2008 Northstar MC600

A few select pictures from our ongoing vacation 2017... it has been hot with a few tstorms thrown in. First Leg.... Stone Mountain Campground in Georgia (I had work in Decatur on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday) The place was empty and a lot of the attractions were closed but that gave us the place basically to ourselves. A few general pictures first, but notice Joe holding the cut up water bottle? That is his fish trap and the next picture is the fish he caught in it :)

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Next stop was Lake James State Park near Morganton, NC. We met up with our oldest there. Maegan joined us to do the 1st Annual Ohana Mudder obstacle race. It was great fun and the campground was nice. Although full it was all tent campers and very quiet and well managed. The place has a nice swimming area, about 12 miles of MTB trails and lots of hiking trails. It sits on 3600 acres adjoining Lake James, an almost 7000 acre lake. A little elevation led to cool nights and good sleeping.

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Next up was to head home, camp in our field and enjoy today's eclipse. @BushHead and his girls joined us and although it was hot it was a good time. A few pics to give you an idea of the field and how we set up. Key was to find shade... not so easy... but clearly our favorite campsite so far.

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More from vacation 2017. The third leg of our trip took us to Cowpens National Battlefield
https://www.nps.gov/cowp/index.htm
We studied this battle in 2d MarDiv Squad Leaders School in the 1980's and I have always wanted to visit. It did not disappoint. Very good video explaining the battle and the importance of it and then a trail that led to the location of each layer of General Morgan's trap for the British. One of the few successful double envelopments in history. I feel an odd kinship with the colonial soldiers and militia that lined up against a superior force in pursuit of their freedom and of their honor. Gen. Tarleton of the British cavalry had just commanded the massacre at Waxahaw, SC... and there were plain ordinary folks itchin for revenge. This victory led to the eventual defeat of the British at Yorktown. There has to be a first domino in the line and this was it.

Our pictures for this stop are on Ann's camera, so if I can peel it from her hands I will post them. A genuinely moving experience for all Americans.
 
From there we wandered across upstate SC and into NC. Beautiful country. We had planned to stay at the Bike Farm
https://thebikefarm.com/
If we were there specifically for mountain biking we might have stayed, but the campsites left a little to be desired, that is.... space and shade... clearly set up for MTBers and would be a good base camp for that. They do have some GP tents set up that you can rent and I would recommend that. The car camping sites are not worth it.
So from there we went to our old standby in this region, North Mills Recreation Area Camping
https://www.recreation.gov/camping/...oundDetails.do?contractCode=NRSO&parkId=70774

This is a small campground, no hookups, that we have stayed at before. For the first couple days it was quiet and a great time.


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Joe had a great time riding his bike all over the campground and on certain trails
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All in all a great time and a very needed special vacation. New to us camper, uninterrupted time with Joe and Ann, special event with our oldest Maegan, good times had for the eclipse with our good friend @BushHead, cool mountain sleeping, a few dirt roads... and a total of 1791 miles, all in NC, SC and Georgia. Cowpens National Battlefield, Sliding Rock, Dupont State Forest, Stone Mountain Campground, Lake James State Park, Lake Lure and the 2017 solar eclipse.
Can't wait to go again.
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Where is Joe's helmet?

I'm an advocate of a properly fitting helmet on the young 'un's. I went over the handle bars on my Schwinn Sting Ray back in the day, landed on my head (which may 'splain a few things :rolleyes:), got to spend a couple of days in the hospital over that one.
 
Got our well used ARB 8' awning mounted to the passenger side of the camper today. This will allow us to have this side covered and we can use the Kelty Carport either off the back or on the drivers side as needed. The ARRB is a slightly faster and easier set up and take down. Great idea plucked from another forum about using brackets make for holding a 2x4 to a barn door to mount it to the side of the camper.
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Found my camera when we left for our trip on Friday... So first up are a few of the camper set up from ARV 2017. These show the first shots of the ARB awning deployed and how nicely it works off the side with the Kelty carport off the back. The Kelty really added some privacy and some great shade in the afternoon.

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This weekend we were celebrating Joe turning 8 years old. Like most boys he has hit the pirate phase so off we went camping in Croatan National Forest, and finding pirates all around Beaufort and Swansboro, NC. We camped at Oyster Point campground. Very nice sites, on the water. Like on most trips I brought along some reading. This trip was Killing England by Bill OReilly. Well worth the read. Superbly researched and great detail about the revolution, while also being readable. On Saturday we attended this excellent walking pirate tour:
http://carolinapiratehistory.com/
The guy did a great job playing 6 different pirates from history. Then we spent the afternoon at the NC Maritime Museum. I love this place and have spent hours there several times over the years:
http://ncmaritimemuseumbeaufort.com/
Crashed Swansboro for some pirate celebration with Justin and Rachel and one of their boys, CJ.
Spent this morning on a boat tour of the Rachel Carson Preserve, Beaufort Inlet and Cape Lookout.
More pics to come after these whenever I get around to it.

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How are you still liking the camper? We have been thinking of making a switch from our FWC to one. We like the idea of having a.c. and not having to pull the bed out.
 
Lone Star Adventurer said:
How are you still liking the camper? We have been thinking of making a switch from our FWC to one. We like the idea of having a.c. and not having to pull the bed out.
Click to expand...
We love it. It is about 400# heavier than a similar sized FWC. We looked at FWC at Expo East in 2016 and really liked them, but could not swing the cash. This one we bought used for a deal, so away we went. Northstar has been around a long time, family owned and seem to be a solid company. They deal with my (stupid to them I am sure) questions on a regular basis and have never been anything but as nice as can be.

Things I like:
  • Big windows, zippered curtains and clear options over the screens
  • Easy to load and unload. 30 minutes by myself, 15 with Ann's help)
  • So dang easy to set up. Ann and I often feel like we are not doing enough to be "camping" since set up goes so quick.
  • Awning space out back and on side (thanks for your inspiration on the awning mount)
  • The big bed is plenty of room for me and Ann, sleeping East/West. She sleeps closer to the front and me toward the back so I can get up and pee
  • We like having the camper with us wherever we go when we are adventuring, so we can clean up from a swim or whatever. We do not hesitate to pop up anywhere
  • Outside shower for the win. So dang handy.
  • Indoor stove... coffee in the morning especially
  • Minimal modification to truck to make it work
  • Solar
  • Outdoor lighting
Things not so much:
  • No need for the built in space heater
  • No need for the hot water heater
  • No need for the stupid 3 way fridge... what a POS we use it for our pantry now
  • Wind noise when traveling (cannot find a solution)
  • No way at the moment to carry our kayaks
  • Heavier than it needs to be at #1100 dry. If I ever get around to taking all the stuff out that we don't use that should drop a bit

All in all we love this thing. It has made our version of adventuring so much easier and more relaxing. Ask any specific questions you would like addressed.

John
 
A quick trip to the Asheville area this weekend. Stayed at Lake Powhatan, our first time at that location. Nice, quiet campground, easy access to the MTB trails and to Asheville. Took Ann to the NC Herb festival and Joe and I took time out for his first taste of honest to gosh NC mountain biking in Bent Creek. He did awesome.
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