Monday..

Tomorrow we'll head back to Winston Salem, as we need to be to work at 11:30. Right now the local TV stations have interrupted regular programming to track a storm that has produced a tornado warning. It is moving away from us here....it's a severe storm that is producing as many as 194 lightening strikes an hour. We haven't had any heavy rain yet although the warning said we could get some. The worst might be over...at one point three bolts of lightening came down and it looked like a claw scratch across the sky. It was really awesome !

We took a picture of this rig that has been here at the campground for about two weeks. It's a Teton brand 5th wheel and the big truck pulling it has a matching paint job....very pretty. We drove by and stopped to chat with the guy who owns it. He's a fulltimer, originally from Delaware. I asked him if he's had any problems getting parts for his rig, since Teton went out of business and he said no...he can get anything he might need. Only thing that would be a problem would be the fender skirts. Very pretty rig.

Here's one of the ponds at the campground. I took Boomer down there yesterday so he could go swimmin'....it drops off pretty quick so he waded in up to his belly and then turned around to come back to shore. It cooled him off for a little while. Got up to 97 yesterday and 91 today....too darn hot ! I went out around 9 this morning and washed the rig...it getting another rinse off tonight with the storm passing through.

Got a busy week ahead. We have several new residents moving in this week. On Saturday, we have a VA benefit workshop to talk about the Aid and Attendance benefit that many people do not know about. Along with the workshop is a special lunch and entertainment. We have over 30 people signed up to attend the workshop so we'll be looking forward to our day off on Sunday. Hope everyone has a great week !

Our Friday is Here....

We know we're heading "home" when we see this....

We're all set up. They left the rig on the site so only took us a few minutes to drop the back jacks, hook up the utilities and put the slides out. We left work around 7:15...got our wake up call at 5:30 with the call off of the dishwasher. Couldn't get back to sleep so figured we might as well get up and hit the road. This was the second morning of getting woken up at 5:30. Yesterday it was the alarm monitoring company calling to tell us there was an alarm going off in the fire panel. It's been going off every so often the last week but our maintenance guy thought he had the problem resolved by changing out the back up battery to the 3rd floor panel. Seem he swapped out the wrong battery. So I swapped out the truly bad one and so far it's been ok.

Found out the other day that our boss, the regional director, is leaving the company. The "official" notice, from corporate, is that he's leaving to spend more time with his family. The truth is, as he told us, is that he resigned back in May but was asked to stay on for a while to help the company. When he was asked a short while ago what his intentions were, he said he'd like to stay and continue with the company. At that point they told him that he'd turned in a resignation, they had accepted it so he needed to go. His boss has been demoted to take over his job so a huge impact to not just one person, but two. Our General Sales Manager told me that this is now the 5th change in that position she has seen since joining the company in January. Awesome...

Great news this week....we made our last payment on Bertha ! She is now wholly ours and not shared with the credit union. Now we can start applying the amount that was the truck payment and get the rig paid off. Hooray !!

Just saw a neat piece on Sunday Morning show about a micro sculptor. He uses a microscope to make art that fits in the eye of a needle or other similarly small areas. It was incredible ! His name is Wigan and he was ridiculed, as a child by a teacher.The teacher told him, "You are an exhibition of failure, and all the children in the school need to know about you, because this is what happens if you don't listen to me, children,' - you know, that type of thing? So, that made him feel that small." His mother noticed. Her advice then still guides him today.

"She said to me, 'You are now going to continue to make small things.' And I said, 'Why?' And she says, 'If you keep making small things, your name will get bigger!'


He laughed: "She said, 'The smaller your work, the bigger your name'." So he started sculpting super small items. His pieces are viewed through a microscope in order to be seen by people going to his art gallery shows. One of his pieces is Charlie Chaplin balancing on the end of an eyelash. He commands as much as $100,000 for one of his art pieces...pretty neat for someone who his teacher thought would be a failure.


No big plans today....we're pretty exhausted so I foresee a Nascar nap in my future. Need to call my mom and wish her a happy birthday...she's turning 85 tomorrow. Also think that a seafood dinner from the Mayflower might be in order. Stay tuned....

