Two Weeks in Laurel Springs, NC (5/30/25)

 

Meeting up with good friends Mike and Julie was one of the highlights of our trip east. We haven’t seen them in a couple of years but those hundreds of days melted away in about 2 minutes and then it felt like it was just yesterday- except that we realize how much we miss having them in our daily lives.

Our two weeks with them was busy, but not busy. We explored, we spent time with them, and with their friends, and we took time to just relax and enjoy.

We shared some meals, including a pot luck dinner…

and we shared campfires….

and we even shared meals around the campfire!

One of our adventures was to a local winery that had an event with live music and several vendors, and of course some wine tasting (cider for Paul)…

Being close to the Blue Ridge Parkway, there is tons of great hiking in this area.

One of our hiking days was spent at Grayson Highlands State Park… we first hiked the 1.5 mile  Rock house Ridge loop…

After which we took a break for a picnic lunch...

Our second trail of the day, to Big Pinnacle,  was a little more difficult with some rocky areas, but totally worth the views…

A few days later we combined hiking with music. We headed to the Blue Ridge Music Center where we hiked about 2 miles of the Fisher Peak Loop trail, without finishing the full loop.

As we returned to the music center we could hear the music starting up so we ate our lunch before heading to listen.

We managed to fit in one more day of hiking in our two week stay-

We walked about two miles along Bluff Mountain Trail, then called it done, and found a spot for lunch.

On our days off from hiking Paul and I did some exploring on our own- we found some pottery we liked at the winery and went to the potter’s  store to get more.

Mike and Julie (and other seasonal campers) have a pretty good garden that they tend to in the campground and Paul volunteered some time helping them do some planting.

I had promised myself I would get caught up on my blog ( I think we all know how well that went) but I had so many pictures to go through and organize- at least I got SOME done!

Memorial Day was quite gloomy so an impromptu party in the “barn” kept us all entertained.  Of course Paul and I helped with the quesadillas!

And then it was time to move on-

Heads, Carolina (10-08-22)

 As I debated the title for this post, I couldn’t get the words to a particular song out of my head, soooo….(google Cole Swindell- She Had Me At Heads Carolina)

I know I just wrote about going East but now we are going west- but I guess I should first write about what we did in North Carolina, since that’s probably a post in and of itself.

Our week with Mike and Julie was a whirlwind of activity…

During the day, we did several hikes, including two in Stone Mountain State Park (not to be confused with Stone Mountain in Georgia).

Our first hike the four of us took a 4.5 mile loop to visit Wolf Rock.

The other hike we did in the park was done differently. To hike the Stone Mountain Trail loop is 5.5 miles with 1000 ft of gain.  Paul and I hiked the loop, and Mike and Julie made it an out an back hike, and we met partway, at a waterfall, where we had lunch.

On our trail, it seemed like if it wasn’t stairs, it was a cable to help you keep your footing on the steep climb.

The views from Stone Mountain itself were pretty awesome.

Once we came off the mountain, we got some views of it from down below.

Eventually we had to descend 300 steps to get to the waterfall where we were meeting Mike and Julie.

…and the four of us finished the hike together!  It worked out very well.

When we weren’t hiking we were still adventuring.  Mike showed us the nearby cabin that used to belong to his parents, and we drove up to a lookout on the Blue Ridge Parkway to watch for migrating birds.

The evenings were full of Happy Hours and shared dinners.

Sometimes it was just the four of us and sometimes we met up with some of their friends- what a great group of people.

Our last night there, the four of us cooked a Mexican Feast for everyone.

Although we thought about extending our stay, we also need to get back west, and we have done the fast dash so many times, we wanted to be able to stop along the way and see some stuff- so, I looked online and snagged 3 nights in Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

We have only been to this park once and it rained the entire time we were there, so with good weather predicted, we were hoping to see what we couldn’t see last time-the main thing being the views from Clingmans Dome.

We waited our turn for a spot in the parking lot, and then we, along with thousands of other people, walked up the paved trail to the lookout. The views are pretty spectacular, and so, worth the crowds.

We were happy, however, that we knew about the “back trail” from the parking lot to the dome.

It had the advantage of being, longer, unpaved, and almost deserted. So that’s the way we went back.

We continued along the scenic road, stopping at lookouts whenever we saw a view we liked.

After one day in the park Paul made a decision. He was done with the crowds. 

We pulled out the park map and chose an area  to explore that seemed more off the beaten path for our second day in the park.  We chose a huge loop that took most of the day but we were fine with that.

We encountered very few people along this route- 4 wheel drive recommended. It wasn’t the most exciting drive, but that’s ok- I spent most of my time looking for bears. Nope, didn’t see one.

