Clemmons NC to Greensboro NC and Home

11-05-15 Thursday Well it is time to leave and the sun is finally shining bright. We departed about 10AM for a short drive to Greensboro. We arrived in about an hour and setup in the Coliseum parking lot. They have an area for RVs that have electrical hookups. There is a regular campground about 10 miles away but for about the same price we can park here and I can just walk across the parking lot to the symposium.

After lunch we went to a local fresh meat market to get some bratwurst.

11-06-15 Friday I helped some of the members of my woodturning club setup our lathe and other equipment in the demo room that we are sponsoring for the symposium. The symposium started at 1PM. There are several professional woodturners here from all over the country that are demonstrating their specialty.

We have friends that live here in Greensboro. They picked us up and we all went out to supper together at a local restaurant.

11-07-15 Saturday The symposium started today at 8:30AM and ran until 5PM. Then we attended the banquet at 6PM followed by the auction. Some of the vendors and several of the professional turners donated items for the auction. The funds are used to offset some of the symposium cost.

11-08-15 Sunday Today the symposium ran from 8:30AM to 2:30PM. After the symposium ended I help pack all our club's equipment up.

11-09-15 Monday We woke up to rain this morning. It was still raining when we departed for home at 9AM and it rained all the way home. We arrived about 1PM.

Gaffney SC to Clemmons NC 10-31-15 to 11-04-15

10-31-15 Saturday We departed the service center about 10:30AM, stopped to fill up with diesel fuel. Fuel is always cheaper in South Carolina. We have never purchased diesel fuel for $2.01 before today. We had a nice drive of about 115 miles to Clemmons NC. We checked in at Tanglewood Park and set up in campsite #11. This is really nice county owned park. The campground has 44 full hookup sites with long paved parking pads and free WiFi. The park has very nice paved biking, jogging, walking paths. Mountain style biking paths, two dog parks, two swimming pools, two fishing ponds, horse riding trails, two golf courses, 6 tennis courts, etc. There is a very large willow oak tree between each site for summer shade. Some of the sites are sloped too much for a motorcoach but would be okay for a travel trailer or 5^th wheel. This is our third stay here so we knew which site to reserve.

We set up, had lunch and read for awhile and then took a walk on one of the trails. They have a Christmas Light Show here in the park from late November to early January. The lights have already been setup. You pay a entry fee and drive your vehicle through the park after dark to view the lights.

Site 11

11-01-15 Sunday We woke up to drizzling rain. I had swept the oak leaves off of our site yesterday but this morning the site and everything on it had wet Willow Oak leaves stuck all over it. It continued to rain all day so we stayed in, did some paperwork and read. Yesterday the campground was almost full but by noon today about 2/3 of the campers had departed. I guess they have to go back to work Monday.

11-02-15 Monday Well the rain is still coming down and is supposed to continue all day. And it did, so we stayed in for awhile but got “cabin fever” so we went to the Club House here in the park for lunch and then went to Dunkin Donuts for coffee and doughnuts followed by a trip to a local grocery store to stock up on some coffee and snacks.

11-03-15 Tuesday We got our walking in today. We walked 1.5 miles before breakfast and then after breakfast we went to Old Salem and must have walked at least another 2 miles. For any that doesn't know this is a Moravian town that was founded in the 1700's by Moravians. It has dozens of original buildings and many are open for touring for a fee. The gift shops and eating establishments can be entered without paying a fee. Several buildings have crafts people performing crafts like would have been done in the 1700's, including long rifles and shoes. We had not been to Old Salem in years and had never paid the fees to tour the inside of the buildings. We decided to pay the $23 fee per person and tour all the buildings. We were glad we did. You don't really get to see how the people lived until you go inside the buildings. The guides in the buildings were in period dress and were very informative. There is still an active female college on the grounds – Salem Academy and College. Also two active churches are on the grounds - Home Moravian Church and St. Phillips African Moravian Church.

A documentary film crew was on site making a film about the Revolutionary War Period in our country. It will be aired in the Summer of 2016 on Fox. It is a segment of the Legend and Lies Series produced by Bill O'Reilly. We were allowed to take all the photos we wanted of the cast and crew but were asked to not post any online until after the film has been aired so I will not post any here.

We stopped at The Flour Box Tea Room and Cafe for coffee and a desert and later in the day we went to The Tavern for a great late lunch. George Washington ate in this tavern when he was in the area. There are several houses in Old Salem that are private residences and are not open to the public. There is also a nice museum with several pieces of period furniture, pottery and dinnerware.

