Day 25 & 26 of 166 Days of RV Adventures in the Summer of 2026

On Sunday 5/31 we enjoyed a quiet morning preparing for the start of our 250th Anniversary of America RV Tour. We start every Yankee event with a welcome and traditional root beer floats.

We are in Fayetteville RV Resort. It is a top-rated, award-winning campground just north of Fayetteville in NC 28395. It has always earned a perfect 10/10/10 rating from Good Sam and won the "Best of Cumberland County" award multiple times. It serves overnight travelers, groups, and extended-stay guests. From the shape of the office, it would be safe to say that it used to be a KOA!

We feel our caravan is the perfect size and composition of travelers! We have 10 caravanners and 2 staff. We have all size campers, from a small tear-drop to 36 foot Class A rigs and everything in between! We have people that have traveled with Yankee extensively, some occasionally, and we have some first-timers! WE even have a couple whose parents worked for Rod as tail-enders back in his early days! I love this mix of people!

We spent time getting to know each other, how Yankee RV does things and what they will be doing for the next 15-days.

We had several caravanners arrive today, so instead of dragging them out to a restaurant, we had a cook-out for our welcome dinner. Burgers cooked on the grill with all the trimmings! This clubhouse is beautiful, so we might as well use it as much as we can!

We closed the night out with a fire near the tail-ender's site. He has a huge Solo Stove and it makes a great fire!

On Monday June 1st, WOW... it's June already! We took the group onto Ft Bragg today, to go to the JFK Special Warfare Museum. Yes, we took many non-DOD personnel onto a military base! I was surprised, it was relatively easy and no one got turned away! Yeah!

In 1918, it was established as Camp Bragg, later changed to Fort Bragg. The base was named after Confederate General Braxton Bragg. Bragg was a prominent and highly controversial Confederate general during the American Civil War, famous for commanding the Army of Tennessee. While he secured a major victory at the Battle of Chickamauga, his career was defined by disastrous retreats, intense unpopularity among his own troops, and the operation of a brutal slave plantation. 

However, in June 2023 as part of a congressional mandate to remove Confederate names from military assets, the base shed its original namesake and was officially renamed Fort Liberty. In March of 2025, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed a directive reverting the base name back to Fort Bragg. A formal redesignation ceremony took place on March 7, 2025. While the base has returned to its historic name, it honors a completely different individual. Instead of the Confederate general, the base is now officially named in tribute to Private First Class Roland L. Bragg, a highly decorated World War II hero. PFC Roland Bragg served with the 17th Airborne Division. He earned both the Silver Star and the Purple Heart for exceptional gallantry during the Battle of the Bulge. Notably, he risked his life to save a fellow wounded soldier by commandeering an enemy ambulance and driving it through hostile territory to an allied field hospital.

The JFK Special Warfare Museum is the official regimental museum for the US Army Special Forces (Green Berets), Civil Affairs, and Psychological Operations regiments. Located on Fort Bragg, which was Fort Liberty for less than 2-years. 

The unassuming exterior of the building gives way to a spectacular collection of artifacts. The museum preserves and showcases elite military history, weapons, and artifacts spanning from World War I to current operations.

One of my favorite parts was to follow the footprints on the floor at the JFK Special Warfare Museum. Boots are worn by every soldier in the military. This museum uses the footprints, a highly specialized piece of military tactical equipment, as the path you follow to see the exhibits at the museum. THe boot tread patterns have changed over the years and the outlines at the museum do the same!

There was a unique Afghan war rug featuring a portrait of President George W. Bush. The "War Rug" phenomenon started following the 1979 Soviet invasion and continues in the post-9/11 wars. Traditional rug weavers in Afghanistan began incorporating contemporary military imagery into their carpets. These became known as "Afghan war rugs". This rug features a woven portrait of George W. Bush set against an American flag, complete with his name woven directly into the pattern. Many of these rugs were woven in the 2000s and purchased by US service members, particularly Special Forces and Airborne troops, as deployment souvenirs. Several found their way into military history collections due to their relevance to recent operations.

We took the group to lunch at Fayetteville staple, Fuller's BBQ. Fuller’s Old Fashioned BBQ is widely known for serving home-cooked country-style buffet food featuring pit-cooked barbecue, fried chicken, seafood, and homemade desserts. 

It was originally founded in 1986 by James Fuller Locklear and his wife Delora in Lumberton, North Carolina. Before opening a formal restaurant, James was locally known as "the barbecue man," selling plate meals from his home pit to fundraise for local schools and fire stations. To augment their farming income, the couple opened a tiny, 40-seat sandwich shop on Highway 211, featuring a simple four-item buffet.  As popularity exploded, the family opened a larger 300-seat flagship restaurant in Lumberton and expanded their footprint north into Fayetteville to the highly successful location on North Eastern Boulevard, where we dined.

After lunch, we went to the NC Veterans Park. In 2008, the North Carolina Legislature approved a bill to construct the North Carolina Veterans Park. The site of the five-acre park is Fayetteville, and it honors all veterans, living or deceased, from all the services. It has a small indoor display and a large outdoor display. It is the first state park in North Carolina dedicated to honoring military veterans from all branches of the Armed Services. We could not visit the inside displays, as it was closed, but the outdoor displays are always open.

Peeking through the windows, you can see the 33,000 dog tags are suspended from the ceiling of the North Carolina Veterans Park visitor center. This universal identification tag has been worn by all military personnel in the US since the Civil War. Rather than focusing exclusively on a single war, this permanent artistic exhibit spans multiple major American conflicts. Beneath this architecture, individual labeled dog tags are strung on lines under headings for each of the United States' major wars, including the Korean War, World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War. Catching daylight from the windows above to create shifting patterns of light and shadow. These constantly changing patterns remind visitors of the countless veterans that have served their state.  Photo credit to Lynda Krueger!

The outdoor park elements include a Story Garden; Reflection Garden; Community Plaza; Service Plaza; Patriot Wall; Pride and Purpose Tower; seven water features; and the North Carolina Soils Wall, built with soil from each of the state's 100 counties. "Soil" is part of the memorial's storyline, which reads: "From the soils of North Carolina, you left your families and homes with the purpose to serve your Country. The people of North Carolina Honor your service and welcome you home."

Twelve large columns representing the branches of the US Armed Forces, the National Guard, and wartime periods.

There is a striking 35-foot tower built from stainless steel and granite. It features an adjacent ceremonial light cannon used to symbolically welcome troops home.

Several unique artistic installations created directly from salvaged military equipment and artifacts.

The grounds feature seven distinct water installations and curated green spaces with native plantings designed for quiet reflection.

We stopped in front of the Airborne and Special Operations Museum, which is closed on Monday, for pictures of Iron Mike, General  Hugh Shelton and a K9.

The most famous monument is a 15-foot, 3,235-pound statue of a WWII paratrooper landing on a pile of rocks. The original steel statue was placed on Fort Bragg in 1961, but was later restored and moved to the museum.

A 10-foot, 1,800-pound bronze statue of the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Special Forces commander, sculpted by Paul Moore.

A life-sized bronze memorial of a Belgian Malinois dog in full deployment gear, which honors the working dogs of the Special Operations K9 teams.

All the caravanners headed back to the campground on their own and we had an ice cream social and travel log review.

Stay tuned for more Two Lane Adventures.