Mother’s Day Under the Mistletoe – Mistletoe State Park (Appling, Georgia)
As much as I love macaroni art and pipe cleaner jewelry, what I really wanted for Mother’s Day was some peace and quiet. So, when I realized we hadn’t used the two free nights of camping that came with our Friends of the Georgia State Parks membership, I decided Mother’s Day weekend would be the…
Camping 101: Camping with Kids (+ 10 of our favorite camping with kids products)
A list of products linked in this post is available below. Disclaimer: The products linked in this post are items we have tried and liked. We do NOT receive any payment (financial or in-kind) from any of the links in this post nor do we have any partnerships with any of the product manufacturers. …
Choose Your Own Adventure: Twin Lakes Campground (Pendleton, SC)
Some camping trips are filled with visiting a full itinerary of scenic destinations, others are spent relaxing at the campground, and some trips are spent arguing with tiny versions of yourself until you are completely exhausted. (I’ll let you guess which category our trip to Twin Lakes Campground fit into.) My intent for our trip…
Perfectly Imperfect: Myrtle Beach State Park (Myrtle Beach, South Carolina)
(We also visited Myrtle Beach State Park in June 2019. To read more about that trip, click here.) In today’s age of social media, we’re constantly barraged with “perfect” images. The flood of curated and filtered content can make us believe our lives need to be Instagram-worthy to be worthwhile. So, as I reflected on…
Vitamin D and the Sea: Blythe Island Regional Park (Brunswick, Georgia)
By Steven Yancey We’re back after 12 years, it’s been 12 years right? No? Well, it sure felt like it had been a lot longer than two months since we last ventured out. After a very cold and rainy January and February, we all were itching for some Vitamin D. Originally, we planned to visit…
Best of 2020
I think we’d all agree that 2020 isn’t a year we are going to forget anytime soon. In fact, it feels flippant to write a lighthearted post about our favorite camping destinations when so much of our world is struggling. Yet, I also feel like it is important to acknowledge that among the chaos and…
Birthmas at Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park at Daddy Joe’s in Tabor City, North Carolina
Apparently, people in my family tend to be very fertile in March and April because between the second week of November and January 1st our family celebrates nine birthdays. In fact, both my son’s birthdays fall the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, which has led us to adopt the term Birthmas to describe…
Rest and Relaxation: Table Rock State Park
This year has been mentally exhausting. The shift to remote work meant the lines between my home life and my work life blurred beyond recognition. My brain is constantly abuzz. Which is why I treasure our camping trips. Yes, the packing and planning adds to the chaos temporarily, but once we are settled into our…
Trial by Fire: River Bottom Farms Family Campground (Swansea, SC)
I gripped the steering wheel with white knuckles, heart racing, wondering what I’d gotten myself into this time. A few hours earlier, I had received a text from Steven saying he wanted me to haul the camper to the campground for the weekend while he finished up at work. I’d been saying I wanted to…
Camping 101: Where to camp?
Anyone who has been camping for a while knows that campgrounds are booking up quicker than ever. In fact, getting a prized site at a popular campground often requires booking a year in advance. So, we would do a few “camping 101” posts to help all the newer campers learn the ropes. So, you bought…
South Carolina Bucket List
Since we’re based in central South Carolina, we’re always looking for new and interesting places to visit in the Palmetto State. After some crowd sourcing, I created a bucket list of 25 “must dos” in South Carolina. (All photos were taken by us on our travels.) Drive Horse Pasture Road to Jumping Off Rock Overlook…
Find Your Park: Congaree National Park
I’m almost embarrassed to confess that we live 30 miles from a national park, but had never visited as a family. So, when we found ourselves with a free Saturday, we decided to remedy this oversight. Both boys must have sensed the impending adventure because they woke up earlier than usual (or maybe they were…
EASYRunner Overland is now Seek The Scenic!
When we decided to start a blog and an Instagram account to record our adventures, we chose the name EASYRunner Overland. “EASY” was an acronym of our names: Everett, Alyssa, and Steven Yancey. “Runner” referred to our Toyota 4Runner that kick started our love of exploring as a family. And, “overland” referenced our love of…
Change of Altitude: Mountain Stream RV Park (Marion, N.C.)
The beauty of living in the middle of South Carolina is that we’re never more than a few hours from the mountains or the beach. For Labor Day weekend we decided to head north for a few days of relaxation in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I booked our trip to Mountain Stream RV Park almost…
Mama Gone Wild
If you follow our Instagram account (@easyrunner_overland), then you may have seen the post about my solo trip to Dreher Island State Park a few weeks ago. I decided to write a post about the trip and how great it was to have a few days to myself for the Columbia Mom Blog. Click here…
Unintended Consequences: Crooked River State Park (Georgia)
Skip to the bottom for a review of Crooked River State Park in St. Marys, Georgia When Steven first started talking about buying a camper a few years ago, I wasn’t sold on the idea. I was pregnant with our youngest at the time, and I was already anxious about how we’d adjust to being…
The Great Escape: Lake Greenwood State Park (Take II)
(Super belated. Sorry!) I have a confession. I hate fireworks. Okay, let me clarify that a bit. I don’t hate all fireworks. I just hate when my neighbors shoot off commercial grade fireworks in my subdivision for days before and after any “fireworks holiday.” I know that may make me sound a bit like a…
Exploring the Upstate: Lake Hartwell State Park
Note: I’m behind. I was planning to write a post about our trip to Lake Greenwood State Park, but… life. So, I decided to go ahead and write about our more recent trip while it was still fresh in my mind. During our Fourth of July trip to Lake Greenwood State Park, which was beautiful,…
We’re Back!
