Stone Mountain State Park March 28 - April 10, 2017

Day 13 Tuesday March 28, 2017 After a night of thunderstorms and rain we packed up and departed for Stone Mountain State Park near Elkin, NC. We arrived about 10:45AM and setup in the Campground Host site. We will be the Volunteer Campground Host for the month of April. This is our third year as Campground Host here. We met with the Ranger that is in charge of the campground to get our keys and review any changes to our duties since last year.

Our GPS did not work on the way here so I called Customer Support and they determined I needed to mail it in for repairs.

Day 14 Wednesday March 29, 2017 Tuesday and Wednesday is the days off for the hosts so we drove to Hamptonville to check out a couple of Amish businesses. On the way we topped at Walmart to get some packing material so we could pack the GPS for shipment. We got several grocery item in the Amish stores and then drove back to Jonesville to drop of the GPS at a UPS pickup location. When we got there the UPS truck was there so we just handed it to the driver.

We returned to the campground and relaxed for the remainder of the day. We did take a walk around part of the campground and later drove through the campground on our assigned golf cart and talked to some of the campers.

Day 15 Thursday March 30, 2017 We awoke to a drizzly rain. After breakfast we began our first day as Hosts. We put on our Frogg Toggs and put out all the reservation signs and cleaned several of the vacant sites and talked to several of the campers. The rain continued for most of the day and through the night.

Day 16 Friday March 31, 2017 As usual Friday is the busiest day of the week with campers coming in for the weekend. The light rain and clouds cleared about noon and the sun came out. We should have about 68 of the 88 site occupied tonight. We did our normal routine throughout the day. I relieved the staff person that was working the contact station about 6PM so she could have dinner. It was so busy when she got back that I stayed and helped her until almost 8PM.

Day 17 Saturday April 1, 2017 Nice weather today, cool in the morning followed by sunshine. There was no park staff in the camper contact station until 5PM due to staff shortage, so we stayed busy selling firewood and ice and checking in campers that had reservations and directing those that didn't have reservations to the Visitor's Center for site assignments. While we were posting the reservations signs on the sites a lady stopped us and said she was having trouble with her hot water heater. While I was trying to determine the problem her big dog jumped up on Lena and wrapped her up in dog hair. After I checked a few things out I discovered she had not turned on her LP gas that is required for the hot water heater to work. Later I even had the pleasure of unstopping two commodes in the men's bath house in loop B. The staff had to close the bath house in loop A due to a stopped up drain line caused by tree roots. Later in the afternoon I had to have a short discussion with two campers about using a hatchet on one of the trees in the campground. We sold 15 bundles of firewood and 2 bags of ice between 1:30PM and 5PM and checked in several campers that had reservations until the staff person came in to open the Contact Station. All 88 sites are full tonight except for about 5 that did not show up for their reservations.

Day 18 Sunday April 2, 2017 We were very busy today cleaning sites after most of the campers vacated the sites. We only have about 2 dozen sites occupied tonight.

Day 19 Monday April 3, 2017 We cleaned several more sites this morning and then ate lunch and rested. About 1:45PM it started raining and rained until late afternoon. We cleaned 46 sites of the 88 sites yesterday and today. Normally the maintenance staff cleans sites on Monday but no one showed up today. We learned later hey had been reassigned to pick up trash throughout the park.

Day 20 Tuesday April 4, 2017 Today and tomorrow are our days off so we drove to Sparta and stopped and ate breakfast at the Circle L Cafe, a little cafe where the locals eat. I ordered two pancakes and a side of bacon. When the order came I realized I should have asked how big the pancakes where because they were as large as a dinner plate but they were as good as I have ever had. Then we stopped at a local coffee shop to use their WiFi to catch up on some things before returning to the park. Later we checked out a RV Park a few miles from here near the Blue Ridge Parkway where the sites are privately owned. It did not appeal to us at all so we returned to the park for the day.

Day 21 Wednesday April 5, 2017 We drove to North Wilkesboro for lunch, then we explored some of the back roads in the area. There are some really pretty scenery in the area, beautiful rolling pasture land dotted with cows, farm houses, barns and mountain streams with great mountain views.

After returning to the park we did some prep work around the motor home because we are expecting some bad weather in the wee hours of the morning.

Day 22 Thursday April 6, 2017 The weather was not too bad last night, rain and gusty winds, and cold (upper 30's). Sure felt for the campers here in tents, It rained some during the day and was windy. Ranger Hicks and a helper had put out all the reservation signs yesterday evening so we wouldn't have to do it this morning if was was raining, We sure was glad she did.

Day 23 Friday April 7, 2017 Several campers with reservations did not come yesterday due to the bad weather I guess. It was still cold this morning and we had a tad of sleet and a few flakes of snow while we were doing our morning duties, putting out reservation signs and checking the campground. It was really windy again today.

Day 24 Saturday April 8, 2017 We had a lot of reservation signs to put out today. The weather was much nicer today, we were able to get rid of the heavy coats and work in shirt sleeves. We stayed really busy today, cleaned a few sites, sold firewood and ice, worked in the Contact Station from Noon to about 1:30PM and again from 5 to 6PM. We have the No Vacancy sign out again in the campground. We had to send a few campers to other local campgrounds.

Day 25 Sunday April 9, 2017 The sun is out again today and we are glad as we will be really busy again today. We had lots of campers leaving and 23 reservations coming in. So there will be lots of sites to clean. We put out the reservation signs, clean a few sites and opened the Contact Station just before noon and stayed until relieved about 1:30PM, then ate lunch and cleaned some more sites before today's campers arrived. We were able to get most of the sites raked and fire pits cleaned before the campers arrived. While we were cleaning our last site a couple pulled up to occupy it with a 1966 Shasta camper that the man had restored. He did a really nice job restoring it.

We quit after cleaning 23 sites and relaxed and read the remainder of the day and enjoyed the nice warm sunshine.

Day 26 Monday April 10, 2017 We had 26 reservations for today. We did our normal routine of putting out reservation signs, cleaned a few sites, talked to several campers, etc. We had to switch out the golf cart for a John Deere Gator today. I discovered a few days ago that the bearings in the right front axle were worn out so the maintenance crew are going to try and get it fixed while we are off tomorrow.