Croaton National Forest

Wednesday it was good to drive in some flat land seeing flowers along the highway.

A few old barns and cotton fields along the way of the two lane roads.

Tobacco fields that you can't see from the interstates.

Large grain building with silo's.

Through the town of Mt. Olive. Folks get off the interstates and see the real America.

Soon we were getting close to the coast of North Carolina.

After getting to our destination Croatan National Forest and setting up the motorhome we went down to the beach of the Neuse river which is in the campground.

It doesn't have the white sand of the Florida beaches but is very nice.

These are the stairs that you have to take from the campground.  The beach is so inviting you can almost here it saying come and relax.
We don't have any idea how long we will be here.
Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

The Blowing Rock

We did get out medicine filled on Sunday.
Monday we went back to see The Rock.

After 60 some years I couldn't remember much of the area but I remembered The Rock. It we nice getting back to it after all these years of thinking about it.

Yeah the old man still had to climb upon it.

From up here you can see the mountain tops and the houses scattered around on them.

For those that wanted a closer look you can put your coin in look at the mountains.

They have a couple of short trails and a flower garden to enjoy. We enjoyed our time visiting Boone and Blowing Rock but we could tell that we were high up that was a little hard on our breathing.

Nancy watching the deer that come close to the motorhome to feed of the evening.

There were two large ones and a couple of smaller ones.

Then they were back yesterday morning.  After emptying the tanks and taking on fresh water it was 1:30 and time to hit the road. I drove 190 miles yesterday more than I usually do. We had a nice drive out of the mountains and in some what level country. We got as far as Sanford still in North Carolina were we stopped at the Walmart to spend the night.
We are just taking our time this morning, after we get ready we will slowly keep going south.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.  

 

Mountains and lake

After traveling a total of 22 miles yesterday we arrived at the Julian Price campground. The reason for the move was to be close to Blowing Rock and Boone. We had to have or medicine filled and  just look to what we could see. I wanted to see The Blowing Rock because I was upon it 60 years ago and I always wanted to go back to it.

Traveling the Blue Ridge Parkway there are pull outs on the road with nice views as this one of Grandfather Mountain.

Here is a close up of the mountain.

Each and every pull out you can see something different.

This is our site for two days.

On the way to Boone where we will get out medicine filled at a Walgreens.

The lake is a nice size lake and surrounded by the beauty of the mountains.

Lake over flow. I think we will enjoy the couple of days here.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.







 

Blue Ridge Parkway

After leaving Douglas Lake and filling the motorhome up at Kroger's it was a little after 1:30 pm. We stopped in Newport to fix a sandwich to eat. Look close at the pic above have you seen a Krystal like this one. It is in a fifth wheel and is a drive up where the girls where carhops. the one is getting a drink out of a cooler.  They are remodeling the present Krystal and I guess they didn't want to lose any business.
Yesterday we drove more that I wanted to but I had a hard time finding the Linville Falls Campground that is off of the Blue Ridge Parkway. I was talking to the lady in the park office and telling her about being a campground hard to fine she said you used your gps didn't you I told her yes. She told me where I ended up going on the other side of the mountain and I said yes again. She said those reading  for some reason will read the same in the campground.

Well anyway even though we got there and set up by then it was dark when I went up and put the money in the box. I found a pull through site and that was good because we were moving on the next morning. This is a campground with no hookups but does have water and a dump. That was ok I got to try out my solar system which worked out good. We have led lights that hardly uses any amps from the battery. I can watched tv for 3 1/2 hours at night and still have enough power to make coffee with the electric drip coffee maker. The 325 solar on the roof and a 2000 amp pure sine wave inverter pulling power from two Walmart 27 batteries is doing good.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

Heading northeast today

Yesterday was the Laundromat day again. So we had to go through Sevierville and the traffic was something else with all the people in for the Shades of the Past car show and I know they enjoyed seeing all the classic cars.

I enjoyed watching the cars going by as the laundry was washing and drying.

Yeah trucks also, there were all kinds.

Old convertibles.

Most of the time it was hard taking the photo as the cars zoomed by but every once in a while traffic would come to a stand still for a better shot.

