Day 8 Tuesday August 8, 2017 We drove to Sparta NC about 15 miles away to meet a friend and high school classmate of mine and his wife is Lena's friend and high school classmate. We had not seen them in about 11 years and found out via Facebook yesterday that they have a second home near Sparta and were there for a few days. We met at Hardee's in town and had really nice visit and then ate lunch. Sure was good to visit with them again after several years.
On the way back we drove some of the backroads and came out near Galax so we stopped at Fox's Cone N Coffee again for a Latte and another cinnamon bun and a scone.
Day 9 Wednesday August 9, 2017 We hung around the resort today, relaxing and reading until about 4:30PM when we drove to Galax to attend the Old Fiddlers Convention. It runs from Monday through Saturday night. The event is a competition of various musical talents. The individual competition tonight was Bluegrass Fiddle, Dulcimer and Bluegrass Banjo. Some of the talent was very good and some not so good. But we found out that the individuals get their entrance fees to the convention refunded when they perform so it is a good way to attend the convention for free. We were getting kind of cold so we departed about the time the banjo competition started but it was broadcast on the radio so we tuned in on the way back to the resort.
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| Food Vendors |
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| Stage and some of the audience |
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| Some of the campers at the Convention |
Day 10 Thursday August 10, 2017 It was rather overcast today and cool so we hung around the resort and late in the day did some prep work for departing tomorrow. We listened to some of the Old Fiddlers Convention on the radio.
Day 11 Friday August 11, 2017 We departed the resort for Marion NC where we will be attending the 42nd NC Bluegrass Festival. This will be our 6th year at the festival. Upon arriving I got the service center at the campground to do a NC State Inspection on the motor home while we ate lunch in the service center cafe. They have great salt and pepper catfish on Friday.
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| Tom Johnson's Camping Center Site 35 |
Day 12 Saturday August 12, 2017 We went to the Camping World store here at Tom Johnson's Camping World after eating breakfast at T.J's Cafe at the Service Center. We purchased two recliners for the motor home last year at the Camping World store here and had them shipped to us at home. We have never been satisfied with them as they don't set as well as the sample in the store we sat in. The seat tilts back way too far and we can't find anyway to correct that so we complained to the guy that sold them to us last year. He promised to come out to the motor home later in the day to look at the recliners.
We departed and checked out a local campground but did not like it and then drove up to Linville to look at some other places before returning to Marion and having a late lunch at Moon Doggie's Diner. We usually eat here one time while in the area. It is a 50's themed diner usually with good food. I ordered a hot dog special but the hot dogs were not to my liking.
We returned to the motor home and waited for the man to come look at the recliners but he never showed up. Surprise Surprise!!.
Day 13 Sunday August 13, 2017 We went to Black Mountain to attend the 40th Annual Sourwood Festival as we have for the last several years. There are lots of really nice craft vendors there but we don''t normally buy anything. There were several honey sales booths and one booth had a little screened in room with a bee hive in it and there was a man it it explaining about bee hives and telling some very interesting facts about bees. He had taught bee keeping for 16 years at one of the local colleges. Honey bees are very interesting creatures.
We listened to some of the music under the tent. Chad Rae, a local musician and guitar maker was playing some very unique guitars that he had made out of cigar boxes, skate boards, axe handle, etc. Then we went to My Daddy's Pizza for a pizza. We always stop there for lunch when we go to the festival. They have very good food.
Day 14 Monday August 14, 2017 I got up early to get in line to pickup our wristbands and place our chairs for the Bluegrass Festival. No one could get the wristbands or place chairs under the pavilion until 9AM.
RANT ON: Some people got in line Sunday afternoon and were going to set in line all night just to get to set up front. The promoter came by and told them to just leave their chairs in line and come back Monday morning. I got there about 6:30AM and there was probably 100 chairs in line with just a few people setting in their chairs. As more people came up with their chairs and saw what was going on there was a lot of angry people fussing about what had happened including me. The promoter should not have told the people to leave their chairs in line and come back Monday morning. No one should be allowed to get in line until a couple of hours before 9AM. The point is if they can put their chairs in line Sunday afternoon, why not just go ahead and place the chairs under the pavilion, except only people with 3 days passes get priority on placement of chairs and it they could place their chairs before getting their wristbands proving they have purchased a three day pass. RANT OFF. Lena brought me a cup of coffee and a country ham and egg biscuit while I was in line so all was good.
I still was able to get our chairs placed 9 rows from the front because there were some open space not taken by people in line ahead of me. Late in the afternoon we rode our bicycles around the campground and got caught in a rain shower and took shelter at the pavilion and had a good conversation with the man that helps setup for the festival.
Day 15 Tuesday August 15, 2017 Today was a slow day, reading, relaxing, eating catfish at T.J's Cafe before Lena did some grocery shopping in the afternoon. One of the neighbors came over and brought us some cucumbers and stayed and talked for awhile.
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