Wal-Mart Frequent Camper Program: May 3, 2011

We arrived at our first campgound for this trip at about 2:30. We happily unhooked our car and motored easily to the ABC store just across the street. (See previous post for necessity of this visit.) Then we returned to the camp store, a.k.a. Wal-Mart. We picked up a few necessities. When we left the store we spotted our friends at the back of the lot and practically ran back to our rig to see them.

We met Sylvia and Ken on our first winter in Florida and have kept in close touch ever since. Besides being great fun with great stories, they are our camping and dancing mentors. They have been doing the RV thing for more than five years so they have that thing you can't buy---experience. And Ken researches and remembers details like you can't believe. Their advice has been invaluable. But it's the laughs that we cherish the most. I think it was meeting Syl and Ken that made us know that we could really love RVing. When one is at an RV park for several days, one sees a lot of people. Most are very friendly, but occasionally for reasons I haven't been able to determine, you meet someone who seems "just right". That is Ken and Syl. And after we made their friendship, it became easier to meet others that we camped near. Now if I could just get Larry to like dancing the way Ken likes dancing.

This was probably our fifth or sixth stay at this chain of campgrounds which are just so easy to use. You drive in, park, tell the customer service person you are there if you want to and camp. The campgrounds are easily accessible, have paved spots, and, the best part, they are FREE. We only stay one night at these places, but I think others may stay longer. I admit, we haven't made friends with anyone who is boondocking at a Wal-Mart.

But for the finish of the first day, it was great to see our friends and great to be on the road again.

We left the Nashville, NC, Wal-Mart at about 10:30 a.m. and headed to Lake Gaston Outdoor World. We drove round and round the campground before I convinced Larry that we should choose a spot with a view of the lake, even if it didn't come with sewer. We agree this was a great decision. The lake is lovely, and we have free honey-wagon service on Friday. We'll be fine.