After finishing out September in New York, it was time to start heading south for the winter. Our first stop was a Harvest Hosts location at a BBQ restaurant in Pennsylvania for an overnight stay. We enjoyed a nice meal and had a quiet night. From there, we moved on to Thousand Trails in Hershey, PA, where we stayed for the week.

During our stay in Hershey, I had to do some RV maintenance, including cleaning and repacking the trailer’s wheel bearings. One of the seals had failed, making quite a mess, and a few of the others were starting to leak as well. It was good to get everything taken care of, and I was thankful the local NAPA store was able to get the seals I needed quickly.

Our next stop was another Harvest Hosts location, this time at a brewery and restaurant in Virginia. This one was popular; at least six other RVs stayed overnight with us. We had a nice meal and were able to leave early the next morning for our next destination, Thousand Trails Chesapeake Bay. We really liked this campground. It was very large, and they put us in a spot that we fit into well. We tried the BBQ stand at the clubhouse and also enjoyed ice cream from the general store.

Unfortunately, we had one incident during our stay. Because of a tree, I had to place our Starlink dish on the roof near the front of the RV to get the best reception. Just as I reached the top of the ladder, Dishy slipped out of the carrying sling that Starlink provides, and it fell about 13 feet to its death. Thankfully, a local Home Depot had a dish in stock, and I was able to buy one and activate it so we could get internet access working properly. We do have cellular service as a backup, but coverage wasn’t great in this area, so Starlink was essential for us to work.

After a week in Virginia, it was time to move on to our next stop: Thousand Trails Whispering Pines in Newport, NC. The park was mostly okay, but it’s probably not a place we would return to. About 90% of the park consists of park model homes and permanent residents, with very few spots available for travelers. The site they originally tried to place us in had a tree in the middle of the rear of the site, and we never would have fit; our RV would have stuck about 20 feet into the road just to avoid hitting the tree and wrecking our roof.

Thankfully, they did have another spot available, but there was no one in the office over the weekend to help us. We ended up calling the maintenance guy, who told us to just park wherever we could, so that’s what we did. With so few travelers in the park, we felt a bit out of place, and the overall vibe just felt strange. However, we did meet a nice family staying next to us, and they were headed to the same destination in South Carolina.

We end the month in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. We stayed in a new Thousand Trails park called Carolina Shores. It is actually two parks in one. One-half of the park is being converted into a Thousand Trails park, and the other half is a privately owned park called Piratelands. We really liked this park. Our site was right across the street from the beach, and we could walk there with the dogs every day. It was a little tight for our large RV, but we managed to fit it. We were there during Halloween, and they had all kinds of activities, two trick-or-treat nights for kids, and a haunted house we toured. Lots of RVs were all decorated, too. It was a fun place for sure. We also rented a golf cart so we could get around the park, and both dogs loved going for rides in it for the two weeks we were here.