Back To Work..

We left the campground at 8 this morning and drove the 40 minutes back to Winston Salem to get ready for work. We had a very relaxing weekend and decent weather. When we arrived on Sunday we went into town and had a late lunch at the Mayflower restaurant. We wanted to eat there the last time we were up but they are closed on Mondays. The place was packed with people and after eating we can see why. Linda and I both ordered the broiled scallop dinner. The dinners come in regular and large sizes. We got the regular size and after getting ours, I can't imagine how much food you'd get with the large order. We had 15 scallops (not the tiny ones either), coleslaw, baked potato and 4 hush puppies. The hush puppies looked like large onion rings...large, O-shaped rings that were fluffy and very yummy. All of this for $7.99....unreal ! We could only eat half of our meal so took the rest home with us. This will certainly be a favorite of ours on future trips.

On Monday we parked downtown so we could walk around and check out the little shops. We went to Floyd's Barber Shop, which is a landmark for Mount Airy. The walls are lined with thousands of pictures of people who have come in to see Floyd. He's been in that same spot for 63 years and still cuts hair. The place was filled with people, looking the pictures, and just chatting like you do in any local barber shop. "Floyd" (I don't think that's his real name) is 86 years old and was such a nice guy....he loves posing for pictures and telling stories. Oprah's picture was on the wall (a much younger Oprah), Lou Ferigno, of course Andy Griffith and other celebs. The barber shop is right next door to the Snappy Lunch...home of the pork chop sandwich. We didn't go there to eat...we could see that there was a line waiting to get seated.

Downtown is really cute...reminds you of what most downtown areas used to look like before strip malls and Wal-Marts came to small town America. Andy Griffith sure put Mount Airy on the map...without his notoriety I'm sure this town was have succumbed to the same demise as most other towns have.

On our way back to the campground one evening, with Chunky Monkey in hand, we took a little drive up the road past the campground. There we found the little white church with the resting place for Eng and Chang
Bunker. Gorgeous area...it overlooks the valley and mountains in the distant.

Since the Bunker twins had 21 children between them, there were several Bunkers buried in that cemetery.

It was a fun weekend...now it's back to reality till we can return next weekend. Hope everyone has a great week !

FHV

A relaxing weekend of camping this weekend. It started out a little rocky....we got up early so we could get up here to get set up and relax. I had e-mailed the campground last weekend and told them we would be up early Sunday morning...to please pull our rig out of storage and put it on the site we like. We arrived this morning, drove to our site and no rig. Found that it was still in storage so we drove up to the office. The person working was just covering for a few minutes...Lynn was off and the owner (who pulls rigs out of storage and puts them on the sites) couldn't be reached. Oh great ! They reached Lynn and an hour later she showed up. She got the keys to the owners truck (which he keeps at the campground) and said she'd move it onto the site if I'd help her. Boy, was she nervous when she saw how big our rig was and how much "umph" it took to pull it. She was doing a whole lot of praying and moved only an inch at a time, as she backed it in to get it hooked up. The hitch was different than ours so took a little bit to figure out. She drove a little ways and then said she'd feel more comfortable if one of us would drive so Linda jumped in and we got it onto the site. She was very apologetic and only charged us for one night of camping for our inconvenience. Once we got it to our site, Lynn pulled the truck ahead as Linda pulled on the handle of the Reece hitch to unhook it. It came unlatched in a hurry, with Linda's pulling on the handle, and she whacked her two elbows on the side of the truck. She has some hefty bruises there to show for her trouble.

We've had pop up thunderstorms over the last couple of days, including today. Linda and I sat under the pavilion near our rig this afternoon and at one point we could see a narrow sliver of rain coming down but no rain all around it...it was really weird.

