How hard can it be right? (Famous last words I assure you). Let me tell you, manufacturers of these things give you ALL KINDS of dimensions on what it will fit, where the plumbing fittings are etc. … but … well hell, not for ours. They give you dims on the centerline of the base, how far back to the wall you need, how far to the side you need … ALL FINE AND DANDY … BUT… what if your installation is in a corner … diagonally placed? Well, thankfully I could make a few adjustments to where the water line comes thru the floor, I only needed about an inch and a half. And the floor plate thankfully I could move a half inch or so. But we made it work.
We had never been to Charleston so when we realized how close we would be for the eclipse we decided to spend a few days in Charleston afterwards. We stayed at James Island County Park which is a few miles outside of downtown Charleston. The park is beautiful and the campground was one of the nicest we’ve stayed at.
Charleston is a nice city with a lot of history, but August definitely isn’t the best month to go, it was HOT and humid! We had read about The Angel Oak Tree and made this our first stop. It is truly an amazing tree and worth making the time to visit.
Angel Oak Tree on Johns Island, SC
On the way we had a really good southern breakfast at Sunrise Bistro. They had great coffee and biscuits and also, surprisingly, really good bagels (who would think you could find good bagels in South Carolina?!?)
If you are in Charleston, you have to visit at least one plantation, right? There are many in the area, and we decided to visit Middleton Place. The original plantation house has been destroyed, but the grounds were beautiful and a great way to spend an afternoon.
That evening we went on the Blues and BBQ riverboat dinner cruise with Charleston Harbor Tours for some amazing views from the water. The dinner was buffet style and the food was good but there wasn’t a big selection. The band featured Shrimp City Slim They were fun and we even danced to a few tunes.
When we were in downtown Charleston we chose to park near the visitors’ center and take the free DASH shuttle around town. This way we got to see a lot of downtown and go to different areas without having to drive in the very congested area and find parking (not fun in an F350!).
We love to visit Farmer’s Markets wherever we go and the Charleston Farmers Market on Saturday mornings in Marion Square was a good one. After that we went to the famous Hyman’s Seafood (a must visit in Charleston) for appetizers at the bar. The hundreds of celebrity photos on the wall were fascinating to browse through and the food is great. Everything we had was good, but the hush puppies were definitely the star of the meal.
We wanted to make sure we hadn’t missed any major historical points so we went to the Visitors Center and got tickets for Pineapple Tours bus tour. Our tour guide was Benjamin and he was fantastic. He obviously loves his city and was very informative and passionate. It was so personal we felt like we were getting a private tour, he even extended it to take us to a site we asked about.
If you follow this blog, you know Candi loves to cook and makes her own ice cream. The first ice cream cookbook she had was Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream and she got a lot of inspiration from it. We always knew if we ever saw an actual Jeni’s Ice Cream Shop we would have to stop. WE DID and it was everything we imagined. Oh, and we made one other memorable stop while we were in Charleston, you know, never pass up an opportunity to pee!! (Thank God for construction sites!)
After a year of planning and waiting, it finally got here, and it was amazing! We stayed at Taw Caw Campground on Lake Marion in Summerton, SC. We had searched the internet and attempted to pick what looked like the ‘best’ campground for viewing the eclipse in the area, and it turns out we did pretty well! The campground is on a small inlet off of the lake. The campsites are close together so there really isn’t any privacy, but the campground is well maintained and the staff was very friendly. We only used the bathrooms once, they were dated, but clean.
We are members of RVillage and had joined their Solar Eclipse group. Candi saw a post from another couple that was staying near Lake Marion and when she looked at their profile, found out that they also live in Maryland, and only about 10 miles from where we live! We communicated a little bit online, and then we met them in South Carolina! We had dinner together at Captain’s Quarters. Candi had shrimp and grits and Mike had salt and pepper catfish. Both dishes were really good and the service was great.
But, of course, we were there for the eclipse, and it did not disappoint. We watched it from a fishing pier right at the campground with about 15 other campers. The day was partly cloudy, and the sun was occasionally behind clouds during the beginning, but not enough to keep us from viewing it. As the moon came close to covering the sun there was a noticeable difference in the light, similar to dusk. Then, fortunately we had a great view of the moon covering the sun and the totality phase. Mike bought a 150-600 mm lens to be able to photograph the eclipse and got some great pictures. His view through the viewfinder was so incredible he wanted to share. So he let everyone on the pier take turns throughout the event to get an up close and personal view.
As the sun was becoming visible again we ate ‘Moon Pies’ in celebration.
It was an incredible experience that we will remember for the rest of our lives.
We knew our tires would need to be replaced soon, but we hoped to get another year out of them so we would have new tires when we started full-timing. Well, as they say, hindsight is 20/20. We were driving down 95 in North Carolina and a driver next to us motioned to us and was saying something that looked like ‘flat tire!’ So we pulled over to take a look and, sure enough, our right rear tire was not only flat, but totally shredded. It also damaged the fender flare above it.
At first it looked horrible and we had visions of not being able to finish our trip. But, Mike, being the level-headed guy that he is, took a look at it and realized there was no major damage. He had purchased a tire lift ramp thingie that was supposed to get the trailer up high enough to change the tire. But, once he had pulled the trailer up so the front axle was on it, we realized there wasn’t enough elevation to change the tire. It was time to call Good Sam Roadside Assistance.
