Summer of 22 - #1 - On the road again!!!!

May 16th, 2022

It was time to leave Mayport and head north on our summer trip, which has been drastically shortened due to fuel prices!!!  The plan had been to go north all the way to Maine but with the motorhome only getting 6mpg and prices steadily rising we decided we couldn't do it. We will spend extended time in the Norfolk, Virginia area where we can visit Ryan & Christina before heading south-west to visit Mom toward the end of the year.

Our first stop for one night was Creekfire RV Resort in Savannah, Georgia. We have stayed here before but were disappointed in the site we were given this time. It is not inexpensive and we felt crammed into our site. Sorry, I didn't get any pictures!!  I guess its time to look for another stopping point on the way north in future.  We will see!!

May 17th, 2022

Our next overnight stop was Santee Lakes KOA, Summerton, South Carolina.  This was a little better but still small sites, however a lot of them were empty!!

View from our site

Playground

Squirrel

Bryan coming back with Pizza, sold here.

May 18th, 2022

We travelled to Smith Lake Army Travel Camp, Fayetteville, North Carolina. We stayed here last year and it's not a bad campground.  This time we got a pull through site at the top. We like both areas so it doesn't matter to us where we are if we are staying a few days.

I love the Chick Fil A advertising signs, although this one isn't my favorite.

May 19th, 2022

We visited the U.S Army Airborne and Special Operations Museum

This is an interesting museum that covers Early Airborne through to present day:

Early Airborne - "On 16th August 1940, Lieutenant Bill Ryder led the Test Platoon to become the first American fighting man to stand in the door and jump into history."

WORLD WAR II - "World War II saw the most concentrated use of airborne operations, with five Army divisions dedicated to using this new method of putting men and equipment on the battlefield."

WWII Artifacts:

Camera

and timelines.....

German MP40 Submachine Gun

Italian Mountains Campaign - July 1943 - May 1945

Operation Overload - Battle of Normandy, 6th June, 1944 (D-Day)

Operation Market Garden - 17th - 25th September 1944

Battle of the Bulge - December 16, 1944-January 16, 1945

Operation Varsity - 24th March, 1945

I only recently realized that the UK and US aimed at different beaches, which makes sense.  I always thought all the forces intermingled. 

VIETNAM

Excerpt from the museum website.

"Nearby is a Viet Cong prisoner of war (POW) camp in South Vietnam's U Minh Forest, also known as the "Forest of Darkness," due to its dense jungle.  Here the visitor will see Green Beret, first lieutenant James "Nick" Rowe held in a bamboo cage plotting his escape. After five years of captivity Rowe escaped his Vietnamese captors in December, 1968. Because of his experience as a POW, Rowe was selected by the U.S.Army to design its Survival, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) training program, which is part of the Special Forces Qualification Course."

Click the red link to read about the Black Hawk Down 61-1993 Somalia.

It was an interesting museum that covered a variety of eras.

May 21st-22nd, 2022

Our next stop was RV Resort @ Carolina Crossroads for a couple of nights. This was a good campground with pull thru sites that were easy to access. We didn't unhook the car.  We had problems with our electrics and the park handyman came over to help.  Bryan & he troubleshooted until they got back to our main plug into the sites power box. They found a loose wire in our main plug that had melted part of the plug. He had a new plug which we bought and he and Bryan rewired it. He saved us a lot of money in callout fees for an electrician and didn't want to take anything but we made sure to pay him what we thought was a fair price.  We were in the right place at the right time and someone was watching over us for sure. Phew!!!

Our next stop was Little Creek and a long stay so that we can visit Ryan, Christina, Trystan & meet our new addition Colton. Woohoo!!!!