Day
27 Tuesday April 11, 2017 We went to Elkin for breakfast and access
to the Internet at McDonald's and then on to Hamptonville to the
Amish General Store. All the Amish businesses were closed for two
days to attend an Amish wedding in the community. We returned to
Elkin for lunch and checked out a few places before returning to the
park. UPS delivered our new GPS to the Visitor's Center so we picked
it up. Rand McNally could not fix the one we shipped to them so they
sent us a new one. Later we put out all the reservation signs even
though it was our day off. The park is kind of short handed so we did
this to help out.
Day
28 Wednesday April 12, 2017 After breakfast we went down the road to
the General Store to us their WiFi to download the maps to the new
GPS. After downloading the files for over two hours my laptop
battery died because I forgot to bring the power cord, so I will have
to redo the whole process I guess on our next day off. We got a light
lunch at the store and a dip ice cream and returned to the park to
relax and read.
Days
29-33 Thursday-Monday April 13-17, 2017 We did our normal duties,
checking in campers, cleaning sites, putting out and removing
reservation signs, etc. Things were really busy this week since some
of the local schools are out on Spring Break and there were lots of
children in the park enjoying the outdoors. About the most exciting
this to happen was a motor home rolled backwards at the Contact
Station and hit the vehicle behind him while checking in. No one got
hurt just some bent metal so that was good. Our friends from
Greensboro came Thursday and stayed until Sunday in their 5th
wheel camper. We enjoyed visiting with them over some good food.
Day
34 Tuesday April 18, 2017 We drove to Elkin for breakfast and access
to WIFI at McDonald's. I needed to complete the map update on the new
GPS. After a couple hours of trying I gave up until I can contact
their customer support. I sure couldn't call from McDonald's with all
the noise there. We drove out to the Amish General Store in
Hamptonville to get a few grocery items. We came back through Elkin
and checked out a small campground just outside of town. On the way
back to the park we stopped the Country Store just outside of the
park to use their WiFi and call Rand McNally Customer Service. They
were able to fix the problem with maps and I was able to get the GPS
updated with the latest maps.
After
we returned to the park one of the tent campers that was setting up
near us came over looking for help getting their air mattress pumped
up. I got it pumped up for her.
Day
35 Wednesday April 19, 2017 It rained lightly most of the night. We
went to Sparta for breakfast at the Circle L Cafe again. I just
ordered one pancake this time. It was not as big as the two I got
last week and not near as good. It was a little over cooked. Later we
drove past Sparta and on to Independence VA, which is only a little
over 10 mile away. On the return trip we drove some of the back roads
through the hills and hollows.
We
stopped in Sparta at a little convenience store that Our State
magazine had written an article about how good their fried chicken
was. It was good but no better than any other fried chicken we have
had. They really needed to clean the place up. The trash cans were
overflowing onto the ground outside and inside and the store was just
messy inside.
On
the way back to the park we ran into some really dense fog in the
higher elevations.
Day
36-37 Thursday-Friday April 20-21, 2017 We are back to our campground
host duties so not much going on except some more April showers. We
have had more rain than last April when we were here. The campground
has been full every weekend we have been here except this weekend. I
guess people checked the weather forecast and didn't like all the
rain so we have several reservations that did not show up and some
that canceled.
Day
38 Saturday April 22, 2017 It rained lightly about all night and more
is in the forecast for tonight and all day tomorrow. We got the
reservation signs out by 8:30AM and sold some firewood to some damp
tent campers so they could dry out.
We
were sitting in the motor home with the door open and a house wren
flew in and pitched on one of the seats and looked around like it was
looking for a nesting place. I managed to shoo it back outside.
We
opened the Contact Station at noon and stayed until relieved about
1:30PM by park staff. We had just got back to our motor home when a
hail storm blew through dropping hail the size of marbles.
Later
we put out all the reservation signs for tomorrow because we expect
rain all day tomorrow. This is the first weekend since we have been
here that the campground was not full on Friday and Saturday nights.
The weather is really messing up a lot of plans for people that had
planned to camp this weekend.
