Head for the Hills!!

Temps in the Charlotte region today should feel like 107 degrees by around 4pm. What is a person to do for relief if you don't want to hide out inside in AC??

Head to the Hills!!

Grab your RV and head up to the Tom Johnson Campground in Marion, NC where the temps are at least 10 degrees cooler than around the city and there are lots of cool water streams to play in and cool off. The campground at Tom Johnson Camping Center offers paved full hook-ups and a stream running along the backside of the campground. Play in the campground at the playground, shoot some hoops on the basketball court, skip rocks in the stream. Close by are hikes up in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Or pick a favorite watering hole for some swimming in the cool waters running down from the tops of the mountains.

Evenings in the mountains are also expected to be 68-72 degrees which is great sleeping weather. Beat the heat today - hook up the RV and head to the hills!!

Call the campground at 800-225-7802!

Final Details on Extreme Makeover

Late yesterday TJC placed it's final RV for the Extreme Makeover:Home Edition Fayetteville. This motorhome was last in as it will be used by the special guest star arriving today to assist with the final build details. Activity was fast and furious yesterday evening working on the final details of the build in preparation for today's unveiling.

Watching the volunteers and workers this past week has been enlightening. It is very impressive to see what can be accomplished when everyone sets aside their differences and agendas and works together towards a common goal. People of very different stations in life worked and sweated in extreme weather conditions, side by side, doing whatever needed to be done to reach the goal of building this new home.

The Jubilee House is a great and deserving resource but it is just a start. There are thousands of homeless veterans in this country. The last best estimate numbered somewhere above 106,000. These were all people who set aside their everyday lives to join the military and serve our country.

As has been widely reported, First Lady Michelle Obama will be making an appearance to lend support to the efforts and also highlighting the Joining Forces initiative. Local VA offices are also a great resource for homeless vets. Many RV owners are former military members and are always ready to lend a hand to fellow vets. Lets all look around us and see if there is anything we can do to help. Its been an honor for Tom Johnson Camping Center to be involved in this effort and see so many individuals give so much of their time to this project.

Swiss Army RV

Tom Johnson Camping Center is back in Fayetteville, NC at the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition build and progress on the new home is astounding. The site is like watching an anthill of activity with siding going up in one area, decking going down in another, interior painting and finishing and all around the block area areas of volunteers assembling cabinetry and furniture. The designers hustle back and forth from the houses to the design/build areas and then into the TJC RVs to meet with media, sign promotional handouts and take a break now and then to work on other demands.

RVs are like the Swiss Army Knife, it’s a tool that does many jobs. Many people look to RVs as a way to go on family vacations and really that is just scratching the surface. With the abundance of campgrounds most people could break away for weekends all year long in addition to a larger vacation trip. Small breaks like these are great breaks from the stress of everyday life.

Many business owners who travel often will purchase an RV as an alternative to continued motel stays. With the advances in communications you can connect your computer to a wifi card and work from the road. You stay in your own home on the road, eat the foods you like and can even bring family and friends on trips to make it a multipurpose event. Many people also use their RVs to tailgate at sporting events, house guests who come to visit, for use at hospitals during extended medical treatments and more. Personally, we have used our motorhome as a rehab guest house for a relative who had a knee replacement and have piled in a group of friends for a day of winery tours.

RVs offer owners a world of uses when you start thinking about it. Visiting relatives and having your own sanctuary, taking kids to travel sporting events, running to the beach or mountains for a weekend getaway, even camping out in the front yard are just a few ideas.

Write to us from this link and tell us how you use your RV...

Thank You to the Army

TJC is still down here in Fayetteville which is home to Fort Bragg, “Home of the Airborne and Special Operations Forces.”  Another celebrity associated with the Army is of course Ryan Newman.  The designers took a break not too long ago to sign the hood of the Ryan Newman race car, in thanks for all that the members of the Army have done for our country. 

And can you believe in just a few short hours we now have an almost empty lot??  After a few more scoops we will be ready for final cleaning and then preparing for the new home.  It is amazing how much can be completed when everyone works together as a team. 

TJC On-site at Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Fayetteville

Today Tom Johnson Camping Center is in Fayetteville, NC at the site of the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition rebuild of the Jubilee House.  Led by Barbara Summey Marshall, a 15-year Navy veteran, Jubilee House is a home for military women in transition and currently is home to Marshall, five women and two children. At 1500 sqft and 40 years of age the home, with only one bath and no dining room, is too small and old to handle the demand.

During the day yesterday TJC brought in a number of RVs to the build allowing the designers to have immediate access to the site during the long days and nights ahead as they tear down and rebuild this home in 7 days. Last night while we arranged the RVs, volunteers descended on the home to empty it out while crews prepared the site. 

Today began with volunteers and members of the military gathering to help tear down the old house. It takes an awful lot of people to pull a house down but with all the military muscle this house was pulled apart in no time. 

 

Watch the House Tearing Down!!

Stay tuned for more news from TJC and the construction of the new home being provided by Blue Ridge Log Cabins.

Extreme RVing!!

What do you get when you combine thousands of volunteers, a dozen or so RVs and one of the highest rated television shows?  A charitable effort between Tom Johnson Camping Center and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition!!

Beginning today, the Tom Johnson Campfire Club will head out on a different kind of RV trip here in North Carolina.  Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (EM:HE) today will announce and undertake a new build for a deserving family in Fayetteville, NC.  This build is being billed as one of the biggest undertakings to date requiring additional staff and designers which is where TJC and some RVs come into play.

