The last two months of our 2025/2026 travels were filled with visits with old friends and a handful of new experiences, with three more National Parks checked off our list. Plus two new states visited (Illinois and Iowa!) on our way back to our home base!
At the end of March we left Georgia and arrived back in Florida, first spending two weeks at Three Flags RV Resort (a Thousand Trails Campground) near The Villages. We’ve stayed here before and always enjoy the chance to have full hookups and swim in the outdoor pool. This time they set us in site 37 on the edge of a row of sites. It was right on the main exit road and it always looked like the larger RVs were going to clip our rig or truck, but we managed to avoid any mishaps.
From Three Flags we headed to Bartow, FL to spend a few nights with friends, then continued south to Midway Campground, an ACOE campground in Big Cypress National Preserve, right on US Hwy 41. This campground has electric only sites with fresh water and a dump station available, along with flush toilets. No shower facilities were available, though, so we did need to add and empty water a couple times during our 10 day stay.
Groceries, propane, and laundry are all about an hour away in either the Miami area or Naples.
We chose this campground as our base to visit Everglades National Park, Biscayne National Park, and Big Cypress National Preserve. The kids collected all three Junior Ranger badges and an additional patch for visiting all three as well.
Our next destination was Thousand Trails Orlando (better known as TTO) so my oldest daughter and I could take a three day cruise on Carnival Glory from Port Canaveral. We had booked it the previous year to celebrate my 40th birthday and she was the only one who was interested in trying it. The weather cancelled our shore excursions but we otherwise enjoyed it and look forward to booking another cruise in a couple years.
We also met up with our friends Brian and Erin from Five2Go and Tiffany and Ryan from The Party of 6, all of which call the Orlando area home for now. We always enjoy seeing our friends and can’t wait until we see them again next winter!
After our cruise we started making our way back north to our home base. Our first stop was Reed Bingham State Park for two nights (our second stay at this lovely campground), then on to Sweetwater Campground on Allatoona Lake, northeast of Atlanta. This is another ACOE campground and we really liked it here. The entire campground is fairly quiet and well laid out. The trees blocked our Starlink signal but we managed just fine with cellular data for our week-long stay.
The sites at Sweetwater CG are water/electric with a dump station available, plus flush toilets and free hot showers. This is a very popular campground with campers and boaters alike.
My girls and I had tickets to the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta the Tuesday of our stay here and we are so glad we went. Although it was VERY noisy with all the school kids on field trips we still enjoyed the dolphin and sea lion shows and the various animal exhibits. Once the school kids left it was much quieter and we were better able to observe the sharks, jellyfish, dolphins, and other water loving creatures.
Leaving Atlanta we made stopped for a night at Anderson Road Campground near Nashville, TN. The spot we chose was very unlevel but we were able to shove our camper to the very rear of the site and be level enough for a night. From there we spent a week at Coles Creek Campground near Carlyle, IL. This was another quiet, lovely ACOE campground and we’ll definitely stay again if we are in the area. The sites here are electric only with a dump station, fresh water spigots, flush toilets, and hot showers. The town of Carlyle is about 15-20 minutes away with everything you need for groceries, gas, propane, and laundry.
Coles Creek was the last campground we had reservations at so we were looking at winging in for the remaining 800 miles to my parents’ house in Minnesota. Winging it isn’t my specialty and I’d never tried driving more than 350 miles in a day, but we decided to give it a try anyway. Our halfway point was a casino in Waterloo, IA where we were able to park for free in the north lot with the commercial trucks. We found a level spot out of the way, bought dinner at the casino, and turned in for a surprisingly quiet night of lot docking.
Since we made it half way the first day we got up early to drive the remaining 400 miles to our Minnesota destination. The girls loved their 4.5 day stay at Grandma and Grandpa’s house, and my husband and I enjoyed having the camper to ourselves.
The final weekend of our 2025/2026 travels was spent at Dakota Adventist Academy north of Bismarck, ND for our church’s annual camp meeting. We always enjoy our time here and it was great seeing so many friends after a long winter away. This was also the first year in six years we were able to camp onsite instead of driving down each day, which made the experience that much more enjoyable.
We left Sunday to return to our home base, ready to relax before our next season of travels begins at the end of August. We already have reservations in Oregon and look forward to seeing family there before going south again. Stay tuned for updates on our plans for the summer!
Have you visited any of the campgrounds we stayed at these last two months? What about Everglades National Park, Biscayne National Park, or Big Cypress National Preserve? What did you think? Let us know in the comments! You can also find us on Instagram and Facebook @simplejoyfuljourney, or email me at alicia@simplejoyfuljourney.com. And don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter at the bottom of the page before you go. Have a great week!