broken chair
Layover in Knoxville
Ty went back to CO to finish up with the heart testing and the results are everything is back to normal. Yea Yea. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers and good wishes.
Meanwhile, I stayed in the South Lake RV park and cleaned the RV, did the laundry and some errands. One of the errands was to return to the Knoxville Lazy Days to pick up the chair that broke (again). I know RV dealers are busy, and this is peak season and all, but a little communication would be nice. We notified them in July that the chair that they said they fixed broke the first time it was sat upon. Told them we were returning to the area Aug 21 and could they please have a replacement chair. Well, we never heard “Yes Ma’am or No Ma’am” as I am getting accustomed to in this sweet south – we just hear nothing. We made repeated calls and of course all goes to voice mail. I contacted the Grand Design and they authorized a chair replacement, just let them know where to send it. More emails and voice mails. On the 20th we called, voice mail, to say we are in town and will be by tomorrow to pick up. Nothing. On the 21st call again, voice mail, so call to manager. He looks around and says “Yes Ma’am, yuren chair is sittin’ right herein ready for yer to pick er up” (I swear that is what he said and how!). SO…..
Jane’s Turn to Provide the Humor
I take a shower and wash my hair getting ready for the day. It is SO humid down here that I bought some of those Velcro type curlers and I put one on both sides of head by ears and one on top to add a little poof. Jump into the truck and off I go to Lazy Days. March into manager’s office and he says (with a smirk on his pudgy face and I see his belly jiggling) “How can I help you Ma’am?” I tell him about chair and also add about the poor communication and my thoughts about how to turn the customer service all around. Oh, self-righteous me! And he is just smiling and jiggling, damn him what is wrong with that man?
I return home with the chair, still fuming actually about the manager’s interchange with me and also the woman at the desk who had to write up the order (she kept looking at me so strangely) and I go into the bathroom and what do I see in the mirror? Two curlers sticking out on the side of my head and one on top for the poof! Oh Sweet Mary in Heaven!
Linda
Linda – don’t know your last name
Sista-in-law Pam texted me and said if I was still in Knoxville to give her old, I mean previous, neighbor Linda a call and see if she will meet for lunch. Now I met Linda once, maybe 15 years ago but thought what the heck I will give it a try. I texted, she replied and we met up for dinner at a bbq. Now I thought to myself, and I am sure she did to, what do two strangers talk about when their 6 degrees of separation is a mutual friend, Pam? Well, let me tell you we had absolutely no problem finding things to talk about. Especially about Pam! Ha ha. Actually, it was such a great evening talking to Linda about Will and Pam and my family and hers, life in Knoxville, life in general, I am glad that I made the initial call. Pam – I don’t have Linda’s email so I hope you send it to me so I can include her on the blog! And that you will send this to her.
NCCapital
Raleigh and surrounding area
Stayed at a very nice state park, Falls Lake Recreation Area. I called ahead to make reservations and was told there was only 3 sites left. Boy, did we feel lucky to get one of those. Drove in on a Friday afternoon and we are the only ones in the loop of 8 sites! As we explore the campground, there are only 10 other campers in a camp area for 90 sites! Can’t figure this one out, but it is nice to have a whole loop to one self!
Neuse River Trail – great bike ride that followed the Neuse Trail. We haven’t been on our bikes in a month which limits how long one can ride (saddle problems) especially when I didn’t wear my bike shorts with the padding. What was I thinking? We did 10 miles and I wish I was better prepared because this was a wonderful bike ride.
Raleigh State Capital – staying true to our bucket list we knocked off another state capital. Raleigh’s capital built in 1861 done in the Greek Revival style. Extremely plain, but the information about the capital was so interesting it made up for the plainness. The building itself is actually no longer used for political purposes as it is too small, but is open for tours and serves as a museum for how the capital came to existence.
Raleigh History Museum – took us 3 hours to go through this wonderfully done exhibit on North Carolina and its beginnings to present. We were impressed with how much of the museum was devoted to slavery and women’s vote (13, 14 and 19th amendments). For a free museum, don’t know how they do that, it was the best we have gone thru so far.
Beasleys Fried Chicken – lunch. I have been hunkering for fried chicken for a long time and this was, is, forever will be THE BEST
NC Beach
Moon Jellies
OBX Sunrise
Bodie Island
Ocraroke LH
Ferry
Fishing Boat
Road to Cape Hatteras
Lamar Grits Grill
North Carolina Outer Banks
Drove 7.5 hours from Raleigh to Twin Lakes RV & Camping Resort in Chocowinity NC which is out in the middle of NOWHERE. It is one of our freebies so we thought we would take advantage of it. Turns out we made a horrible mistake in navigation miles as the Outer Banks is 84 MORE miles away. We drove the first day, then decided we will return but spend the night. So much for not spending any money.
ADVERTISMENT: Traveling Apps
There are 2 apps which I absolutely love for last minute stay overs. These are must haves.
- Hotel Tonight – Amy told me about this one – it is for the very last minute and one can usually find a good deal.
- Trivago – who would have thought, but this one you can book a couple of days in advance and also some places will even allow cancellations without losing the entire payment.
We used Trivago and booked a room for an overnight stay in Nags Head. $80, it was clean, cheap, king bed, right on ocean. Perfect for one-night stay.
