Day 1 Monday August 5, 2024
We start a new adventure today. We are headed to the “Head Waters” of the Mississippi River in Bemidji Minnesota to meet up with a caravan of other RVers. This will be our third caravan with Fantasy RV Tours. The caravan part of the trip will be 34 days but our entire trip will be about 2 1/2 months as we have other things planned for this trip. Other than the Wagonmasters and Tailgunners all the RVs will be a Tiffin brand RV. We only know one couple going on this trip. Our friends from Bostic NC, Gregg and Judi will be joining us on the caravan. The official meetup date in Bemidji is August 30th but we plan to get there August 28th.
We had planned to leave at 11AM today since our first stop was less than a 2 hour drive to Raven Rock State Park between Lillington and Sanford NC. But it was 12:45PM before we could leave.
Saturday night between 10:30 and 11:30 the Spectrum Internet cable that runs above the highway to our house came down due to high winds from a rain storm that blew through. The service technician couldn’t come until this morning and we had to be home so he could come inside after he got the cable replaced and clear the modem of errors. It worked out okay since checkin time was 3PM at the campground.
We decided to get on Hwy 421 in Dunn since our normal route on 210 to 421 near Lillington is so busy with construction of housing projects. We stopped at Smithfield’s Chicken and BBQ in Dunn for one of their good two piece dinners. There is a large shopping center parking lot behind the restaurant so we have a place to park so it is a good place to stop for lunch.
We got to the campground and was set up about 3:30. This is a fairly new campground and only has 24 campsites and 6 cabins. Only 9 sites have hookups and one of them is the campground hosts site so only 8 for customers. We don’t understand the thinking of the decision makers in the state park administration. Why just put hookups for 9 sites and there isn’t even a sewage dump station in the campground for anyone that might use the nonhookup sites and need to dump their holding tanks. So most of the nonhookup sites are unused.
After it cooled off in the evening we walked around the loop of the campground. This is a nice campground but most of it is vacant due to the lack of utility hookups. All the sites are huge compared to a commercial campground and the parking pad is long enough to accommodate 2-3 campers.
Day 2 Tuesday August 6, 2024
We have driven through Lillington many times on our way to and from Western North Carolina and noticed Front Street Coffee Shop in the downtown area but of course we weren’t able to stop because the police would probably frown on us parking a 41’ motorhome towing a car in the parallel parking spots downtown beside highway 421.
Since Lillington is only about 6 miles from the campground we decided to try the Front Street Coffee Shop this morning. We are expecting rain from TS Debby tomorrow so today was a good day to get out and explore the area. The Lattes were good. It was a very popular place as they were very busy.
After fueling up the Jeep with gasoline we returned to the park and decided to go to the Visitor Center to view their displays again and to take some photos. We went to the Visitor Center earlier this year but didn’t take any photos which is very unusual for us. It was closed due to staff shortage so we were disappointed. We took the short .2 mile Longleaf Pine trail behind the Visitor Center. We would have taken a longer trail down to the Cape Fear River but rain is in the area and we preferred to not get soaked.
We were having some effects from TS Debby in the form of a light rain occasionally all afternoon but I did get in a walk around the campground again. It is a mile walk around the campground so it makes for a good walk and the street is paved. A couple of the RVs have departed before their reservations have expired. I guess to get ahead of the rain coming from TS Debby. So there is only 5 RVs counting the campground hosts and two tents in the campground tonight. If a camper wants peace and quiet this is the place to come.
Day 3 Wednesday August 7, 2024
We had hoped to take the hiking trail down to the Cape Fear River this morning but we are getting rain from TS Debby off and on. But we found out the Visitor Center is open so we went there to look at the nice displays they have about the Cape Fear River and history of the area.
We didn’t want to go and sit in the motorhome all day and watch it rain so we drove to nearby Sanford to see if they had any interesting old buildings and maybe some murals in the old downtown area. We were not disappointed as we found several murals and some nice old buildings to photograph.
Then we decided to get lunch at Cracker Barrel followed by a quick visit to Lidles before returning to the campground. The rain was getting heavier later in the day. There is only two RVs plus the campground hosts in the campground and no tents. None of the cabins are occupied. While we were in the Visitor Center Lena heard someone call in to cancel their cabin reservations.
10PM
TS Debby is upon us now. We are getting lots of rain and wind gusts. I pulled in our big slide on the passenger side where the wind gusts are coming from. We don’t need the wind to rip our slide topper off.
