Lake Wateree State Park, SC May 9-11, 2020

 This was our first trip in our brand new travel trailer.  Until this trip my total experience with towing a trailer this large was the 115 mile trip from the dealer to the lot where we store the camper.  Needless to say, we were rookies with the travel trailer.  Thanks to extensive reading in several travel trailer related Facebook pages I thought we had a pretty good handle on what to expect.  We chose Lake Wateree State Park because it is really close to home (a 30 minute drive from our house to the campground).  We towed the trailer to the campground with no issues at all and with the exception of my almost running the driver's side of the trailer into an oak tree (thankfully I saw it with about 6 inches to spare!) we got to the back in site safely (site 55 if anyone is curious).  Now I had had a 17 foot bass boat many, many years ago and had no issues backing it but this was twice as long and you can't see over it so I was wondering how it would go.  Turns out it's like riding a bike, if you can back a smaller trailer, you can back a larger one.  You just have more things to watch out for like tree limbs and the top of the trailer.  I've read many an account of perfectly happy couples getting into tiffs over backing directions when parking the trailer.  I must say, Robin does an excellent job keeping me from running the trailer into things.  We will pull up to a site, get out and take a quick survey for limbs and obstacles and determine where is the best place for Robin to stand to guide me (it REALLY helps that we have a rear view camera on the trailer so I can see behind and Robin only has to worry about watching the sides of the truck and the trailer).  So, we got the trailer backed in on the first attempt and started our first official set up.  I think that first time it took us about 30 minutes to get everything set up.  The first thing we do is level the trailer which was made easy because the site was level side to side, we just had to adjust the tongue to level front to rear. (We didn't have these yet, but we did purchase them later and they are AWESOME and very easy to use when you need to level side to side.)  Then it's electric hook up.  We use a surge protector in line with our power cord just to make sure we don't have any nasty surprises on the electrical side.  After that it's water hook up.  We run a pressure regulator set at 30psi with a filter and a drinking water hose to the trailer city water hookup.  While I'm doing all the outdoor hookups, Robin is running out the slides and tidying up the items that need to be moved from their "transit" positions to where we store them when camping (broom, vacuum, Swiffer wet jet, etc...).  Now that everything is done, time to relax!

Lake Wateree State Park, as the name implies, is right on Lake Wateree.  Many campers will bring boats and spend their time on the water fishing or just relaxing.  The campground is fairly spacious so that you don't feel like your neighbors are right on top of you.  Some spaces are a little closer together than others but none are what I would call cramped.  Our site for this trip (55) had PLENTY of room and a nice view of the pine forest surrounding us.  Lake Wateree is quiet and out of the way.  Apart from the lake itself, there's not a lot going on.  There is one nice, flat nature trail where you're certain to see a great blue heron or two, some squirrels, various other birds and, if you get lucky, maybe even a racoon or two.  We tend to use the restroom facilities at the campground whenever we don't have full hook ups rather than use our blackwater tank (showers are taken in the trailer).  I'd rate the restrooms at Wateree as decent.  They're far from the worst I've seen and not as nice as the best I've seen.  

There are now two camping areas at Lake Wateree State Park.  There is the Original Campground that is more wooded (the campground where all of these photos were taken) and the Taylor Creek Campground.  The Taylor Creek Campground has full hookups and 20/30/50 Amp service.  The catch is that Taylor Creek is basically a parking spot in a clear cut field so if you like feeling like you're in the woods, Taylor Creek is not for you.  The Original Campground has 20/30 Amp service but none of the sites offer full hookups.  The Original Campground also offers several sites right on the water.  Both campgrounds have paved and mostly level sites.

The dump station a single drain so if you wait until right before checkout time you will spend some time waiting in line.  The dump station is level and easy to get into and out of.