There are probably millions of families across the country today who need a helping hand.  EM:HE has been providing a helping hand to families since 2003 and has been an inspiration to millions of people.  As the team at both TJC locations has worked hard to prepare RVs and make arrangements to help EM:HE I thought about why the show is so popular and why do I myself like it so much.  There have in the past been criticisms of the show but its core theme is what makes this country so great.  Even now, as the country and individuals struggle on a daily basis, where else can you find thousands of volunteers combining efforts with various business entities to volunteer time and resources to help a group of people they do not even know?

I realized that the coming together of complete strangers to help each other or one family is the same spirit you see in RV campgrounds across the country on a daily basis.  There has never been a time when I have been in an RV campground and needed help, that there was not someone there to lend a hand.  On our first ever trip with a fifth wheel at the end of 7 hours of driving we were trying to back this 38 foot Forest River model into an impossibly angled campsite in Disney’s Fort Wilderness with two dogs panting in my ear, my 2 ½ year old wanting out of his car seat and my poor Wife listening to me tell her she was crazy if she thought I could make an RV bend in half.  Out jumped our soon to be neighbor who was an owner of an RV dealership in Canada who provided me with the directional assistance to magically slide the fifth wheel into its site.  When problems developed with various motorhomes over the years there was always a collective pool of RV knowledge shared by owners camping around us to help troubleshoot and fix the problem.  And we too have provided the same kind of assistance.  Sometimes it’s as simple sharing marshmallows with a family who forgot to pack them, that keeps their kids happy and their vacation on track.  RV travel is an adventure combined with something lost in today’s world: community.

So today we head out to Fayetteville, and we send three RVs to GA for another EM:HE shoot because in the tradition of all RV’ers, we lend a hand when we can and we participate in our communities when we can.  And just like when camping at an RV park, it’s this shared, even if temporary, community in which we come together with complete strangers and share each other’s lives for a brief period of time.  Maybe this shared experience combined with a spirit of adventure is one of the reasons people love to travel with an RV.  I know it has enriched my life and taught my children valuable lessons they would not have gotten at home playing videos games.  Tell us your thoughts on this shared community of RVers and stay tuned for TJC posts from the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition build.

Camping Made Easy in Pigeon Forge

We recently took a journey to Pigeon Forge which is a short trip making for easy weekend getaways.  Traveling West on I-40 from North Carolina, you enter the State of Tennessee traveling through one of the most scenic gorges on the East Coast.  Exit# 435 eases you onto the Foothills Parkway and a short decent into Cosby, TN.   You will find numerous overlooks with stunning views on both sides of this mountain ridge.

From Cosby, it’s a quick 20 minute ride on Highway 321 to downtown Gatlinburg. At the Intersection of 321 and 441, enjoy Ripley’s Aquarium, shopping in the craft stores, or the Gatlinburg aerial tramway.

Turning North on 441 takes you through the Great Smoky Mountain National Park on the Parkway and into Pigeon Forge.  After crossing the Pigeon River, it is a short distance to Twin Mountain RV Park where you can relax and enjoy sites right on the riverside. We always get our campsite first so we can take advantage of the wonderful “Pigeon Forge Fun Time Trolley” system. You can ride for $.50 and go anywhere from Gatlinburg to Pigeon Forge, to Dollywood. Stops along the routes allow for shopping and dining out without ever having to move your RV or bring a tow vehicle.   

It’s camping made easy!!

Camping along the banks of the Little Pigeon River in Pigeon Forge is perfect for fishing, wading or just relaxing. The beautiful shade trees, grassy surroundings and well-kept grounds at Twin Mountain RV Park add to your enjoyment. You may want to take a stroll up stream and find the perfect fishing hole or just find a spot to sit and watch the water go by. Twin Mountains RV Park has 117 sites with 30 and 50 amp service hookups, cable TV, Wi-Fi, picnic tables, fire pits, swimming pool, laundry facilities, playground for the kids and lots of wildlife too!                   

One of our favorite excursions is to take the Fun Time Trolley to Dollywood and stop off at Patriot’s Park for a family style Dinner at the “Old Mill”.  There you will find classic Southern foods like Fried Chicken, Meat Loaf, Pot Roast, Country Ham and all the Fixin’s Plus homemade Pecan Pie that is out of this world delicious!

It doesn’t get any easier or more relaxed than “Camping by the River” at Twin Mountain RV Park where you can relax and avoid the crowds.  This is a great destination to spend your weekend or a weeks’ vacation and I’ll bet you will never run out of things to do for the whole family in Pigeon Forge, TN.

Look, its a Motorhome Dad!!

As I was driving to the store the other day with Alex his voice suddenly rang out from the back seat, “motorhome, daddy, look a motorhome…”  Two weeks ago in Alex’s world the word motorhome meant a recreational vehicle as in a jungle gym that you could climb around in when you visited Dad at work.  Or in an abstract form as in Dad’s job is to sell motorhomes. That is all completely different and now motorhome means recreational opportunities.

When I asked him if he wanted to go in an RV again he said, “Yeah, let’s go, I love motorhomes. You get to swim and hike and fish and picnic and play and have fires and marshmallows.”  Really, is there anything in the world more important than sharing that feeling with your kids or loved ones?  At 4 Alex is pretty adventurous but you also never know what he will or won’t enjoy.  The beauty about traveling that way is learning all the things that are out there and discovering them together as a family.  I have more memories than I can count of camping with my family growing up.   

Write to us and tell us where you love to go camping and the things you love to do with loved ones while you are camping.  tomjohnsoncampfireclub@tomjohnsoncamping.com