Waynesville, North Carolina

After a week in North Georgia, we closed up our pup and gear. On reflection, it was a stressful and lonely week-long stay at Tallulah State Park. The park was full of young families preoccupied with all the tasks of camping with kids. I am accustomed to socializing with relaxed retirees traveling in Florida parks to escape cold northern weather. I chose Tallulah to be close enough to Clayton, Ga, to visit with my elderly aunt, a visit crucial in wrapping up one of “life’s loose ends.”

At Tallulah State Park, I had another sobering revelation. I happily elected to purchase a camper without a bathroom. Who wants to spend time maintaining onboard waste tanks when your state’s parks offer such excellent clean, attractive toilets and showers? The bathrooms at Tallulah were…quite unpleasant. My education on this topic is only just begun.

An RV park in Waynesville, North Carolina, is our next destination. I’m finding the routine of packing, driving two or three hours, and unpacking this camper on the same day demanding. I’ve had enough stamina to get set up and ready for sleep while sometimes saving the clamshell screened room and other gear for the next day. Last year’s trip racing across the US at a furious pace; I needed only about 15 minutes to set up with the rented Class C “plug and play” camper I was driving. I remind myself that this trip will inevitably be about the learning curve of traveling with a new trailer.

Like many private RV parks, the restrooms/showers are really nice. The camp host tipped me off as he escorted me to my site that I was going to be very happy about the bathrooms. He wasn’t kidding. They were more spectacular than some 3-star hotels with bath light fixtures that are designer-level attractive. We had a most peaceful, comfortable stay here, our sweet little campsite is perfectly positioned under a shade tree.

Waynesville, I would soon learn, is going to be our last time camping in cool weather. Our following destination, Chippokes Plantation State Park in Surry County, Virginia, would be sticky and hot, 180 degrees opposite my goal of leaving Florida in July. Planning this trip, I made an assumption that if I simply headed north, I would escape the Florida heat. I spent most of the six-day stay at Chippokes Plantation State Park, being hard on myself about this unhappy miscalculation. Didn’t make my new revelation about what I’d done to myself any more manageable when I drove into the park to discover we had a full-sun campsite. Ouch!

On the drive through the deep south, I held onto my wallet often to avoid supporting businesses displaying “Fuck Biden” and “Trump 2024” flags. Next summer, I’m resolved to blow through North Georgia and make my first campsite in Cherokee, NC. En route to the Pocono Mountains summer 2024, I’m determined to find more places to camp like I saw passing through Cherokee.

Thanks to FB postings, Tampa friend Todd Rudge and I discovered we were staying at adjoining RV parks in Waynesville. Todd and his wife Bonnie have just purchased a cool new rig for their summer 2024 trip they plan to take through ALL the mountains – the Smokey, Pocono, and Adirondacks!

Statesville, North Carolina

Cleo and I had the good fortune to be hosted overnight in Statesville, North Carolina, as we traveled from Waynesville to Chippokes State Park in Surry, VA. Tess and Craig, actors introduced to me by Mark, made several delicious meals for us. I learned that Tess, 40 years ago, acted in Mark’s play, “Terry by Terry,” when both were students at the Yale Repertory School of Theatre.