December 28, 2010 by steve.

So after spending Halloween at Ft. Wilderness, then a wonderful trip to James Island, what’s the CurbCrusher family to do during the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas? Go back to Ft. Wilderness. This has the advantage of being a short drive from CurbCrusher abode, so it takes less than 10 gallons of gas to move the RV to the most magical place on earth, and it is the Christmas season, so the campsites are almost as decorated as Halloween.

Not a lot new at the Fort in the intervening month and a half. They still don’t know how to check people in quickly, and basically its just a change of decorations. Of course the campers at Ft. Wilderness know how to decorate, so there are a whole lot of RV sites decorated way beyond what one sees in a normal neighborhood. In addition, what’s a trip to Ft. Wilderness without a golf cart parade. While it was not “formal” and sponsored by the Fort, we ran across the “informal” parade of about 40 decorated golf carts while we were “looping.” Note that “looping” seems to be the official jargon of those that frequent the Fort for riding around campground loops in your golf cart.

That’s right, I said riding around in your golf cart. The CurbCrusher family decided that they would splurge and get a golf cart this trip to see what it was like. As I noted in the Halloween trip report, one of the great things about driving a golf cart at the Fort is that you don’t have to do all those pesky rules of the road like yielding to pedestrians and observing annoying traffic signs like one-way and stop. We rented our cart from a guy named Kenny that Lady CurbCrusher found on the forum at fortfiends.net, a snarky bunch of folks that know pretty much everything there is to know about camping at Disney. The hint to rent from Kenny was worth it, his price for two days of golf cart rental was about what Disney charges for a single day. He dropped the cart off and picked it up from us, so it was fairly hassle free.

All in all a great and relaxing weekend. All of our photos are here.

Posted in RV Stuff, Travel Review, Campground Review | No Comments »

December 10, 2010 by steve.

So once again I am behind in updating the blog. We are preparing to head out on our next camping weekend and I’ve yet to write up the last trip. As we’ve done for the past few years, the CurbCrushers decided to head out of town for Thanksgiving. This year we returned to James Island County Park just outside of Charleston, South Carolina. This was a park that we’d visited in June of 2009 and decided that we wanted to return around Christmas because of the drive through light show that takes place in the park. But first we had to get there.

Hunting Island State Park

On the way to Charleston, we decided to make a stop at Hunting Island State Park just outside Beaufort, SC. The primary reason was to see the lighthouse, but it also broke the trip up nicely. The campground as Hunting Island State Park is an older campground, with tight turns and sites that are not well defined. Erosion is such a problem, that the Atlantic keeps eating away at the sites that are closest to the beach. Apparently the old road (the one in place in the Spring of 2010) is no longer present, since a storm washed it away. Another issue is that in order to fill in some sites, the park folks have dumped sand onto the sites. We saw one poor couple with a 40 foot + diesel pusher dug in up to their rear axles from trying to back into a site. It took the park service calling a tow truck the next morning to get the RV out of site.

There are a number of bike/walking paths on the island. However, be warned that the path between the campground and the lighthouse is hilly and narrow. Lady and Little CurbCrusher were very challenged on the bike trip. At low tide, the beach is wide enough and hard enough that you can easily ride a bike from the campground to the other end of the island. The trip is enjoyable, and the driftwood on the beach is very thick in some places. There is a Nature Center and a Visitor’s Center near the lighthouse, along with cabins at the south end of the island. All of our pictures of Hunting Island are here.

Charleston and James Island County Park

After a couple of days at Hunting Island Sate Park we headed up to Charleston. When we have visited Charleston in June of 2009, we heard a lot about the Festival of Lights that is held at the James Island County Park. We decided then that we wanted to camp in the park during the Festival of Lights, and we weren’t disappointed. The park lights up three miles of roadways in the park with holiday lightscapes that run from the traditional Nativity scene to local attractions like the bridge and the USS Yorktown. In addition, they set up a Santa’s Village area around the splashpad and water park area with gift shops, fair food and interactive light displays you can walk through. We had a wonderful time walking through this area each night we were camping, and it was a great way to get into the Christmas spirit. Our pictures of the Festival of Lights can be seen here.

In addition to camping and enjoying the lights, we did partake of some other activities while in Charleston. Little CurbCrusher and I spent a morning at Patriots Point visiting the USS Yorktown and USS Clamagore (Pictures). The Medal Of Honor museum inside the Yorktown was a great part of that visit. Little CurbCrusher decided that she did not want to work in a submarine after seeing the Camagore and walking through it. We also took a quick trip into Charleston to visit the Ft. Sumter visitors center and the Moonpie Store, along with stopping to visit the Angel Oak, the oldest tree east of the Mississippi (Pictures). I continued the tradition of the last two Thanksgivings by running the Charleston Gobble Wobble Turkey Trot 5K on Thanksgiving morning.

The camping was great. We had a wonderful site that offered a bit of privacy, and our neighbors were friendly and kind. The sites are good sized, with full hookup and wi-fi, so there was really no reason to wait two weeks to post this blog entry. This is really an outstanding county park, and Charleston is lucky to have such a gem located there. (Pictures)

Posted in RV Stuff, Travel Review, Campground Review | No Comments »