Speaking of weird, Linda and I had an e-call on Friday night...at 1 a.m (guess that really makes it Saturday morning). We were sound asleep when the shrill alarm went off. Coming out of a deep sleep, we jumped up, grabbed our keys and went to the office to find out what room the emergency was in. It was apt 320...didn't really dawn on us till we were almost there but it's currently vacant. We open the door, check the three e-call stations and all are fine...then we see that it's the smoke detector that is going off. And it's on the ceiling in an apartment with nothing to stand on to get to it. This is one of those times that would have been comical to have captured on video.....like those stupid things you see on America's Funniest Videos. We're running around looking for something to stand on. I found two thick phone books in the closet and thought maybe I could reach it if I stood on those. No can do...Linda holds out her hands, linked together and offers to give me a leg up. I got upright, clutching onto her but she was wobbling around so bad I couldn't get a hold of the smoke detector. And it's still screaming at about a billion decibels in our ears...Then I told her, climb on my back..piggy back style. She jumped up, reached for the smoke detector and unhooked it. Whew ! Our maintenance guy had been painting in there during the day so all we can figure out is that the smell set the detector off. Our detectors are very sensitive and we've had them go off before from strong chemical smells, etc.

Tomorrow we're going into Mount Airy and check out all of the little shops. TTFN

A Great Day...

What an awesome day. Where to begin...We met part of the group at the Concord Mall. There we boarded a bus and headed out to the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Arrived there about 8:45 and stayed there till 12:30. The 1st picture here shows the Charlotte Motor Speedway and the cars on Glory Road....As you walk around Glory Road there are markers that show and explain the various NASCAR tracks and what degree the banking is at that particular track. The steepest banking is at Charlotte...33 degrees. There is an area where you can stand on the track, at 33 degrees and you can hardly stand up. It is incredible ! Since we arrived at the facility prior to normal opening hours, we got to see things before there were any crowds. Linda and I paid to try the simulator cars. I've never done this before but it was really cool. You have to shift and run the brake and gas, just as if you're running on the Charlotte track. My fastest lap was 37 seconds, doing 144 m.p.h. It didn't seem like I was going that fast so I was surprised when it was over and the operator told me how fast I was going. They post the fastest speeds on a board (just like they do during real qualifying times) and I stayed in the top 10 for a quite a while. Linda and I tested our abilities in the pit area to see if our next jobs should point us in that direction. We had a 16 second pit stop jacking up the car, filling car with gas and doing the tire. Yeah, it was only one tire....12-13 seconds is good for four tires and all the other stuff but I don't think we can give up our day job just yet with that time for just one tire. Lots of interactive things to do at the Hall....it is a lot of fun ! So much history, lots of videos, tons of cars and memorabilia.

After we left there we went to the Sam Bass Art Gallery. I didn't think I knew who Sam Bass was until we walked into his gallery and saw all of the art on the walls. He is the first officially licensed NASCAR artist. He has done every paint scheme for Jeff Gordon's cars since 1992. He has done car themes for so many other drivers too....He has done every program cover for the Charlotte Motor Speedway since 1985 and he designs the artwork for the guitars that are given away as the trophy at the Nashville race. As part of the behind the scenes tour we took, you get to go where the public never goes....back to his studios and see all of the artwork from so many years. He has his guitar collection back there too from all of the great rock stars he idolizes and it's just an amazing place. Sam himself came out to talk to us and answer questions....the gallery is typically closed on Mondays. He was so down to earth....so humble. I had purchased a visor at the Hall of Fame and I got him to sign it for me plus we all got an autographed picture of him that he created just for these tours.

