Day 1 Tuesday April 30, 2024
It is time to go to Stone Mountain State Park NC to work as Volunteer Campground Hosts for the month of May. This will be our 9th year as Hosts. We started in March 2015 but did not work in 2020 due to the park closing just before we were to leave to work the month of April during to early stages of COVID.
We switched to May a few years ago as it works better for other things we like to do and the weather is not as cool as April. March is cold in the mountains. As of this year we had first choice as to what month we work since as of this year we have been volunteering longer than any other hosts.
We also worked October last year in addition to May since we hadn’t been to the mountains in the Fall in years. We will NOT be working again in October. The stink bugs are abundant in the park in the Fall and they loved our motorhome. They got into every nook and cranny they could find and we took them home with us. We are fairly sure we have captured/killed between 3 & 4 thousand of them. They have about a 6-7 month life span. So we rarely find one now, except an occasional dead one. We are really tired of them. They don’t do any damage just real annoying to deal with.
We departed about 7:30AM and stopped in Wallace to fuel up the motorhome and ourselves. Only a couple of minor slowdowns on 421 between Lillington and Greensboro before we stopped at the Farmers Market in Greensboro. This is a good stop as we can park the motorhome in the big parking lot and walk around and see if any fresh farm vegetables are available. We got a tomato, some cucumbers and some really nice strawberries.
From the Farmers market it was an easy 80 more miles and we arrived at 1:33PM and setup in the Host campsite. After we unhook our tow car Lena gets out and helps guide me into the site and we communicate via our cellphones. But for some reason we couldn’t get a cell signal. The cell service is not great in the campground but normally we get a good enough signal to serve the purpose. So I got out our walkie talkies and they would not work either which has nothing to do with the cell service. Not sure what is wrong with them, even new batteries didn’t help. But they are several years old so I guess it is time for a new set. We will have to have a working set for our schedule Caravan trip in August. So we did it the old fashion way with Lena giving me hand signals as I watched the backup camera and my mirrors. In 2023 I had requested the Park Maintenance crew remove some large wood timbers that had been put down years ago along the edge of the site driveway that made it difficult to back into the site with a large motorhome like our. With the timers removed the driveway is almost straight rather than having a slight curve in it so that helped also.
Rain was predicted for today but we only got a few sprinkles, just enough to spot up the dust on the Jeep.
Day 2 Wednesday May 1, 2024
Our weekend is Tuesday and Wednesday so we took advantage of it and went out for breakfast to Saddle Mountain Cafe in Ennice NC, which is a few miles from Galax VA. We found this Cafe a few years ago when we were staying in the area. It is a local country Cafe where the locals go for meals. They serve good food and generous portions, almost too much. I got one biscuit with gravy (the kind that Chester on Gunsmoke calls speckly gravy), one scrambled egg and tenderloin. They were two fairly large pieces of tenderloin so I gave some to Lena to go with her eggs, grits and her 4 slices of bacon.
It was kind of fun to listen to 4 of the local men joking with each other in the table across from us. Then a fifth local man came in and sat near them. They spoke to him and he said he had forgotten to put his hearing aid in so he wanted them to speak up. One of the men said he wears his all the time and it has 6 channels on it and he can tune one of them in if he gets tired of listening to someone. The same man had mentioned earlier that he was 89 years old and still likes to get out and ride his bicycle about 10 miles or so. He didn’t look to us like he was 89.
We finished our breakfast and waddled out and drove to Galax to do a little shopping at a Mennonite store between Galax and Hillsville only to find out when we arrived that the business had closed down which kind of surprised us. They seemed to have a thriving business every time we went there. We were disappointed.
So we stopped at Walmart to get a couple of items before going to one of our favorite coffee shops Briarpatch Marketplace and Cafe. The lady at the register misunderstood me when I said we wanted whole milk because they used Oat milk. I didn’t catch the error until I got to our table and thought about going back to get her to change it to whole milk but decided not to thinking we might learn something. Well we did, we don’t like Oak milk in our Latte.
We returned to the campground about 1:30PM had a little lunch and then I washed the bugs off the motorhome windshield and sprayed some of the dust off the Jeep before putting a car cover over it. It will set here a week before we use it again and will be covered in what I call “squiggles” falling from the trees around us. Then we put up a solar screen on the windshield of the motorhome. We can see through it from inside the motorhome but people outside can’t see in unless it is nighttime and we have bright lights on inside.
Day 3 Thursday May 2, 2024
Today was our first day on the “job” for this year of hosting. We got out about 7:30AM, checking sites and cleaning some. After about an hour we came back to the motorhome and had breakfast before going back out to finish cleaning the remaining sites that needed it.
Then we had a few hours of relaxing, lunch and then made another pass around the campground about 3:00 and again about 5:30 before calling it a day.
While we were making the 3PM rounds one of the campers stopped us to ask about being a host. He said he camped here in the late 80’s. He told us how it looked back then compared to now. There was only the A Loop until about 2005 when the campground was enlarged to include the B & C loops which added about 50 sites. He had noticed our sign in front of our site which indicated we were from Wallace. He was from Wilmington and plays in a band sometimes at the Mad Boar Restaurant in Wallace.
And it was a beautiful day just about as perfect a day as could be. We don’t have many in the campground tonight but have 41 reservations for tomorrow. So it will be about 2/3 full.
Day 4 Friday May 3, 2024
Another day of beautiful weather, although we did get a few dozens drops of rain mid afternoon.
