Easin' Along

After seven years of RVing, Helen and I are comfortable declaring ourselves “veterans of the road.” We’ve traveled through every state of the Lower 48 and camped in all but a few of them. We have our list of favorites, but I have never taken the time or space to point them out. I decided to change that for 2024 and hand out the “Best of 2024” awards in several categories of RV travel. Follow along and see why we chose life on the road to keep us active and involved during retirement…the best gig ever. 

Best Beach

If a campground doesn’t offer water in some form (beach, creek, lake), I’m not likely to get excited. Helen and I camped in some fabulous beach campgrounds in 2024–here are the top two:

Runner-up: Point Mugu, CA, a picturesque campground a few miles north of Malibu, CA. The beach, sheltered by a tall berm on the eastern side, is always calm and inviting.

Winner: Edisto Beach, SC. Helen and I have camped here for over six years and will return every November for as long as possible. The sunsets over the marsh are a work of art, and the sunrises over the beach are invigorating and a fabulous way to start the day.

Best Meal

Runnerup: Cocoanut Curry Salmon. We discovered this meal online and prepared it in the kitchen of our trailer. We’re convinced that it is as good as anything we could find in an expensive restaurant.

Winner: Hunt’s Oyster Bar, Panama City, FL. I love good seafood gumbo, raw oysters, and “old Florida” restaurants. Hunts serve the best oysters—fresh, cold, and big. The gumbo is some of the best I’ve ever tasted.

Best Military Campground

Runner-up: Pelican Roost—Mayport Naval Station, FL. This campground sits right on the bay in Jacksonville. I enjoy watching the big Navy ships leave the nearby marina for missions around the globe. The campground is well-maintained, and the staff is phenomenal.

Winner: Fiddler’s Cove-Coronado Beach, CA. This campground offers plenty of waterfront sites overlooking Coronado Bay and the Coronado Skyline. Hotel Del Coronado is visible beyond the sailboats in the marina. We have camped here several times, and I consider it my favorite military or commercial campground through seven years of camping.

Best Meetup:

We met up with many friends in 2024, but two meetings stand out.

Runner-up: In San Antonio, we arranged to meet Ed and Mary Jo, a couple who lived across the hallway from us when we were stationed in Wurzburg, Germany. We enjoyed a delightful lunch on the outskirts of San Antonio and promised to stay in touch.

Winner: I consider my trips to the western U.S. complete only if we can spend time with Paul and Dayna. They were also friends during our Army tour in Wurzburg, but I’ve never met anyone like them in the fifty years since. Both are talented and energetic, and Paul is hilarious. I cherish our friendship.

Best Sunset:

Runnerup: We camped about five feet from the water’s edge in Eastpoint, FL, and had the primo site. Throughout our stay, we enjoyed spectacular sunsets every evening.

Winner: Our campsite in Edisto gave us an incredible marsh view. The weather was perfect during our stay, and the sun setting over the marsh was an extraordinaire photo op.

Best Group Outing:

This award had no challengers. Every year, we go to Big South Fork National Recreational Area with a large group from our church. The campout offers Helen and me an opportunity to meet and spend time with the young families in our congregation. We love our church and the members of the congregation–this gathering is always memorable.

Biggest Thrill:

Runnerup: Helen and I were in Florida in January, and our granddaughter, Abby, was traveling to Disney World for the National High School Cheerleading Championships. We adjusted our schedule to be in Orlando for the competition. Her high school team had never had a competitive team before 2024, but that didn’t matter. Abby and her talented teammates won the National Championship in their Division. What a thrill for the entire family.

Winner: Nothing competes with family time. In August, our kids and grandkids met for a reunion in Santa Barbara, CA. Words are insufficient to describe what this experience meant to Helen and me. I can tear up thinking about it because reunions only get more challenging as the grandchildren grow older. Remember, we’re bi-coastal grandparents, and the time-distance barrier makes it difficult to get together.

Best (or favorite) Picture

Mortimer and I had an encounter over lunch in Florida.

This post only skims the surface of the highlights of 2024. We’re forever grateful to the readers who trekked along with us. We begin another journey in January and sincerely hope you’ll be with us. We’re Easin’ Along.

I’ve previously shared most of our November, which was a fantastic experience. Helen and I spent two weeks in Edisto Beach, SC, in perfect weather. The sunsets were spectacular, and I enjoyed capturing many of them and one very colorful sunrise. It is always hard to leave, but we booked two weeks for next November, and I hope they’re just as good.

We spent the next three days in Charleston and camped at James Island County Park. Collin, who had just finished a term as a commissioner on the Parks and Recreation Commission, pulled a few strings to secure a campsite for us. This was necessary because we camped during the annual Christmas Light Festival when many campsites are filled with volunteers and visitors who arrive in the thousands. Helen, Mortimer, and I drove through the Light Show and captured pictures of some of the displays.

Our good fortune continued with a three-day soccer tournament, during which teams from throughout the Southeast came to James Island to compete for championships in various age levels. Our granddaughters, Bennett and Cason, were among the competitors.

Cason’s team played hard through two games. The games were fun to watch and very competitive, but they fell short of the finals when matched against a strong team from another state.

Bennett’s team is outstanding. The girls have played together as a team since early childhood, and I swear they can almost read each other’s minds. They pass the ball exceptionally well and play defense with a passion. In this tournament, they played two levels up, meaning that their opponents were high school juniors and seniors, while Bennett’s team consisted of eighth and ninth graders. The age difference didn’t matter. In three games, Bennett’s team scored over thirty goals while allowing none for the opposing teams and were crowned division champions. Both granddaughters made Helen and me very proud grandparents.

