Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Hamilton Branch State Park, SC

The view of the lake from our site


We're off on our second road trip. This time we are spending Memorial Day weekend at Hamilton Branch State Park on Lake Thurmond in Plum Branch, SC. http://www.southcarolinaparks.com/hamiltonbranch/introduction.aspx

Another view of the lake


Clear water and bright sunshine

The park provides access to the 71,100-acre Strom Thurmond Lake. The lake is ideal for fishing, boating and various other watersports. The lake has over 1,200 miles of shoreline, is the second largest lake east of the Mississippi River and among the top ten visited U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lakes nationwide.

It's a little over 100 miles to the park. On the way we drove thru Washington, Ga. A step back in time....
There are civil war sites, revolutionary war sites and over a hundred Colonial, Ante-bellum and Victorian homes on beautiful tree-lined streets. http://www.kudcom.com/www/. We drove past farms with dozens of baby animals grazing. It was an enjoyable ride, far from the maddening interstates, out in the beautiful countryside.

Hamilton Branch is a really nice park. It is amazing how the state parks have such beautiful locations. The first thing we said was "wouldn't this be a great place to build a house?" So, here we are in our house (rv) for the weekend!
Settled in

There are a lot of sites on the water here, coves and amazingly quiet. Some sites are a little tricky for access. Each drive-in goes to 2 sites, right and left. We were lucky to be first in because we had to maneuver the rv over into the left one for us to get situated in the right one. What was nice though, the site was parallel to the water. It had water, electric, fire pit and picnic table. Restrooms are not convenient. We have to learn the conservation thing when staying at State Parks. The fact that turning the water on is easy but you have to remember it's going into a holding tank...and it only holds so much!

Every afternoon duck families would swim in





Baby ducklings in the grass

                                         


Then back in the water
They head on down to the next spot...Dad in front, babies and then Mom





The State Parks in South Carolina offer senior citizen discounts which make them even more affordable. They also offer a unique program at any parks where you can fish. You can borrow a rod, reel and tackle box and maybe even catch some fish for dinner! http://www.dnr.sc.gov/aquaticed/loan/

We had a really enjoyable stay at Hamilton Branch. It's a perfect place, peaceful, pretty as the picture. Lakefront camping, boating, fishing from shore or out on the water and bike trails....





Monday, June 3, 2013

Lake Hartwell State Recreation Area

The road to our campsite
Our first roadtrip! We're off to Fair Play, SC for the weekend of April 5. It was only 66 mi. and mostly on I-85 so a little over an hour drive. Log on to www.SouthCarolinaParks.com for all the park info.

Since it was early Spring there were a lot of trees but not much greenery. It is probably much prettier when the leaves are out. We had site #6 which was right on the water. There is a site slightly above and to your left but nothing on the right. You could see the boat ramp and there were a few times that boats went in and out. Fishing from the bank only resulted in catching one little fish that promptly got sent back.

View of the lake
We had water and electric hookup but no sewer. This was okay as we arrived on Friday and were leaving on Sunday. State Parks have the nicest sites but hardly ever have sewer hookups. You need to locate the showers/restrooms when you're picking your site.

View of the lake to the left
Boozer and I went for a walk down to the boat ramp. On the way there was a site on either side of the road. Two families had come in pickup trucks and about 6 kids between them. They had actually camped out on lounge chairs with sleeping bags! They were a really happy group and were having a lot of fun. Surprisingly, they were very well behaved. They all wanted to pet Boozer and he enjoyed being the center of attention.

Boozer standing guard
We had our lounge chairs at the end of the site pad facing the water. The view of the lake was really nice. The only drawback was that there was no satellite reception and guess who forgot to pack the movies!!

Nothing to watch!
We are trying to have everything in the motorhome that we need. Even my lists have lists! It doesn't matter, you still forget stuff. You forget, you do without...we won't mention someone forgetting to pack his underwear!!

For being our first road trip, we did pretty well. No real disasters. We'll be off again for Memorial Day, heading to Lake Thurmond.