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

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 !

A Bunch of Miles

On Monday, our second day off, we went within an hour's drive of Winston-Salem to check out campgrounds. We'd like to find one where we can head out, as soon as we get up on our day off (Sunday) and go to a campground with the rig to hang out for our two days off. We checked out four different campgrounds, ranging from 16 miles away to the furthest being an hour away. We liked CrossWinds campground, which was the closest, but due to the early arrival time and it being on a Sunday it would be a little tricky to make it work. We'd have to call on a Saturday and see if there is a spot open; otherwise with the late check out they allow on Sundays, there's no telling when we could get in. CrossWinds is a small campground but easy to get there and they have about eight large pull throughs up front (near the pool)that would work for us. We spoke with Glenda, the owner of the campground and she was very willing to work with us on our needs.

We drove to a couple others...High Rock Marina and Campground (an older campground with tight sites)and Oak Hollow Campground. We liked "B" section of Oak Hollow. It sat next to a large lake and although the sites were back ins, most of them were very long so it wouldn't be too tough to get into. It actually was a large gravel parking lot type of area with spray painted lines designating the separation between sites. Full hook ups but this is a first come, first serve campground. We'd have to wait till 8 a.m., when the office opens, to call and see it there's a spot open and then head out.

The place that seemed to be the best option for us is a campground that our friend, Tom told us about. It's an hour from here and is called Mayberry Campground. It is a large open campground that overlooks the mountains and surrounding area. Full hook-ups at all of the sites but the neat thing is that once we take our rig there, for $30 we can store it there and anytime we want to go up, we just call them and they take it to our site and it's all ready for us to set up once we arrive. There isn't a pool there but we've only swam a couple of times that we've ever been somewhere where they've had one. Not a big deal to us. There was a nice breeze blowing so not sure if that is typical as yesterday was gorgeous and perfect all the way around. It was in the high 70's, low humidity and beautiful blue skies. We drove all day long with all of our windows down and the cool breeze blowing through the car. Boomer was lovin' it !

Anyway back to Mayberry Campground....you may be wondering why it's called that. Mount Airy, where this campground is located is home to Andy Griffith. From what we understand, in downtown Mount Airy are many of the types of places that were part of the Andy Griffith show...Floyd;s barber shop, etc. We didn't make it to downtown...we'll save that adventure for when we go up there on our first camping trip. We think it important that the rig "Stay in use" to keep the systems operating correctly. I imagine it's like a house...the longer it sits without occupants the sooner it goes downhill. This would be our getaway and Sundays and Mondays should be quiet days in the park since many people camp on the weekends. With the exception of just a handful of sites, all of them were fine so I don't think we'd have a problem getting a site on our days off.

The campground itself is the former homestead of the descendants of the Siamese twins, Eng and Chang Bunker. The home still stands and has been maintained. It overlooks the campground. the Bunker's life is a very interesting one. Follow the link to learn more about them.

So...Monday was a busy day for us but we had a good time exploring nearby campgrounds and finding a getaway place for us. Now we just have to look at our schedule and figure out when we'll get the ball rolling.