Day 22 Tuesday April 8, 2025
Hey, it’s the weekend for us so we decided to try and eat our way across part of two states starting with Saddleback Mountain Cafe for Breakfast in Ennice NC. It is just a few miles from the Virginia state line. They serve a good county breakfast. We have ate here a few times. There are always several locals eating here when we come in. We can usually hear some local “stories” as we have our breakfast. We can eat here three times for the same price we paid for our crepes and coffee in Helen GA.
For our second treat of the day we drove on to Galax VA to the Briar Patch Marketplace and Cafe for our Latte and Cinnamon roll fix. This is one of our regular stops when we are in the area.
All along our drive this morning we could see the results of Hurricane Helene where it took lots of trees down. Some of the tree damage was from the ice storm a few weeks ago.
Then a quick stop at Walmart for some milk, etc before driving over to Fries VA. We rode through Fries New River Trail RV Park where we have stayed several times. Their camping season is just starting and there were only two RVs there. We saw Tom, the owner, trimming up some trees that were down so we stopped to speak to him a minute. Then we stopped just outside of Fries at The Bread Box. This is a small road side stand where the owner places homemade bread and other baked goods and people can stop and pick up what they want and pay on the honor system. But everything was sold so we didn’t get anything.
From there we rode several miles of backroads before stopping in Independence VA at the Mexican Restaurant for lunch. We have ate here many times in the past.
Our next stop was the motorhome for the remainder of the day. I think we have had all 4 seasons in the last 5 days. Today being the coldest.
Day 23 Wednesday April 9, 2025
The temperature was in the upper 30’s when we got up this morning. We had made plans to return to West Jefferson to get a few items at the Ashe County Cheese store and get our Latte fix and some of the big donuts at Hole Lotta Doughnuts. We were disappointed to find that Hole Lotta Doughnuts had closed down. Usually Google Maps will indicate when a business is closed but not this time. So we went down the street to Bohemia Coffee House that Ranger Kassie said was good…..WRONG. They didn’t have any pastries and my latte was mediocre and Lena said her’s was nothing more than warm milk. Well we are two for two this morning.
We did have good luck at the cheese store. They had the Guggisberg Cheese that we like and a few other items. By this time we were getting hungry since we hadn’t had anything to eat yet so we decided to stop at Smokey Mountain BBQ where we ate last year when we were here. The food was very good and plentiful last year. They had a big handwritten sign about driving around back to the drive up window, place your order, pick up your order and then bring it in to their screened in porch to eat. HUH!
There was a couple sitting in their truck eating their lunch and he told me that the owner was trying to stay in business but couldn’t get enough help to keep his dining room open. We decided to just leave town and go to North Wilkesboro and try to find something to eat since we seem to be striking out here.
So we finally got something to eat at Olive Garden and it was very good. Then we returned to the campground.
Day 24 Thursday April 10, 2025
Back to work today. We got things caught up in the campground from our two days off. Sarah and Ben that work in the Contact Station on Tuesday and Wednesday kept up with the reservation signs so that helps out.
Now if the weather would just dry out and get warmer that would be good. More rain was in the forecast for Friday morning about the time we normally go out to put the reservation signs out so we put them out late today while it was not raining.
We discovered tonight that our hot water heating system quit working between the time I took my shower and when Lena took her’s so she had a cool shower. I will work on that tomorrow in the daytime. Our hot water heating system is called Aquahot and not only does it heat our water it also can be used to heat the motorhome. It is one of three heating systems in the motorhome.
Day 25 Friday April 11, 2025
Yes it was raining when we got up as predicted but we stayed in until it stopped. Then I went out to see if I could find the issue with our hot water heating system. There was nothing obvious that I can find but I had been told that the version of the burner controller we had was prone to fail so I had purchased the latest version and had it in my spare parts. So I installed that but that didn’t solve the problem either. So I scratched my head for a while, did some internet research, gave up and started looking for a local RV Technician that was certified to work on our system. I found one that had great reviews on repairing our system so I called him and he will be here tomorrow about 10AM. We were not looking forward to taking showers in the campground bathhouse. Doable but not desirable.
