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Rhode Trip: Narragansett, Newport, & Providence
We are pretty excited about spending some time in New England this year. At this point, it’s probably the part of the US that we are the least familiar and we’re ready to be overloaded with the charm, history, and seafood! We started in Rhode Island, with Fisherman’s Memorial State Park in Narragansett being home base for 2 weeks. Narragansett is on the southern coast of the mainland, known for its sandy beaches, but mid-May was not exactly beach weather in Rhode Island. We did enjoy the coastal scenery at Hazard Rock as well as the short oceanfront trail to the Black Point ruins. The actual Fisherman’s Memorial and lighthouse…
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A Pit Stop in the Poconos
When we pulled out of NC at the beginning of May, we were headed to New England. We wanted to avoid I95 and take I81 to I84, which meant finding a place on the way somewhere in Pennsylvania for the work week. On our first drive day of the weekend we made it to the sweetest place on earth, Hershey. But since we had visited Hershey’s Chocolate World on our way to NY in 2021, we opted for Lindt and Troegs Brewery this time. I’d had a campsite booked at Promised Land State Park for months, which promised plenty of beautiful hiking trails in the Poconos. But then I started…
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Cumberland Island National Seashore & Back to Florida
After Savannah, we turned and headed back toward Florida for our niece’s confirmation weekend. We had an extra week to fill, and Crooked River State Park, near St Mary’s, Georgia, looked great and had availability. We had a water/electric site, but if we had booked early, there were also full hookup and riverfront sites. St. Mary’s is the gateway to Cumberland Island National Seashore. We explored the historic waterfront downtown, visited the museum and visitor center, and were able to book last-minute ferry tickets to the island. Once on the island, we started the ~5-mile Dungeness Loop trail, which took us to the Carnegies’ former vacation home, Dungeness ruins. The…
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Skidaway Island State Park & Savannah, GA
Is there a sweeter place than Savannah in the Spring? I doubt it, but let us know so we can check that out too! We spent the last week of March at Skidaway Island State Park, 15 minutes outside Savannah. Although the road to our campsite was narrow and curvy, this campground is pure perfection. We loved the trails at Skidaway. We had a marathon weekend day exploring and eating our way through Savannah. We started with a morning coffee walk through the Bonaventure Cemetary where the azaleas were popping! Then we moved over to Forsyth Park to walk around the historic district. Savannah is laid out in a grid…
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More Florida Fun in Naples, Jupiter, & Melbourne
At the beginning of March, we left the Keys and headed to southwest Florida to visit our friends Betty and Mike who volunteer at Koreshan State Park in Estero. I was happy to find out that Koreshan is big rig-friendly. I love being cocooned in these Florida jungle-like campsites but the Brinkley has limited our options a little. We spent most of our time exploring Naples, ~25 miles south of Koreshan SP. Besides shopping and restaurants, Naples is home to swamp buggy races! At some point in Naples’s history, which is located on the edge of the Everglades, someone invented a swamp buggy as a mode of transportation. The locals…
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Six Weeks in Paradise: FL Keys
There are times Michael and I feel particularly thankful that we’re full-time RVing and spending the winter in the Florida Keys is certainly one of those times! We love the laid-back vibe and tropical atmosphere of the Keys and the state parks in the Keys are the things dreams are made of. With limited daylight in January/February, we didn’t do much during the week after work other than walk around the campgrounds we were staying in. We started at Curry Hammock State Park, in the middle Keys near Marathon. Curry Hammock is a small park, so when we wanted a longer walk, we drove to the Old 7 Mile Bridge.…
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Back on the Road & Beginning a Year of East Coast Travel
After spending almost all of the Fall and the holidays with our family in western NC, we’re finally back on the road and excited for a year of East Coast travel! While stationary, I joined the gym and went to daily exercise classes with my mom and Michael made some work trips to Raleigh and Richmond. Our long stay was divided by a trip to Jacksonville to get solar panels, batteries, and an inverter installed by the same people who installed our previous flawless system. Michael also rigged up a water filtration/softener system so that any water coming into our camper from an outside connection or our fresh water tank…
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Great Lakes & Football Fun & a New RV!
Since my last post, we’ve visited new (Wisconsin/Michigan) and familiar (Indiana) places, bought and moved into a new RV, and had a 5-week break to spend time with our family in western NC. Looking back to September, we had a few days left to do something fun at the end of our week-long trek from the Yukon. We were headed toward Michigan for a day trip to Mackinac Island, but it was raining there so we stopped in Wisconsin instead. We lucked out with a great first-come first-served city park along the Lake Superior waterfront in Ashland, WI. Near Ashland, we hiked at Frog Bay Tribal National Park, along the…
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Leaving Alaska: Fairbanks to Wisconsin
We spent our last workweek in Alaska in the Pioneer Park parking lot in Fairbanks. It was not the most scenic spot but the price was right and there was access to the Chena Riverwalk and everything we needed to prepare for our long drive south. We were surprised by how fast the weather was changing. We had seen termination dust (the first snowfall) on August 11th in the mountains near Denali. It was so cold we were running our furnace during the day. Fireweed is Alaska’s summer calendar as the blooms move up the stems. And we finally understood the saying “When the fireweed turns to cotton, summer is…
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Denali National Park
As usual with our National Parks, we loved Denali! We stayed inside at two of the park’s campgrounds which we feel enhances our experience. For the workweek, we dry camped in heavily treed Riley Creek and explored the front country. Denali is 6 million acres of pristine wilderness. There is one 90-mile road leading into the park but you are only allowed to drive the first 15 miles in your vehicle. In the first 15 miles, you can visit the sled dog kennels. These Alaskan huskies work hard with winter park operations but in the summer enjoy getting pets from visitors. There are also several established trails. We hiked the…
