On the Road Again: Sanford to St. Louis Van Trip

With the heat index staying in triple digits numbers in Florida, we decided to move up our departure from Sanford a bit and start heading north sooner rather than later.

So on August 24th, after a week of prepping the van for a big road trip across country, and getting Y-Not secured for peak hurricane season – we said ‘until next time’ to Sanford in our rear view mirror.

Our destination is of course EclipseFest23 in Oregon by October 10.

This first leg would be to the St. Louis area for a visit with Chris’ parents. For this trip, we’re throwing caution to the wind and pretty much making up each day as we go. And as always, trying new routes and stops to us – as we’ve done this journey so many times over the past 17 years.

Our first stop was to visit my Mom and drop off the plants for tending in our absence, and then we driveway surfed with some friends on our way north.

At the end of this trip, we did a short Live Broadcast on YouTube recapping this adventure with some extra footage we took:

Stop 1: Old Salem Campground – Greensboro, GA

We opted for a long driving day to find cooler temps, and decided to try to bypass Atlanta traffic. I spotted some public campgrounds to the east that would put us passing through Athens instead. At first, we were going to try a Georgia State Park – but apparently on a weekend, there’s a two-day minimum stay. We weren’t quite ready for that.

So off to looking for options around lakes, and I found Old Salem Campground run by the Georgia Power along Lake Oconee.

We got a lovely waterfront spot that we could book same day online for $35, and arrived just in time for a walk and sunset. After a run in the morning, we left out to make more miles north.

Step 2: Woodring Campground – Ellijay, GA

Next up, using the ‘find a lake’ method – we selected Woodring Campground just outside Ellijay, GA. It’s an Army Corp of Engineers Park, which are some of our favorites. Super affordable, usually very well maintained, booked online at Recreation.gov without extra fees and generally waterfront sites.

And, since you can book same day online – you can often just arrive, scope the campground out and book before setting up in an available site. We love how many of the ACOE campgrounds have switched to this method. Great for us last minute travelers.

Woodring is beautifully terraced long spacious private feeling spots. Each campsite has a long driveway that is staggered so every spot has an unobstructed view of the lake and you hardly ever realize you have neighbors.

We pulled in forward (backward for the hook-ups) to maximize our view out the side door. Pretty spiffy for just $24/night!

Stop 3: Rock Haven Lodge – Murfreesboro, TN

We broke our streak (see what I did there?) of waterfront sites to stop in a nudist resort. We found an AANR park called Rock Haven Lodge in Murfreesboro, TN – they have just a handful of RV spots available and were able to fit us in with a same day reservation.

Delightful little park maintained with a lot of love. Great pool and hot tub, trail, sports complex and community center. We enjoyed swimming, hiking/running and playing darts & billards – all in the buff.

And everyone super friendly, and the weather absolutely delightful (we’re out of the heat!).

And just $46/night with day fees.

This is now our 11th nudist RV park, and definitely not our last!

Stop 4: Crab Orchard National Refuge Campground – Carbondale, IL

We usually prefer to drive just a couple hours, arrive mid day when traveling by van. And every stop or two, we like to have a multi-night stay to rest, recharge and do a little work. It’s a good recipe for keeping long term travel sustainable.

However, on this van trip so far – we have been winging it even more than usual.

We’d wake up, and decide the current location didn’t have enough to keep us occupied for another day – so lets get some more miles in!

And before we knew it we had traveled many hours a day for several days straight.. and we were feeling it. We needed a multi night stop to rest.

We found Crab Orchard National Refuge Campground outside Carbondale, IL – and plopped. It used to be entirely first come first service, but just a couple weeks before our arrival they switched to exclusively using Recreation.gov for online booking and payment.

But unlike ACOE campgrounds (such as above), there’s a $8 reservation fee on top of the campsite fee. Even for walk-ins like us. Which brought what used to be a $23/night site to $31.

Thankfully we were able to snag a pretty isolated waterfront spot. There wasn’t much to do right at the campground without other transportation except walking and biking. And that was fine by us.

Stop 5: SkyView Vinyards – Makanda, IL

After a much needed restful stay at Crab Orchard – we decided to take a day to tour the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail just south of Carbondale, IL.

With 11 wineries – it’s a full day adventure! We only stopped at 6, and were thankful to mostly share a single tasting flight at each consisting of just 1 ounce pours.

Because.. that’s a lot of wine! We purchased several lovely bottles to enjoy down the road.

This area is also near Makanda – which is the ‘X’ spot where the two total solar eclipses of 2017 and 2024 will intersect. Kinda appropriate for our journey to the annular solar eclipse next month at EclipseFest23.

Enjoyable day, and there are four wineries that participate in Harvest Hosts – so we were able to end our day with a full glass, and safely plunk down in the parking lot before starting our last touring day before arriving to the St. Louis area for time with family.

St. Louis Arrival

On the way out, we spent some time exploring Giant City State Park, some mountain biking at the Touch of Nature trails run by South Illinois University and then exploring Boo Castle Park.

Boo Castle Park is an extraordinary memorial a family made to their son who was killed in a car accident. He was a Dungeons & Dragons player, and the whole park is themed after the figures he used to paint. And a castle to explore! All graciously offered to the public for free.

So much less boring than a tombstone, we say!

We love the nimbleness of our van that allows us to explore such fun things as we’re traveling!

Family Time

We then moved into Chris’ parents nicely finished out basement in their summer home outside of St. Louis. We ended up staying nearly two weeks to help out with some stuff, and just enjoy some chill family time together.

It’s always nice to spread out a bit, share in meals, explore the local area, take in a show and enjoy time together.

Continuing on to Oregon!

We have moved back into the van and are back on the road, and making our way to Oregon with many fun stops along the way that we’ll catch you up on when we can.

After this leg of the journey however, we’re going to attempt to go back to what worked better on last year’s van trip of pre-planning a week or so in advance.

This means we can enjoy each stop more without worrying about where tomorrow is, and hopefully force us to have those much needed multi-night stays to recharge.