Harvest Hosting Our Way to Florida
We take a chance boondocking on our July travels south
For most of our adult lives, trips to Florida meant a long drive through the night from the Midwest. Jeff and I both have memories of middle-of-the-night navigations through the Smoky Mountains in Eastern Tennessee before watching the sunrise somewhere in Georgia.
The last time we drove our family 1000 miles to Disney, we were heading east on I10 from Houston, through the deep south before heading further south toward Orlando. We had discovered the ease of camping in state park campgrounds but we were years away from boondocking attempts, preferring the assurance of electricity that would keep our air-conditioning on all through the night.
But after our excellent experience using Harvest Host on our way to Galveston for Spring Break, Jeff was ready to give it a try for our middle-of-the-summer trip south to Florida. While I was mostly on board with using Harvest Host for road trips, I had my doubts about boondocking in the middle of summer in the deep South. How hot would it be at night? Would our generator be able to run the air-conditioning? Would the businesses care if we showed up after close because we were driving up to 500 miles in a day?
We would get three nights to find out the answers to all of those questions.
Boundary Oak Distillery in Radcliff, Kentucky
We made our first day of travel a short late afternoon trip to Kentucky. Getting packed up and leaving before dinner allowed my husband to work most of the day but also guaranteed that we were in vacation mode before two long days of travel.
Jeff picked out a micro-distillery just south of Louisville. After one trip on the Bourbon Trail and two visits to Maker’s Mark, Jeff and I have a particular affinity for Kentucky distilleries and we thought it would be fun to stay in the parking lot for the night, with the slim possibility that he might get to try some before we kept traveling south.
We pulled into the large, empty parking lot of Boundary Oak well after the facility had closed for the night. Our kids wandered off to a distant picnic table for some deep conversation while we unloaded the generator and got it started so we could unhook and open up the camper. The heat spell that was hitting the rest of the country seemed to be missing this particular pocket of the United States, because the night temperature dropped into the high 60s. I opened all of the windows, turned on the vent fans to get the air moving, and hoped that we might make it through one night without turning on the air-conditioning.
We walked around the facility to take it all in, inhaling the scent of cooking mash coming from inside.1 I made dinner and overloaded the generator so we tried it again. Again, the generator, which can run on gas or propane quit. We switched it over to propane and it ran the rest of the night. With the comfortable outdoor temperature, I refused to turn on the whole camper AC, but we ran the big fan in our bedroom and kept the rest of the vent fans going all night.
We had nearly 500 miles to travel the next day, so Jeff told our kids to “Rise and exist” as he went in to wake them up for a long day on the road, a true and amusing statement considering they were just going to be sitting in the backseat for the next eight hours. We considered whether we should stay until the distillery opened so that we could at least buy a bottle, but we had slipped into the Central Time Zone and would be moving back into Eastern. We had too far to go to risk staying for longer. Proud of our generator for making it through the night and proud of ourselves for a smooth overnight stop, we were ready to head to Georgia.
Lane Southern Orchards in Fort Valley, Georgia
What better place is there to stay in Georgia than a peach orchard?
When we looked at the options that got us as far down the road as we thought that we could go in a day, an orchard just a little off the interstate seemed like a good idea. We arrived at Lane Southern Orchards shortly before close, giving us enough time to purchase some peaches and sweet corn to add to our dinner. After a trip back out to visit the Buc-ees a few miles back on the interstate,2 we were settled back in with fuel stabilizer for the gasoline tank on the generator. The gasoline lasted for longer this time, but we still ended up switching over the propane before we went to bed, the propane on our generator getting us through the night and helping to get the air-conditioning down to 70. To say we were impressed, and a little bit relieved, would be an understatement.
Overall, we enjoyed the orchard. Our oversized kids explored the playground, we walked around the facility and saw the back orchards, and we enjoyed breakfast in the cafe before heading to our final destination: Orlando.
And the peaches? They were perfect; the kids and I each ate one large Georgia peach a day until they were all gone.
Engelheim Vineyards in Ellijay, Georgia
Our goal heading home to Indiana was to split our drive in half. This meant another stop in Georgia as we looked for yet another unique experience.
Vineyards are often high on the list for Harvest Hosters. They can be lovely locations with access to new beverages to try after a long day of traveling. We knew that we wouldn’t be arriving until after close, especially since we had to spend part of the morning packing and flushing our whole system after ten nights of living out of our camper, so I called to let the owners know that we were still coming, we just wouldn’t be able to check out their tasting room. Instead, over the phone they took our order for a bottle of wine that would be chilled and waiting for us on the back patio, along with a surprise sticker that we could put on the back of the camper.
Upon our arrival at Engelheim Vineyard, we found a wide-open parking lot looking out onto a beautiful vineyard. We parked, got the generator going, and then Jeff, our son, and I walked around the grounds before I settled in to make dinner. Jeff met the owner and talked to her for a while and I enjoyed the quiet of being away from people after a week in amusement parks in Orlando.
It was a good final stop in an idyllic setting. We couldn’t have asked any more from the location or the hosts.
Our second road trip using Harvest Host for one-night stops worked out just as well or better than our first attempt. It is quickly becoming our go-to when we take long road trips and just need a place to stay overnight. The bonus was discovering that our FIRMAN dual-fuel inverter generator worked like a champ for all of our stops.3 On a vacation where we spent most of our time in and out of amusement parks all week, our Harvest Host experiences helped us to feel like we were still camping, which was just what we needed before the rush to prepare for a new school year.
Do you use Harvest Host? Have you wanted to but just haven’t been brave enough to try? Comment below.
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I made it abundantly clear when I wrote about Maker’s Mark that I don’t like bourbon, but there is something about the smell at all stages, my favorite being the angel share in the warehouses.
I know that it’s trendy, but living for six years when Buc-ees started has made us Buc-ees regulars, whenever we can go to the massive gas station on steroids. The kids love it and don’t want to drive past one when we find them out in the wild.
The dream is a solar set up for charging our batteries and running off of that instead, but we’re still putting off that investment.
Love the photos, and I love the Harvest Host idea! I didn't know about them and it sounds like such a great and safe way to travel. Makes me want to get a trailer/camper and try it out.