We departed Charleston the Tuesday before Thanksgiving with our fifth wheel in tow. It was a lovely day…until we passed Newberry, SC, on I-26 East. Suddenly, I got a message on the dashboard of my truck that it was losing power. Then, the engine died. I coasted to the shoulder of the highway as Thanksgiving traffic blew by. Next, we waited over four hours for a tow truck to haul our vehicle to a Ford dealership in Spartanburg, SC, and another tow truck to take the fifth wheel to a campground in Gaffney, SC. If this wasn’t bad enough, we also encountered a problem with the leveling system on the trailer and couldn’t get the jacks to move up or down. If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all.

Fortunately, we had two angels driving the tow trucks. They spent several hours getting the leveling system into a position where we could lower the jacks enough to use the trailer for the night. It wasn’t perfectly level, but it was better than a Motel 6.

The following day, we decided to rent a car and drive to Knoxville to spend Thanksgiving with my family. Unfortunately, almost all rental agencies were out of stock due to the flood disaster in North Carolina, which consumed the cars available. We called several different Enterprise Car Rental Offices only to be turned down. Out of desperation, we tried one Enterprise agency a second time. A different agent answered. She still had no cars, but she told us she drove by a small rental agency on her way to work and said she thought they had two cars on the lot. We called and rented the last of the two. Helen and I loaded Mortimer into the backseat of a Nissan Rogue and went to Knoxville by way of Hot Springs, NC–the interstate was still under repair after the floods. Thanksgiving with my family was a lovely affair.

After getting the weather forecast for Gaffney, I decided to return to the trailer because it had not yet been winterized, and the temperatures were predicted to fall to the low 20s. I spent the next eight days there waiting for truck parts and trailer repairs. Thanks to the Almighty for sports on television and Walmart (six trips); otherwise, I would have gone nuts.

I made it home on Sunday, December 8th. I love our trailer, but home never looked so good. Even Mortimer seemed cuter.

This is a November wrap-up, but I wanted to share our light snowfall earlier this week. We only received a dusting, but it was pretty nonetheless. November could have had a better ending, but despite the setback, we consider ourselves blessed beyond measure and grateful for all we have experienced this year. We plan to journey back to California in mid-January, and we invite everyone to join us as we travel.

In the meantime, Helen, Mortimer, and I send our very best wishes to everyone for a blessed Christmas season. May joy and happiness fill your New Year and all of 2025.

We’re Easin’ Along.

Helen and I have camped at Edisto Beach (SC) State Park for seven years. We always come for two weeks in November. There were a couple of years when the weather was “iffy,” but most years, we have enjoyed glorious sun-filled days and cool, crisp nights. In other words, perfect camping weather.

We have camped in Edisto enough to know the best sites to reserve (translation: THE PERFECT VIEW, according to Helen). This year, we rewarded ourselves with a campsite that afforded us a fabulous view of the marsh and the setting sun. We can hear the sound of the shore birds, listen as the mullet breaks through the water, and absorb the pungent smell of the pluff mud and the sea-salt air. We had the perfect spot for a two-week visit.

After setting up camp, it was time to say “hi” to the beach, hidden from our view by an extensive dune protecting the campground from rough seas. There was barely a sole on the beach. The solemnity was shouting at me. I took a short walk to test the water. The surf and sea foam were surprisingly warm. I returned to our campsite in time for Happy Hour and the first sunset we witnessed during our stay.

Collin, our son who lives in Charleston, came the next day and generously loaned us his golf cart. The cart was handy for trips to the nearby grocery store and seafood market. Mortimer fell in love with the cart and would walk to it as soon as he came out of our trailer. He rode around like a chauffered movie star. Thanks, Collin.

During our first week, the Beaver Moon rose and pulled the tides to a height that threatened our campsite. Water came in from the marsh and filled the yard behind our camper. Thankfully, the water receded almost as quickly as it rose, and we managed to stay above it all. The surf rose to the dunes. There was no beach during high tide.

Throughout our stay, the sunsets were spectacular. For some of those spectacles, the colors that rose after the sun went below the horizon were just as stunning. I have never had more fun with my camera. There are a few examples below.

Late in the first week, I realized I had slept through too many sunrises and resolved to make at least one before departure. At 6:00 am, I dragged my fried seafood-filled old body out of bed, threw on some sweats, grabbed my camera, and walked to the shore with Helen. The sky was warming up for the show. A few others stood on the sand, camera in hand. Suddenly, a pod of playful Dolphins swam directly before me as if to announce the coming attraction. I lifted the camera and snapped away. That picture is at the top of the page, but I have plenty of the main event.

Helen and I took two side trips while at Edisto. The first was to a small town fifteen miles away to do our laundry at a nice laundromat—there are none in the tiny village of Edisto Beach. Another more enjoyable trip was to Botany Bay, a wildlife preserve about five miles from the campground. Helen and I visited this tiny island about four years ago and could not believe the large number of Conch shells lying on the sand—literally hundreds. Things were different this time.

Beach erosion has almost destroyed the entire island and washed away most of the Conch shells. An educational sign noted that the shoreline has receded over 2,500 feet since 1950. The large Live Oaks that covered the island succumbed to the salt water and storms and now lay as a mass of bones on the beach. Erosion uncovered ancient beds of pluff mud, buried for centuries. Visitors cannot take shells from Botany Bay, but many hang Conch shells from the dead limbs of the fallen trees. On our previous visit, a group of archaeologists was digging through a shell mound for artifacts. The digs have ceased because the water is so close that the work gets washed away before completion.

I must go now. Mortimer is begging for a cart ride, then it will be time for my nap. Enjoy your week. Have a lovely Thanksgiving, and count your blessings. I count mine every day. We’re so blessed. We’re Easin’ Along.