Had to get some going.

This old school bus was nice.

This was a neat setup. the cars look like they are alike which they are but the one behind is being pulled by the one in front and is small being used for a cargo van probably no motor and just a shell to haul the excess luggage.

 

Today is another moving day for us. We will be going northeast to someplace probably in North Carolina. Its time to get out of all this traffic.

 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

 

 

Country Roads

Yesterday Nancy and I drove out around the area to see if we could find some new scenery.

We did get on a road that we had not been on and saw some old barns which I love to see.

This looked like an old house.

Even though this area in the Smoky Mountains has mountains there are still wide open fields.

We soon came upon a small road as we were driving came around a curve and this is what we saw that we drove through. I've seen covered bridges but I think this is one of a few that I have driven through on a country road.

After going through the covered bridge and around a curve this is the scene that was facing us. I thought I was in the twilight zone in a book about the old back country roads.

Tree in the road between Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge.

We were soon out of the twilight zone and back in Pigeon Forge where they are having Shades of the Past with old cars ling the street.

I like to look at all the old cars and trucks.
Nancy and I had a nice day riding around.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

Come and gone

The family reunion was ok with a few that didn't make it this year.

Here was what it looks like when you have a table of food and hungry people. Saturday it was hamburgers and hotdogs. Sunday it was fried chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes, baked beans, cole slaw, potato salad, bbq ribs, chicken and dumping, mac and cheese, ranch cucumbers, and rolls and more I have probably more I forget.  But I sure didn't forget it was all good.

Of course with all the excitement and taking care of the little ones some just got plain worn out.

Speaking of little ones here are six of the thirteen great grand children we have.

One of the excitements the little ones had was the golf cart parade with the golf cart people throwing out candy. You should have seen the rascals with their smiling faces picking up the candy.
Everyone left out this morning and we will be leaving tomorrow.
We all had a good time even though our bodies are sore.
Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.



 

Today is the day

Wednesday we washed and dryer some clothes since we had a one washer and dryer here at the Panther Creek State Park and also did a load yesterday. We could have gone longer in doing it but thought why not since we had the time and it was only 75 cents to wash and 75 cents to dry. We didn't want to be doing laundry during the family reunion.

We went to Morristown also to buy groceries and things for the reunion. We had dinner at the Hillbilly's Cabin which a guy here in the park told me it was a good place to eat. It was a good place to eat Nancy had the grilled porkchop dinner and I had the fried porkchop. 
Today we will be making our move to Clabough's Campground in Pigeon Forge. There will be other family members coming in today as well as tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

Brakes repaired

Monday Nancy and I were up way earlier than we wanted to be but I wanted to get the motorhome down to the truck repair shop so they could get started on it. After getting to Dotson Truck Repair we had to wait 15 or 20 minutes for them to finish up another repair they were doing.

The shop is also known by the new name G & S Truck Repair.

It was time for our repair where they had me pull up to the shady side of the building. It was a good spot for them where as it was in the shade most of the day.

After the guy working on it the rotor was wore out and needed a new one the caliper was fine so that was good news. Granville the owner loaded up the rotor and worn disc pads and said he would be back later with the news of how long it would be getting the repair done. It would depend on how long it would take to get the new parts. Middlesboro is a good size town but I didn't think they would have a new brake rotor anywhere in town. When Granville got back he said "good news" he found everything to get the repair finished that day. That was good news I thought for sure it would be two or three days.

Here's the guy bolting on the new rotor. They really had a time with the old one as when it was assembled new Ford Motor used Locktite on the bolts.

Here is Granville the man himself.  A heck of a nice guy. He did a very good repair and more that a reasonable price when it was all added up. I was expecting to pay more I even asked him if he added it up correctly I highly recommend G & S Truck Repair if you need a repair while in or near Middlesboro, Kentucky.  With the repair over with we where on our way south around 4:30 pm.
We drove to Morristown, Tennessee and spent the night at a Walmart.
Yesterday we arrived at Panther Creek State park where we will be until Friday before moving on to Clabough's Campgound in Pigeon Forge for our annual family reunion.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.