While we were at the Bass gallery, the skies opened up and we had torrential rain. They said a tornado watch was posted so when it came time to leave, we ran to the bus in between bolts of lightening and a deluge of rain. We left there and went to the Charlotte Motor Speedway. We toured the in-care medical center, where drivers must go if they have wrecked to get checked out. It looks like an ER, at a hospital. There are seven areas where people can be attended to. There is a stop light type of light on the wall so if the caution flag is flown, as in an accident situation, the medical staff goes on alert for possible incoming. The Speedway complex is enormous..2000 acres, they spend $700,000/year in landscaping fees, and there are events going on there 300 days out of the year. Yeah, I found that hard to believe but it's true. We went to the gift shop there, then got back on the bus and went to Hendrick Motorsports. Our tour guide, Jennifer, said that about 85% of all the teams have garages right around the Charlotte area. The Hendrick complex is huge ! 600,000 sq. feet of facilities tucked out a country road. There is one building where they build the engines. She said that any team that buys a Hendrick engine gets their own person to work on that engine. For instance, Tony Stewart buys one of Hendricks engines. A Hendrick mechanic travels with the Stewart team to work on that engine. Wow! One facility is the Jeff Gordon/Jimmie Johnson facility and the neighboring one is for Dale Jr. and Mark Martin. You see the guys working in the shops on the cars and you could eat off the floors....they are so clean ! Tons of trophies all over the place from all of the drivers, their suits, their helmets...anything you could imagine. Our last stop was the Hendrick museum which had tons of previous cars from all of his drivers plus more trophies and memorabilia. Here is also where the gift shop is with all things Jimmie, Jeff, Mark and Jr.

What an interesting day...I think the $99 per person is a great value for what you get. On top of touring all of these places,(some of which the public can't access) and not having to worry about parking or driving, we also got a great lunch that came in an exclusive thermal Hall of Fame lunch sack. It was fun..fun fun...and we'd highly recommend AIM's tour to anyone coming to the Charlotte area. Jennifer also told us that the $5 tour that Charlotte Motor Speedway gives is well worth the price so we might go back for that. Charlotte is a beautiful city and I didn't realize that after NYC, it's the second financial hub in the country. The lady, from the Hall of Fame, who was traveling with us told us that the Hall is trying out some things to bring people in. For Saturday races, people can pay $5 and watch the race on the GIANT IMAX screen in their theater in the Hall of Fame. That would be really cool ! You'd feel like you were right in the middle of the race. Great day....back to work tomorrow.

Home.....

This morning we went to the Universalist Church for services. Today's sermon was on Michiana and the meaning of "home". The pastor, from this church, will be moving soon to Indiana. "Michiana" is the tiny bit of shoreline that Indiana has with Lake Huron and is the area where Pastor Davis proposed to his wife. The Pastor grew up in Michigan, right along Lake Huron so in a sense he will be coming home. He does not care for the southern heat, although the climate zones, familiar to those who are gardeners, have been shifting and Indiana is warmer than it used to be. He said, who knows...by the time he retires Indiana may become a Zone 7, like North Carolina.

He talked about "home" and that for everyone, it holds a different meaning. It can be a place of comfort, love, pain, security or loneliness. Home may be the place where you grew up and the place you return to. It can also change, like it has for us or other RV'ers, to be wherever you are at any given time. It's that sense of belonging that draws you in and makes you feel safe. It was an interesting topic for the sermon. This pastor grew up in the Presbyterian faith but became a Universalist in 1986 when he realized that religion was more about love than about rules. The music today was superb...the choir sang and a musician, named Steve Jones sang. He was great ! He sang Neil Young's "Deep Forbidden Lake" and played acoustic guitar. We enjoyed our time there.

After church, we got the grit washed off our car from our mountain excursion a few weeks ago and then stopped at a place called Fresh Market to see if it's the same thing as the one we saw in Baton Rouge. It is....we spent some time chatting with Benny, behind the seafood counter. He's a retired banker and we talked about how sad the oil spill is for the seafood industry. Linda and I bought a cranberry/pecan/feta cheese topped salad, some red skin potato salad and some honey mustard chips for lunch. We took Boomer to the dog park and ate a bit before going in. Not much else going on today...did laundry and cleaned the apartment. Tomorrow is our big day with the behind the scenes tour of NASCAR garages and the NASCAR Hall of Fame. We're excited...should have some pics to post tomorrow night when we get back.

Till then, I'll leave you with the parting words, as shared by the Univeralist congregation:

Let us go in peace, believe in peace, create peace. May it be so...

Saturday...

