USA travelers: The Trip Back to Florida

Well it is November 9 and it has been over a month since my last post. We are back home in Florida so I have a lot of catching up to do. We left PA on October 4 and drove to Colonial Beach, VA to start our trek home. We stayed at Harbor View Campground which was in the middle of nowhere. The closest city was Fredericksburg, VA about 45 minutes away. The park was virtually empty and the leaves were falling. We were close to a small pond

We were very close to George Washington's birthplace so we did a tour there.

As you can see there is a scale replica of the Washington Monument that was erected for the bicentennial of Washington's birth. There are no surviving structures of the Washington homestead and replicas of the house and out buildings were constructed for the centennial based on scholars ideas of what they would look like. Unfortunately they couldn't have been more wrong. After the home was built:

archaeologists uncovered the original home's foundation here:

They realized their idea was more grandiose than what the humble Washington's actually lived in. Their original structure was quite small with only a few rooms and over the years several additions were added. George lived here for only the first three years of his life until his family moved to the area of what is now known as Mount Vernon. There is a short film chronicling the arrival of the Washington's and their lifestyle here. The park is a working replica of what their daily lives were like with livestock and crops such as tobacco and corn being grown. Tobacco was the money crop and everything else was used as food crops.

A short drive down the road is the family graveyard:

Even though everything is a reproduction the park is very informative and it was a nice side visit.

Afterwards we also stumbled upon a local winery and stopped by for a taste:

We left Virginia four days later and headed to Lake Gaston RV Resort in Littleton, NC:

This was a very nice park and would be an ideal place for a summer on the lake with a boat. They had numerous boat slips and a pier to buy gasoline and boating supplies. Great views of the water and plenty of places to fish.

We didn't do much at Lake Gaston other than get a good fire going and relax.

We were fairly secluded with nothing but woods behind us. There were sites closer to the water but sometimes you just want to get away from it all. The only drawback was no cable; no over the air TV; and no satellite. After four days it was time to pack up and head to Forest Lake RV resort in Advance, NC:

Once again, another fabulous resort. We had a huge site with good views of the southwest horizon for the satellite. A nice sized lake for some fishing:

Forest Lake was very convenient to the interstate and was close to stores and restaurants so I didn't need to drive 35 miles to see the Steeler game like I did in Virginia. Once again we didn't do much. At this point I think we had had enough sightseeing and just wanted to get home. We were still several hundred miles from home though and had two more stops. Next was The Oaks at Point South in South Carolina:

This is probably the most rustic of all the parks we have stayed in. Nothing fancy here. A small park with perhaps 80 sites. A small lodge and a pool, that is it. The Oaks is on the opposite side of the lake from the KOA we stayed at last year on our down to Florida so we were familiar with the area.

Our final stop we decided to stay for a week at the Orlando RV Resort. We would be only about 30 miles from home but I wanted to see this place because I heard so many good things about it. Plus we could take our time transferring all of our stuff we brought back with us and do a thorough unhurried cleaning before putting the trailer into storage. We could also open the house and get the cable and water turned back on. First let me tell you about the park: it is fabulous! By far the nicest place we have been. A huge selection of sites to start with. You can have a site close to the two pools and clubhouses or you can go to the wooded side with lush foliage and shade; or you can have a pull through site awning to awning if you have friends staying there too. Our site was a huge one on the corner with a nice big live oak providing shade.