We left Virginia Beach on Thursday morning, November 2 to head toward Charlotte, North Carolina. This leg was about 340 miles, and we got away early enough so that we'd have time to stop at Costco en route and still arrived in Charlotte by about 5 PM. We would stay at Carowinds Camp Wilderness Resort through the 8th, and depart on the 9th. Carowinds is a huge amusement area that claims to have one of the largest roller coasters in the country. It sure looked awesome, but the park is pretty much deserted this time of year. We rode into downtown Charlotte a couple of times and had lunch one visit and went to the Mint Museum another visit. The museum is mostly local contemporary art. It was interesting, but the hour and a half we spent was plenty. It was a great day for scooter riding, so the 40 or so minutes each way for each day's trip was enjoyable. Having coffee at the end of the museum tour, just a couple blocks away was fun as it was midafternoon Sunday, and all of the passersby were wearing Carolina Panthers football garb en route to watch their team. Looked just like being in Pioneer Square on a Seahawk Sunday!

There's also an area in the northeast corner of town called Noda, which I believe is short for North Davidson, a main thoroughfare through the area. I rode up there one day, just to browse around at what, apparently is a mural district. There are huge murals on many, many buildings in the area. They were interesting, but I didn't spend a lot of time there.

We left Charlotte on Thursday morning November 9 at around 10 in the morning. This was a really short drive of only about 130 miles, so we weren't too concerned about getting away early. We would stay at Sweetwater Lake campground near Saint Matthews in Central South Carolina. The campground is no destinations space, as nearly all available spots were not level. The first one we tried, we could get the rig level, but the front wheels were at least 6 inches off the ground, which is a clear no-no from what we've been told. We finally found one that was slightly better, but we felt we were always walking uphill or downhill for the entire two days we stayed here. There's a pleasant lake right on the property, maybe a half mile long, so the Outlook was nice. I originally chose this location because it's near Congaree National Park, one I'd never heard of until I put a pin on the planning map two years ago. I took a ride up there on Friday the 10th, and it was about a 50 mile trip one-way. It's an interesting national park, not one that shows off major views, like Grand Canyon or Yosemite. Also, there are no roads that one drives through the park. It's all hiking and walking trails. I rode into the visitor center and spent a half an hour there, bought a shirt souvenir and a candy bar lunch. It was another great day for riding -- The thermometer on my scooter said 75 to 77 degrees nearly all the way. Right at the cusp of not needing a jacket, so I stowed it in my bike seat! I took a couple pictures and videos inside the park. Check those out for some additional comments I made while doing the videos. Like all national parks, it was really beautiful and interesting on the entry, with thousands and thousands of reasonably small (a foot in diameter or less) but old-growth trees lining the road into the visitor center.

With the unlevel RV spot, and not much else to see around here, plus wet weather returning for the next couple of days, we're gonna leave and head down to Charleston South Carolina, November 12, 2023 a Sunday. We plan to stay there for eight full nights, and hope the weather changes! As it turned out, the weather pretty much did stay nice in Charleston. We stayed through Sunday night, November 19, and plan to be on the road by around 10 AM Monday morning the 20th. It's only about a 2 hour drive down to Savannah for our next stop. A lot to do during our nine day stay in Charleston. We rode downtown one day and spent the afternoon having lunch and cruising the Charleston market. See a couple pictures I took there. Much like Seatte's Pike Place Market, except this one is enclosed in a long building that spans around eight or nine blocks. Inside there are vendors of all kinds, and there was a lot of interesting wares to see. It's open every day but Christmas.

We got rained out a couple days in Charleston, but saw some fantastic amenities at the RV park where we stayed, James, Island, County Park. We would meet many people who make this an annual trek to stay for a week or two, sometimes even just a weekend. Starting somewhere around November 1, they have the Holiday Festival of Lights. It's pretty incredible. We took a bus ride one of our first nights here, that lasted about an hour. The bus slowly encircles the park as we ride by what our tour guide said were 750 separate displays, comprising over 2 million lights. Our tour guide said he has worked on the lightbulb replacing crew a number of times, and his understanding is the annual budget for just replacing lightbulbs is $90,000. Phenomenal display, and supposedly one of the biggest in the country. Easy to believe! On Saturday night, the 18th I took a night ride on my scooter and video'ed he entire ride on my GoPro. Please see the videos page for that.

On the opposite side of the RV park is probably the largest off-leash dog park either of us have ever seen. We were down there every day it wasn't raining, and even one day when it was. The park is bounded by a fenced entry on one side, and a big lake on the other side. We've been told by many locals that there are a few alligators that live in the lake, but plenty of folks were throwing things in the lake for their dogs to retrieve! We didn't go in the water, but met many, many friendly folks, and only friendly puppies. Our dogs had a blast as well, and were nearly perfectly behaved!

Monday, 11/20/23 - Off to Savannah, Georgia. It'll only be about a 2+ hour drive, so we'll get to sleep in a bit and arrive still early in the afternoon. Yay!