Day 30 Tuesday 10/17/2023
We decided to do some “leaf peeping” today but first we had to have body fuel so we stopped at Circle L Cafe on the way to Sparta for breakfast. Then we needed a Latte fix so we stopped at The Gathering Place in Sparta.
On the way out of the park this morning 4 deer ran across the road in front of us. This is the first deer we have seen here this month which is kind of unusual. We normally see some in the campground during the week when we have fewer campers. Then about a mile out of the park four more ran across the road in front of us so close I had to slam on the brakes.
After getting our bodies fueled we headed North on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We couldn’t go South from Sparta because it is closed from Hwy 21 near Sparta to near Grandfather Mountain for much needed road repairs.
The drive was really pretty as the Fall colors are really popping now. We took several side roads that lead off the parkway in this area. This is one of the few areas along the parkway that rural side roads are accessible from the parkway.
I read a story a couple of years ago that the government man in charge of the construction of the parkway was really upset when he discovered the road builders were leaving the rural road accesses open to the parkway and threaten to shut down the construction if they did not stop doing that.
We took a lot of photos but the camera just doesn’t capture the colors through the windshield as the eye sees them. We saw lots of beautiful farm scenes with the hills in the background. We decided we had driven far enough so headed back and stopped at Millers Market between Hillsville and Galax VA for a sandwich and a loaf of their sourdough bread. They had just taken the bread out of the oven so it was really fresh and smelled so good. Then we returned to the campground.
We have had some cool morning down to 42 degrees but no snow. There was snow last night in the higher elevations like Roan Mountain and Cades Cove areas. They are much higher elevation, above 5,000 feet where we are only at about 1,900 feet here at the campground. But if we don’t get at least a little snow this month it will be the first year we didn’t get at least some snow since we have been volunteering here. Our first year was 2015. We did not work here in 2020 because they closed the park due to COVID for a couple months just before we were to come up here. We worked March in 2015, then April for a few years, then moved to May in 2021. We like May better. We only worked October this year in addition to May so we would be here in leaf peeping time.
Day 31 Wednesday 10/18/2023
We tried Mountain View Cafe for breakfast this morning in Hays. The food was okay, nothing special, served on styrofoam plates and the building was showing signs of age and was looking a little tired. I guess the best I can describe it is, I would not take a guest there.
We both ordered country ham with our eggs, etc. The waitress brought our plates and a couple of forks. She asked if there anything else we needed. I said yes, a knife. So she brought us one knife. Oh well, Lena and I shared the one knife to cut up our ham on the styrofoam plates.
From there we went to Dirty Joe’s Coffee in downtown Elkin for our Latte fix and a sweet. After relaxing there for awhile we rode a few blocks and walked down a short trail along the Elkin Creek before heading back to the campground.
Later after a small lunch we took a walk around the campground, something we don’t normally do other that when we are working in it. The sun was shining nicely so it felt good to do a relaxing walk in the campground.
Day 32 Thursday 10/19/2023
Back to our normal routine today but we have a lot more reservations today than a normal Thursday more like a Friday. Only one site unreserved site for tonight.
After breakfast we checked and cleaned several sites including site 37 that has all the walnuts on the driveway and on the site. It took some effort to get them all raked over into the non mowed area away from the site. Too bad black walnuts are so hard to crack and pick out because they would be good in a cake.
Day 33 Friday 10/20/2023
Woke up to a light rain this morning but we only have 12 reservations today due to all the arrivals yesterday and Wednesday. There is a “Preppers” group here that started coming in Wednesday and Thursday. I guess you may have heard of the “Doomsday Preppers”. Well this group from what we can understand is something like that but may not quite that extreme.
It rained a little off and on today. But we didn’t have much to do other than putting out the reservation signs this morning and just checking the campground a couple of times by riding through and picking up the reservation signs at those sites that had arrived.
Most everyone here is leaving Sunday so there will be a mass exit Sunday so we will be busy cleaning the empty sites.
Day 34 Saturday 10/21/2023
Windy, Windy, Windy this morning and until just after noon. We had to pull our hoodies over our caps to keep them on this morning as we were putting out our 8 reservations signs. We saw the wind roll one campers canopy into his Jeep that he didn’t have secured. There were several other canopies flipped over and blown into the bushes near the Big Sandy Creek that run through the middle of loop B. The wind was predicted to be up to 25 MPH and we believe it was at least that much.
By 5 PM it was dead calm and ended up being a really nice afternoon. I worked in the Contact Station for 1.5 hours during the lunch period so Jackie could relieve the lady at the Visitor Center.
We will be busy tomorrow because almost everyone here now will be leaving tomorrow and we have 29 reservations for Sunday night.
Day 35 Sunday 10/22/2023
As expected we were really busy today with all the departures and the new campers coming in. We cleaned as many sites as we could before the new arrivals and we got most of them.
Day 36 Monday 10/23/2023 We finished cleaning the sites we didn’t get to yesterday that didn’t have any campers on them and also cleaned the 4 group sites. The maintenance crew cleaned the fire pits and grills at the group sites so that helped. In the past they helped clean the regular campsite firepits on Monday but that seems to be a thing of the past.
Most campers leave their sites clean other than maybe a small piece of paper of a bread tie but some don’t seem to care how they leave their sites. But I am sure they wouldn’t want to come to a site like they leave it, with trash on the site and trash in the fire pits. I just don’t understand why people think it is okay to toss soft drink cans and aluminum foil in the firepits.
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