Smokey Mountains August 16-20, 2017

Day 16 Wednesday August 16, 2017 Today was laundry day. I went to the Camping World store to see about a resolution on our recliner issue that we discussed with them on Saturday. The person we talked to on Saturday had been sent to another site for the week so I explained the issue to two other employees. They agreed to come to our motor home and look at the issues. After checking the recliners they agreed there was an issue. After much discussion we agreed that we would be okay with one of the recliners and they agreed to replace the other and also give us back 10% off the purchase price for all the trouble. After checking the recliners we have, they discovered they had been discontinued and were not available. They agreed to replace with the newer larger version they had in stock for 50% off the difference in price so we agreed to that. I paid the difference and got the new recliner and brought it to the motor home. It is larger, sets better and has what appears to be covered in a better material.

Day 17 Thursday August 17, 2017 Today was the first day of the NC Bluegrass Festival. It started at noon and ended for the day about 11PM. The two most well know groups were Rhonda Vincent and the Rage and Gene Watson and the Farewell Party Band. Rhonda's daughter Sally is singing with her on the road now and two of the band member are her sons-in-law. One is married to Sally and one married to Tinsel. Gene Watson is not a Bluegrass singer but he and Rhonda has recorded together and the crowd likes his music. It was kind of hot today so I got me a hand dipped ice cream waffle cone and it was melting as fast as I could lick it but it sure was good.

Mid afternoon a thunderstorm came up and there was lightning about a mile away so the sound system had to be shut down to prevent electrical shock and damage to the very expensive equipment. That shortened the performance of The Chuck Wagon Gang by about 10-15 minutes. This is a gospel group that has been singing for over 80 years but of course not with the same members. One of the granddaughters of one of the original members is part of the group

Day 18 Friday August 18, 2017 Today was the second day of the festival. Today's most well know group was Dailey and Vincent. Darren Vincent is the brother of Rhonda Vincent. The Vincents as a family have been singing Bluegrass for many years. Yesterday Rhonda and Darren's mother got up and sang several songs with Rhonda's group. She was traveling with them for the weekend.

Day 19 Saturday August 19, 2017 This was the final day of the Festival. Lots of good music and singing. One of the acts was The Little Roy and Lizzy Show. Little Roy is Little Roy Lewis of the well know Lewis Family Gospel Singers. He is 75 years old and he acts like a teenager on stage. He clowns around on some of the songs but he is a gifted musician. He and Lizzy can both play several musical instruments. They always put on a good show. Another group was the US Navy Bluegrass Band the Country Currents. We were not aware the Navy had a Bluegrass group. They were very good and the lead singer wrote most of their songs. They are the only sanctioned Bluegrass Band in any military in the world. The final act was Mike Snider and his band. He is also a gifted musician and has a natural talent for humor. He told several jokes and had the audience in tears from laughing.

US Navy Bluegrass Band

Day 20 Sunday August 20, 2017 We packed up and departed at 9:15 AM for Fries New River Trail RV Park in Fries, VA, a former mill town just past Galax, VA. This is our second visit to this RV park. We stayed here the same time last year. It is a small 16 site park setting down in a hollow with a mountain stream running by most of the sites. The owners make you feel like you are right at home and the other campers are very friendly. We arrived about 12:45 PM and set up in site 9, right by the stream. It is so peaceful here and a little cooler than in Marion.

We traveled up I77 on the way here and was almost in a wreck. Some DUMB driver came down the on-ramp to get on I77 and did not speed up to merge ahead of us and did not slow down to merge behind us and I could not move over to let him in because there were two cars to my left. He just started coming over right against us. I slammed on brakes and laid down on the air horns (which are very loud) and he finally got the idea and whipped back onto the on-ramp before we collided. A very close one.

Fries New River RV Park Site 9

Smiling Mushrooms at I77 Reststop

Fries New River RV Park Site 9

New River with lots of grazing geeze

Water Wheel made by Tom the park owner

Smokey Mountains - August 7-15, 2017

Day 7 Monday August 7, 2017 Not much going on today but set inside and read while the rain came down all day. But that was okay as it was getting dry here. Lots of people had been watering their grass as it was getting rather dry.

Day 8 Tuesday August 8, 2017 We drove to Sparta NC about 15 miles away to meet a friend and high school classmate of mine and his wife is Lena's friend and high school classmate. We had not seen them in about 11 years and found out via Facebook yesterday that they have a second home near Sparta and were there for a few days. We met at Hardee's in town and had really nice visit and then ate lunch. Sure was good to visit with them again after several years.
On the way back we drove some of the backroads and came out near Galax so we stopped at Fox's Cone N Coffee again for a Latte and another cinnamon bun and a scone.