We have had Good Sam for years and have used them in the past with mixed results. This time they came through with flying colors! We called them at 12:00 and were on the phone with them until 12:15. Fifteen minutes is a long time, but we opted to wait on the phone while they contacted the service company. The service company they called was Anytime Towing & Recovery. Good Sam estimated that the service company would be there in an hour. They actually arrived at 12:28, thirteen minutes later! We had the spare out and everything ready to go, all we needed was a jack that would raise the axle. The tire was changed and we were ready to go in eight minutes! So about an hour after we pulled over we were back on the road and headed to South Carolina. Fortunately, the damage to the trailer is cosmetic and it doesn’t look like it will take too much to fix it, but that will be another story.
We decided that we really had no use for our sofa bed, and we really need a desk. Once we go full time we’ll need someplace to ‘take care of business’ (Yeah, go ahead, hum Bachman-Turner Overdrive, to yourself please 😊 ).
We kicked around the idea of just going to Ikea and finding a nice small kitchen cabinet and a countertop. We had what we thought was a great selection picked out and we were just about ready to “go do”. You’ve heard the expression “a funny thing happened on the way to the forum”? … well…
We went to Lowes, just to take one last look at their cabinet selections and we happened to walk past their countertop laminates. Lo and behold – THEY HAD THE EXACT LAMINATE used throughout our rig! Hmmmm, … a sign! Needless to say, we now have a set of cabinets that almost match the existing cabinetry in our rig and a countertop that does exactly! The desk is large enough that we can both sit at it and work on our laptops … and neither of us need to wear elbow pads to keep the bruising to a minimum – at least unintentionally 😊. And … we managed to sell the old sofa on CraigsList for a fair price to help cover the cost!
After what always seems like a long winter, it’s fun to finally get in our first camping trip of the Spring. This year it was a long weekend to Point Lookout State Park in southern Maryland. We have been staying at state parks more in the last couple of years and really enjoy them. Most state parks in Maryland have at least electricity and Point Lookout actually has a loop with full hookups. We have found that state parks are a little less expensive than regular campgrounds and the sites are usually much nicer, with more space and trees in between them. Point Lookout is located where the Potomac River meets the Chesapeake Bay. The lighthouse the park was named for isn’t the most picturesque lighthouse, but it’s worth visiting if you are in the area.
Hi! We are Mike and Candi, full-time RVers originally from Baltimore, MD. Before going full-time we RV’d for over 20 years. We started in a tent, then worked our way up to the fifth wheel you see pictured above. We have given up our sticks and bricks house and are living our dream of traveling around the country full time!
Since we are in the middle of winter here in Maryland, we don’t have any trips coming up, but, we are looking forward to next summer. We have one trip planned for July, to South Carolina to (hopefully) see the Full Solar Eclipse.
We first heard about the Solar Eclipse when we attended a seminar at the Escapees 56th Escapade. Since this eclipse will go through the center of the United States we will have a rare opportunity to see it (weather permitting, of course!). We used this website to find out the exact timing and location of the eclipse. Then we figured out a location that was close enough for us to be able to drive to in a reasonable amount of time. We decided South Carolina gave us a good viewing opportunity and was close enough to drive to. Then, it was time to find campgrounds.
We generally start out using Google for campgrounds in the area, then look at reviews on a few of them. We decided on Taw Caw Campground since the reviews are nice and it looks like an ideal location to view the eclipse from.
Charleston, South Carolina was already on our list of places we wanted to visit, so we decided to add this to our trip. So, back to Google to find campgrounds in that area. We found a campground at James Island State Park that looks really nice and is close to Charleston.
We read a lot of articles over the years about unlucky campers who have been in less-than-great campgrounds with poor power. Without going into debate here, we decided we should protect our rig from not only surges, but also bad grounding, reversed polarity, and low voltage. To our knowledge there are basically two manufacturers common in the industry and we chose Progressive Industries. They have external and internal units and we further chose a permanently mounted internal unit. This way it’s always there, it’s always available, it can be controlled from inside the rig, and unless someone wants to break into our rig and take apart our electrical system – it’s theft proof. Our rig is 50Amp capable so we chose the EMS-LCHW50
LOL, I also chose to install it myself for some unknown reason … I’m no electrician and working with 10 gauge wire is not fun for me. But it worked! Their instructions are very thorough and easy to understand for the layman. You don’t have to be an electrician, just have some common sense and be a little bit handy … and patient.
First, a reference picture of the electrical panel just in case … before hand.
The electrical panel out and the PI unit off to the side … just sitting there waiting for me to cut the big black wire … (yikes, maybe a beer first … maybe two … nahhhhh)
The wiring is done! (10 gauge wire is not fun, another beer is in order!)
The finished installation! Everything is tucked up inside the cavity where the electrical panel is and the small controller/display panel fits well just above and to the left. It has a simple single wire that runs to it from the main box.
We really didn’t like the plastic “RV” double sink that came with the camper and knew eventually we’d want a residential style sink. I’ve never put one in before but figured I could do it. We bought one at Home Depot and the only real difference was we bought one with a 7” deep bowl instead of what appears to be a standard of 8” deep.
Here I am all proud of myself, I got the old sink out … without breaking it if I need to put it back!
Me … staring at the plumbing underneath figuring “I can pull this off … I think … and if not, I call a plumber”. Kinda the old saying ‘I’m sure somebody can fix whatever I screw up’.
The hole … dutifully taped off with painters tape and marked up for “the cut” …
Candi and I still smiling at each other just before I actually cut “the hole” … hoping it will end the same way and we’re still smiling.
The sink is IN!
The beer is COLD! (and the sink and plumbing don’t leak!)
Fifth Wheel Journey 