Last day of our work week....busy couple of days. We've had two people sign rental agreements so far this week and another is possible on Monday which will make three for the week.....really unusually high number. We try for one new move in a week so three in one week is awesome. Another lady came to stay with us for three days (we call it a trial stay) and she was so fascinating to talk to. Turns out that her ancestry is who Clemmons, NC is named after. We introduced her to several people with common backgrounds (degrees in theology)and she talked up a storm to them. This afternoon, as she was waiting for a cab to take her home, she told me that she had the best time with all the people she met. She was blown away by the coincidences of who she met and how they somehow fit into her life. I told her to remember that there are no coincidences...everything happens for a reason and wouldn't it be nice to live in our community where she could experience this every day. She would be in a place where everyone looks out for one another and we're one big family. She was truly blown away by the whole thing. Jean is someone with low vision, due to glaucoma, so everything is in a "fog" to her. She said that the blind assoc had sent her some tapes to listen to and there were some on Mark Twain. I blew her mind when I told her that I grew up about 45 minutes from Elmira, NY where Mark Twain spent his summers and where the study, that he wrote several of his books, is located. Elmira is also where many family members are buried. I told her that my ex-husband had recorded the message that is heard on the machine outside of Mark Twain's study. She was fascinated by the whole thing. I hope she decides to come live here. It would be so good for her and she'd fit in so well. She needed to go home and talk to her brother, who lives in Calif., to get his thoughts on it.

Earlier today I was out on the front porch and checked on the bird nest that is in one of the ferns that line the front of our porch. I discovered them several weeks ago when I went to water the ferns and this bird came flying out of the fern and up popped the head of some little babies. They were so cute...glad I didn't drown them with my watering !

Tonight we had entertainment. His name is David McClintock and he is a pianist who plays by ear. Started out playing at 7 but couldn't learn the traditional way, with sheets of music. He would take his music lessons to a friend of his, who was also taking lessons, and have her play the piece. After listening to her play it, he'd sit down and play it....just from what he heard. Amazing ! He was wonderful....played compilations of songs and old time ones....like Turkey in the Straw...When Johnny Comes Marching Home, etc. Some of it was like the old time ragtime player piano style...real fast and irresistible to tap your foot to. He only played for about 45 min....wished it had been longer. Here's a video from his website....

Heartland Comm. PROMO from David McClintock on Vimeo.

David playing tonight at Creekside Terrace....

Today I set up a Twitter account for Creekside Terrace so I can post upcoming entertainment, seminars and all kinds of happenings on there for folks to follow us..

Monday

Today is our last full day off. We go into work at 11:30 tomorrow so we'll leave the campground around 9 in the morning. Today we drove into town, which is only a couple of miles down the road, to go to the thrift shops. We had seen three of them while we were driving around yesterday but only one was open today. It was well worth it though. Linda and I found quite a few blouses that will be great for work. The thermostat is set at 77 degrees, at the community, so we've discovered that short sleeves are the only way to go. The eight blouses we bought today will put us in good shape to stay cool at work.

While we were driving around, we saw these old houses in one area right outside of town. I love the windows and detail...Gorgeous houses from a grand ole time. The town of Mount Airy is really cute. We're going to wait till the next time we come up to park downtown and walk around to all of the shops. It's a little tricky to park Bertha in small places but since we won't need to drive her up here again (until we leave here with the rig), we can drive our car up each time we come. We're only 45 minutes from work....

It's so neat here, at the campground, that it feels like you're out in the country but it's only about two miles to Wal-Mart. The campground overlooks the mountains in the distance and you can see cars and trucks on the highway down below us. At night, it's so quiet. The campground cleared out today and there were only about 25 rigs left here. Tomorrow we'll just unhook everything, pull the slides in and leave the rig sitting here. Benny, the owner, will move it to the storage area......about 200 yards from where we are now. We won't be back here next week....we're headed to the NASCAR Hall of Fame and our behind the scenes tour. We can't wait !

