a life sized bronze replica of the aircraft and the Wrights, depicting the flight.

We had a great time at the memorial and highly recommend it.

During the rest of our 2 weeks here we will be sampling several of the local seafood restaurants, visiting the Wanchese Marina (where they filmed Wicked Tuna Outer Banks), traveling up and down the coast to the few lighthouses, and putting our toes in the water........

October 12, 2015
Falls Lake State Recreation Area
Wake Forest, NC

Today we traveled 210 miles to Falls Lake State Park. This is a short stop on our way to The Outer Banks. This is our first experience with a State Park and the first thing we noticed was the distance from the interstate and the lack of good park signs. The roads and over hanging trees are not "big rig" friendly but the low cost and generous space between sites makes this a good short term location.

Here is our rig set up on site 30 of Holly Point Loop 2.

As you can see we are very secluded with great shade trees. I was concerned our satellite dish wouldn't be able to lock onto any satellites but it sync'd right up. Other than a 35 foot A Class we are probably the biggest rig in the park. It looks like most people use this as a weekend or short stay park and of course the time of year there are many available sites. There is a lake here and they even have a beach.

We'll get out tomorrow to do some exploring and go into the closest town, Wake Forest. We are just 30 miles or so north of Raleigh-Durham. We'll be here until Thursday and then head over to the coast.

October 5, 2015
Tom Johnson Camping Center
Marion, NC

We made it across the Great Smoky Mountains......hooray!!!!  After much indecision thanks to hurricane Joaquin, the need to change sites at River Plantation, and a faulty air bag on our truck load leveling system, we made the last second decision to run back to RVs For Less for the repair and then head over the mountains to Marion. Here's an action photo from Marilyn's dash cam (no, she doesn't have one, she's holding up her iPhone, honest it's safer than texting ;>) )  

The trip across the mountains went better than expected. We had no problems other than a suicidal bird. Ever see a bird field stripped by a 12 ton RV....really cool, feathers everywhere....

The RV park here is associated with a Camping World store. They do RV sales and service, RV Rallys, and of course camping. Here are a few pics of our site and the park.

The RV sites are nice with concrete pads and asphalt drives and roads. They have a Rec Center for activities and they even serve breakfast and lunch daily. We'll be spending the next week here and hope to take in a few sites like the Biltmore House just down the road in Asheville. That's it for now....I need a drink after that drive ;>)

September 28, 2015
River Plantation RV Resort
Sevierville, TN

The journey begins........ actually one small step. We traveled a vast 72 miles to River Plantation RV Resort with a stop over at RVs For Less in Knoxville to get a few minor maintenance issues fixed.

It was bittersweet leaving Caney Creek where we had made several good friends and enjoyed our lakefront view.

As we drove away our site looked barren. We spent a lot of time and energy fixing up the site by adding rock, shrubs, and pavers....and our good friend Steve even poured a section of concrete for us.

The trip through downtown Knoxville was uneventful and we had a smooth drive through Sevierville. I think our many practice trips paid off and I felt very comfortable pulling the rig and maneuvering through traffic. Still it was a relief to pull up to River Plantation.

 It was a bigger relief to get in our site and all set up.

We will be relaxing here for the next week and will be enjoying Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, and the Smoky Mountains before heading over the mountains to Asheville and Marion, NC.

August 27,2015
Caney Creek RV Park
Harriman, TN

I never thought this day would arrive. After 42 plus years of working I am now officially retired. As I pulled into the driveway my amazing wife had balloons deployed and was standing next to the drivers door, as I exited the truck, with her phone in her hand playing Zac Brown's "Free". I'm sure it will eventually sink in, but for the moment it just feels like I'm on vacation.

With this milestone reached we are now on final countdown for completing final prep and saying goodbye to family and friends. If I was wondering what I would do with all my spare time, my darling wife has solved that problem ;>). We created a list of all items that need to be done before we leave on September 28th and assigned a date to complete each item, and let's just say I'm considering returning to work.... just kidding. It's nice to be finally working on things that lead to the start of our travels and not just counting time. Speaking of that, time to get back to work!

April 25,2015
Caney Creek RV Resort
Harriman, TN

This is the third time we have taken the rig out to practice. Each time we forget things, find better ways, and streamline our process. This was the first time I was able to back into our site and not run over the neighbors landscape :>). It turns out our site is the most difficult due to cars parked close to the road on both sides of the street. This gives me a narrow window to maneuver through. Anyhow, we are both feeling pretty good about our progress and we are feeling more confident about hitting the road.