Most of the people we did see were at the small visitor center. We noticed a lot of people standing in a field, taking pictures of something. As we drove by, of course, we checked it out. Deer.  All I could think was that these people don’t get out of the city much.

We found a short hike to another lookout tower- this one called Look Rock.  The views were great and we saw just 3 people!

The main drag back into the park has the nickname “Tail of the Dragon”. This is one of those “bring it if ya got it” drives.

 It’s a dream drive for anyone in a sports car or on a motorcycle- Paul said it’s banked so well, he enjoyed driving it in the Jeep.  About every 1/4 mile there was someone with a camera and a website name plastered on their vehicle so you could log on and buy their pictures. 

We found a popular pull off and sat to watch the motorcycles and sports cars, many of which were sporting Go-Pros, zip by us, cruising along at a rate considerably over the speed limit. We were chatting with a guy who was driving an electric motorcycle, and this bike pulled up, which is also electric-and belongs to his brother. 

One of the things I did enjoy about Smoky Mountain, is that it reminded me of home (Massachusetts).  The trees are similar, and the rock is similar. I also enjoyed the crisp autumn air, particularly at our campsite, which was in the trees, mere feet from a stream. No matter how cold it gets in Arizona, we don’t get that crisp feeling you get back east. 

But that also means it is cold- and time to move.

Yo Yos (06/22/21)

 
These days it seems like Paul and I are yanked in one direction, then yanked back in another, before we have had time to take a breath. Such was the case with our trip to Massachusetts.

We limped into Massachusetts in early June, having broken a leaf spring on the trailer somewhere between Virginia and Mass. I am always grateful that Paul is so handy that he can diagnose and fix many issues with our vehicles.  He ordered the part we needed and had it shipped to the RV park.

Our with plans were to spend time with our son, and family and friends. However, soon after we got there, Paul’s mom in El Paso started having some issues we needed to deal with. Not being sure if we could do it from afar, we made plans to head back to Texas, just to be safe (she has since improved to the point that we don’t have to rush back). 

We gave ourselves a few days to cram in as many visits as we could, and we did pretty well.

We saw our photo-shy son a couple of times, my brother and his wife, my sister, aunt, and my childhood friends….whew. All in a few days.

After we started the trek back, his mom started doing better so we slowed the pace down a bit.

One of the RV Parks we found along the way was Dixie Caverns RV. We only spent one night there but we arrived early enough to take a tour of the cavern.

Although we have seen plenty of caverns in our travels, this one was pretty darn good.

We took a southern route, partly because RV spots would be easier to come by, but also to go through Florida, so that we could stop and say hi to our friends Mike and Julie. We never have a bad time with them and a bonus this time around is that we met their long time friends Deb and Rick.

All too soon we were on our way again, but our next stop was another happy one for me.  A few years ago we spent some time at Myrtle Beach and I fell in love with the idea of swimming in the ocean without going numb-having grown up in the northeast, I only knew about frigid water temperatures. Although Myrtle Beach wasn’t on our route, Gulf Shores, AL was.

The state park we stayed in also has bikes that you can borrow- so we did that early in the day before it got too hot.  We didn’t go very far, only about 5 miles, but it was fun, anyway.

Once we were done with our ride we headed for the beach, where I spent most of the afternoon in the water.

Continuing our slow trek westward, our next stop was New Orleans. We elected to stay at the French Quarter RV Resort- a very pricy resort but it comes with some perks.  Our site has a private outdoor bar, complete with TV, and we can walk to Bourbon Street from here.

Announcing to our family and friends that we were headed to NOLA produced a frenzy of emails, texts and phone calls. Did we know that there was a potential tropical storm headed that way? Yep, we did. That’s probably why the RV park had availability on short notice. We kept an eye on the weather, knowing we might have to hunker down. We did get a fair amount of rain, but very little wind, as the storm shifted east. It was just enough to make it fun sitting outside watching the weather channel.

Knowing the storm was coming, we spent our first night in NOLA on Bourbon Street, looking for live music and Hurricanes (the drink).

Pat O’Brien’s was our first stop (for a decent Hurricane) before heading to other venues for the live music. We found several bars with music we enjoyed, so we had a great evening flitting around from bar to bar. Apparently Bourbon Street just recently reopened, so some of the venues were short on entertainment.

The next day we figured we’d better walk off some of those drinks. so we headed to the waterfront, about a mile or so away. Along the way we stopped at Musical Legends Park for some food and live music. 

We had a lunch of typical New Orleans fare- a frozen Hurricane, Jambalaya, and beignets. I guess we didn’t really walk off the previous night’s drinks.

Next stop: Texas.