Winter Excursion 10, Day 212

We left Douglas Dam Campground around 1000 and drove I-81 to Claytor Lake State Park in Virginia. This guy hung around us all morning while we ere packing up. I think folks have been feeding him. He was not afraid of us at all.

The drive was uneventful and traffic was light.

We set up camp and relaxed outside for a change. The weather is perfect, high 70s and low humidity. That's quite a change from where we were.

The Camp Host stopped by and we traded stories with her for awhile.

Here's a pic of our site. We will be here for four days.

Winter Excursion 10, Day 211

We went to the Lodge Factory Store and The SMKW (Smoky Mountain Knife Works) Store this morning. Cath needed a Lodge Store Fix and I wanted to pickup a back-up knife for my EDC (everyday carry) pocket knife. She did get some corn bread mix (yum yum) and a few kitchen essentials we didn't even know we needed. LOL! I scored a Boker USB 2.0 OTF (Out The Front) pocket knife, which is essentially a switch blade. It's a sweet little pocket knife! 

Got this pic of a classic at the SMKW store.

Back at camp we started packing up for our drive tomorrow. It will be a short one (200 miles) and the weather should be perfect.

 

Winter Excursion 10, Day 210

We hung out at camp this morning and in the afternoon we headed to the Bush's Beans Factory Store and Gift Shop. 

In our past visits they had an old Ford pickup truck, but now they have this giant bean can on wheels! We were hoping to pickup some of their bean dips, but they have discontinued that line. We did pick up a few knick-knacks and I scored a new "bean flag" T-shirt. 

On the way back to camp we stopped at Tennessee Legend Distillery and picked up a few must haves!

Back at camp the rains started again so it was cribbage time.

Winter Excursion 10, Day 209

We had to do a little food shopping this morning, but first drove to Lowes to return the toilet seat.

On the way to the food store Cath said she wanted to stop at Buc-ee's to look around.

That turned out to be a big mistake. It is Memorial Day and everyone in the world was stopping at Buc-ee's. The traffic was terrible. We found a parking spot and walked into the store. We spent 5 minutes, looked at each other and said We are outa here!

Back at camp the rain continued on and off so we played cards.

Once again dinner and a movie!

Winter Excursion 10, Day 208

It continues to be a rainy Memorial Day Weekend! It rained on and off most of the day with some heavy thunderstorms in the evening. We've been basically "camper bound".

While playing cribbage this afternoon we looked out our window and saw this guy sticking out of the tree about six foot from the camper. At first I thought it was a stick.

Then it moved out a little farther.

And finally showed himself almost completely.

He finally hit the ground and slithered down to the lake.

This whole process took almost an hour. He's about 3 feet long!

Even with all the rain the Kiddos in this cul-de-sac are having a great time.

It was another dinner and a movie evening for us.

Winter Excursion 10, Day 207

We woke up to a rainy morning, but it cleared later in the day.

I got the new toilet installed and it works great. The only issue is that it has a plastic seat and lid. We prefer wood. We drove to Lowes and picked up one that we liked, but when I went to install it the mounting bolt pattern is 5.5 inches wide, but the new toilet is 7.5 inches wide. Turns out 5.5 is industry standard and 7.5 is rare. It's so rare I can't even find one. I wrote a note to Dometic and hopefully they have an answer. Time will tell.

On the way back to camp we passed the Dam Store.

Check out the Blog Post from 15 May 22 (Winter Excursion 6, Day 198). I wrote about the Dam Store the first time we stayed in this area.😂

Winter Excursion 10, Day 206

We left camp this morning and drove to the Camping World near Asheville, NC. We have been having issues we our RV toilet and the closest one that we wanted was in Hendersonville near Asheville. We traveled I-40 to get there. We didn't realize that this part of I-40 was destroyed by the flooding two years ago. The highway basically collapsed into Pigeon River. It is still under construction and is basically a two lane road. It took us around 3 hours to go 100 miles. The traffic was bumper to bumper and stopped often. Here's a few pics. This reconstruction will take years.

Back at camp we relaxed after a six hour drive that should have taken less than four! 

We had a nice dinner and watched a lousy B rated movie!