Candler, NC (high 68, low 39)
It’s going to be a little cold tonight and tomorrow. The temperature is predicted to get down to 39 degrees tonight. Burrrr….sure wish we had the electric blanket!
Today was a day of rest and “un-togetherness” Al went to a local bar to watch the Bucs game (they lost) and I stayed home and puttered around. It was kind of nice having the house to myself for the afternoon.
We have been so busy in the two weeks we’ve been here, that we are both a little tired out. We took it a little easier yesterday too. We went back over to the Biltmore Estate (with our annual passes). We hadn’t seen the garden on our first visit, so we thought it would be a nice easy day to hike along the river, then go see the garden. Of course at Biltmore, touring the garden is a half day event, as it turns out. There is the Italian Garden, Spring Garden, Walled Garden, Azalea Garden, Shrub garden, and Rose garden. If you want to see more plants, you can go to one of the greenhouses!
In our travels, the past few days, we did check out a couple of other campgrounds, for possible future trips.
Someone commented in a previous blog about Lake Campground Campground. It’s located in the Pisgah Forest, and not too far away, so we went to check it out. It’s a nice park, with nice trails and a little swimming lake.
Most of the campsites were either too small, not level, or hard to get into with a big rig. There were some nice sites, but unfortunately they all seem to have been taken by the camphosts. A few sites had full hook-ups, but they were spread around, mixed in between the ones that had no water, or no electricity. It was kind of a jumbled up campground.
It was very pretty, but we decided it wouldn’t be for us..unless we could boot some of the work campers out of the good sites!
When we were planning our trip here, we had looked into a place called Mama Gerties. It had good reviews but there were a few things made me nervous. One was the address. It’s on “Uphill road.”
We went to check on it and found it is indeed on an “uphill road.” In fact the roads leading to the campground were all uphill roads!
The campsites are on tiered rows. I read where they would give you a ride back from the office to your campsite because of the steep hills. Believe me, after looking at it, I can see where you might need a ride! From the office to the campsites is straight up the mountain. It would be a bear to walk up.
This was the view from the office. It doesn’t show here very well, but it’s a pretty good incline. You would definitely have to make sure the emergency brake was on the toad before you unhooked it.
One of the lessons I learned as a claim adjuster, before we got a motor home was to always make sure put the emergency brake on before you unhook. Unfortunately, on of my Insured’s didn’t know that and had a runaway toad. (Lesson learned for Karen and Al)
It’s a pretty campground, but you can see how it’s built on the side of a mountain.
They are building another tier, higher up the mountain, which will have some really nice views, but getting up that hill would be scary!
Right now, this is the upper level and the sites are nice and flat and big. These would be the premier sites. Once you got up to this level, it would be easy getting backed into the site.
The prices are a little high, but it seems to be a very popular place because most of the sites were full.
Some of the sites would take some work getting into because you’d be backing up or down the side of the mountain to get into the site.
We decided it’s not for us. Many of the sites have a view of the next tier or another rv. We like where we are at better, and it’s cheaper.
Hopefully, we will be all rested up tomorrow for a new adventure. We’re debating on whether to go to Carl Sandburg's house, or to Blowing Rock and Lenoir, NC. We were there the day we went to Linville Falls, but it started getting too late for us to do much exploring. It’s a long drive but the views were spectacular and we wanted to explore the area a little more. Also, there is a Thousand Trails Campground there, so it would be a good area for our next trip.
I too enjoy the days that Paul entertains himself away from the MH. I seemed to get more done when he is away...even if he just goes for a haircut.
ReplyDeleteIt seems you certainly have an aversion to non flat terrain. :) The campground in the Pisgah forest looked interesting, but the other campground sure was hilly.
ReplyDeleteWith a big rig it's always good to check things out first. I've seen several campgrounds especially in national Forests and National Parks that I would love to be in but you have to be 30' or less. Even at 34' they are too small for Winnona. But she fits into most spots in most places luckily.
ReplyDeleteWell at least the bucs defense has improved. The offense not so much. Maybe next week :)
ReplyDeleteYou're soing very well for flat-landers. There are some pretty big hills where you are. They are really hills, just wait until you get out to Colorado one day and see real mountains! ;c)
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on checking out potential campsites prior to booking whenever possible. I've seen some great looking RV Parks on the Internet that turned out to be dumps when we actually took a look in person.
ReplyDeleteWe just love Lake Powhatan and didn't even look around for future campsites somewhere else. It was very convenient to a lot of area attractions and we'd love to even maybe camp host there someday! Glad you're having such a great stay in the area.
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