Day
39 Sunday April 23, 2017 It rained almost all night. We got a short
break with no rain so did a little work in the campground in the
morning and then opened the contact station at noon and stayed until
relieved about 1:30PM. We drove down to The Country Store to use
their WiFi for a few minutes then returned to the park. It has rained
all day and will probably rain all night. Out of 88 camp sites we
have three occupied counting ours for tonight. We have never been
here with this many vacancies.
Day
40 Monday April 24, 2017 The rain has cleared finally. We put out the
few reservation signs for today and cleaned fire pits. The park
maintenance staff was also cleaning pits until they got called to
help fix a water problem at site 49. We finished about noon. We
didn't have much to do the remainder of the day so we did some
reading until late in the day we put out the reservation signs for
Tuesday night since we will be off for the next two days.
Day
41 Tuesday April 25, 2017 It is raining lightly this morning. We went
to Terry's Cafe in State Road ( a community between here and Elkin)
for breakfast before going on to Elkin to catch up on some Internet
stuff at McDonald's. Then we rode some of the back roads in the area
before returning to the park.
Day
42 Wednesday April 26, 2017 We drove through the park and stopped at
Widow's Creek Falls. With all the rain recently there was a lot of
water coming down the falls – really pretty. Then we went on to
Wikesboro to McDonald's for breakfast. Just before we were ready to
go we had to evacuate the building due to a CO2 leak. We decided to
ride up to the Blue Ridge Parkway and take it back toward Sparta. The
trees have leafed out here earlier this year than last year so most
of the trees are green with new leaves. The dogwoods are plentiful in
this area and are really pretty with white bloom. We got off the
parkway before we got to Elkin and road through the countryside
before returning to the park.
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| Garden Creek Church |
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| Widow's Creek Falls |
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| Widow's Creek Falls |
Day
43 Thursday April 27, 2017 The weather is better so the campers are
coming back. We did our normal routine until about mid afternoon when
the rain started again.
Day
44 Friday April 28, 2017 We had 68 reservation signs to put out this
morning. They are no vacancies tonight in the campground. Some of the
campers want to extend their stay but we have no available sites for
them unless someone cancels. All 88 sites are occupied/reserved for
tonight. It was really foggy this morning. From loop C we could not
even see loop B in the campground.
Day
45 Saturday April 29, 2017 There were lots of scouts camped in the
sites around us last night having lots of fun. We were pleased they
observed the 10PM quite time rule and didn't disturb anyone. We found
one family with the scouts that had setup camp in a site they had
not reserved. He claimed he thought it was one of the sites that the
scout group had reserved even though all those sites had yellow tags
showing that they had been checked in trough the contact station. The
person that had reserved the site had not showed up or they could
have been an argument. We contacted the ranger on duty and let him
tell the camper he had to vacate the site. In three years of doing
the hosting duty for one month each year we rarely have any kind of
issue. We did have one last week where we truly believe a camper was
trying to stay an extra night without paying for it but we caught
him, even though he played innocent.
We
worked at the Visitor's Center today from noon until 1PM answering a
lot of questions about the park and hiking trails.
Day
46 Sunday April 30, 2017 We did our normal duties plus opened the
Contact Station from noon until one and relieved the staff person
there again from 5-6PM for her lunch break. The last two days the
weather has been the best since we have been here but rain in
predicted for tomorrow so we packed up most of our outside stuff and
pulled in the awnings to get all the dropping from the trees off
before they get wet.
Day
47 Monday May 1, 2017 As predicted it started raining last night. We
quickly put out the reservation signs before the rain got worse. We
normally help the staff clean the remaining pits that need cleaning
on Monday but they are not working in the rain and we sure aren't
either. We cleaned 17 sites/pits yesterday so we did our share. After
the rain finally cleared about 6PM we put out the reservation signs
for Tuesday and turned in our keys and time sheet. We don't get paid
but they ask us to keep a time sheet to show the number of volunteer
hours. We worked 25 days for a total of 208 hours or 8.3 hours per
day for the two of us combined.
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| Restored 1966 Shasta Camper |
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| View from Loop A to part of Loop B |
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| Loop A |
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| Loop C |
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| Loop C |
Day
48 Tuesday May 2, 2017 We departed about 9AM and arrived home about
3PM after a pleasant drive.
