I booked 4 nights at Carolina Landing as part of my Thousand Trails membership to start my east coast trip. When I encounter RV parks like Carolina Landing, I'm torn. The staff here was very nice, the RVers throughout the park were nice, the pictures online were nice. My in person experience here was something much different. The park is very tight with many undulation sites that take quite a bit of work to level an RV. Mine was no too bad but some were really unlevel. The biggest problem is the lack of updating and maintenance. This place is worn out. I just don't know of any other way to describe it. One whole clubhouse building was closed off with crime scene tape at the main entrance and tipped over patio furniture blocking the side entrance. They list a great many amenities most of which seem too tired to use or completely dilapidated. Sorry to be negative but I've seen nice parks and this place needs a complete makeover just to be acceptable.

A short 19 mile trip northeast from Carolina Landing is Clemson South Carolina, home of Clemson University. Being a huge fan of College Athletics, I wanted to see the university and most notably Memorial Stadium (Death Valley) and Littlejohn Coliseum. Memorial Stadium is home to the Clemson football home games with a capacity of 81,500. Littlejohn Coliseum is a 9,000-seat multi-purpose arena best known as home to the men's and women's basketball programs. The city of Clemson has a population of around 17,000 residents which more than doubles when the 23,000+ Clemson students are in town. The university was founded in 1889 is known for engineering, science, and agriculture, which sound a lot like Auburn University to me. It was a rainy day so I didn't spend much time here but it was great to see something I've seen so many times on TV. Good day trip!

I Booked 3 nights because 4 nights was not available which is how I discovered Gibson Mill. Thousand Trails Forest Lake has an Advance NC address but is actually closer to Lexington NC which is much larger and has a revitalized downtown district which is very nice. Forest Lake was a pleasant surprise after Carolina Landing with a near endless number of amenities that were actually well maintained and usable. A large number of the individual sites are wooded including mine so I never attempted to pull out my Starlink. My Verizon hotspot had 68 Mbps Down and 43 Mbps Upload. Some of the sites were small enough that the tow vehicles had to be parked elsewhere close by. There are golf carts everywhere and a couple of lengthy walking trails that my Goldendoodle loved. The fellow RVers were all very nice as were the staff although the Ranger Lady who checked me in was all business. I could certainly see myself returning to Forest Lake for a longer stay next time.