Day 4 Thursday August 8, 2024
We got lots of rain and wind gust all night. Thankfully our campsite driveway and parking area is all concrete so we will not be getting stuck. We are supposed to leave here today and travel to Marion NC about 220 miles away. I was not looking forward to breaking camp and driving to Marion NC today in this storm. Lena suggested we stay here tonight which I had not thought about. I got online and tried to extend our stay one night but the reservation system showed no sites available which I knew was not true. So I called the Visitor Center and spoke to a Ranger. He came to our site to talk. He said their Internet at the office was not working. I told him we needed to extend our stay one night. He didn’t seem to know what to do but said the staff was having a meeting around Noon and would update us after the meeting. I told him we were not leaving today unless someone told us we HAD to leave.
Later Ranger Liz told us they wanted us to be safe and we could stay tonight at no charge if that’s what we wanted to do and they would review the weather situation tomorrow. There is one other RV here that is staying tonight also. We thanked her and told her we would be leaving in the morning.
Later she came back and gave us her cell phone number and told us to text her when we were ready to leave in the morning and she would open the campground gate for us. They are closing the campground for the weekend. Not sure why since the storm is supposed to be way past this area by the morning but that is their decision. We are just happy we didn’t have to leave this morning and drive 200+ miles in a Tropical Storm.
Day 5 Friday August 9, 2024
What a difference a day makes. We had lite rain just as we were getting ready to leave at 7:30AM. I text Ranger Liz and she met us at the campground gate and let us out. The lite rain continued until near Greensboro then it was a beautiful sunshine day from then on to Camping World Campground in Marion NC. This was Tom Johnson’s RV Sales and Campground but Camping World bought this location and the one in Charlotte a few years ago. We have been here several times to attend the North Carolina Bluegrass Festival.
We checked in, had a fish lunch in TJ’s Cafe at the Service Center and then setup in site 16. It doesn’t appear they got much rain from the storm yesterday. We were supposed to attend the McDowell County Music Roundup this afternoon and tomorrow but the promoters canceled it due to the storm.
Later we drove the few miles to Marion to buy some sausage from a small grocery store in town that we found many years ago. They make it in their in store butcher shop and we like it. Then we went to a car wash to get the road crud off the Jeep. Then it was a quick stop at Food Lion for some milk.
It is hot today even though we are in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains but about 7PM it had cooled off so we could finally set outside for awhile.
Day 6 Saturday August 10, 2024
Lena found a coffee shop in Marion that she wanted to try (surprise surprise) so we went there for morning coffee. It was not here when we were coming to Marion regularly for the NC Bluegrass Festival prior to 2019. The name was Ingenious Coffee Roasters. The coffee was good and so were the muffin and cinnamon bun. It is a large coffee shop in the historical part of downtown Marion. Most of the patrons there were “seasoned” citizens like us.
A younger lady came in with two small children and the boy was really full of energy and a head of long curly hair. I asked him if he had already had two cups of coffee and he told me he “didn’t like coffee “. I noticed his mother got both kids hot chocolate.
Before we left several people came in and set around some tables in the rear of the shop and began playing their musical instruments and singing. The mountains seam to breed musicians. It must be in the water.
The historical downtown part of Marion has some really pretty buildings and the town has really stepped up the appearance of downtown. Almost all of the buildings are occupied with some type of business. We walked the streets and took several photos. There were several small murals.
We returned to the motorhome for a while then decided to drive up the mountain to Little Switzerland Cafe for lunch. We are rarely in the area that we don’t go there for lunch at least one time. It is a small cafe that serves a large variety of sandwich type meals. We have never had a bad one and the service is always great. Around Noon you may have to wait a few minutes for a table but it is worth the wait. We got lucky and got a table outside on the porch in the nice much cooler air than down in Marion. The people that ride motorcycles likes the area due to the winding mountain roads and it is just off the Blue Ridge Parkway and there is always several riding by and many stop to eat.
We departed and decided to ride from there on some back roads we had never been on before returning to the motorhome. It was 12 degrees cooler at Little Switzerland than at our campground.
Day 7 Sunday August 11, 2024
After breakfast we drove about 37 miles to Bostic NC to visit our friends Gregg and Judi. They also own a Tiffin Motorhome very similar to ours. Gregg and I share information when we have issues with our motorhome. They will be joining us later this month in Minnesota when we join the Caravan to travel down the Mississippi River.
We had lunch with them and then we returned to the motorhome mid afternoon and relaxed the remainder of the day
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