Day 9 Wednesday August 9, 2017 We hung around the resort today, relaxing and reading until about 4:30PM when we drove to Galax to attend the Old Fiddlers Convention. It runs from Monday through Saturday night. The event is a competition of various musical talents. The individual competition tonight was Bluegrass Fiddle, Dulcimer and Bluegrass Banjo. Some of the talent was very good and some not so good. But we found out that the individuals get their entrance fees to the convention refunded when they perform so it is a good way to attend the convention for free. We were getting kind of cold so we departed about the time the banjo competition started but it was broadcast on the radio so we tuned in on the way back to the resort.

Food Vendors

Stage and some of the audience

Some of the campers at the Convention

Day 10 Thursday August 10, 2017 It was rather overcast today and cool so we hung around the resort and late in the day did some prep work for departing tomorrow. We listened to some of the Old Fiddlers Convention on the radio.

Day 11 Friday August 11, 2017 We departed the resort for Marion NC where we will be attending the 42nd NC Bluegrass Festival. This will be our 6th year at the festival. Upon arriving I got the service center at the campground to do a NC State Inspection on the motor home while we ate lunch in the service center cafe. They have great salt and pepper catfish on Friday.

Tom Johnson's Camping Center Site 35

Day 12 Saturday August 12, 2017 We went to the Camping World store here at Tom Johnson's Camping World after eating breakfast at T.J's Cafe at the Service Center. We purchased two recliners for the motor home last year at the Camping World store here and had them shipped to us at home. We have never been satisfied with them as they don't set as well as the sample in the store we sat in. The seat tilts back way too far and we can't find anyway to correct that so we complained to the guy that sold them to us last year. He promised to come out to the motor home later in the day to look at the recliners.

We departed and checked out a local campground but did not like it and then drove up to Linville to look at some other places before returning to Marion and having a late lunch at Moon Doggie's Diner. We usually eat here one time while in the area. It is a 50's themed diner usually with good food. I ordered a hot dog special but the hot dogs were not to my liking.

We returned to the motor home and waited for the man to come look at the recliners but he never showed up. Surprise Surprise!!.

Day 13 Sunday August 13, 2017 We went to Black Mountain to attend the 40th Annual Sourwood Festival as we have for the last several years. There are lots of really nice craft vendors there but we don''t normally buy anything. There were several honey sales booths and one booth had a little screened in room with a bee hive in it and there was a man it it explaining about bee hives and telling some very interesting facts about bees. He had taught bee keeping for 16 years at one of the local colleges. Honey bees are very interesting creatures.

Some of the unique guitars that Chad Rae makes and sales.

We listened to some of the music under the tent. Chad Rae, a local musician and guitar maker was playing some very unique guitars that he had made out of cigar boxes, skate boards, axe handle, etc. Then we went to My Daddy's Pizza for a pizza. We always stop there for lunch when we go to the festival. They have very good food.

Day 14 Monday August 14, 2017 I got up early to get in line to pickup our wristbands and place our chairs for the Bluegrass Festival. No one could get the wristbands or place chairs under the pavilion until 9AM.

RANT ON: Some people got in line Sunday afternoon and were going to set in line all night just to get to set up front. The promoter came by and told them to just leave their chairs in line and come back Monday morning. I got there about 6:30AM and there was probably 100 chairs in line with just a few people setting in their chairs. As more people came up with their chairs and saw what was going on there was a lot of angry people fussing about what had happened including me. The promoter should not have told the people to leave their chairs in line and come back Monday morning. No one should be allowed to get in line until a couple of hours before 9AM. The point is if they can put their chairs in line Sunday afternoon, why not just go ahead and place the chairs under the pavilion, except only people with 3 days passes get priority on placement of chairs and it they could place their chairs before getting their wristbands proving they have purchased a three day pass. RANT OFF. Lena brought me a cup of coffee and a country ham and egg biscuit while I was in line so all was good.

I still was able to get our chairs placed 9 rows from the front because there were some open space not taken by people in line ahead of me. Late in the afternoon we rode our bicycles around the campground and got caught in a rain shower and took shelter at the pavilion and had a good conversation with the man that helps setup for the festival.

Day 15 Tuesday August 15, 2017 Today was a slow day, reading, relaxing, eating catfish at T.J's Cafe before Lena did some grocery shopping in the afternoon. One of the neighbors came over and brought us some cucumbers and stayed and talked for awhile.