Well, sort of. Although we don’t have a fixed home, the Carolinas do feel like home for us. After we left the Wichitas we did stop in Tennessee for a week as we made our way back. We stopped at an Army Corps campground along Caney Fork River. It was late October and the trees were showing the fall colors. We spent the winter in the Carolinas and got to visit with family and friends, Our other goal was to get medical stuff all taken care of while in a familiar area. The critters went to the vet while we took care of dentist and doctor visits.

November 2024. This maple was showing off right behind our camper when we stopped at a state park in Arkansas for one night on our way back.

This lookout tower was at a state park next to the Army Corps campground we stayed at in Tennessee.

For most of the time, we stayed with family or friends, parking in their yard for a week at a time. Then we would dump tanks and move to a different yard. We did spend one week at Lake Hartwell, near Clemson, SC and also went down to the coast for 2 weeks. We stayed at the Buck hall campground, right on the intracoastal waterway. Both of these were nice, quiet campgrounds. They had quite a few campers on the weekend, but most left on Sunday or Monday. Over the winter we did get snowed on twice.

The camper’s first snow was only a couple of inches.

When we sold our home, we loaded up and set off in the camper we had bought about a year before. We got this one intending to use it for weekend trips and for spending 2-4 weeks at a time in it. We didn’t have any plans of going full time when we bought it. After being in it for 2 months, we realized we needed some things that this camper didn’t have. The first was counter space in the kitchen. We rarely go out to eat and cook almost all our food. We really needed some space to prep without having to clear off the dish rack or move stuff off the dining table. We also needed to be able to stock up on enough food to go a week at a time between grocery runs. We want to go camp in the middle of nowhere at times but really couldn’t fit enough in with the typical RV fridge. Another major thing we needed was bigger holding tanks. If we want to go camp off grid for a week, we need to be able to have enough space for water.

Sunrise at Buck Hall Recreation Area, near Charleston, SC. We spent almost two weeks here and it was a nice, quiet campground with less than 20 sites. They are supposed to renovate it this year. We hope it will be open next winter for us to visit again.

It did snow on us again while we were at the coast. Well, it was more like sleet. We got about 3” of sleet, all night. This was the same storm that dumped nearly 12” on New Orleans. It was quite chilly and it stuck around for several days.

Another sunrise at Buck Hall. We did get to see some dolphins in the intracoastal.

So, we did a bunch of research in those final weeks on the road and decided to get a Grand Design 2500RL. It has a nice kitchen with lots of cabinets and counters. The fridge runs off 12 volts, whereas a traditional RV runs off propane or typical house power. Those require more space for the mechanicals. This fridge has almost 50% more space in it. The holding tanks on it are large enough to allow us to go a week without dumping. I will need to refill the fresh water tank but that’s fairly easy to do. We use about 15 gallons per day.

Home Again

Back to New Mexico

The Wichitas