Stone Mountain State Park NC - Days 22-28

Day 22 – Tuesday April 19, 2016 Today was our day off so we drove to Elkin for breakfast at McDonald's. While there we used their WiFi to catch up this blog and catch up on other internet needs. Later we drove to the Historic Downtown area to checkout the area. We browse several Antique shops including the Elkin Antiques Collectible Mall. Just out of the downtown area there were some large closed furniture and textile factories. We saw a brochure for a brick oven pizza place and planned to eat lunch there but they are closed for lunch the first part of the week, so we went to Royall's Soda Shop. Lena got a hamburger and I ordered two of what the menu called their Famous Hot Dogs all the way except for slaw. I didn't see what made them “famous”. They came with the slaw I didn't want and the wieners and chili were just warm not hot as expected of they had just come off the grill. But rather than complain I ate them.

On the way out of town we stopped at Walmart for a few groceries. Some of you may have seen the You Tube videos or photos that are emailed around the internet of “the people of Walmart”. Well we saw one today. Rather than describe what we saw, let me just saw the man needed a “plummers's shirt” really bad..

We returned to the campground and read for a couple hours and decided to ride around the campground to see if the maintenance crew had repaired to water leak in loop B. They had fixed it and are waiting to cover up the hole to see if it leaks anymore. We stopped and talked to some of the campers as we made our way around.

We have seen and or talked to campers in the campground from several states including North and South Carolina, Ohio, New Jersey, Missouri, Florida, Virginia, New York, California, Indiana, Minnesota, Vermont, Connecticut, Washington and others. Also England, Toronto, Ontario and Nova Scotia Canada.

Day 23 – Wednesday April 20, 2016 Our second day off so we had a late breakfast and drove to the lower parking lot to hike up to Stone Mountain Summit from the other direction. We hiked to the summit last Wednesday from the upper parking lot. We are trying to hike all the trails so we can better explain the trails when we are asked about them when we work in the Visitor's Center on the weekends.

This was much more strenuous of a hike than from the other direction. The climb was steeper so there were lots of steps but we made it in an hour. We had a snack when we got to the summit before heading back down. I counted 620 steps – not all in one place but were built in areas that were steep to help with the climb up and to help with erosion of the trail.

A few of the 620

Lena making her way to the top

More steps

View across the mountain

View from the Summit of Stone Mountain

When we got back to the parking lot a man that passed us on the trail was a little confused as to which parking lot he was in. He thought the trail was taking him back to where he had parked his car, which was in the upper parking lot. We offered him a ride since we were going right by there on our way to the campground. He gladly accepted.

After resting for a short while we decided to go to Sparta and eat at Brown's Restaurant. We usually eat there at least one time while in the area. It is always good. When we left the parking lot we spotted another coffee shop on a side street called Sparky's with a sign stating they had the “Best Coffee You Have Ever Tasted”. So we decided to give them a try. After trying it we decided they came up with that slogan and not their customers. I asked for a double shot of espresso and I could barely taste any coffee. Lena said hers had no coffee taste and was barely warm. Mine was so hot I could not hold the cup until it cooled off some. Both coffees were made at the same time by the same person. We overheard him telling some ladies in the shop that he had worked in coffee shops for years and also had a college degree in Pre-Law. We think maybe he needs to finish his law degree and try that for an occupation.

Would you take driving lessons with this instructor

Woodruff Primitive Baptist Church near Sparta NC

Near Sparta NC

Closer view

Blueberry and Cherry Pie from Mt Airy NC

Campground view from site 90

Some of you may have seen/heard about the new trend called Tiny Houses. These are complete houses that are only a few hundred square feet. About 7PM a camper from North Dakota stopped at the contact station to check in pulling a Tiny House on wheels. I asked him about it and he said it was a “hellva dog house”.

Day 24 – Thursday April 21, 2016 Back to our normal routine today. We had several reservations coming today so we put out the signs and cleaned and raked all the sites that needed it. We had to use my power pack to jump start another campers car this morning.

