Day 32 Friday May 31, 2024
A little cool this morning, 54 degrees, so we put our hoodies on for the first pass through the campground to put out the 51 reservations signs and clean 9 sites before breakfast. We had just hung them in the closet yesterday thinking we would not need them any more while we are here.
The day warmed up nicely and we had a good day. After breakfast Lena cleaned the kitchen and baked a cake to use with our strawberries and coffee this afternoon while I went back to the campground to finish cleaning the remaining campsites before the campers started arriving.
While we were at the Contact Station getting our Saturday reservations report we saw two deers crossing the road in their normal crossing location. We didn’t expect to see them because normally they don’t come out if many campers are around. When we were going back to the motorhome we saw several more down the hill beside the road. If all reservations come in we will have a full campground tonight. And the four group sites are reserved also.
Day 33 Saturday June 1, 2024
It was another hoodie morning at 53 degrees when we got out to do our morning routine. Out in loop B & C there isn’t much shade so it was sunny and warmer out there but in Loop A where we are it is totally shaded so much cooler.
Lots of campers stirring this morning by 5:45AM. Today is called Fishing Saturday here in the park. They open up the park one hour earlier at 6AM for a special fishing day. The campground gate is opened first so the fishermen in the campground have a chance to get to their favorite spot first. The kids under 16 don’t need a license.
After lunch three deer came walking within a few yards of our motorhome. We have never seen them come out this much on a busy weekend.
We had a fairly easy day since only about a dozen reservations for today. Tomorrow will be busier with most of the weekend campers will go home.
We packed up most of our outdoor items. Rain is in the forecast for tomorrow and Monday and we don’t want to pack anything up wet if we can avoid it.
We Day 34 Sunday June 2, 2024
Overcast and a light sprinkle before we got up. We put out the 15 reservations signs and cleaned 7 sites before returning to the motorhome for our Sunday morning breakfast.
We will have a lot of sites to cleanup today when all the weekenders leave. We want to leave everything in good shape when we leave for the next hosts. They are first time hosts and plan to work June and July. We would never consider signing up as first time hosts for two months straight. You might not like it and then you have agreed to work two months, nope wouldn’t do it. To each their own.
After breakfast and a few minutes to relax we started cleaning sites again. After we had cleaned 25 sites we heard a radio call from Jackie (she works in contact station) to one of the Rangers that there was a fire in the hot ash dumpster which is located in the group site parking lot with a sign on the front to NOT put any trash in this dumpster that it is for hot ashes only. Well you can probably guess what happened.
We have to bag the ashes we get out of the firepits so they won’t blow all over the trash truck when they empty the dumpster. So we can’t really bag hot ashes but sometimes the campers use charcoal and have a fire in the firepit also, then dump the still hot charcoal in the ashes in the firepit so we don’t see the charcoal.
We dumped two bags of ashes this morning and some partially burnt wood in the ash dumpster on top of some we had already dumped there. Jackie and I have been telling the campers in the group sites to NOT dump any of their trash in that dumper. Not only is a fire hazard but the bears smell it and drag the trash out and it makes a mess to clean up. This ash dumper is not bear proof.
This morning when we were dumping our ashes Lena noticed that the last car from the man using the group sites had a big bag of trash on a rack on the back of his car. Well guess where he dumped the garbage. You guessed it right on top of our ashes. And then we had a fire about two hours later. Now there are 5 bear proof metal trash dumpsters this man has to drive right past as he leaves the group site parking lot. Some people just don’t know how to follow written and verbal instructions.
So it was all hands on deck getting the fire out. It was contained to the metal dumpster. It did partially burn one of the plastic lids. Three Rangers, three maintenance guys with a truck with some firefighting equipment on it, us with our metal buckets and Jackie with a water hose and we soon had the fire out with no damage except the partially burnt lid. I reminded the Rangers we were leaving Tuesday and didn’t need any more excitement before we departed.
Day 35 Monday June 3, 2024
Our last day before we head home. We only have 18 reservations for today so it should be a fairly easy day. We will have a few sites to clean. We did several when we were out putting up the reservation signs before breakfast. We had a little rain just before we started our day. But it turned out to be a beautiful day.
We have almost all of our outside stuff already put away knowing it might rain some tonight. We don’t like to pack the stuff wet if we can help it.
We finished cleaning sites about 12:30 and had lunch and then relaxed until late afternoon. It is quite in the campground, there is only one site in A loop occupied besides us, none in C loop until later today when two reservations should come in and B loop is less than half full. When I came outside after eating lunch there was a deer standing on our site looking at me. Something scared him before he got in position to get a good photo.
Some more excitement in the park this afternoon. A man and his dog were hiking on one of the trails and the dog ran off. The man went off the trail looking for his dog. The dog, as most dog would do, returned to their vehicle in the parking lot. The man not being as smart as the dog got lost. This was about 4 PM. Three Park Rangers, the park office manager and a team from the local fire/rescue searched for the lost hiker and finally located him just after 8PM.
Day 36 Tuesday June 4, 2024
We departed the campground about 9AM and headed home. Lena followed me in the Jeep with plans to stay behind me and not let any vehicles get between me and her. She did really good as we only had two instances where a vehicle got between us.
We stopped for fuel in Lillington and for lunch at Red Neck BBQ at McGees Crossroads. I like good pulled pork BBQ try it sometime, really good.
We got home at 3PM and were really glad to be home even thought it’s several degrees hotter here than in the mountains. Now I have to get busy and fix the problems resulting from the lightning strike.
And I found another problem when we tried to put the jacks down after getting parked inside our RV Barn. They are not extending and getting an error message on the control panel for the jacks. When it rains it pours.
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