Did you miss us? Just kidding, we know you did! 😉 A lot has changed in our family and around the world since our last blog three and half months ago. Just days after we returned from our idyllic trip to Hunting Island State Park in March, COVID-19 arrived in South Carolina. By mid-March, I…
A weekend in paradise: Hunting Island State Park
A grinning toddler teeters toward me with an outstretched hand. I offer my palm and he places a small seashell into my hand. Pleased with himself, he sets off to find more treasures. Meanwhile his brother, shovel and bucket in hand, is on a quest to find the best place to dig for dinosaur bones.…
Christmas Camping Magic: James Island County Park Campground
So, I’m a little hesitant to write this post because I’m worried if I tell everyone how magical James Island County Park Campground is during their Festival of Lights, then it’s going to be even more difficult to find a spot for next year! I don’t remember where I first heard about the Festival of…
The good, the bad, and the ugly: Lake Greenwood State Park
(Written by Steven Yancey) So we meet again fellow travelers! I hope this entry finds you all well, healthy and many miles of good travels under your wheels. Where do we find the Yancey family in this entry of adventure you might ask? Well that’s a loaded question, as travelling with kids isn’t always pretty…
Lessons Learned: Hamilton Branch State Park
When we bought our camper, I made one rule: we will use it at least once a month (barring any unforeseen circumstances). Initially, I had booked a trip to Hunting Island State Park as our October trip, but then we decided to take our sans-kids anniversary trip. Since our venture to North Carolina had required…
A North Carolina (and Tennessee) adventure to remember
Instead of waiting God knows how long for me (Alyssa) to write a post about our most recent adventure, Steven decided to take things into his own hands this time. Below is his first blog post, and I must say, he did a great job! I’m excited for us to share the writing duties going…
Review: Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park™ Camp-Resort: Golden Valley, NC
Last spring I started seeing chatter on Facebook about a new Yogi Bear Jellystone Park opening in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The pictures looked amazing! But as a family that typically stays at state or federal parks, the nightly rates of $79 to $99 during “shoulder season” (the span between Labor Day…
Summer in the South: Edisto Beach State Park
Summer in the South has a way of sneaking up on you. Around late July you start thinking “we’ve made it through the worst of it. Fall will be here soon.” Maybe it’s all the Back to School activities, the excitement of football season looming, or just a defense mechanism we’ve developed to survive in…
Take me to the lake: Modoc COE Campground at Lake Strom Thurmond
Epic. That’s the only way to describe our recent weekend trip to Lake Strom Thurmond. On a whim we decided to book a site at Modoc Campground, a Army Corp of Engineers campground in Modoc, South Carolina. I booked site 9 based solely on the picture I found online. Look at that view! I almost…
Life is Better at the Beach
The sound of waves breaking along the shore. The slight saltiness of the sea air. The cool silkiness of the water. There’s something about the beach that can wash away the stress of everyday life, even if just for a few moments. As much as I am awestruck by mountains, canyons, and deserts; the beach…
The Beginner’s Guide to Adventure
When we lived in Texas, we took several trips to Broken Bow, Oklahoma. On one of those trips, we decided to go canoeing. I was a little nervous because coordination isn’t exactly my thing. (I even did a magnet program in high school so I could get an exemption from the PE requirement.) On…
Landsford Canal State Park: Blood, Sweat, Tears and FUN!
Our unwritten camping rule (so far) has been to avoid camping two weekends in a row. This allows us time to get things done at home and recoup between trips. So, since we had our Gatlinburg trip last week, this was an “off” weekend. But even when we aren’t camping we still like to get…
Rocky Top: Our Trip to the Great Smoky Mountains
After our excursion to Cook’s Mountain a few weeks ago, we were ready to spend some time in the actual mountains. Luckily, we already had a long weekend planned in the Smokies. It was a pretty big adventure since we’d never even taken our camper on the interstate yet, let alone into the mountains. We…
Mountain in the Midlands
There’s a mountain… in the Midlands! Last fall we started a quest to visit all of the state parks in South Carolina. So, on days we don’t have a particular destination in mind we let the toddler pick a dot on the map of the parks and point the 4Runner that direction. This past Sunday…
The Accidental Overlanders
TripSavvy describes overlanding as a style of travel that involves “covering long distances in a motorized – usually off-road – vehicle, with the emphasis placed less on the destination and more on the journey.” About a year ago, we found ourselves driving from the Outer Banks of North Carolina in our 2009 Dodge Ram 2500.…
The Journey Begins
New content coming soon! “Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and enjoy the journey.” -Babs Hoffman
Seek The Scenic 