This Thousand Trails park was a nice, easy stop on our way south. It was beautiful in spite of some damage from Hurricane Helene.

If you ever drive up and down I-95, you HAVE to stop at South of the Border (Pedro insists – and you can’t miss the billboards!!).

This makes the third time we stayed here, the last time was our very first night as Full Time RV’rs! They have a nice campground that is right off I-95 so it makes for a great place to stop.

We had only planned on staying for one night, but we’d been watching the weather and following the track of Hurricane Helene, which was heading north FROM Florida while we were heading south TO Florida! It was also following a more westerly path than we were, so we decided to stay an extra night at SOB to avoid it. It worked out great, but we did get a little bit of rain (or a lot!).

Another Harvest Host. This restored cotton mill has been made into a neat area with several restaurants and breweries. It was fairly easy to get to and had a huge parking lot, which turned out to be a good thing since we were joined by several other Harvest Hosters! Since it was mid-week they weren’t too busy and several places were closed, but we did have a nice lunch at Jack’s and a good dinner at The Prime Smokehouse.

Well, after very interesting summer in Ocean City, Maryland (yes, still our favorite place on earth!), we are heading south again. First, we took a few weeks to spend in Baltimore visiting family and friends. Had a great time visiting a winery, watching a Raven’s game with family, tried a new restaurant with friends, and even saw America in concert!

And now we are basically tracing the same route we took 5 years ago when we first became full time RVers! Being from Baltimore means that most of your vacations are spent driving up or down 95. Back then we didn’t appreciate 95 at all! Now, we are sort of looking forward to the conveniences of a more urban area. One of those conveniences is a lot of rest areas with nice bathrooms!! And also truck stops for gas and lunch, as well as towns with Walmart’s for an overnight stay if we decide to.

Our first stop was a quick overnight near Richmond, Virginia at Americamps RV Resort. We wanted a full hookup site since Ollie’s been in storage and we need to put water in the tanks and get him ready to live in again. Found a nice local pub called Industrial Taphouse to have dinner at while we were there.

We loved this winery! It’s on a beautiful property on a lake. They have a nice variety of wines and some good small plate food options. The wine was great and we even had a visit from some family that lives nearby!

Another fun Harvest Host! This one was on a farm near Draper Mercantile.

It was a little difficult getting Rad-Ollie up the gravel driveway, but once we put Rad in 4WD low he made it up there!

Then we had a great lunch at the cafe and Candi walked their labyrinth!!

We’d never been to Pigeon Forge and had no idea what to expect. The area seemed sort of like a cross between Disney and Vegas (but with no casinos!). We stayed at Riverbend Campground which was a nice park in a convenient location.

Since we were only there for one day we decided to take a Shine and Wine Tour to get an idea of what the area is like. You know the song that says someone is as smooth as Tennessee whiskey? We’re not sure that’s actually a compliment!! From the whiskeys we tried, we would not use the word smooth to describe them!!!

We decided to stop in Memphis for a few days on our way east. We had visited over 20 years ago and loved staying at Tom Sawyer’s RV Park so we knew we’d stay there again. It is a nice RV Park right on the bank of the Mississippi River. They have an open area with benches on the river that are nice to sit at and watch the river flow and the barges go up and down!

If you’re in Memphis a walk down Beale Street is required! We went on a Monday afternoon so it was pretty slow there, but we did find a live band and a great lunch at BB Kings!

Then we decided to walk to The Lorraine Motel, where MLK was assassinated (also known today as the National Civil Rights Museum). It was a quick half mile walk and definitely worth seeing the site of such a tragic day in history.

One of the many ‘must see’ locations in Memphis is Sun Studio. Known worldwide as “The Birthplace of Rock n Roll”, this is where so many music legends got their start. Sun Studio is where Elvis made his first recordings and kept company with early blues, rock, and country artists like Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Charlie Rich, Jerry Lee Lewis, BB King, Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf … and even U2 … just to name a ‘few’! It’s amazing to just stand in the same space and see the simplicity, yet sense the magnitude these artists had on the music industry.

After seeing an amazing Solar Eclipse just east of Dallas we decided to backtrack for a few days to see a good friend of ours from Maryland who is living in Fort Worth. We had such a great time catching up with Josh Daughaday and seeing him play at Pete’s Dueling Piano Bar. We also had lunch the next day at Shady Oak BBQ. The barbecue was excellent and it was nice to spend more time visiting.

We also visited the Fort Worth Stockyards. As we were walking around we had this strange desire to wear a cowboy hat and boots, and walk around with a beer. We skipped the hat and boots but did go with the beer! Then we figured we had to get some barbecue and stopped at Riscky’s. The food was good but not as good as we’d hoped for.

As a valued added bonus, right next to the campground we were staying at is the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base … which happened to be hosting the Blue Angels for a weekend air show! We actually got to see the show several times while they were practicing for a few days prior to the weekend shows!