We made it! The trip to Nova Scotia that started in March of 2020, cancelled, then turned into a Social Distancing RV Trip, is officially underway four years late in April 2024! In fact, as I begin this journal of our travels to points as far Northeast as Prince Edward Island, this trip is halfway through with just two months left to go.
One of the pretty cool things about this trip is that I’ve been hired to create content for CampgroundViews.com. They provide 360 videos for campers who want to see the campsite before booking it. It’s pretty cool stuff. By the time we finish this trip, you’ll be able to see just about every campground we’ve visited on their website. Here’s a link to one of our videos we did at Norfolk Lake – Panther Bay Campground.
We’re in Maine now and tomorrow we’re heading to Kennebunkport, ME for a night at a bed & breakfast in a room that has a soaking tub! Cheryl is very happy about that. The next day we drive to Portland, ME for some beer and more lobster before turning West and returning to our trailer at Littlefield Campground near Bethel, ME.
What a fantastic trip this has been and we still have more to go! We’ve been on the road for most of 2024, beginning in January when we headed down to San Diego after the holidays. We then went to Mesa mid-February for the birth of our 3rd grandson, Beckett AJ Lovell. After that we took a trip to Mammoth for some snow time with Brandon, then a camping trip to Calico Ghost town with Bodie and Atlas. What fun 2024 has been as we bounced between Mesa and Poway hanging with the kids and their kids.
We said goodbye to Atlas and Bodie on April 7, 2024. We then said goodbye to Beckett and left Mesa, AZ on April 19th. Our trip out to the East Coast was fairly quick, about a month, landing in Hilton Head, SC on May 16th.
The photo journal below is a compilation of notes and photos. Click the map above for details on our route and places we stopped. Click on the photos below to see the album for that particular location. Enjoy! We sure did.
Red Rock Park Campground – Gallup, New Mexico
Red Rock Campground is a regional park in Gallup, NM. Driving from Mesa, AZ to Gallup takes about 5 hours towing 15,000 lbs. We arrived after the office closed and they had reassigned us to a different site. Luckily Cheryl found it walking through the campground. It was just a dirt patch with water and power hook ups.
We set up camp and made dinner. The wind was up, we were tired, and just wanted rest, so we didn’t spend time outside. I think we ate and watched some Netflix, then hit the sack.
The next day we did a hike in the morning up to Navajo Church. It looks just like a church on a mountain. That afternoon we toured the city and got dinner at El Rancho hotel. Lot’s of westerns made in New Mexico and all the stars stayed at the El Rancho.
Santa Fe Skies RV Park – Santa Fe, New Mexico
Uh oh! No photos! What?! That’s right, we took zero photos except for this one lonely photo of our rig in the campsite at Santa Fe Skies RV Park. Not sure why we didn’t take photos, but it may have been because Cheryl had a ton of work to catch up on, and I went golfing. So, we just never snapped a picture.
After a long day of work and golf on that Monday, we headed into downtown to catch some sites, walk downtown, and find some food. I had a convention there years ago for the New Mexico Hotel Motel Association. Cheryl joined me on that trip and we stayed at the La Fonda in Santa Fe. It’s a very cool old hotel in downtown. As we passed by we were compelled to stop for a drink and reminisce.
After our cocktail at La Fonda we headed over to The Shed for dinner. Can you believe it was a 2 hour wait on a Monday night?! What?! No reservations allowed, just put in your name and take a pager. Yes, it’s that popular. Well, we got lucky by heading into the bar just as a young couple was preparing to leave. We nicely asked if we could have their seat when they left and that’s how we scored a fantastic meal with amazing drinks, all with no wait.
Black Mesa State Park, Oklahoma
This was an overnight stop to capture this campground on a 360 video. We try to stay at State Parks and Corp of Engineering Campgrounds as a general rule. On this trip we were contracted to video certain campgrounds, and this was one of them.
Black Mesa State Park and Nature Preserve is known for their dark skies. It was a bit remote, but it was a nice campground with many amenities, as our photos will show. We took a bike ride, had a video call with the kids, a craft cocktail, and a relaxed dinner. It was good stop on our way East.
