We-2Bs: Stone Mountain State Park April 11

Day 27 Tuesday April 11, 2017 We went to Elkin for breakfast and access to the Internet at McDonald's and then on to Hamptonville to the Amish General Store. All the Amish businesses were closed for two days to attend an Amish wedding in the community. We returned to Elkin for lunch and checked out a few places before returning to the park. UPS delivered our new GPS to the Visitor's Center so we picked it up. Rand McNally could not fix the one we shipped to them so they sent us a new one. Later we put out all the reservation signs even though it was our day off. The park is kind of short handed so we did this to help out.

Day 28 Wednesday April 12, 2017 After breakfast we went down the road to the General Store to us their WiFi to download the maps to the new GPS. After downloading the files for over two hours my laptop battery died because I forgot to bring the power cord, so I will have to redo the whole process I guess on our next day off. We got a light lunch at the store and a dip ice cream and returned to the park to relax and read.

Days 29-33 Thursday-Monday April 13-17, 2017 We did our normal duties, checking in campers, cleaning sites, putting out and removing reservation signs, etc. Things were really busy this week since some of the local schools are out on Spring Break and there were lots of children in the park enjoying the outdoors. About the most exciting this to happen was a motor home rolled backwards at the Contact Station and hit the vehicle behind him while checking in. No one got hurt just some bent metal so that was good. Our friends from Greensboro came Thursday and stayed until Sunday in their 5^th wheel camper. We enjoyed visiting with them over some good food.

Day 34 Tuesday April 18, 2017 We drove to Elkin for breakfast and access to WIFI at McDonald's. I needed to complete the map update on the new GPS. After a couple hours of trying I gave up until I can contact their customer support. I sure couldn't call from McDonald's with all the noise there. We drove out to the Amish General Store in Hamptonville to get a few grocery items. We came back through Elkin and checked out a small campground just outside of town. On the way back to the park we stopped the Country Store just outside of the park to use their WiFi and call Rand McNally Customer Service. They were able to fix the problem with maps and I was able to get the GPS updated with the latest maps.

After we returned to the park one of the tent campers that was setting up near us came over looking for help getting their air mattress pumped up. I got it pumped up for her.

Day 35 Wednesday April 19, 2017 It rained lightly most of the night. We went to Sparta for breakfast at the Circle L Cafe again. I just ordered one pancake this time. It was not as big as the two I got last week and not near as good. It was a little over cooked. Later we drove past Sparta and on to Independence VA, which is only a little over 10 mile away. On the return trip we drove some of the back roads through the hills and hollows.

We stopped in Sparta at a little convenience store that Our State magazine had written an article about how good their fried chicken was. It was good but no better than any other fried chicken we have had. They really needed to clean the place up. The trash cans were overflowing onto the ground outside and inside and the store was just messy inside.

On the way back to the park we ran into some really dense fog in the higher elevations.

Day 36-37 Thursday-Friday April 20-21, 2017 We are back to our campground host duties so not much going on except some more April showers. We have had more rain than last April when we were here. The campground has been full every weekend we have been here except this weekend. I guess people checked the weather forecast and didn't like all the rain so we have several reservations that did not show up and some that canceled.

Day 38 Saturday April 22, 2017 It rained lightly about all night and more is in the forecast for tonight and all day tomorrow. We got the reservation signs out by 8:30AM and sold some firewood to some damp tent campers so they could dry out.

We were sitting in the motor home with the door open and a house wren flew in and pitched on one of the seats and looked around like it was looking for a nesting place. I managed to shoo it back outside.

We opened the Contact Station at noon and stayed until relieved about 1:30PM by park staff. We had just got back to our motor home when a hail storm blew through dropping hail the size of marbles.

Later we put out all the reservation signs for tomorrow because we expect rain all day tomorrow. This is the first weekend since we have been here that the campground was not full on Friday and Saturday nights. The weather is really messing up a lot of plans for people that had planned to camp this weekend.

Day 39 Sunday April 23, 2017 It rained almost all night. We got a short break with no rain so did a little work in the campground in the morning and then opened the contact station at noon and stayed until relieved about 1:30PM. We drove down to The Country Store to use their WiFi for a few minutes then returned to the park. It has rained all day and will probably rain all night. Out of 88 camp sites we have three occupied counting ours for tonight. We have never been here with this many vacancies.

Day 40 Monday April 24, 2017 The rain has cleared finally. We put out the few reservation signs for today and cleaned fire pits. The park maintenance staff was also cleaning pits until they got called to help fix a water problem at site 49. We finished about noon. We didn't have much to do the remainder of the day so we did some reading until late in the day we put out the reservation signs for Tuesday night since we will be off for the next two days.

Day 41 Tuesday April 25, 2017 It is raining lightly this morning. We went to Terry's Cafe in State Road ( a community between here and Elkin) for breakfast before going on to Elkin to catch up on some Internet stuff at McDonald's. Then we rode some of the back roads in the area before returning to the park.

Day 42 Wednesday April 26, 2017 We drove through the park and stopped at Widow's Creek Falls. With all the rain recently there was a lot of water coming down the falls – really pretty. Then we went on to Wikesboro to McDonald's for breakfast. Just before we were ready to go we had to evacuate the building due to a CO2 leak. We decided to ride up to the Blue Ridge Parkway and take it back toward Sparta. The trees have leafed out here earlier this year than last year so most of the trees are green with new leaves. The dogwoods are plentiful in this area and are really pretty with white bloom. We got off the parkway before we got to Elkin and road through the countryside before returning to the park.

Garden Creek Church

Widow's Creek Falls

Day 43 Thursday April 27, 2017 The weather is better so the campers are coming back. We did our normal routine until about mid afternoon when the rain started again.

Day 44 Friday April 28, 2017 We had 68 reservation signs to put out this morning. They are no vacancies tonight in the campground. Some of the campers want to extend their stay but we have no available sites for them unless someone cancels. All 88 sites are occupied/reserved for tonight. It was really foggy this morning. From loop C we could not even see loop B in the campground.

Day 45 Saturday April 29, 2017 There were lots of scouts camped in the sites around us last night having lots of fun. We were pleased they observed the 10PM quite time rule and didn't disturb anyone. We found one family with the scouts that had setup camp in a site they had not reserved. He claimed he thought it was one of the sites that the scout group had reserved even though all those sites had yellow tags showing that they had been checked in trough the contact station. The person that had reserved the site had not showed up or they could have been an argument. We contacted the ranger on duty and let him tell the camper he had to vacate the site. In three years of doing the hosting duty for one month each year we rarely have any kind of issue. We did have one last week where we truly believe a camper was trying to stay an extra night without paying for it but we caught him, even though he played innocent.

We worked at the Visitor's Center today from noon until 1PM answering a lot of questions about the park and hiking trails.

Day 46 Sunday April 30, 2017 We did our normal duties plus opened the Contact Station from noon until one and relieved the staff person there again from 5-6PM for her lunch break. The last two days the weather has been the best since we have been here but rain in predicted for tomorrow so we packed up most of our outside stuff and pulled in the awnings to get all the dropping from the trees off before they get wet.

Day 47 Monday May 1, 2017 As predicted it started raining last night. We quickly put out the reservation signs before the rain got worse. We normally help the staff clean the remaining pits that need cleaning on Monday but they are not working in the rain and we sure aren't either. We cleaned 17 sites/pits yesterday so we did our share. After the rain finally cleared about 6PM we put out the reservation signs for Tuesday and turned in our keys and time sheet. We don't get paid but they ask us to keep a time sheet to show the number of volunteer hours. We worked 25 days for a total of 208 hours or 8.3 hours per day for the two of us combined.