Looks like another wet cold night especially for those in tents.
Day 26 Saturday April 12, 2025
We got out at 8AM and did our morning routine so we could get back and have breakfast before our technician arrives. It was cold, about 40, again this morning with a lite breeze and we still can’t get the heater on the new golf cart to work.
Jason arrived right on time and discovered the problem with the Aquahot in about 3 minutes. It is the water temperature thermostat and he had the part. Since he was here I let him also do the annual service on the Aquahot system. I was very confident that he knew what he was doing.
Once he finished that I asked him if he worked on RV air conditioners/heat pumps. He said he did so he went up on the roof to look at our front AC/HP. As soon as he took the cover off he saw the problem. About two years ago I had a device called a Easy Start installed on two of the AC/HPs that would allow us to run two of our units on a 30AMP service at the same time plus they aren’t as loud when they first start up. Well it had about a half cup of water in it and the electronic circuit board was corroded. The water tight seal was not water tight. I asked him to deinstall it and put the wiring back the way it originally was.
Now we have hot water again and all three AC/HPs working. Our pocket book is a little lighter but we can live with that to have everything working.
The weather was a little better this afternoon and tomorrow looks even better. We are ready for some sunshine and warmer weather.
Day 27 Sunday April 13, 2025
We had another night in the low 30’s but as the day progressed we were finally able to take our hoodies off to work in the campground again. Loving the sunshine and warmer temperatures.
As normal on Sunday almost everyone here departed and we have 29 reservations for tonight. We had a few that Ranger Kassie had to remind about the 12 noon checkout time.
After we put the reservation signs out, had a good breakfast and rested a few minutes we started cleaning the sites that were vacated. We got 37 of them cleaned before we quit for lunch.
We had three sites that had really hot coals in the fire pit so we had to leave them to cool before cleaning the pits. We have a separate dumpster for our fire pit coals that no one is supposed to put anything in except fire pit coals but some people just can’t read signs or just don’t care. We found two tents in the dumpster this morning when we went to dump our fire pit coals. The dumpster is in the group site parking lot so we are pretty sure they did it. And they have to drive right by the 5 campground trash dumpsters on the way out of the parking lot. The fire pit dumpster has a lock on it but the two lids are plastic and can be partially lifted up on one corner if one tries.
We were finally able to set outside in our Clam again this afternoon.
We got to talk to the new Park Superintendent, Michael Wood, this afternoon. We remember him from when he was a Ranger here a few years ago. We think he is doing a good job with the Park/Campground. And would do more if the state would give him the money for other improvements.
Day 28 Monday April 14, 2025
A cool 47 degrees start to the day but it got to the mid 70’s and we are loving it. I let Lena lay in bed a little longer and I put the Reservation signs out. We only had 18 and she had already marked the day on them so it was easy.
The maintenance crew and two of the Rangers were out in the campground cleaning the few fire pits we didn’t get to yesterday and raking some of the sites. This is the first help we have had on Monday in 3 years. Then this afternoon two of the Rangers were spraying grass killer on some of the sites where the grass is trying to take them over. We are liking the new Superintendent. They want to get some small pea gravel for some of the sites to refresh the area of the site that is not paved but have not been given the money in the budget yet.
We try to discreetly take photos of RVs that are a little out of the ordinary and we had one come in yesterday afternoon that sure fit that category.
It was a kind of beat up old cargo trailer with a windmill mounted on the tongue being pulled by a SUV from Canada. The blades of the windmill turn as he is going down the road. I can just imagine the looks he gets on the highway.
I named it the “Wind-Da-Bago”. I asked the owner this morning what was the purpose of the windmill. He confirmed what I thought. He uses it to charge the batteries in his ”RV”. He said it cost him $50.
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