Day 33 Tuesday April 22, 2025
Today is the first day of our last weekend here so we treated ourselves to a good breakfast at Breakfast Time restaurant in Jonesville. We have ate here several times and it is always good.
After stuffing ourselves we drove to Shiloh General Store again. We decided to stock up on some more of the frozen Stolfus frozen Lasagna like we got last week plus we got two more of something different to try. And we discovered last week they also sell the Guggisberg Baby Swiss cheese that we like and it is about $2.50 a pound cheaper than the Ashe Cheese shop in West Jefferson and a whole lot closer.
There were lots of people shopping there this morning and several setting on the front porch eating something they got from the deli counter inside. They make several different kinds of deli sandwiches.
We returned to Jonesville and stopped for our Latte fix at River Roast coffee shop before returning to the campground. Not a good day to explore the backroads because it is raining and cloudy.
Day 34 Wednesday April 23, 2025
We had breakfast and hung out in the motorhome until about 11AM before going to Dobson about 40 minutes away. We have plans to eat at The Depot Restaurant at Cody Creek but they don’t open until 5PM today. So we had a few hours to roam around some back roads after Lena got her Latte fix at Grounded Coffee Shop in Dobson. They had fairly good coffee and good big muffins.
We found a small herd of Long Horn cattle but they weren’t too interested in posing for us. That green grass was a lot more appealing.
We stopped at The Depot Restaurant at Cody Creek to get some photos of the grounds and outside of the buildings before the people started arriving around opening time. We had never heard of this place before and we have been coming to Stone Mountain for 10 years now. Jackie told us about it so we decided to give it a try. There are several buildings including a Chapel, store, restaurant, big fountain that was dry and not working, several cabins and some other buildings that we couldn’t figure out what they were.
After driving around for a while we stopped at McDonald’s to kill some time and use their WiFi to download the photos off the camera since the cell signal in the campground has been weak the last few days.
We returned to The Depot Restaurant at Cody Creek about 4:30 and the entrance was open to the restaurant so we went in. Only a few other couples had gone in. They were not seating anyone yet so we had a chance to roam around and take photos inside the restaurant. They have one big room that will probably seat at least 200 that is probably for large events like weddings, etc. We think the Chapel is probably also a wedding venue.
The bar area has several small tables that can seat either two or four people plus stools at the bar. The wall of this area has bars from old jails that divides the dining area from the hallway that leads to another large dining room where we decided to be seated.
There were several paintings on the walls of the hallway that depicted life in the mountains many years ago. Some showed hunters, some showed moonshiners. One was autographed by Junior Johnson who was a NASCAR driver after he was a moonshine runner.
There was one of President Reagan and Donald Thrump. Three photos of the famous photo of when Donald Trump was being taken off the stage after being shot in Butler Pennsylvania. One had a rifle bullet like the one the shooter used to shoot Donald Trump.
We had a very good steak with two sides. The food was excellent and we had a very good waitress. We thought the prices were very reasonable considering the cost of things today and the class of the restaurant. We each got an 8oz sirloin steak with two sides, I got tea and we got two orders of blueberry cobbler to take with us all for $47.17 including tax. After we got back to the motorhome I looked at our receipt and it appears the waitress forgot to charge for the desserts which were $6 each.
After we stuffed ourselves we “waddled” over to the store where Lena found a top that she couldn’t resist.
We will probably come here again next year if we return to Stone Mountain to work.
Day 35 Thursday April 24, 2025
Back to work. We did our morning routine, came back and had breakfast and went right back out to get all the sites that were reserved ready for today’s campers. We normally wait until about 10:30 to go back out but there is rain in today’s forecast so we wanted to get them ready before the rain.
We only had minor amounts of rain today. We had an easy day today. There is a lone turkey that we hear gobbling in the woods near us. This afternoon he/she came strutting across our site. This is the third time we have seen a lone turkey on or near our site. Probably the same turkey. We have seen deer and rabbits cross the street near our site but this is the first time seeing a turkey near us.
Day 36 Friday April 25, 2025
We got out at 8am to check the campground and put out the 50 reservations signs for today’s arrivals. A light sprinkle of rain but that didn’t hinder us.
We had a good breakfast of country ham/egg biscuits, apple and an orange. At noon we went back out to check the sites that were vacated today before the new arrivals come in. Only one couple was slow about departing for the noon checkout time.
We have a lot of young kids here tonight. When we have lots of young girls with bicycles we have lots of streamers to pick up for a few days. They seem to always have streamers on their handlebar grips and they shed like an old dog.
We only have just a few vacancies tonight. May not have any by closing as we have had a few come in looking for a site with no reservations.
Day 37 Saturday April 26, 2025
There are a lot of young kids in the campground this morning. Looks like a bunch of busy ants running around having fun.
We only had 11 new reservations this morning but by midafternoon 5 more had been added to the list.
I washed the golf cart so when we leave it will be fairly clean when we leave. As of now Ranger Hicks does not have a host lined up for May. We have been trying to recruit a set of hosts for her but the four couples we have talked to have other plans for May or aren’t retired yet to be able to do it even though they seemed to be interested in becoming hosts.
Day 38 Sunday April 27, 2025
Twenty six reservations for today and a lot of campers leaving which is normal for Sunday so there will be lots of sites to clean. The campground was full last night. But this morning about 11am it looked like a ghost town but that will change by 4pm
We got all the reserved sites and several that were not reserved cleaned and then stopped for lunch and some rest. It was just cool enough this morning for a hoodie when we first went out to check the campground and put out the reservations signs but it has turned into a beautiful day.
A few things we have noticed this year: More tents were used in loop B this year (Loop B has water and 20/30/50amp electric at each site), more women by themselves camping, more Motorhomes, more tear drop style campers and more Airstream campers( we call them “shiney hineys” because they are made with all aluminum exteriors). And we had one couple from the Netherlands two sites over from us this afternoon. We are gradually seeing more foreigners camping here again. Not as many as before COVID but some.
We have had several campers thank us for all the work we are doing to keep the campsites clean and welcoming when they come in. And the Rangers and Superintendent has also thanked us for what we do. That makes us feel like the work we are doing is appreciated. Doesn’t make the “pay check” any bigger but nice to hear. 😂😂
Day 39 Monday April 28, 2025
Well this is our last day before we head home tomorrow. We had help again this morning cleaning the sites we didn’t get to yesterday. We only have about a dozen reservations for today.
After breakfast I went back out to get the few sites cleaned that were vacated this morning while Lena got our laundry caught up.
We also packed up most of our outside items. Sure glad they were all dry. The weather was really nice today and we had a fairly easy day before we head home tomorrow.
We did our final pass through the campground, put out the reservations signs for Tuesday and completed the task of packing up all the outside stuff after we got as much of the tree pollen and squiggles off as we could. This time of the year there is a lot of both falling from all the trees around us.
Day 40 Tuesday April 29, 2025
Time to head home. Today will be the 40th day since we were last at home. We ate breakfast secured everything, dumped our tanks and pulled out about 9:30. We stopped in the parking lot at the Visitor Center to hookup the Jeep and as we were doing our light test before leaving Ranger Hicks stopped to tell us goodbye. She said she wished we didn’t have to leave. We heard yesterday that Michael Wood, the Superintendent, said we were the best Volunteer Hosts they had, that we were on top of everything. That made us feel good.
We stopped for fuel in Lillington and Dunn for lunch at Smithfield’s Chicken and BBQ. We had to detour down highway 421 to Warsaw then down highway 24 back to I40 due to a major traffic accident right near the interstate entrance we needed to get on from Dunn. We got home about 3:30 and were glad to be home safe and sound.
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