Finally, An RV Trip – The Drive & Campground

Covid-19 had significantly waned, the hip replacement surgery is behind me, the coach is hopefully readied, and Cindy is in place to house-sit so we headed out for our first RV trip in 53 weeks.  Our friends and neighbors, Steve and Pat, have put together a great sounding Tennessee Travelers Club Rally to the western North Carolina high country.

Our destination was the “Down By The River Campground” located in the small town (pop.1048) of Pineola, NC at 3350’ elevation, so it will be cooler than at home in the Tennessee Valley (it was 42F Sunday morning with predicted high of 57F vs. 56F and 72F at home).

After several relearning experiences and a fuel stop, we finally got on the road at noon (the goal was 11) on Saturday and our 3½ hour drive followed US-411 & US-129 north, I-40 east, I-81 north, & I26 east, then US-321, US-19E, NC-194, and US-221 into Pineola. None of the roads were terrible but nearly all of them needed work and I keep wondering when we will be seeing obvious signs of our big infrastructure spending bill – or is being stolen like so much of the Covid stimulus money.

At the campground, we have a large pull thru site with a concrete pad and convenient hook-ups and we are directly across from the office so our wi-fi is very good and it’s a good thing (more later). The campground is situated on what I assume is flat river-bottom land and was likely a farm at one time. The sites are well spaced and have a lot of permanent sites around the facility -108 total sites but only 20 available for short term rent.

We are in site 83 with shots taken in the mountain mist.

They still have a good bit of space should they decide to expand.

I mentioned above that we had to re-learn some things and that coupled with my inability to do much lately had us in an electronics disaster, for us – we like to watch TV.  We had a great open satellite friendly site but when I powered up the dish it made a few noises then gave an error message and shut down so I was dead in the water with it.  But no problem as we had many recorded shows on the Direct TV DVD recorder but for some reason, I could not remember how to make it connect to the TV.

I should have been exercising the antenna regularly and practicing how to make the TV work.  So, I’m very glad we can still use the internet but the silence was deafening in the coach that evening.

Always nice to have a shake-down cruise before our planned longer summer trip.

Tune in later for more of the trip.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

05/07/22 event date