November in the Southeast

After leaving our friends, we spent another week in North Carolina to spend some time in the Smokey Mountain National Park. We decided to reconnect with them and others a few weeks later. That reunion was on the gulf coast in the panhandle of Florida. This decision dictated our stays during the end of October and early November. Making last minute decisions like this is the benefit of not booking too much too early.

Smokey Mountain National Park

We wanted to stay a week at a campground we stayed in 2 years ago and the only way they could accommodate us was to have us move sites a couple times during the week. This was a small price to pay in order to get a weekend campsite in late October near Smokey Mountain National Park. We made a couple trips into the park for hikes and also did some hiking on trails along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Our first hike in the park was to check out Clingmans Dome. We got an early start but still feared we would be too late to get a parking spot. Luckily this was not the case and we parked with ease. The hike to the dome is pretty short but steep and after completing it we decided to do another hike without moving the truck. We had heard good things about the hike to Andrews Bald so we decided to do that. The hike was very pleasant and the views at the meadow where of Andrews Bals were spectacular.

Later in the week, we returned to the park to hike a few miles of the Appalachian Trail starting at Newfound Gap. We took it to the shelter along the trail and then returned. If the weather hadn’t been grey and misty, we probably would have continued to Charlies Bunion for the views. Given that we couldn’t see too much from the overlooks we passed along the hike, we decided to head back instead of continuing on.

We took another long hike off the Blue Ridge Parkway that turned out to be unsatisfying, at least initially. When we left the parking lot to take the long way (4.6 miles) up to Waterrock Knob the sun was out and things looked promising. By the time we got to the summit, it was raining lightly and visibility was about 30 feet. This did not make for good views of the mountains covered in fall foliage. We did learn that there is a much shorter (< 0.5 mile) hike to get to the summit so we decided to return later in the week when the weather was more promising.

Meeting Friends in Florida

We planned our next stop so we could hike up Springer Mountain, the southern end of the Appalachian Trail. We stayed in a brand new KOA campground that had just opened on Labor Day weekend. Everything was nice about this stay except for the weather and the loss of power. It rained for the 2 full days we were there and as a result, we did not do the hike. Amy figured she would get some laundry done so the stay wouldn’t be a complete wash out. We walked into the laundry room and the lights would not come on and nothing was working. This is when we learned that power had gone out overnight. When you have the means to go off grid and your battery power kicks in automatically, you tend not to notice things like power outages. So much for getting laundry done.

We stayed in an Alabama State park and a COE as we worked our way down to the Florida panhandle to spend a week with friends we’ve met on our travels, including Rob and Laura from a couple posts ago. First was Wind Creek State Park, Alabama’s largest state park with over 500 camping sites. We did not get a waterfront site here but thoroughly enjoyed the more secluded location of our site. We did a hike while at this campground but it quickly turned into a more difficult outing than originally planned. There we lots of downed trees blocking the path and forcing several cross country detours. If it weren’t for tracking our progress on the All Trails app, we might have gotten lost a couple of times.

From here, we traveled a couple hours south to spend a few nights at White Oak Creek Campground (COE). When we book a campsite where you can pick the specific site you want, we look to make sure it is accessible for our relatively large setup. Some of these online reservation sites have pictures and that can help but may not always show issues. We figured this site would be easy to get into, and it was, but we did not realize just how nice the site was. We were very happy with the setup and enjoyed the lakeside spot and even got the kayak out for a bit. All-in-all, a wonderful stay.

Our next stop was Presnell’s RV Resort in Port St. Joe, FL to meet up with some fellow RVers that we’ve met since being on the road. We met most of them at the Escapees Hangout in Tucson in February. We spent a week with several other couples and enjoyed the warm weather and gorgeous sunsets along the northern gulf coast. Hurricane Eta made the week a bit stressful as it couldn’t decide where it wanted to go before settling on Tampa and missing us by a safe margin. All we saw was a bit of rain but not enough to dampen our spirits or prevent us from having a good time.

We did a few outdoor group activities where social distancing would be possible. On such activity gave Amy the opportunity to check off an item from her bucket list. Not only did she get to ride a horse for the first time, but she got to do it along the beach. It was a lot of fun.

Changing Plans

While we were in Florida, we made the tough decision to forego our plans to spend Thanksgiving week in the RV park across from Amy’s folks. We quickly made new reservations for that week but still planned to see them via a driveway visit, practicing proper social distancing. We did not cancel the campsite we had leading into Thanksgiving week that was located about 90 miles from Andersonville, GA, where Amy’s parents live. This COE campground promised to be a beautiful stay so we drove back up into Georgia from Florida and then took a day trip for the driveway visit. They are doing fine and we were glad we could spend a few hours catching up and chatting.

The stay in R Shaefer Heard COE was enjoyable but a bit chilly with highs in the upper 50’s and low 60’s. We did sit on the shore of the lake during the warm afternoons, reading and listening to the loons out on the lake. We had stayed on this lake twice before at White Tail Ridge COE Campground but that campground was closed for the season due to COVID-19 so we took the opportunity to check out this other campground. Both are very nice, as are most COE campgrounds. Deciding which one to stay in during future visits to the area will depend on availability.

We travelled from one COE to another as we were lucky to find weekend availability at Prairie Creek COE in Alabama, between Montgomery and Selma. We had stayed in this area before at Gunter Hill COE but that campground was full for the weekend, so we went another 20 miles west to get availability. Again, COEs rarely disappoint and this was no exception. Our site, which backed up to the water, was very long and paved. Unfortunately we couldn’t include Thanksgiving weekend in our reservation because they were all booked up. We did find a KOA a couple hours southeast to we stay for the holiday.

Thanksgiving

We are writing this from the Ozark/Fort Rucker KOA, where we spent Thanksgiving. We bought a small, 10 lb turkey and planned to smoke it in our small Traeger Ranger pellet smoker. After prepping and placing the bird into the smoker, the lid would not close! The bird was about an inch too tall. We quickly improvised by cutting out the breast bone and we using butchers twine to close it back up and make it a couple inches thinner. The lid closed fine and we were set for a few hours of smoking. It was about this time that the rains came and it poured heavily for about an hour. We had anticipated some rain so we moved the table to under the awning and the smoker remained safe and (relatively) dry during the deluge.

The bird came out wonderfully and we added a few sides and had our most complete Thanksgiving meal since we hit the road over 2 years ago. After dinner, we had a big zoom call with our kids and Dan’s brother and sister as well as his sister’s kids. This was a nice way to connect with family while remaining in our own little cocoons. We finished the day with a nice slice of pecan pie that was also cooked in the smoker. It was delicious!

Hope you all had as nice a Thanksgiving Day as we did.