Boiling Springs State Park, Oklahoma
Boiling Springs State Park was another park contracted by Campground Views for a 360 video. For those wondering what those videos looks like, you can find the video of our campground here. They are a subscription based service that allows you to see the campsite before you book. It’s important when it comes to tree clearance, slope, view, and other details that might help you choose the best spot.
As you can see, we had clear skies and no obstructions for Starlink to deal with. This is always good for internet access. Cheryl had a lot of work and video call meetings so good internet is one less stress-causing issue while on the road.
For me, this stop was about filming the park and also a bit of golf. We picked up a nail in one of the trailer tires, so I ended up hitting balls on the range at the club down the street while the local tire shop took care of the tires. We ended up replacing 3 trailer tires. I had replaced one before we left. That one was worn due to an alignment issue, which I also corrected prior to leaving on our trip.
We really liked this park. It is huge! And like many state parks and campgrounds, it’s near a country club. Until you visit some of these rural areas, it’s hard to comprehend how cool some of these towns really are. Hiking, biking, caverns, golf, boating, and much more are like little gems just waiting to be discovered.
Keystone State Park – Tulsa, Oklahoma
This campground was one that we inserted into the trip for two reasons. First, because we wanted to visit Tulsa and the surrounding area. Second, we wanted to capture all of the campsites on video at Keystone State Park for CampgroundViews.com.
The forecast was not good that day. When we arrived, it was beautiful. There was a BBQ and cornhole tournament happening at the marina to benefit a local charity, so we stopped by and hung out with the locals. By the time we got back to our site, the clouds came in and we noticed a lot of campers exiting. It was a Friday, so we thought that was odd.
The thing about Oklahoma in the Spring and Summer is tornadoes. While Cheryl finished her workday, I started watching the forecast via Twitter and the local radio. Several tornadoes were touching down and instantly we were surrounded by dark skies. The radar showed several nearby locations where tornadoes touched down. It was a scary night.
I ended up staying up to watch the warnings. They go from “watch” to “get to safety now”. At around 1am we got into the truck and listened to the warnings. We couldn’t drive anywhere because we were surrounded by red on the radar and didn’t know which direction was safe. So, we stayed in the truck for about an hour, with seatbelts fastened, and waited it out. That was as scary as it got for us.
That just happened to be my birthday weekend where I turned 62. We did get to go into Tulsa the next day to explore, get lunch, do a spa day, and eat, drink and be merry! We found a brewery called “Nothing’s Left“. They literally had nothing left after they launched. It was a cool stop and they had fantastic beer. We had dinner at Bull in the Alley, where we saw Ethan Hawke. Tulsa is a beautiful town with great culture, food, and art. It was an awesome weekend of fun and tornado dodging.
Eureka Springs, Arkansas – Dam Site Campground, Beaver Lake
Arkansas is such a beautiful state. It’s amazing how fast the landscape changes as you travel East from Tulsa. It was an absolutely gorgeous drive out of Tulsa, and doubly given the dark and stormy tornado we escaped.
I had booked this particular campsite well in advance because the lake front island sites at Dam Site Lake Campground are some of the most popular campsites on the lake. Alas, it was all in vein because the site I reserved was big enough, but I couldn’t back our rig down the steep driveway that would access the site. The campground host let us stay next to them and as you can see by the photos, not too shabby!
Dam Site Campground ended up being our home base for a few days exploring the area. Someone on our last trip through Hot Springs, AK told us to check out Eureka Springs, so we added it to our list and ended up exploring the tiny little mining town. It was a treat, and super fun to explore.
We also spent time biking and hiking the area. It’s easy to see why so many people make that area around the lake their summer home. It’s absolutely stunning country.
Robinson Point Campground – Norfolk Lake, Arkansas
After leaving Beaver Lake, we headed down to Mountain Home, AK on our way to camp at Norfolk Lake. We stopped at Withrow Springs State Park to capture video of that campground on the way. It wasn’t much of a destination campground, but I was hired by Mark at Campgroundviews.com to get video of as many state parks as I could on this trip, so I routed us by as many state parks as I could.
We had another fantastic campsite on the lake at Robinson Point, and we were also close enough to visit other area campgrounds and get video there too. At $100 per video, it all added up pretty nicely. The bonus was getting to visit state parks that we’d never see again because many were so out of the way.
