FNG in Lake Wylie, SC

[Thomas Hastings]

Greetings all, my name is Thomas Hastings, my wife is Kat. I was born and raised in Ohio, graduated high school in 1998, joined the Army in 1999, retired in 2020, reside in Lake Wylie, SC now with my wife, and that's my "job" now, being retired lol. My wife still serves in the SCANG and works for DPR Construction for her civilian job.

Retired life has been an interesting journey for me, but the one thing that has always been a constant is I love traveling. We were going to go the route of camping with a RTT and all the associated equipment that goes with that, but instead decided to go with an off road camper instead.

We recently traded in my 2019 F150 for a 2018 Ford Raptor. I've ordered a Decked drawer system and an RSI Smart Cap Adventure. I've also already place an order for a set of custom leaf springs from Alcan Spring for obvious reasons. I carried over my Krazy House Customs differential skid plate and hard folding bed cover which I'll sell once I get the cap. I've added an oil catch can and will be installing an upgraded differential cover to the rear and possibly the front. In the future I'd like to add a front bumper with a winch without having to change out the intercooler and I believe I can do that with Warn but I haven't looked to much into yet. This will probably be the extent of the modifications I do to the truck.

Our current camper is a 2022 Xplore X22 by Imperial Outdoors. We're looking into upgrading to a Roamer 1, also made by Imperial Outdoors but only available at ROA. Our most recent trip was to Ouray, CO for Christmas vacation. It was a great trip and we were able to test out the camper's cold weather capability. We experienced below freezing temps the majority of the time all the way down to around -20 and everything worked fine, including the water, and we stayed plenty warm.

I was finally able to get out west last year, NM, AZ, UT, CO and I loved it. That's my one regret during my military career, not PCSing more. This year is starting out a little slow, but I'm hoping to get out some more for longer. I was able to attend Expo East last year and that was a lot of fun and hope to get back out to that one again at least this year.

 

[Bill W]

Greetings all, my name is Thomas Hastings, my wife is Kat. I was born and raised in Ohio, graduated high school in 1998, joined the Army in 1999, retired in 2020, reside in Lake Wylie, SC now with my wife, and that's my "job" now, being retired lol. My wife still serves in the SCANG and works for DPR Construction for her civilian job.

Retired life has been an interesting journey for me, but the one thing that has always been a constant is I love traveling. We were going to go the route of camping with a RTT and all the associated equipment that goes with that, but instead decided to go with an off road camper instead.

We recently traded in my 2019 F150 for a 2018 Ford Raptor. I've ordered a Decked drawer system and an RSI Smart Cap Adventure. I've also already place an order for a set of custom leaf springs from Alcan Spring for obvious reasons. I carried over my Krazy House Customs differential skid plate and hard folding bed cover which I'll sell once I get the cap. I've added an oil catch can and will be installing an upgraded differential cover to the rear and possibly the front. In the future I'd like to add a front bumper with a winch without having to change out the intercooler and I believe I can do that with Warn but I haven't looked to much into yet. This will probably be the extent of the modifications I do to the truck.

Our current camper is a 2022 Xplore X22 by Imperial Outdoors. We're looking into upgrading to a Roamer 1, also made by Imperial Outdoors but only available at ROA. Our most recent trip was to Ouray, CO for Christmas vacation. It was a great trip and we were able to test out the camper's cold weather capability. We experienced below freezing temps the majority of the time all the way down to around -20 and everything worked fine, including the water, and we stayed plenty warm.

I was finally able to get out west last year, NM, AZ, UT, CO and I loved it. That's my one regret during my military career, not PCSing more. This year is starting out a little slow, but I'm hoping to get out some more for longer. I was able to attend Expo East last year and that was a lot of fun and hope to get back out to that one again at least this year.

Nice rig sir.

 

[DintDobbs]

@Thomas Hastings Looks like a great setup for heavy camping! Have you considered buying some dirt bikes or some thing to scout around, or do you prefer other activities when traveling?

Seems like you could lug them in your truck bed without using up all of your cargo space.

 

[Thomas Hastings]

@Thomas Hastings Looks like a great setup for heavy camping! Have you considered buying some dirt bikes or some thing to scout around, or do you prefer other activities when traveling?

Seems like you could lug them in your truck bed without using up all of your cargo space.

Thank you. No, as much as I’d love to be able to ride dirt bikes and four wheelers, let’s just say my back ain’t as good as it once was lol. I may possibly try those electric bikes someday but I’m not sure I could tolerate those either. Besides that, I wouldn’t have room for them (the electric bikes maybe), I recently installed a Decked drawer system and I’m waiting on my RSI Smart Cap to arrive as well.

I like to go on walks/hikes as much as I can tolerate it and my wife and I have talked about getting some small kayaks someday we could tote on the smart cap.

 

[DintDobbs]

@Thomas Hastings Kayaks, that should be a bit easier on the back! Walking and hiking is definitely more relaxing than motor sports, and much quieter too, so you can encounter more wildlife, if that's what you're into!