Outer Banks – OBX as it is known in these parts. For those of you unfamiliar, OBX is a strip of land resembling a left parentheses ) of land. One crosses over a 5-mile bridge, past Roanoke then onto the strip of land called Outer Banks.
Kitty Hawk – place where Orville and Wilbur Wright actually flew (Flyer was the “name” of the plane). Nice visitor center where you can read all about it and then outside, there is a visual of stone markers that show the distance of the 4 flights on that fateful day December 17, 1903. Having the stone markers really put it into perspective. Looking at the farthest marker, I could almost see the Wright brothers whooping it up! It is quite remarkable.
Jockey Point Dunes – largest dune area in the lower Southeast. We toyed with taking a hang glider class, but you have to walk too far out in the dunes for that and it is HOT and humid here. Nonetheless these dunes are impressive.
Lighthouse – There 4 on the Outer Banks and we saw 3 of them: Bodie Island, Cape Hatteras and Ocracoke. Actually, only saw Hatteras from a close distance and we were driving to it. At the time we were also listening to a book on tape and 17 miles later I realized we missed our turn. Oh well. Interesting thing about Hatteras and Bodie is they were designed by the same person and both are painted black and white. Bodie the strips are horizontal and Hatteras the strips are in a spiral pattern.
Wild Horses – Two herds of horses: Corolla Horses and Ocracoke Ponies. We didn’t see either, Corolla was too far north on the outer banks and we might go once we leave this campground but watching the weather, Dorian. Ocracoke Ponies we did see their butts but that was all. These horses are decedents from the Spaniards who ships wrecked off the coast and they swam ashore. In Ocracoke there were a few articles about the locals who would use these horses to patrol the seashore during WWII as spotters for submarines or any enemy invasion. Short tough horses with very strong legs to be able to walk effortlessly through the sand. The National Forest now controls the herd, they keep them at about 30 head.
Eats – it is always good to ask the locals where to go and eat. This is what we did and dinner one night was at Taratoga’s – local, local bar with terrific seafood (Ty ordered steak and said it wasn’t very good – he is in a seafood place for gosh sake!), the owners wife was the artist who had these great paintings of real life women (see pic). Breakfast at Grits Grill was suggested by us from the housekeeper (her son Lamar is the cook). Sat at the counter and I had yummy shrimp and grits and Ty had French toast. Then all hell broke loose and we had Krispy Kreme donuts, a brownie, and a coconut macaroon…all on the same day. Our sugar level was so high then boom crash and we had to pull over from the sightseeing and take a nap!
Beach – I was surprised that I had missed the ocean and was glad we decided to spend the night in Nags Head. Walked early morning to catch the sun rise and also all the Moon Jellies that got washed up on the shore.
Lost Colony – in 1593 a colony from England came to the Outer Banks and settled on Roanke Island. All went well during the first 6 months, living peacefully with the Native American Indians then the colonialist decided that since there wasn’t enough food to go around (NAI were sharing their food since the settlers came in Aug and not enough time to plant crops) that the solution was to kill the Indians. Not quite sure who came up with that plan, but certainly they didn’t think of the consequences. Well, they didn’t kill them all and of course the Indians kept their food and then they went about eliminating the colonist one by one. The leader of the colonialist (White) goes back to England to get supplies and reinforcements. Unfortunately for the remaining colonist this took him 3 years (“I’ll be right back”) and when he returned everyone was gone, the housing was destroyed and the only hint of where they might have gone was the word CROATAN carved in a tree. The plan was if the colonialist left, they would try and leave a “note”, hence the carving. White went to Croatan which is farther down the island, but no sign of them. All the literature goes on to say:”…it is a mystery of where they might have gone and why”. No mention that 1) earlier they kill the Indian chief and some of the tribe for food 2) they had no food 3) Indians didn’t like them much and may have had something to do with their demise – duh.
Ocracoke to Swan Quarters Ferry – our travels to look at Ponies and lighthouses took us to the southern end of the OBX (81 miles to be exact). Once we got out of the tourist land the OBX is just a narrow strip of land with a road down the middle and sand on either side, then the ocean and sound beyond that. Because the route we were on was so much farther south than intended we decided to take the car ferry across to the mainland. Not sure how the NC DOT does this, but it only cost $15 for the ride which was 2 hours and 45 minutes long. It was a nice way to spend the rest of the day.
Conclusion of the OBX – We spent 3 very sunny, hot, humid and lovely days at the Outer Bank – which for the most part Nags Head, Roanoke Island, and Corolla are also wall to wall beach houses for rent. The locals live in the inner part of the island and work the tourist. This would be a great place to stay for a beach vacation.
Labor Day Weekend and back to the Golf Car Parade
We don’t like to travel on a holiday weekend so we will stay hunkered down at the Twin Lakes RV Resort in Chocowinity NC. This is a nice park where we can relax, eat dogs (hot) and drink a beer all while watching all the regulars drive around and up and down the streets in their golf carts. We do like the different cultures of the parks.
And then there is Dorian to contend with. We were hoping to go back to Outer Banks to the Corella area, but will need to keep an eye on the weather.
Book
I just finished “The First Conspiracy – The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington”, by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch. I am NOT a very big reader but I could not put this book down. It is a must read. Thanks, John Hill, for giving us (Ty read it too) this book.
Beach Ladies