Day 9 Wednesday April 10
2019 Again we saw seven deer this morning. We ate breakfast at the
Circle L Restaurant in Sparta NC, then stopped at Becca's Backwood
Bean for a Latte and to use their WiFi. Afterwards we stopped at the
Arts and Craft store that we always checkout when we are here. It is
store of arts and crafts of local artisans.
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| Coffee Shop |
After browsing another
store we decided to drive some of the back roads on the way back to
the park. The flowering trees and bushes are really full of bloom in
the area.
We took highway 18 out of
Sparta to drive some back roads. We have passed a place called Wild
Woody's in the past but never stopped, so today since it was not
crowded we decided to stop and check it out. They have a “hotel”,
several old campers of all varieties to rent, and a building full of
“stuff” they have collected for 50 years. On weekends the parking
lot is full of motorcycles that pull off the Blue Ridge Parkway that
is just a few hundred yards down the road.
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| I need an asprin |
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| We though about trading "up" for this "motor home" |
We stopped at a local general store that we had not seen
before and decided to get a couple of hot dogs, a Cheerwine and a
Nehi Cola. They had a big dog that was sound asleep in the middle of
the floor. We set at an outside table to eat and when our food was
brought to us he woke up and came out to us begging for some. Lena
gave him a piece of my hot dog bun and our last french fry.
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| View across the road |
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| "fine dining" |
The weather is really nice
today so we were able to set outside the reminder of the day once we
got back to our site. The campground was quite today but tomorrow if
will pick up as we go into the weekend.
Day 10 Thursday April 11,
2019 We are back in the groove today. No one works in the campground
on our days off so we put out today's reservation signs and
cleaned/raked several sites that has been vacated since Monday.
The weather was great today
so we stayed outside as much as possible. We relieved Jackie for her
lunch break and late in the day we put out Friday's reservation signs
and checked the campground because rain is predicted for all day on
Friday. We expect there will be many people with reservations that will
not show up, especially those that camp in tents. I know if we were
still camping in a tent, we would be canceling our reservations.
We saw about a dozen deer
around the campground this afternoon.
Day 11 Friday April 12,
2019 Weatherbug (smartphone app) was correct. The rain started at
6:45AM and in about an hour a really thick fog set in. The rain
continued until about 2PM followed by clear skies for the afternoon.
Lots of camper began arriving after 4PM for the weekend. Later we
checked the campground and put out the reservation signs for
Saturday.
Day 12 Saturday April 13,
2019 Today's weather looks really nice but tomorrow rain is in the
forecast again. Today should be a fairly easy day except we will have
to relieve Jackie at the Contact Station for a couple of hours during
lunch.
We had a nice easy day,
picked up a little trash, talked to some of the campers, worked at
the Contact Station about 2.5 hours and did some reading.
Day 13 Sunday April 14,
2019 A camper was at our door knocking at 8AM needing a truck jump
started. By the time I got to their site they had found some jumper
cables, which was good because my jump starter device was not charged
up like I thought it was. They soon got the truck started and was
able to leave before the heavy rain got here. Look like it is going
to be a long wet day of staying inside.
There was a break in the
rain about 6PM so we went out to check the campground and pick up the
reservation signs for the few that had come in. I know some that are
due in today are waiting until tomorrow when the weather will be
better. We are ready for some sunshine.
Day 14 Monday April 15,
2019 Looks like mostly clear skies today and some sunshine but low
50's and windy so we bundled up in our coats again to put out the
reservation signs and clean sites, etc.
Friends from Greenboro
checked in to the campground for a few days so we stopped by their
site mid afternoon to chat for awhile.
We believe the trees are
leafing our earlier here this year than last year, maybe because it
was a warmer Winter this season. The flowering trees are really
pretty in the area. There are lots of dogwoods and several others
that we don't know the name of that are in full bloom. We are at a
1900' elevation here so the trees don't leaf out as early as at home.
Day 15 Tuesday April 16,
2019 We are off today so we drove to a local country cafe named
McGradys for breakfast. We ate here a couple of years ago for lunch
so we decided to try them for breakfast. I got two of the best
pancakes I have had in a long time and a nice piece of country ham.
Lena got scrambled eggs, bacon and grits. The cook came out and told
Lena that she might have added too much salt to the grits and if
there were to salty to let her know and she would cook her some more
but they were just right. Like most cafes the coffee was weak so then
we drove into the Historic section of Elkin to Dirty Joe's Coffee to
get some real coffee.
We restocked on some
groceries before returning to the campground. No one works in the
Contact Station on Tuesday or Wednesday so late in the day I checked
in several campers and sold about 20 bundles of firewood even though
it was my day off. The Visitor's Center closes at 5PM so there is
no one to check the campers in after 5PM on Tuesday and Wednesday
unless we help out. If the camper has reservations they could go on
to their site because they have already paid but a person that has no
reservation has not paid so it is better if someone can check them in
and get their money before they go and set up in an empty site and
possibly leave the next morning before anyone discovers them in the
campground.
