Night one - Off to a good start

Well I'm on the road now and it feels great.

Yesterday after a slow start and some challenges packing the car I left Durham, North Carolina for.. south. No plan, just south towards Florida.

Of course, once I got on the road and the initial excitement wore off, I realized I needed a destination for the night.

I ended up returning to Santee State Park near Santee, South Carolina. I found this campsite earlier in 2009 when I was working my way back from a drive-n-camp trip to Florida and I needed somewhere to stay in the middle of the night.

Santee State Park is a self-service campsite after hours meaning you can drive in at any time, setup a camp, spend the night and make arrangements and payments for your stay in the morning. I love this. It's perfect for me because I love driving into the night and I often spend too much time during the day talking to someone interesting or taking pictures when I need to be driving.

Like most modern "developed" campsites, you get a plot of land with a picnic table, a grill or fire-pit grill, a place to park the car, truck or RV and water+electric hookups.

The white building in the background is a public bathroom and shower. I was a little dubious about the public shower when I started camping for the first time last year but all it takes is one night of camping and one warm shower afterwards to like these things really fast. Most are very clean, private and comfortable to use. The worst ones I've seen are in need of a bleach hose-down and charge you via quarters for time. Santee's "comfort center" is free and clean.

The bugs at Santee's campground are free, too. If you can arrive at a campsite in the dark and use a headlamp to setup a tent, jump in and crash for the night, you're doing fine. Last night I was in a good mood and I wanted dinner, so I made the effort to setup the stove, grill some chicken, pasta and sauce and eat dinner. I did this all the time in my Fall 2008 trip, but tonight while I'm at one end of the picnic table what can only be described as a swarm of moths, gnats and mosquitos is attacking my lantern at the other end.

Despite the bugs I'm off to a good start and very excited about the days ahead!