Art and I decided that we should probably have a trial run of camping to reacquaint ourselves with all systems in the RV before heading out on a road trip that will take us 3,000 miles away from home.  So, we grabbed our 5 year old grandson and headed to Falls Lake State Recreation Area located just north of Raleigh.

With a 4:00 check-in, we had plenty of time in the morning to pack up the essentials for a 2 night jaunt.  However, with a 2 month excursion in our future I think we will need to plan on a week for loading!  We left around 2:00, filled up with gas and headed east!  The 1.5 hour drive allowed Art a great opportunity to check out how the RV handled with the towed –  he was very pleased!

Upon arrival we found our campsite at the Holly Point Campground to be lovely – plenty of room to maneuver, a level gravel site, woods all around and a short walk to the lake.  I’m not going to lie and say that set-up was a breeze. We really had only done it one time before and that was a year ago, but with the checklist left by the previous owners we were up and operating within 45 minutes!

View into the woods

Surrounded by loblolly pines

Our biggest challenge was the fact that our RV operates on 50 amps of power and the campground only provided 30 amps.  We figured out quickly that this meant only one air conditioner could run at a time and if I wanted to nuke a cup of tea in the microwave then I had to wait for Art’s coffee to brew in the Keurig – no big deal, but a learning curve.

With our grandson in tow, we spent a good deal of time at the lake so he could enjoy swimming.  With our late Sunday arrival and Monday stay, we had the place to ourselves!

Strolling the beach with our grandson

One last surprise awaited us on checkout day – the Weather Channel was actually right for a change!  Unfortunately for us, that meant we had a steady line of showers move through the area over a period of 3 hours. I’m not talking sprinkles, I’m talking monsoonal rain. With a checkout time of  3:00 we obviously decided to wait it out and hope for the best.  By 1:30, the rain finally relented and we were able to break camp without getting soaked.  Now I know it is unrealistic to hope that we won’t ever have to setup or breakdown in the rain, but it sure was nice not to have to learn that trick this time around!

I think (fingers crossed), we might just be ready!