Tar Heel Camper: Fall Trip 2011

When we purchased our first RV in 2005, we started a tradition of taking a Fall trip in October. Usually it's a smaller trip to the mountains or somewhere else we are interested in exploring. This year, however, we decided to take a larger road trip to explore three different types of amusement parks. That would also give us the opportunity to enjoy the fall beauty of the Appalachians in the Eastern United States.

Our trip was a rather daunting one to complete in just four days. We would be traveling through seven states for a distance of over 1300 miles.

Our journey began on a crisp, Fall morning. The trees in the mountains of Virginia were just starting to get their fall colors.

I always love this view. The peak of the mountain range up ahead is the West Virginia state line and in this view it's interesting to see how the Interstate disappears. That's because you will soon be traveling through a tunnel and you emerge from it in West Virginia.

After about six hours of traveling, we arrived at our first destination, the Huntington/Fire Fox KOA. I'm glad we made reservations because it was filled to capacity. Little did we know, the WestVirginia Pumpkin Festival was in full swing for the weekend.

The campground was well maintained and well decorated for the holidays.

The staff was very friendly and extra helpful. They were happily able to help us print out discount coupons to our final destination for the night, Camden Park.

For information about our trip to Camden Park, please check out our report and video located here.

After a great night at Camden Park, we left before sunrise to make the three hour trek to our next destination, Kings Island, outside of Cincinnati, Ohio. For more information about our fantastic trip to Kings Island, please check out our report and video located here.

We kept our Motor home in the RV parking at Kings Island all day and headed out of there around 11:00 PM. Since we only needed some sleep overnight, we drove for about an hour and then stayed at a truck stop for the night.

We awoke just before sunrise and headed west towards Santa Claus, Indiana.

Sunrise around Louisville, Kentucky was remarkable. These pictures don't do it justice.

As we headed into Indiana, we enjoyed great views of the fall colors. While the colors don't appear as brilliant as they are some years, they were great, nonetheless.

Finally, we were getting close to our final stop of the weekend, Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana.

We were staying at Lake Rudolph Campground, a campground adjacent to Holiday world. The campground is reasonably priced and well maintained.

Even the stop signs had Rudolph's friendly smile (and red nose).

We setup camp and enjoyed a great day at Holiday World. For more information on that trip, see our report here.

Since it was the last day of the season for Holiday World, they closed early at 5:30 leaving time for us to drive around the small town of Santa Claus. Here's a view of the Town Hall.

A place you will want to stop is the Christmas Store. It's open year round and has all kinds of decorations and Christmas items. It's owned by the people who own Lake Rudolph Campground.

Even the Post Office is ready for Santa year round. (Do you sense a recurring theme?)

After a good night's sleep, it was time to start the journey back home.

Once again the sunrise was amazing. I recommend that everybody do a trip similar to this. While we love staying at campgrounds, there is something to be said about experiencing life on the open road.

Soon, we were back in Louisville. It is a great looking city.

It looks like it took a lot of work to build the Interstate through here.

We kept seeing signs for Acres of Land Winery. It never said how many, so I'm guessing two…

I never thought about it, but I guess it makes sense that KFC was born in Kentucky. It's not often that you hear of a birthplace for a business, though.