Hello Adventurers, it’s Paul from Road Adventures! I recently took a fall camping trip with a group of my friends. We made our way down to Cherokee Lake in Tennessee and stayed at Greenlee Campground of May Springs. Cherokee Lake is a six-hour drive from Columbus, but traveling in the Winnebago Spirit 31K made the drive comfy and relaxing for our group.
We made it to the campground at 11PM, which made finding our site a little tricky. I had printed out the campground map prior to leaving, if we didn’t have the map, we may not have found the site till morning. If you are going to a campground for the first time, I highly recommend having a copy of the campground map just in case there is no one to tell you where to go. We got to our site safely, and had full hookups (electric, water, sewer) which made the trip a little simpler.
A few miles before the campground we bought enough firewood for the weekend at a nearby gas station. Campgrounds are quite strict on purchasing firewood local, to avoid spreading invasive species such as the Emerald Ash Borer.
Almost immediately we started the fire, as it was a bit chilly when we arrived (38 degrees). It only took a few minutes before we all decided to start cooking some hotdogs over the fire. Simple, but there is something about roasting some hotdogs over a campfire that make them taste the best.
On the first morning we woke up to this beautiful view, as we couldn’t really see a whole lot during the first night.
We started making breakfast in our cast-iron skillet with some of the classics: Eggs, bacon, and potatoes. We actually cooked everything (other than the hotdogs) in the same cast-iron skillet.
After breakfast we went to check in at the office. Turns out the office is also a mini convenient store with some very helpful items that included: RV adapters, cleaning/cooking items, and food. It is always nice to be at a campground with these basic but necessary items, because I always forget something at home. In this case it was just playing cards (not really a necessity), but they came in very handy later that weekend.
As we were walking around, we finally realized how massive this campground was, it’s over 100 acres! The really cool thing is that about 75% of the campground is surrounded by water. There were at least 50 sites that were right on the lake.
We were able to find some simple walking trails near the campground and explore for a couple of hours. The temperature was just perfect for a hike, not to cold not to warm!
Before our trip began we decided to rent a cabin for one night that was in the campground. We did this because all of us are huge Ohio State Buckeyes fans and wanted to watch the football game. I had called a week before arriving to confirm that they had the channel the Buckeyes were going to be on…
I know, I’m kind of crazy when it comes to the Buckeyes.
During halftime we walked back to our site and cooked up some burgers and brats, again simple but so tasty.
We also got to enjoy this amazing sunset from the front porch of the cabin!
Saturday, we decided to hike a few miles around the lake. They had lowered the lake a few weeks prior, which made it possible to walk along the lake as long as you wanted.
Once we got back, we played Can Jam, an easy game to play and doesn’t take up too much space while traveling. It began raining shortly after, so we headed inside the camper and began playing cards (thanks to the campground store) for the three hours it rained. We actually had enough room inside to bring in a couple of camp chairs, and had more than enough space for 5.
Once the rain stopped, we decided to make our big “fancy” dinner of steaks, baked potatoes, and baked beans. We didn’t do anything special for the steaks, just some salt and pepper and they turned out absolutely delicious. We had some left-over bacon and sprinkled that and some shredded cheese on the potatoes. After we all put ourselves in food comas, we decided to call it a night. The next morning, we packed up and headed home.
Overall the trip in our 31K was unbelievable and unforgettable. My friends are already getting ideas for our next Road Adventure! If you have any questions about Road Adventures call us at 1-844-357-1879.