 

[grubworm]

welcome to the group, thomas

yeah, i love out west and we try to get out that way at least every other year. pretty long haul from where i am and about double the distance for you.
have you tried out north georgia? we started going a few years ago and really like it. the wife loves waterfall hikes and the area around vogel state park is full of them. we usually go in the off season and basecamp at vogel and then branch off to other places. thats less than a 4 hour drive for yall.

anything good in south carolina? i was on subs in the 80s and we'd pull into the subase there at charleston sometimes and i always thought it was a cool area. didnt get out past the city much, but looked like there could be some good camping

 

[Thomas Hastings]

welcome to the group, thomas

yeah, i love out west and we try to get out that way at least every other year. pretty long haul from where i am and about double the distance for you.
have you tried out north georgia? we started going a few years ago and really like it. the wife loves waterfall hikes and the area around vogel state park is full of them. we usually go in the off season and basecamp at vogel and then branch off to other places. thats less than a 4 hour drive for yall.

anything good in south carolina? i was on subs in the 80s and we'd pull into the subase there at charleston sometimes and i always thought it was a cool area. didnt get out past the city much, but looked like there could be some good camping

While we did a decent amount of camping last year, it was mostly spent in campgrounds. My plan is to try and do more dispersed camping around where we live this year, NC, SC, GA, so unfortunately I can't offer any suggestions at this time.

There's the infamous Old 105 in NC (Linville Gorge off the Blue Ridge Highway), it's been the bane of many jokes. It has some really nice views, some nice hikes, and there are some dispersed camping sights on it as well, I spent the night on it and will go back and do it again. It's a FS road now and easy to traverse, I've seen a prius on it. It is steep in some points (I think I saw 12-13 degrees on my off road screen) and can get tore up a little from people when it's wet, but it's otherwise not challenging. There is hike to a waterfall at the northern end.

I've spent one night in Sarah's Creek Campground in NE Georgia, near Clayton. All the sites are primitive I believe. I got a nice spot along the creek. I only spent a night there and want to go back. If I remember correctly it's $10 a night or $5 if you have a National Parks Pass.

Not far from that is the Long Bottom Ford Campground, it runs right along the Chattooga (not Chattanooga) River.

In SC, there is Horse Pasture Road. There is some camping on it. It has the Jumping Off Rock Overlook, overlooking Lake Jocassee, very nice. I didn't when I went on it, but you can continue past that and go down to the water and while there isn't any designated camping down there, there is room to setup camp according to a good buddy of mine.

I have The Dyrt app and a couple others, but there is some dispersed camping near the coast, but it's been a while since I've looked.

 

[BFG.dnews]

I’m a bit late but welcome Thomas … great background info and a beautiful rig!

 

[BFG.dnews]

What part of Ohio are you from?

 

[Thomas Hastings]

What part of Ohio are you from?

Kenton is where I was born and raised. It’s a small town roughly an hour northwest of Columbus.

 

[BFG.dnews]

Ah ,,, okay. We lived in NE Ohio for years Akron / Canton / Doyletown area. Wife is from Martin’s Ferry.

 

[Thomas Hastings]

Ah ,,, okay. We lived in NE Ohio for years Akron / Canton / Doyletown area. Wife is from Martin’s Ferry.

That’s cool. I visited a friend in Cleveland a long time ago but I’ve never really explored the eastern part of Ohio.

 

[Staticline40]

Greetings all, my name is Thomas Hastings, my wife is Kat. I was born and raised in Ohio, graduated high school in 1998, joined the Army in 1999, retired in 2020, reside in Lake Wylie, SC now with my wife, and that's my "job" now, being retired lol. My wife still serves in the SCANG and works for DPR Construction for her civilian job.

Retired life has been an interesting journey for me, but the one thing that has always been a constant is I love traveling. We were going to go the route of camping with a RTT and all the associated equipment that goes with that, but instead decided to go with an off road camper instead.

We recently traded in my 2019 F150 for a 2018 Ford Raptor. I've ordered a Decked drawer system and an RSI Smart Cap Adventure. I've also already place an order for a set of custom leaf springs from Alcan Spring for obvious reasons. I carried over my Krazy House Customs differential skid plate and hard folding bed cover which I'll sell once I get the cap. I've added an oil catch can and will be installing an upgraded differential cover to the rear and possibly the front. In the future I'd like to add a front bumper with a winch without having to change out the intercooler and I believe I can do that with Warn but I haven't looked to much into yet. This will probably be the extent of the modifications I do to the truck.

Our current camper is a 2022 Xplore X22 by Imperial Outdoors. We're looking into upgrading to a Roamer 1, also made by Imperial Outdoors but only available at ROA. Our most recent trip was to Ouray, CO for Christmas vacation. It was a great trip and we were able to test out the camper's cold weather capability. We experienced below freezing temps the majority of the time all the way down to around -20 and everything worked fine, including the water, and we stayed plenty warm.

I was finally able to get out west last year, NM, AZ, UT, CO and I loved it. That's my one regret during my military career, not PCSing more. This year is starting out a little slow, but I'm hoping to get out some more for longer. I was able to attend Expo East last year and that was a lot of fun and hope to get back out to that one again at least this year.

I'm late to the party

Welcome from Fort MIll