We had a light rain shower before dawn so everything was spotted today from the rain and pollen that is covering everything.

We rode through the campground several times and cleaned a few ore sites that vacated during the day. The Tiny House got a lot of curious looks and questions of the owners.

We called our oldest grandson to wish him a Happy 10^th Birthday.

Day 25 – Friday April 22, 2016 We awoke to rain this morning. We had lots of reservation signs to put out this morning so when the rain stopped about 9AM we began and worked until after 11AM cleaning and raking sites. We returned to our site, did some reading, eating and I napped for awhile. It rained off and on until about 4PM. We picked up the reservation signs for those that had came in today before we quit for the day to lighten our work for tomorrow. There are only 3 sites of the 88 that are not reserved or occupied for tonight.

The rain has washed the pollen off everything at least for today. Most the trees have leafed out now so the pollen is falling. We haven't seen the deer in several days, I guess they have taken a few days off.

Day 26 – Saturday April 23, 2016 We had about a dozen reservation signs to put put out and a few sites to clean and rake. As we were making our rounds we were stopped at site 58 by the camper that had just arrived. He did not have any power on his site so we reported that and a problem with a water hydrant on 57 to the maintenance crew.

Later I went to clean/rake one site that had just been vacated and I knew the person that had it reserved for tonight was already in the park. When I got to the site the man in the site next to it and his two young daughters were looking down into the fire pit on the site I was coming to clean. I got my trash bucket and grabber and walked over to the pit and the campers that had just departed had left 6-8 grocery bags of dog “pooh” in the fire pit. The man was explaining to his daughters how that was not good camper ediquite. The youngest girl (about 6) said “well it is not the dogs fault they just can't hold it”. How true. The campers drive right by the trash dumpsters on their way out of the campground and are supposed to dispose of their own trash.

Just before we went to the Visitor's Center to relieve Wilma for lunch an ambulance came in the park running lights and siren. A lady hiking one of the trails had broken her ankle. About 2 hours later another ambulance came in the park running lights and siren. A girl had fallen on one of the trails and was unconscious.

It was really windy this afternoon and several tents and canopies were blown down. I had planned to cook over a campfire but decided not to due to the wind. There are a lot of dry leaves around the perimeter of our site and I didn't want to cause a fire.

When I was making my last pass through the campground one of the campers had left his lights on on his motorhome and drained his battery so I got my power pack out again and gave him a jump start. This makes 3 jump starts in the last week.

Day 27 – Sunday April 24, 2016 After breakfast we put out the reservation signs and cleaned/raked a few sites before we had to go to the Visitor's Center to relieve Wilma during her lunch hour. We answered visitor's questions and sold a few items then returned to our site for a quick lunch. Then we clean/raked the reserved sites that had been vacated before the new arrivals came in. It was such a nice day we worked longer than we planned to. We had raked/cleaned 27 sites before we quite.

After returning to our site I started a campfire and got our small Dutch Oven out and cooked some smoked sausage, potatoes, squash, onions and zucchini over the fire.

Day 28 – Monday April 25, 2016 We only 5 reservations coming in today so we put out the signs and raked/cleaned a few sites. The maintenance crew was also out raking sites and cleaning the fire pits. We had cleaned so many yesterday it didn't take long to finish up. We had a fairly easy day. A few campers departed today so we cleaned those sites and they departed.

We relocated the Host wood pile father away from the fire pit and placed the wood between two trees to make the site look neater. And we added more rocks to the rock lined path down to the street toward the contact station that I had started last year.

Our Volunteer Campground Host Site

This was our last work day. The weather has been really nice the last few days and we have really enjoyed our month here. We enjoyed our time here last March but like April better and the new setup that is in place now. We hope to get invited back next year. Together we have volunteered 123.5 hours during the month. We will depart for home on Wednesday and a new campground host couple we start Thursday.