Little Bit of This and That...

The campground was
packed this weekend. Not an empty site in the park. We were talking to the folks next to us as they were tearing down camp to go. They are from the Netherlands and just bought their rig a few days ago. They are going to try out camping for a few months, then store the rig in Florida and catch a flight back home. They are traveling till around October before flying out of Florida for home. Nice folks !

Right after they pulled out the guy in the next site over was getting ready to leave. He had a very big, (I'm guessing a 39 or 40' unit)triple axle toy hauler. I was giving Bertha a bath and wasn't trying to be too nosy but he got my attention when he started beating on his rig. I look up and it appears that the bedroom slide hadn't gone in all the way. He was wailing on it with the backside of a hatchet. His rig didn't look very old but if I were to hazard a guess, I'm thinking that probably the warranty would be null and void if he's been beating on the slideout with a hatchet. Just a guess...After he tried the hatchet, then the cordless drill came out and he was trying to do something with the little corner pieces on the bottom right side of the slideout. Must be that didn't do the trick cause he went back to using the trusty ole hatchet. The whole family stood there watching him too. I peeked up from waxing (had finished with the washing part by now but heck with this kind of entertainment, it was worth staying outside to do some waxing)and they were all gathered around him. He got it to his level of satisfaction and then they were ready to leave. I'm glad I wasn't riding home with him cause he hooks on with a 2500 series of some brand of truck to this monster of a toy hauler. Gets it hooked and revs it a little to get the momentum to leave the site. With each burst of power, you can see the front end of the truck pull up a bit. Oh boy....he's got way too much rig for that baby truck he's driving.

Weather on Sunday was absolutely perfect. Temps in the upper 70's, great breeze and the night actually cooled off enough that we could open the windows while we slept. It was great. Today it got hotter ( in the 80's) but not unbearable. I talked to my mom on the phone today and up in PA where she lives, she woke to 30 degrees. Oh my...

We went out to eat twice and went to the Mexican restaurant that our good buddy Tom recommended. Dang, not only does he know his maintenance stuff but that boy knows how to pick great restaurants too. Had a great meal both times !

In the same plaza as the Mexican restaurant, is a Tractor Supply store. I wanted to go in there to look around...just for the heck of it. Oops ! They had their metal tool boxes on sale....(you know where this is headed don't ya ?)Ta daa..... After much deliberation and measuring, Bertha got a new place for her tools. The big stuff like the generator and air compressor. They needed a home other than in the back seat with Boomer. Now we actually would have room for passengers in our back seat, should the need ever arise. It's really cool and everything fits and it looks so much more organized than before. I love it ! And like I said it was on sale....

Work is so much better this week than last week or last month. The floating managers arrived Saturday night and we sat down and chatted with them. And get this, they have the same work ethic and us ! They follow company standards, expect people to show up for work and be held accountable when they don't, and want the same things that we do. Wow, is it ever refreshing. Turns out that they worked at our location for a year, in the same position that we are in. They encountered many of the same things we did with the managers and ended up leaving because of it. They know the building and are there to back us up. They would like us to work the managers schedule which would mean Fridays and Saturdays off so we'll have to figure out how to make that work (might mean we go back to work tomorrow and then we'll be off again Thursday night...oh boy !). We're optimistic that we might be able to turn some things around at our community but we'll wait and see how it goes.

It's a new week...Hope everyone had a great Labor Day. We sure did !The campground emptied out today so only a handfull of rigs remain..it's quiet here. Linda's sitting on the swing while I write this. Sound of traffic on the distant highway. Boomer's watching people walking by and there's the smell of campfires in the air. Ahhhhh.....aint it grand !

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

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 !

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.