We did our routine in the campground but didn’t have many sites to rake or firepits to clean today since we did the vacant sites yesterday. Picked up a little trash and talked to some of the campers but had several hours to read and relax. Usually Sunday is our busiest day because most of the weekend campers leave on Sunday so we have more sites to get ready for the new arrivals. But the forecast as of now shows Sunday as a rainout.
Day 5 Saturday May 4, 2024
Rain is predicted today which is rather common here on the weekends it seems. We got all the reservation signs put out and a few other small task done by 9AM, had breakfast and decided to go back out about 11:30 to check some sites that had been vacated and within 10 minutes it started pouring down rain we so returned to the motorhome and watched it rain until about 4PM when it cleared up long enough for us to ride through the campground and check for any issues and then stop by the Contact Station to chat with Jackie and a new part time employee that is training in the Contract Station.
Just after we got back to the motorhome it started raining again. We are expecting most of the 16 reservations for today will be a no show.
Day 6 Sunday May 5, 2024
As expected we had 16 no shows yesterday probably due to the rainy weather. The weather was nice today so we cleaned several sites. We didn’t have many coming in today as we normally do on a Sunday.
We actually had the easiest workday for a Sunday we can remember since we have been volunteering here as hosts. Normally Sunday is our busiest day since most of the weekenders leave and then several new campers come in on Sunday but we didn’t have many to come in today and we had so many no shows yesterday our workload was much less. But that was good because we were invited to join the paid staff at the maintenance shop for an employees appreciation cookout consisting of hot dogs and hamburgers.
Late in the day one of the Rangers asked me to assist her in changing out a breaker in the electrical panel at site 45. We got it replaced but it didn’t solve the problem so it was put on the list for the maintenance staff for Monday morning.
Shortly after I returned to the motorhome and got a hot shower Lena spotted a couple of deer grazing under the trees across the road in front of our site. This is the location they normally frequent when it is quiet in the campground. We have seen them in this location for many years. Sometimes there a several but only two today.
Day 7 Monday May 6, 2024
We only have 10 reservations for today. We cleaned a few sites that were vacated this morning and then cleaned the four group sites.
It started raining again about 2:30 but cleared in about 2 hours so we got the reservations reports for Tuesday and Wednesday and put them out since we will be off those days and no one is scheduled to work in the Contact Station.
The park is short staffed which seems to be the norm. The Superintendent retired in March and that position has not been filled yet, there is one ranger position that has been vacant for some time. So there are 4 Park Rangers that have to cover the hours from 7AM to 9PM 7 days a week.
The lady that worked weekends in the Visitor Center is not working due to medical reasons and the man that works during the week in the Visitor Center is on vacation. So the person that would be working in the Contact Station on Tuesday and Wednesday is working in the Visitor Center which leaves the Contact Station with no one working on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.
Day 8 Tuesday May 7, 2027
We went to Elkin this morning. I needed a part to replace a door closure on one of the motorhome basement doors. They had to get it from another location so I will come back about 1PM to get it. Then we went to downtown Elkin to Dirty Joe’s Coffee Shop to get our Latte fix but it was closed for renovation with no sign of when they expect to be open again. We looked for a Dunkin Donuts but none in the area so we ended up at McDonald’s for breakfast.
We needed a few items from the Shiloh General Store, an Amish Store in Hamptonville, but when we got there they were closed today for a school/church function.
So we returned to Elkin and went to Walmart for several items and a few groceries. We still had a hour to kill before my part was to arrive so we stopped at Wendy’s for lunch. Even a small fast food lunch now is over $20. Then we returned to the auto parts store for the part they had shipped in for me.
We returned to the campground, I installed the part and set in the Clam to read. Campers began to come in and there was no one to help them so I went over to the Contact Station to get them checked in, sold firewood and ice for about two hours.
The grass in the campground is in dire need of mowing. Not sure why maintenance is not mowing it. We have never seen the grass this high. There were only two Rangers working today and one of them got one of the park lawn mowers and began mowing the grass in the campground, the other one got a weed eater and did some trimming. One of the campers came by walking his dog and told the Ranger that was trimming that the campground looked terrible. He told her he wasn’t blaming her but wondered why the maintenance crew was not mowing.
Day 9 Wednesday May 8, 2024.
We went to North Wilkesboro this morning to Talia Espresso Coffee Shop for our Latte fix and a blueberry scone. While we were there we decided to go onto West Jefferson.
We haven’t been there in years and we remembered a cheese shop named Ashe County Cheese there that might have a cheese that we have been looking for that we discovered while we were in Berlin Ohio last year. It is Guggisberg Baby Swiss. We went to the cheese factory where it was made and tried several types of cheese they make and the Baby Swiss was our favorite.
We got lucky and found the Baby Swiss cheese that we were looking for at the Ashe County Cheese store. We picked up several different items then walked up and down the streets doing some window shopping and taking photos of several murals. We found a donut/coffee shop that had huge donuts. We couldn’t resist so we got two to go.
By this time we were ready to eat and we had seen a BBQ place on the way into town name Smokey Mountain BBQ so we stopped there on the way out of town and got some really good NC BBQ. As usual we couldn’t eat all that was on our plates so we took about half of it with us.
We got back to the campground about 3PM and I went over to the Contact Station and worked until a little after 5PM checking in campers and selling firewood and ice.
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