First-Time RVing Part 2: Chasing Rain, Sunshine, and Tacos
In Part 2 of our RV road trip, we ventured from the lush trails of Falling Waters State Park to the sandy shores of Grayton Beach State Park, dodging rain showers and soaking up moments of sunshine along the way. With our Cruise America RV as our home base, we explored hidden hiking spots, whipped up Vietnamese noodle soup, and even indulged in some beachside pizza. A surprise cabin stay at Grayton Beach added a twist to our plans, but that didn’t stop us from parking right by the beach and savoring the stunning views.
Follow below for specifics of our Day 3 & 4: Fallings Water State Park and Grayton Beach State Park
Part 2 Summary
- Hiking Falling Waters State Park
- Chasing the rain all the way to Grayton Beach State Park
- Campground filled up, got a cabin instead!
- Parking the RV right at beach entrance
- Taco dinner inside the RV and roaming the sea-side board walk
Falling Waters State Park
We were already kinda dreading the thought of it raining all day and being stuck inside most of the morning but luckily it stopped raining!
Below are a pics of us getting out side and hiking the Falling Waters State Park that morning.
As you can see the kids loved it and so did we. Really light hike with clean trails.
Lunch Time in the Cruise America RV!
We love having the convenience of being able to prepare food in the RV. Just a short walk back to our campground spot. So what did we eat? Heated up some “Bun Bo Hue” (Vietnamese spicy beef noodle soup) that my parents made for us the day before we left Kissimmee.
The kids love their Croc rain boots. They took every opportunity to wear it and it was highly appropriate for most of our trip so far!
One last photo of us, the RV and our campground spot at Falling Waters State Park.
See you next time, Falling Waters State Park!
Heading to our Next Destination — Grayton Beach State park
It started raining again shortly after we left Falling Waters State Park to make our way towards Grayton Beach State Park.
Check out this cool thing we say on the road, what appears to be an Airstream Classic Motorhome Bus! How cool is that? I didn’t even know these existed as my more recent knowledge of Airstreams we’re either Travel Trailers or the Class B Motorhome RVs.
We made it to Grayton Beach State Park towards the evening so it was time to prepare for dinner. This place is filled with places to eat out but we decided to buy groceries to cook food for the evening and also breakfast/lunch/dinner next day.
Here is a shot of us stopping by Publix super market for some groceries.
For those from Texas–Publix is basically the “HEB” of the south-west.
What was for dinner? We made some personal size pizza!
WAIT A MINUTE you say? This doesn’t look like the inside of an RV? That’s correct…what happened was we did not place reservations in-time for the RV campground spot at Grayton Beach State Park and given it was a day or so before New Years, the spots were all filled up. We were lucky to get one of these well-outfitted cabins. Bummer though.
It’s Beach Time!
It was cool that we were able to park our temporary home on wheels right at the beach entrance and walked less than 100 feet to the beach!
It was great soaking in warm gulf breezes while relaxing on this pristine beach as the kids enjoyed the nearly white sand and clear ocean water.
A solid 2 hours at the beach was more than enough for the kids. Here is Landon slightly grumpy as it was approaching his nap time. It was nice to be able to walk right off the beach and into our temporary home on wheels, especially when it started down pouring again!
Grayton Beach Boadwalk: Evening Time Dinner and Entertainment!
We took the RV onto the main boardwalk of Grayton Beach where all the shops & restaurants were. Was mostly a bad idea given how narrow the roads were and the limited parking spots. After 30-minutes of driving up and down the strip we found a huge parking lot and docked for the evening.
Turned on the propane and fired up the stove pot for some beef and pork tacos!
From there we walked up and down the sea-side, explored some local shops and found this string light tower. Forgot what this landmark was specifically called.
Ice cream to wrap up the evening. Satisfied and ready for action next morning.
Some Thoughts from Day 3 and Day 4
- While it rained a lot, we took advantage of every 2–3 hour pockets where the rain stopped to enjoy the outdoors at both Falling Water State Park and Grayton Beach State Park.
- Popular campgrounds can get booked up fast, especially around holidays. The attendee said it was booked up like 3 months before.
- We really enjoyed making simple meals and eating in the RV as a family.
Looking forward to writing and sharing with you the next post:
“Unexpected Driveway Surfing — RV Road Trip Part 3”