Gunsmith Shop

Stable

Single Brothers House meeting room with pipe organ

Wide board flooring

Wood Lathe

Coobler

First family home in Old Salem

God's Acre cemetery

Doctor's House

Home Moravian Church

Inside Home Moravian Church

African American Moravian Church

Leaves

Inside Tavern

Looking out window in Tavern

Outside Tavern

Gunsmith Shop

After a great day we returned to the campground about 5PM.

11-04-15 Wednesday Before breakfast we walked 1.85 miles and later we drove several miles to check out a local butcher shop that our waiter at The Tavern had told us about. I had ordered a bratwurst plate and thought the bratwurst was very good so I asked him where they purchased it. It came from a meat shop in Greensboro but he told me a local butcher shop made some that he thought was even better. We found the butcher shop but they did not have any bratwurst so that was a wasted trip.

After picking up a few groceries we returned to the campground for lunch and some reading. We will depart tomorrow for Greensboro so I can attend the North Carolina Woodturning Symposium.

Lake Lure NC to Gaffney SC 10-29-15 to 10-30-15

10-29-15 Thursday We departed about 10:30AM and drove about 55 miles to the Freightliner Service Center in Gaffney SC for our service appointment on Friday. We arrived about 12 noon and setup in site 5. The service center has 20 - 50AMP sites for motorhomes that are here for service work. There is also a dumpstation and fresh water available on site.

10-30-15 Friday We had the motorhome ready for our 8AM service appointment. Then we went to Cracker Barrel for a good breakfast before returning to the service center waiting room to read and talk to others here for service. Another couple joined us for a late lunch at Broncos mexican restaurant. Our coach was ready about 3:30PM so we setup again for the night. We will depart here tomorrow.

Concord to Lake Lure NC 10-23-15 to 10-28-15

10-23-15 Friday The campground was busy this morning with most everyone packing up and leaving for their next destination including us. We departed about 9:30AM and drove 100 miles to Apple Valley Farm Motorcoach Resort. We were here for two days in August. This is a nice quiet place surrounded by some nice mountain views. We set up in site 121, the same site we used in August. We have an appointment on the 30^th in Gaffney SC to get our motorhome serviced so we needed a place to stay until then.

Resort pond 

Entrance to Resort

After getting setup which only took a few minutes we drove to Chimney Rock to eat lunch at Genny's Restaurant. We ate there in August so we decided to try it again. They have a Chicken Fried Steak special that is really good.

10-24-15 Saturday After breakfast we decided to go to the Folk Arts Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Asheville. We stopped at The Lake Lure Flowering Bridge Gardens in Lake Lure on the way. The state replaced a bridge over the Broad River with a larger modern bridge so the people in the community of Lake Lure have taken the old 1925 era three arc bridge and turned it into a beautiful flower garden. There is a winding stone paver walking path across the bridge and all kinds of flowers are planted along the path, with a few benches to sit on along the way. A very nice way to make use of an old bridge and create a beautiful attraction for the town.

The drive through the mountains to the Folk Arts Center was really beautiful as the trees are in their full Fall display of colors. The center was really busy with lots of people out enjoying the nice Fall weather. There was a professional woodturner there demonstrating so I got to talk woodturning with him a few minutes. We drove a short distance up the parkway before turning around to head back to Lake Lure. The traffic in Chimney Rock was really bad on the way back. There is only one road through the towns of Bat Cave, Chimney Rock and Lake Lure and there were lots of “Leaf Peepers” out enjoying the beautiful Fall colors. We were going to stop in Chimney Rock for lunch but could not find a parking place so we went on to Lake Lure and stopped at Lastrada Restaurant.

10-25-15 Sunday We walked around the resort a couple of times before breakfast. We relaxed, watched the NASCAR race and did some reading for the remainder of the day.

10-26-15 Monday We woke up to rain and it rained most of the day so we stayed in and read.

10-27-15 Tuesday It is still raining. We were getting “cabin fever” so we got our rain coats and drove to Chimney Rock to check out some of the shops and get something to eat for lunch. There were not many tourist today unlike Saturday when we could barely get through town. We stopped at the local Ingles grocery store to pick up a few items on the way back to the motorhome.

10-28-15 Wednesday It is still raining but is supposed to clear today so we decided to do some exploring around the area and hopefully get some good fall foliage photos. We stopped in Black Mountain at The Dripolator Coffee Shop for a latte and a cookie dough chocolate brownie. They make a really good latte and have a good selection of sweet treats.

Then we drove back along highway 9 and was able to get a lot of good photos since the rain had slowed down to just an occasional mist and before we got back to the motorhome it had stopped and the sun was out. The drive along highway 9 from Black Mountain to Bat Cave is a beautiful drive but do not take a large motorhome on this road. It has several very sharp curves.

Lake Lure