T.O. Fuller State Park – Memphis, Tennessee
On our way to Memphis, we stopped at Lake Charles SP for another video. The way these video’s work is GoPro mounted on my eBike. Pretty simple stuff, but I can’t always get into the park because we don’t have reservations and most of them want you to pay a day fee at the very least. So, what I do in many cases is stop outside the park and ride my bike into the campground. A smile and a wave is good enough for entry.
In this case, we stopped about a mile outside the Lake Charles Campground park entrance. It was cloudy, but weather reports had the storm moving away from us. Well, that was very wrong. It was sprinkling by the time I unloaded my bike, mounted the camera, and reached the front gate. By the time I finished, I was caught in a downpour. Ugh! Check out the video in the Google Photos album to see what I was dealing with.
As for T.O. Fuller Campground, it was just a stop over campground. I still captured the campground video and we enjoyed the stay there, but we had been to Memphis and Graceland before so we skipped it this trip.
Joe Wheeler State Park, Alabama
As we continued East toward South Carolina, we kept coming across severe weather. It’s funny how you never pay attention to tornadoes if you live on the West Coast. But after this trip, I started paying a lot more attention.
It turns out that this campground, Joe Wheeler State Park, took a direct hit by a tornado before. I asked why they cleared the trees and upgraded the campground on the Peninsula but not the other part of the campground in the trees. They said, “we didn’t, a tornado cleared the trees about 2 years ago. They took a direct hit and it wiped out every site directly on the Tennessee River.
The day after we arrived, it got dark and stormy. By midnight, the tornado sirens were blaring and we were hunkered down in the bathroom with a dozen other campers. All the new bathrooms were built to withstand tornadoes, so we waited it out watching our phones. The dude we were chatting with was a retired railroad engineer. It wasn’t his first rodeo, nor his wife or dog. I remember standing just outside the door when he said, “time to come in. That tornado is just across the river.” Wow. What an experience! Blackness, then hail, then crazy rain, lightening and wind, then silence. At Joe Wheeler Campground, near Muscle Shoals in Alabama we had our second tornado in two weeks. Hope it’s our last. Enough of that noise. Next!
Cheaha State Park – Talladega, Alabama
We really liked this place. Cheaha State Park had great camping, hiking, and biking. It’s pronounced “Chee-haw”. It’s the highest point in Alabama, and it’s Alabama’s oldest State Park. The CCC built it as part of Roosevelt’s New Deal program.
We stayed only two nights, and it was a one way in and then same way out type access, but worth the backtracking. Not sure why we wanted to stay near Talladega, but this spot made it to the list of campgrounds to visit as we trekked out to the East coast, then on up to Nova Scotia. Glad we did it because we really did enjoy the big campsites, the beauty, the silence, and the hiking and biking here.
Stone Mountain Park – Atlanta, Georgia
This was our second time visiting Stone Mountain Park in Atlanta. The first time was in 2014 when we totaled our brand new truck in Boise and had to rent a van to complete our RV trip to Washington DC. We were towing our 26′ foot, 2011 Hideout travel trailer behind our new Ram 2500 Laramie in Boise when a dummy ran a red light. State Farm ended up totaling our truck and paying for a mini-van plus extra expenses incurred from hotel rooms and restaurants, rather than our TT and home cooked meals. It worked out.
Our campsite was on loop O and right on the water. We had a spectacular view of the lake and it really couldn’t have been any better. We biked and hiked a lot during our 3 nights there. We found great food and beer. We hung out at the resort and we explored the entire park. It’s really big.
On the last day, I took Cheryl to the airport in Atlanta. She had a doctor’s appointment back in SLO that she couldn’t miss. She was only gone a few days. I picked her up a few days later at the Savanah airport, near Hilton Head where we resumed our journey.
Petersburg Campground, Augusta, Georgia
This stop was supposed to include a visit to Augusta National, but since Cheryl had to fly back to SLO, it became a short overnight stop with not much exploring. After all, I was on my own at this point and only had a day to check out the place. I biked the entire campground and captured it all on video for Campground Views. Watched an eagle catch a fish, and then cooked up some salmon for dinner. It was pretty low key, a beautiful campground, but I was on a mission to reach Hilton Head, South Carolina.
