Today, Sunday is our last full day in North Carolina. I put our sticker on the map and tomorrow I will put on South Carolina. The map is pretty full! We don’t have enough internet here to post so you will see this on Monday or Tuesday.
We have been here since Tuesday afternoon and leaving tomorrow on Monday morning. I could stay here until the snow comes it is so beautiful. Before we came in, we filled up the propane tank since that is how the heat runs. I am glad we did. It is low 70’s during the day but overnight it is in the 40’s. Jerry is getting good use of his heavy wool blanket we carry from his boy scout days. I finished my sweater last night, I am sure I will use it soon.
From when we arrived until Friday evening, we were one of the few people here. There are 83 spaces in the campground and maybe 12 were full. We had to dump our dirty water and fill up our fresh water tank after the 4 days and when we went to the water station there was a sign that said, Full-No Sites Available. Every space was taken Friday and Saturday night, and now we see people leaving. Check out is 2 pm and by then I would guess we are back to almost empty.
What have we done for almost a week? Plenty of nothing. Jerry has been riding his bike, Ernie and I have been taking lots of walks, I have been knitting and reading books. The sites are very much in the woods. We have a space where the sitting area is behind our RV so when you sit out there at the picnic table it is easy to believe you are all alone in the woods. There is a large gravel space with a fire pit and BBQ, although we carry our own, and lots of space for camp chairs. We carry a mat I put out for Ernie with his bed and water bowl. He likes it if I move it around to follow the sun. The leaves are turning and I can spend hours watching them move in the breeze. I have also been watching their progression from green to yellow, red and brown through the week. Yesterday I saw a man collecting acorns. I asked him if he was going to replant them and he said he was only picking the yellow ones. He was going to wash them and grind them up to make pancakes. I wonder what they will taste like as I eat the Bisquick pancake Jerry just made for me.
Yesterday the three of us took a hike. There are many trails around here, there is a lake and the forest to explore. Many of the trails are paved with blacktop for bikes. We started on a blacktop trail that turned into gravel and then just the earth with fallen leaves and large tree roots. I dislike the tree roots because I have to keep my eyes on the ground so I don’t trip, which I do often, and I miss the scenery. We were in the middle of the forest and the trail we were following had white diamonds. Jerry said we had gone far enough and wanted to go back to camp. I said we should turn around and follow the white diamond trail back to where we started. He said he wanted to branch out and go through the woods and use his phone compass to get back. The problem is Jerry often forgets to charge his phone, when I asked him if he had abundant power, he did not reply. I knew that meant no. But off we went. We found a trail of sorts with heavy over growth. I kept telling him we only had water and no food or shelter for the night and since we did not see any rangers while we have been here would surely end up on the 6 O’Clock News – elderly couple found dead in the woods. He was not amused. Spoiler alert, since I am writing this I survived! We followed a horse trail with many manure drops, to the lake and what a beautiful view. While we were standing there a woman came by with a dog and asked us where the trail led since she thought we knew where we were. We talked to her for several minutes and she told us she was from Western North Carolina – WNC around here, and had to leave her home because of the flooding. She said she has found out her house was okay but her horse barn was swept away. When she left she took her dog but could not take her horses. She said someone found her horses and they were standing in three feet of water, cold and hungry but basically okay and took them to higher ground and feed them. They had been missing for 3 days. She said many of her neighbors had lost their homes. The closest town to her where she shops is Chimney Rock and it was totally gone, all the roads into the town are caved in and the town looks like a bowl filled with water. As I listened to her, I thought about how when you are part of a tragedy your instinct is to either talk about it or shut down. We were two strangers but she told us her story and we said how sorry we were for her and I hope she knew people were thinking about all the people who have been impacted. And then she help us. We asked if she was on the white diamond trail and she said yes and showed us where it was. She asked where we were going and we told her the campground and she said she had passed it about 15 minutes ago. We went back on the white diamond trail and to our site and made some chicken for lunch. We only walked 2 miles but it seemed so long since I did not know where I was going or if we would get lost in the woods.
We have been spending so much time outside, Ernie picked up a tick. We were able to get it out since I saturated it and Ernie’s fur with rubbing alcohol. I looked it up on line and it is a deer tick and based on how large it was he has had it for 3 to 5 days. We called his vet who told us to bring him for a blood test on Monday and when they know the results will either treat him with something or it will tell he is fine. Jerry said since we are moving around so much we should find a PetSmart since they should be able to access the test results at any PetSmart, if they don’t come in before we leave the next park. Ernie is so good. I told him he had a tick and I had to get it off of him so he would not get sick and he just sat there while I did the whole thing. When I was done, he looked at me with his sad eyes as if to say – you done now? The tick is dead but I am keeping it in a plastic bag in case they want to see it.
The other thing I have been doing is taking pictures. I have always liked to take pictures and remember when I was way younger taking pictures of flowers in Cape Cod. I had a 35mm camera and the film came in those capped tubes I saved to put my quarters in for the bus, $1.50 each way from Staten Island to my job in Manhattan. A roll of quarters each week I picked up when I cashed my paycheck and put them in two containers for the week. I am sure that bus ride is now $10 or more each way. I thought about how when I took pictures with the 33mm I took a lot of time before each shot to determine if it was worth it and how to frame it. Then you had to take the roll to be developed and only then would you know if you had the shot you wanted. Today I have a phone that takes really good pictures and I just keep snapping and when I am done, I look at the pictures and pick the one I like best and delete the rest. Or if I don’t like any I start shooting again. I thought about why I take pictures; it is because I see something I want to see again in the future. Whatever it was is worth it to me to save for the future. If I really think it is something I want for a long time, I will print it and maybe make a photo book. My son can’t believe I print pictures. My children and grandchildren don’t like to take pictures. They don’t understand that I want to remember that moment forever.
When we were cleaning out my father’s house I became the custodian of the pictures. My mother was the one behind the camera when I was young. Looking through them I discovered that all the pictures of me my head was missing because I am so tall, until other people, mainly my brother was taller than me. It was like she focused on the shorter person and the other one had no head. There are no pictures of my head until I am about 12 or if I was standing with my father. She should have had a digital camera so she could have done a do over.
Tomorrow we will be at Huntington Beach State Park in SC and our site is within sight of the ocean. I love the ocean and now we will be on the west side having been on the east side just about a month ago.
If I was going to add a YouTube to this post it would be The Autumn Leaves made famous by Nat King Cole, but sung here by Eric Clapton.