July 4th

We're here at Mayberry Campground. Arrived about 10 this morning after picking up the rig from the repair shop. We weren't real happy to find that one of our tire chocks got busted at the repair place (apparently they don't think that people should block the wheels when they leave units in their parking lot). The silicone ring on our king pin is also busted up. Left a note for the service manager to call me tomorrow. I think they probably used a fork lift to pull the rig into the shop....drove up over the chock and when the forklift pivoted, it cut up the ring.

When we arrived, to the campground, the owner was running the office...his name is Benny. Nice, down to earth guy. Told us that he'd be giving a tour of the Eng/Chang homestead at 1 if we wanted to come over. We set up, hung out and then went over at 1. Benny told us that Eng was his great, great grandfather. Benny's grandfather owned the land the campground is now on. Benny bought it about 13 years ago. The campground has been here two years and he continues to make improvements. He is making a road up over the hill, towards the church where Eng and Chang are buried. It will provide sites that are shaded. We'll see if it's cool in the morning...I'd like to hike the path that leads back to their burial site.

Anyway, the tour was really interesting. The house looks like one your grandmother would own. He said it looks the same as when his grandparents had it and they still use it for get togethers. He invited us to look in cupboards, etc. and when I opened one in the kitchen all of the old spice tins were in there, all ready for someone to make something scrumptious with. There were pictures throughout of the Bunker family. If anyone is passing through Mount Airy, NC, I'd encourage you to stop here for the night and take a tour of the homestead. The life of Eng and Chang is an interesting one. One of their original steamer trunks, that they used while they traveled the world, is in one of the bedrooms and the photos that they sold were in the trunk. Here are some pictures from the homestead:

Car in the front yard at the homestead...1930

The indoor well. See the crank on the right and the ladle hanging on the left. Benny said they all drank from the ladle.

A family photo from a Bunker reunion...

We had just finished touring the house and were all outside in the yard and Benny was telling us about Eng and Chang and their coming over from Siam. He was chatting right along and then we all heard a real big "thud". Without skipping a beat, he says " That guy just dropped his rig" and kept on talking. We all turn to look and sure enough a guy with a dually pick-up truck and a big 5th wheel sat in the road just down below us. The rig had dropped off the hitch but came forward and was sitting on top of the box of the truck. I should have taken a picture but Linda and I were feeling the poor guys pain since the very first time we hooked up we dropped the rig and gave Bertha her "dimple". I'm sure he put his jacks down and got it squared away but I'm wondering how his truck bed looked. OUCH !

Looking at the tiers below us....

One of the two ponds in the campground with catch and release fishing...

It's a hot one today....currently 90 degrees right now. Thank goodness for the light breeze out there. Hoping it cools down so we can sit on the swing near our rig and enjoy the night air...Hope everyone has a safe and fun 4th of July !

Goin' Camping...

They finished repairing the rig so we're going to pick it up in the morning, as soon as we get off work. We also have to drop the Xterra off at a garage across town so we can get the cruise control fixed. It won't hold a setting and the "set" light flashes on the dashboard. It's no fun driving on a long trip without cruise control. Don't know how we ever survived before we had it.

As soon as we drop the car off we'll head up the road to get the rig and then we're off to Mayberry Campground for the next two nights. Yippee !!! Not sure we still know how to set up camp....but I think we can wing it.

Calling for hot temps the next couple of days...in the nineties so we're hoping for a nice breeze up on the mountain. It will be nice to get away on our days off. Tomorrow there is a cookout here at 12:30 and then a bluegrass band at 2 and then some feeble fireworks (probably Rick standing out front with some sparklers)at 7 or so. We had alot of calls today for people signing up to come so there's around 30 extra people coming. I also called a bunch of people and invited them....many wouldn't commit but sounded interested. We left a note that there could be some drop-ins.....surprise !!

We are tired out...waiting for the NASCAR race to kick off. Rain delay in Daytona. I remember when Linda and I were there last year and stood next to the track, in awe of the banking on the one turn. This is the last race on this track before they repave it so might be an interesting race. Hope they get some of it in before we're done in for the night...not gonna be long now !