RV Travels Florida to South Carolina

Written by Nancy Carter, Making My Own Lane

The First Day of My RV Adventure

My D-Day was June 5th. It was finally here, and I was really going to do this! The day I was starting my 6-month maiden journey as a solo female RVer traveling in my Class C RV. Just my 2 dogs, my cat and me.

Of course, there was a change of plans before I even left, and I knew I would probably need to cut my trip short and return back to Florida by October 1. But October was a long way off, and I would figure it out later. After living in my RV for a hot month in Florida, I was ready to GO!

My first stop was Buc-ees. Buc-cees is a roadside stop with lots of gas pumps, amazing barbeque sandwiches, clothes shopping, household goods shopping, camping supplies, firewood, and the cleanest bathrooms you have ever seen. Of course, this also means it’s always crowded.

I bought my gas, ate my brisket sandwich in the RV, and took the dogs for a short walk before we continued on with Day 1. You can’t sleep at Buc-ees, luckily, because I could happily eat every meal there.

My RV Travel Plans

After my traditional first trip stop of Buc-cees, my goal was to stay within the Thousand Trails umbrella as much as possible, because I had already bought into the membership, and my “rent” was covered when I was able to stay in Thousand Trails parks.

I also wanted to take my time and stay east of 95 and off the highways, sticking to the coast and exploring places I had never had the chance to visit before because of time constraints.

I decided before I left that I only wanted to travel between 10 am and 2 pm, driving no more than 3 hours at a time, or about 150 miles. This was a good starting point, but as I have become more experienced I am able to travel longer distances without getting too tired.

Driving a 27-foot RV is not like driving a car. It’s a lot more exhausting, especially when you haven’t done it before, and you are driving on tight roadways, bridges, tunnels and windy mountain roads. My east coast trip to Maine was the perfect place to learn.

To help keep traveling costs down, I decided to spend as much as three weeks in some of the Thousand Trails parks. I found that sometimes 5 days was too much, and other times 3 weeks was not long enough. As I plan my travels in 2024, I will try to remember that as I book my campsites.

Unfortunately for me, I didn’t find too many Thousand Trails places I wanted to stop at on the east coast of Florida … or Georgia. But I learned that keeping a journal of my stops for future reference will help me to have places to stop and things to do, without having to do the research, when I set out on my next trip next June.

and I learned that I wasn’t really comfortable taking the scooter on public roads. But at least I had a form of transportation that did not require me to take my entire house with me everywhere I went.

My next stop was my first Harvest Host, Debellation Brewing company, where I was able to stop and grab a bite to eat and get a good night’s sleep safely.

Three days after I left, I stopped at my first Thousand Trails park in Yemassee, SC, where I stayed for 4 nights and just relaxed, taking time to learn more about my new-to-me RV and getting used to a brand-new lifestyle of living on the road.

I did take one day to explore the area, with Daisy (my house). I learned that there was a lot of history in this area. The Frampton Plantation House with beautiful 250 to 300-year old live oaks.

I also tried to visit the church that was used in the Forrest Gump movie, Stoney Creek Independent Presbyterian Chapel. I do not have a picture of this because I didn’t get to see it. I saw another historical church, which I thought was the Forrest Gump church, so I didn’t continue down the road to the right church! Maybe I’ll try again if I am ever in that area again.

And the ruins of the Church of Prince Williams Parish, or the Old Sheldon Church ruins, built in 1745 and burnt twice, once in 1779 by the British army and again in 1865 by the Federal army.

I wasn’t really very interested in history until I started on this adventure. I have now become very interested in the history of the areas I have stayed in, and learning about how people live in each place I stop.

Finding Points of Interest on my RV Trip

I found Trip Advisor was great for helping me to find local historic places of interest or fun things to do along my route.

Sometimes I think I am looking for the next place I would someday like to live. You never know.

Thanks for reading!

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