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| Nice view from the contact station toward the campground |
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| Nice view from the contact station toward the campground |
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| Red Bud tree in the park |
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| our "front yard" |
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| Our camp site |
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| The path to the contact station from our site we made in 2015-2016 |
Day 16 Wednesday April 17,
2019 We drove out the back gate of the park on our way to Wilkesboro
and stopped at Widows Creek Falls to get some early morning
photographs. One of the Rangers told me a few years ago that an older
lady that grew up on the land that makes up part of the park before
the Goverment purchased it, claimed that the park staff had moved
Widows Creek Falls because it is not where it was when she lived
here. He assured her the falls had not been moved but she did not
believe him. Look at the photos below at the size of those rocks and
see if you think the staff moved the falls.
After we had breakfast we
drove up to the Blue Ridge Parkway and traveled it for several miles
before getting off and going into Sparta to try the Muddy Creek Cafe
(a new cafe in town since last year).
We returned to the
campground and relaxed and read for awhile. I checked a few campers
in after the Visitor's Center closed for the day.
Day 17 Thursday April 18,
2019 We got out and began our day at 7:30AM, putting out reservation
signs and sprucing up the campground since we were the last to work
it since Monday. We stopped at our friends site and had a good cup of
coffee and great breakfast pastry. Our coffee maker died several days
ago so I have been missing my morning coffee. One of the campers came
by and told me the toilets in the men's bathouse were plugged up so I
had the pleasure of unstopping them.
Friends from High Point that
are the campground host for August came to visit us for a couple of
hours, then we relieved Jackie for her lunch period.
Our friends that we had
breakfast with this morning came over for supper with us. We cooked
Foil wrapped shrimp bowls on the grill. We cooked an extra one and I
took it over to Jackie at the contact station. This is a good meal
and easy to fix. It has squash, zucchini, sliced sausage, small
potatoes, shrimp, melted butter and various seasoning wrapped up in
aluminum foil and cooked on the grill about 20 minutes.We followed it
up with cake and ice cream.
Since rain is in the
forecast tomorrow morning we put out the Fridays reservation signs
after we ate.
Day 18 Friday April 19,
2019 Heavy rain is expected today. This is our third Friday here and
it has rained every Friday. We went through the campground about
8:30AM to check things before the heavy rain gets here. There is only
one tent camper left this morning but several have reservations
tonight but some probably will not show up due to the weather.
There has been an
“explosion” of leaves on the hardwood trees in the last three
days. Since we are sitting in a campsite surrounded by trees, the
coming of the leaves is very noticeable. That is one thing I like
about hosting here in April, we get to watch all the trees form their
leaves.
As predicted it rained until
late in the day, sometimes were heavy rain and we were under a
tornado watch part of the day but we did have very high winds. So it
was a long day of setting inside reading.
Day 19 Saturday April 20,
2019 No rain today but the temperature was in the high 30's at 7AM.
It did warm up to the upper 40's by the afternoon so we did our
campground work, did the lunch time shuffle at the contact station
and set inside and read.
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| Nice Dogwood tree at site 90 |
Day 20 Sunday April 21,
2019 Much warmer today, so the campers are finally able to enjoy
some of their time here but the weekenders have to go home today. We
cleaned sites and did the lunch time shuffle at the contact station.
We were able to enjoy some sunshine while we set outside for awhile.
Day 21 Monday April 22,
2019 It was cool in the early morning but it warmed up to the low
70's today with lots of sunshine. While we were doing our morning
routine in the campground we stopped to help a camper that was having
a serious problem with his roll out awning. A gust of wind blew one
end of the awning up on top of his camper and broke one bolt on the
connection to the camper wall and one bolt was pulled loose but he
was lucky that none of the metal arms were bent. Two other campers
came over and between the four of us we got it down and rolled up and
secured.
We did our work in the
campground, did the lunch time shuffle at the contact station, put
out the reservation signs for Tuesday and Wednesday and set out side
and enjoyed the really nice weather. Lots of kids here since the
schools in the area are on a break.
Day 22 Tuesday April 23,
2019 We drove to Sparta for breakfast and decided to try a Hardees's
Omelet Biscuit. They might have been fairly good have they been hot
but they had been prepared for awhile and apparently had not been
under a heat lamp because they weren't even warm. Probably should have
taken them back but didn't. They now have a sign on the entrance
about free WiFi but it was so weak only one of us could get on and it
was so slow it was basicly useless to try to use, so we left and went
to Becca's Backwoods Bean for a latte and pastry and use their WiFi.
From there we drove across
the Virginia state line to visit a couple that we shared our dining
room table with on our last cruise out of Charleston, SC. They
invited us to visit them when we came to do our hosting duties. They
live about 9 miles out of Independence VA. We had a good visit
including a tour of their beautiful home. They live in a house his
Great Great Grandfather built in 1890. They did a great job of
remodeling it after they purchased it from a family member. He took
me to some of his outbuildings and gave me several pieces of nice
walnut and cherry wood, showed me his old tractor collection and his
woodworking and mechanics shops. Then they took us to a local cafe
for lunch.
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| Family home built in 1890 |
We returned to the
campground mid afternoon and set outside to enjoy the excellent
weather while we read. The weather today has been the best we have
had this month.
