Carolina Landing, Fair Play, South Carolina

Heading Into South Carolina

Leaving North Carolina behind, we drove into South Carolina on Nov 22. Quick and easy 1.5 hour jump, well, 3.5 including a stop at Walmart to get restocked and then a bite to eat. Our destination was Carolina Landing RV Resort in Fair Play, SC. I just have to accept there are no private “Campgrounds” anymore, they are all RV “Resorts!”

    Carolina Landing is part of a network of “Preserves” (as they call themselves) belonging to the group Thousand Trails. It is a membership based company having campgrounds across the country, though mostly along the coastal states. You buy a membership package and you can camp for free at the preserves. As with most of these type memberships the perks vary depending on which level you buy into. We were given a free one year membership into one of the “lower” levels when we bought the RV. Our package includes campgrounds from Virginia around the coast of Florida and on into Texas. We can camp up to 14 days at any in the network and as long as we are out of the network for 7 days we can do this over and over. 14 days in, 7 days out. We will take advantage of this when we can, the “preserves” aren't always convenient to the direction we're heading.

  

Our Backyard

  Nice enough campground, we had a mostly level site, picnic table and fire ring; pretty standard. The campground is situated in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains and on the shore of Lake Hartwell. Beautiful location, not many trails but with it being very large and hilly, just walking from our site to the lake or around section to section gave us plenty of exercise. The roads nearby were quiet enough we got some bike riding in as well.

     

Carolina Landing has many amenities including the typical ones: mini golf, horseshoes, basketball court, playground. It also had PickleBall. That's a new one on us. We didn't get a chance to explore that but it appears to be a cross between tennis, badminton, and ping pong using a wiffle ball. Yep, Okay. A wonderful smash up of racket games invented by ingenious children using whatever equipment they could find. Ha, when I think of the games we “invented” who knows where we could have gone with them.

    Adding to the games, there is an Activity Center with pool tables (in bad need of help!) and a couple of other table top games, community center for events, a WiFi lounge (with poor WiFi, LOL) as well as the office. I was surprised it didn't have a small campstore. At the lake there is swimming in season as well as fishing and boating. The bathhouses were good enough, large separate showering area with lots of hot water. The staff, friendly and helpful, helped to make our stay a pleasant one.

    

   My complaint would be due to the understaffing of the maintenance staff, the grounds weren't kept as tidy as they should have been. We have become use to and feel it should be expected, sites cleaned between use, Unfortunately, many times one unit left and another pulled in without a going over by the park. We had garbage left behind by previous campers in ours when we arrive. Once again, I have to say, it's the little things that can leave an impression. Another observation which is getting to be an issue with a lot of RVers, is the number of sites given over to Seasonal and in this case, Annuals, reducing the number available to travelers. I get it from the campground's perspective, steady income; but it seems across the country it reducing the number of sites available for short term. Often, the sites left to travelers aren't the best. Got to find balance in this.

A Nature's Centerpiece

    

Thanksgiving Dinner

   We were there over the Thanksgiving Holiday, our first holiday on the road. We made a traditional dinner in an nontraditional fashion, as I previously posted. Turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts and carrots, cooked on the grill or in the electric skillet. YUM! Was able to gather enough pretty foliage to make a nature's centerpiece for the table. Perfection in dining LOL. We, of course, missed being with family and friends but that's part of our adventure. We are so grateful for what we have and can do.

    

My bit of Mistletoe

A fun little side note: I noticed quickly, up in the trees, Mistletoe. Unfortunately, it was fifteen to twenty up in those trees. Yeah a tad out of reach. While taking one of our many walks there it was, just above Paul's head by about two feet. He manage to get a hold of the tip of the branch and we gentle pulled it down low enough so he could grab a bit by jumping up. Got to love that man and what he is willing to do for me. Yes, indeed it is the little things that mean so very much.

See y'all at our next stop: Georgia!

What a cool tree!

Just taking in the view

Looks like a raccoon and Heron were here