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

Home to Concord NC 10-19-15 to 10-23-15

Home to Concord NC

10-19-15 Monday We departed home at 8AM headed to Concord NC to attend a Freightliner Chassis Owner Club Motorhome Rally. A cold snap blew in last night and we had our first frost of the season and 33 degree temperatures. We stopped for fuel in Wallace and walked across the street to McDonald's for breakfast before proceeding on to Concord. We arrived about 1:45PM and was escorted to our campsite in the VER-EL Mobile Village campground. The campground is across the street from the Charlotte Motor Speedway – a NASCAR race track. After getting setup we checked in and later attended the Hospitality Hour before eating a catered Dinner of BBQ pork and chicken. Then we played new game for us called Left-Right-Center.

10-20-15 Tuesday This was another cold frosty morning. We walked down to the rally tent for a catered breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, biscuits, etc. We were not in any way pleased with the breakfast. The same catering company that served dinner last night, which was very good, served breakfast but it sure was not up to the same standard. After breakfast I attended a chassis seminar put on by Freightliner. They explained maintenance, driving, transmissions, etc.

The sun came out later and it was a nice warm day. We returned to the tent at 5PM for hospitality hour followed by a good dinner. After everyone ate we had a “womenless fashion show” with 4 “ gorgeous” beauties.

10-21-15 Wednesday After breakfast we boarded a 55 passenger bus for a tour of the Charlotte Motor Speedway and some of the local NASCAR race shops. The first stop was across the street at the speedway. The group split up into small groups and boarded several 9 passenger vans for the riding tour of the 2000 acre speedway grounds. The banking on one of the turns on the track is 22 degrees. Our van driver stopped the van at the top of the track and it was hard to set up in the seat without falling over on the person beside you. Then he rode around the track and got up to 80MPH. The race drivers run around the track about 200MPH with 42 other cars bumper to bumper. We saw all the garage bays where the cars are kept during the race and then stopped at Winner's Circle for some photographs. We also got to see the dirt race track and the 4 lane drag strip.

Charlotte Motor Speedway

Seating



Winner's Circle



Drag Strip

Then we boarded the bus again for the trip over to Roush-Finway Race Shop Campus. Roush-Finway had a nice museum with a cutaway car, engines, race suits, trophies, driver seats, and one of their severely wrecked race cars. Then we stopped for a few minutes at the building where the cars are assembled.

Race car interior before sides & top intalled

Crashed race car

Race shop assembly room

After leaving Roush-Finway we stopped at Chick-Fil-A to pick up our box lunches. There were 92 on the tour counting the guides and bus drivers and Chick-Fil-A had prepared a lunch for each one. From there we went to Chip Ganassi Racing to eat our lunch and tour their shop.

Austin Dillon's race car # 42

We stopped at the house for a few minutes where Dale Earnhardt grew up and where his mother still lives. The garage where Dale built his first race car is still in the back yard.

Dale Earnhardt's original race shop

Then we stopped at Curb Museum for Music and Motorsports. It is full of race cars including the car that Richard Petty won his 199^th (the next to the last one for him) race. It is also the home of the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame. There are many famous musicians from North Carolina and many were represented here with memorabilia.

Richard Petty's 199th win car

Leann Rhimes' first car with less than 500 miles on it

From here we went to Hendrick Motor Sports Campus. By far they have the biggest operation and have over 600 employees working in several large buildings. We got to see several cars and was able to watch the technicians in two shops preparing the cars for a race. We had heard that the shop were so clean you could eat off the floor and after seeing these shops I believe that s true. The floors very clean and shinny and one was painted snow white and it looked like it had just been mopped.

Dale Earnhardt Jr's 2014 Daytona 500 winner car

Before the motor and other body parts

Shop for Dale Earnhardt JR and Jimmy Johnson

This was a very interesting tour and the guide on our bus was very informative. He has worked in the racing industry for about 40 years and knows several of the drivers personally.

We returned to the campground about 4:15PM and went to the hospitality hour followed by dinner at 6PM.

10-22-15 Thursday After breakfast we went to Walmart to get few items, including a replacement bulb for the taillight on the motor home. The remainder of the day was doing some reading, replacing the taillight bulb and relaxing until it was time for the evening hospitality hour and then dinner. After dinner a musician sang and played some songs from the 70's and 80's for the group.