Twin Lakes Camping Resort in North Carolina - 2021/08/03-10

Today is another move day, so we've better get moving. We're currently in Tennessee at Pigeon Forge and our next stop is just over the border into North Carolina. Should be a nice easy driving day, or so I was thinking. 

This is the drive I was expecting. A little over 2 hours on the road and we'd be at our destination in North Carolina. As Theresa was going through our route around midnight the night before, she gave me the play by play. "It's a pretty tight turn off the main road. You'll be going through a tight gravel road to get there. There's going to be low-hanging trees too. Oh and the site doesn't let anyone arrive after dark because navigation is pretty hard at the camp. There's no cell or internet service there either."

Why are we staying here again? 

A little while later, Theresa asked if I was up for a long drive. It's outside our normal driving range, but it's a nice site with pull-through spots, two pools, basketball courts, a game room, and more. It'll also put us closer to a few other places in North Carolina that we could stop by. But.. it'll be an 8 hour drive. 

Even still, I didn't have to think too hard about it. I can do that drive. 

The kids are always troopers. More time in the car means they get to be on their iPads more, after they get in their reading and write-ups completed. 

There's the sign we've been looking for! Welcome to North Carolina!

And with that, both kids get to add another state to their list of states they've visited! We're going to be collecting a few states in the upcoming months!

As we're going through the mountains, some of the leaves on the trees are already starting to change colors. Theresa thinks they're going to be beautiful come fall. 

I didn't realize that bologna biscuits were even a thing. 

Whew! Well it was a really long day of driving, but we're finally here! 

Watching the weather report for this area on our drive over, it's supposed to pour rain tonight. As I pulled in, it was starting to sprinkle, and the skies would soon open up even more. I set up the outside of the RV as quickly as I could, then headed inside out of the rain. 

And boy did it rain! This is a photo that Ian took when he woke up. The site next to ours is completely flooded! 

Our site is on a slope, so we didn't get flooded, but look how high the water came up overnight. 

It's a little wet right now, so we're not going to ride around on our bikes to check out the place, but we'll get out for a walk. We're right on the water of Chocowinity Bay, which flows into the Pamlico River, and ultimately the Atlantic Ocean. The ducks don't seem to mind all the water. 

And here's some very pretty white ducks. 

Wow, how many ducks are crossing the road? 

We ended up finding the playground, but the kids weren't too keen on playing. 

Someone has busted the slide. If you went down it, you might hit your face on the end!

Here's that basketball court! There's a lake nearby which did make it interesting when a ball hit the rim and bounced over that way. 

And this court has goals on both sides! Except there's a fence just a couple feet behind the goal. On Ian's 2nd shot on that side, his ball ended up bouncing over the fence and we had to wait two days to get it back!

I love how excited Alli is when she gets a basket. And how she ducks and runs for cover if she shoots the ball straight up. 

The pools are great though! They were closed the first day we were here because the rain flooded the pools and messed up the chemical balance, but any time after that when we saw the pools free, the kids wanted to go in them. They're both getting more bold and the water, and we're going to do some swimming lessons while they're here. 

Whenever we could, we'd try to get outside for a walk. Got to try to keep those walking and biking miles up while we're on the road. 

There's a game room here that the kids really wanted to go check out. They've got some quarters from family that they've been wanting to spend. 

It's just wrong to have a game like this in here. Sure there's a sign that says you have to be over 12 to play it, but this is just an addictive gambling game. We watched a few kids feeding $5 worth of quarters into it with little payout while we were here. Definitely avoiding this one. 

So instead, the kids tried their luck at some shooting games. 

I remember the old Duck Hunt game that came with the Nintendo. This reminded me a lot of that. 

This car racing game looked fun. Ian can even reach the peddles! 

Ian - Turns out I'm not a very good driver. 

At the registration desk, there's also a freezer for ice cream. 

I didn't know that Hershey's Chocolate made ice cream like this. Turns out that they don't! Hershey's Ice Cream is a completely separate family. The Hershey Creamery Corporation was founded in 1894 by Jacob Hershey and his four brothers. They have no relation to Milton Hershey, who made his first Hershey's Chocolate Bar in 1900. We've got to give them a try!

Especially when they have such interesting flavors!

Superman Ice Cream isn't that common, but Ian loves it. He's definitely got to have that. 

Playdough Ice Cream? Really? Someone thought it would be a good marketing move to call it playdough ice cream? Well it worked because Alli said she wanted that one. 

Thank you!

We all smile for Ice Cream! Theresa and I split a Chocolate Raspberry Truffle and Coconut. 

Ian's was pretty tasty, which I was surprised about. I'm used to the yellow flavor being vanilla and the red flavor being cherry. Hershey's has mixed it up and made yellow banana flavored and red strawberry flavored. It was delicious!

Yes Alli that does look like a tub of Playdoh would. 

I tried it and maybe it's just in my head, but maybe this vanilla ice cream base is a little saltier than normal vanilla. It was good enough for her to order it again the second time we went.  

We've been making the most of our time here and we've kept ourselves busy. We were still able to make some time for swimming. The second pool was less busy. 

Ian has been working on his swimming a lot. Any time we're at the pool he's wanting to take off his floats and practice. And he's getting better and better. Holding his breath, swimming under water. All that. We started playing the game where I go out a certain distance and he tries to swim underwater and through my legs before coming up. After backing up further and further, I gave him a challenge. 

Ian, I'm impressed!

Ice cream a second time? Yes please. 

The main pool was closer to where we parked, and the kids wanted to go over to swim as often as they could. I know when we moved from the house in California we were giving up the trampoline that they loved playing on so much, but I think we're just trading it for being able to go in a pool at all these different places. 

There were some beautiful skies on the nights we went swimming late. 

Time to break camp! Alli is helping me remove the wheel stabilizers. I love that she's so willing to help out with everything. 

North Carolina, it's been fun!