Goal: Make miles toward Hardeeville, SC and Avoid I95.
Today we will rise early, break camp and drive on state roads through North Carolina. As part of our research and planning of the trip we learned from other RVers, who participate on the RVForum, that I95 through southern North Carolina and all the way through South Carolina, is in very poor condition. Therefore as part of our planning, we chose to route the travel via state roads, and US route 1.
Up early, cats into the KittyTransporter, last items stowed, and unhooked. Clyde into his harness, and The Wols Roost’s feet up and we are ready to roll. One last chore before saying good bye to Holly Point Campground. “Jettison” wastes…
At Holly Point, we need to dump our tanks at the dump station as the camp sites do not have sewer connections. Luckily there is a very nice dump station, suitable for 2 trailers to dump at the same time. The dumpsters for trash are also located at the this section of the campground. While Rob is emptying the tanks, Deryl disposes of the accumulated trash.
We are on the road by 9:30 AM, and say good bye to the beautiful and peaceful Holly Point campground.
It is a short drive to get on the highway around Raleigh, North Carolina, and traffic is flowing well. We soon are back off the interstates and onto US 1. US 1 near Raleigh is 3 lanes wide in both directions, with lots of truck traffic.
US 1 was in reasonable condition with plenty of traffic, both passenger vehicles and commercial trucks. Before long we are out of the city/urban area and into the countryside, where US 1 narrows down to 2 lanes in each direction with a grass divider. The road has its occasional bumps which Tigger expresses displeasure about.
As part of avoiding I95, we take US 74 west toward Charlotte, and then take US 601 south down and around Columbia, South Carolina. Now we are down to a ‘2 lane’ with woods on the road sides. Very pleasant. Also, traffic has dropped off to almost nonexistent.
The trip from Holly Point to Hardeeville, South Carolina, our next destination, was a bit long to comfortably drive in one day and still arrive and set up camp before dark.
Rather than find a campground for one night (not to mention that there weren’t any on our path) we decided that we would just “Wal-Dock”. Wal-Dock is different from boon docking in that it refers to spending a night in a Walmart, Cracker Barrel, Interstate Rest-area, or Truck-stop parking lot. Both boon docking and Wal-Docking have no services. When boon docking you are usually in some remote public park where you can drop the landing gear on the trailer, unhook your truck and trailer, and deploy the trailer slides. When Wal-Docking you do not unhook as you are spending the night in a business parking lot, hence you only drop the landing gear to stabilize the trailer (but not enough to completely level the trailer), and depending on where you park, you may not open all of your slides.
While stopped for lunch we concluded that the weather forecast for tomorrow was torrential rains. Hmm, driving in the rain and setting up while it was raining is not fun so we decided to try and make it to Hardeeville that day.
We stopped for dinner in Ridgeland, South Carolina. We found a Mexican restaurant on East Main street in a small shopping center. The other businesses were closed and the parking lot was large enough for us to turn around the truck and trailer, and park out of the way. Alchile Mexican Grill, is a family owned and operated business. The food was excellent, and we both had small margaritas. Rob had their shrimp fajitas, and Deryl had the tacos de Carnitas. The onions and peppers were nicely seasoned and cooked at the right temperature to develop the caramels in the vegetables. The shrimp were perfectly cooked. The tacos were fresh home made from blue corn, and the pork carnitas were not only delightfully seasoned but were grilled till the pork developed some crispy bits.
As it turns out, we made better time driving between Holly Point and Hardeeville than expected. We called Camp Lake Jasper RV Resort, to check if they could accommodate us arriving early. Unfortunately, they were completely booked. Camp Lake Jasper RV Resort is a popular stop in the “Snow Bird” migration to Florida, so completely books up in the fall and spring.
As a result we would need to Wal-Dock some where. We discussed our options and decided that the South Carolina Welcome Center, just north of the Georgia boarder would be the best location given the large truck parking area at that facility.
We pulled in and there was a truck parking space along the edge of the parking area open and available. Rob parked our trailer at a slight angle to enable us to partially open our driver side bedroom slide without worry that a truck would run into the protrusions. While the passenger side, living room, slide was protected by the fact that no trucks could park on that side of us, we still did not extend it all the way out. Just enough to provide access to the litter box for the cats.
After partially opening the slides, we brought the cats in, fed them, and we had a night cap while the furnace warmed up the trailer. We then called it a night.