We-2Bs: Smokey Mountains August 16-20, 2017

Day 16 Wednesday August 16, 2017 Today was laundry day. I went to the Camping World store to see about a resolution on our recliner issue that we discussed with them on Saturday. The person we talked to on Saturday had been sent to another site for the week so I explained the issue to two other employees. They agreed to come to our motor home and look at the issues. After checking the recliners they agreed there was an issue. After much discussion we agreed that we would be okay with one of the recliners and they agreed to replace the other and also give us back 10% off the purchase price for all the trouble. After checking the recliners we have, they discovered they had been discontinued and were not available. They agreed to replace with the newer larger version they had in stock for 50% off the difference in price so we agreed to that. I paid the difference and got the new recliner and brought it to the motor home. It is larger, sets better and has what appears to be covered in a better material.

Day 17 Thursday August 17, 2017 Today was the first day of the NC Bluegrass Festival. It started at noon and ended for the day about 11PM. The two most well know groups were Rhonda Vincent and the Rage and Gene Watson and the Farewell Party Band. Rhonda's daughter Sally is singing with her on the road now and two of the band member are her sons-in-law. One is married to Sally and one married to Tinsel. Gene Watson is not a Bluegrass singer but he and Rhonda has recorded together and the crowd likes his music. It was kind of hot today so I got me a hand dipped ice cream waffle cone and it was melting as fast as I could lick it but it sure was good.

Mid afternoon a thunderstorm came up and there was lightning about a mile away so the sound system had to be shut down to prevent electrical shock and damage to the very expensive equipment. That shortened the performance of The Chuck Wagon Gang by about 10-15 minutes. This is a gospel group that has been singing for over 80 years but of course not with the same members. One of the granddaughters of one of the original members is part of the group

Day 18 Friday August 18, 2017 Today was the second day of the festival. Today's most well know group was Dailey and Vincent. Darren Vincent is the brother of Rhonda Vincent. The Vincents as a family have been singing Bluegrass for many years. Yesterday Rhonda and Darren's mother got up and sang several songs with Rhonda's group. She was traveling with them for the weekend.

Day 19 Saturday August 19, 2017 This was the final day of the Festival. Lots of good music and singing. One of the acts was The Little Roy and Lizzy Show. Little Roy is Little Roy Lewis of the well know Lewis Family Gospel Singers. He is 75 years old and he acts like a teenager on stage. He clowns around on some of the songs but he is a gifted musician. He and Lizzy can both play several musical instruments. They always put on a good show. Another group was the US Navy Bluegrass Band the Country Currents. We were not aware the Navy had a Bluegrass group. They were very good and the lead singer wrote most of their songs. They are the only sanctioned Bluegrass Band in any military in the world. The final act was Mike Snider and his band. He is also a gifted musician and has a natural talent for humor. He told several jokes and had the audience in tears from laughing.

US Navy Bluegrass Band

Day 20 Sunday August 20, 2017 We packed up and departed at 9:15 AM for Fries New River Trail RV Park in Fries, VA, a former mill town just past Galax, VA. This is our second visit to this RV park. We stayed here the same time last year. It is a small 16 site park setting down in a hollow with a mountain stream running by most of the sites. The owners make you feel like you are right at home and the other campers are very friendly. We arrived about 12:45 PM and set up in site 9, right by the stream. It is so peaceful here and a little cooler than in Marion.

We traveled up I77 on the way here and was almost in a wreck. Some DUMB driver came down the on-ramp to get on I77 and did not speed up to merge ahead of us and did not slow down to merge behind us and I could not move over to let him in because there were two cars to my left. He just started coming over right against us. I slammed on brakes and laid down on the air horns (which are very loud) and he finally got the idea and whipped back onto the on-ramp before we collided. A very close one.