I'm way behind on updates, so this is going to be mostly a quick summary with photos (I think).
I finally left (delayed due to my belly issues) Sue's on November 5th - election day - and drove down to Nomad RVs/Steve the builder for a couple of items. He wasn't all that helpful with my squeaking fan (call Maxxair), water setup (call the mfg of the hose about the mold). I should have had him do something with that hose, but it would have been a big job. They installed the new locking slides for the toilet drawer, but they don't lock at all. It seemed that it did lock a bit if pushed hard when I was there, but a month later and no locking at all (thankfully it locks in the in position for driving!!!). So, no improvement over the rails that were there before and he just installs them - knows nothing about why it won't lock. They cut my mattress so that I could rotate it. Added some clips to my screen door, but it didn't solve my problem. Annoying squeaking noise that sounds like it's coming from the flip up counter area. They added more screws for the cabinet to the wall, but it didn't help and possibly made it worse. Oh, well!
I am thinking that I should get a new filler hose and have it come up above the bed frame. That would solve my problem with the mold and possibly the spillage.
I stayed at a campground in the area and went back in the morning for some of the items. The campground is Turkey Swamp and it's really nice; good shower too! It was not very busy and had lots of space for each site. It was a great stay other than the election and waking up to the horrible results. I really don't get how a convicted felon who had a horrible term before got elected again. I really wonder how much voter suppression happened. The Dems would never go there and stoop to the Reps level by challenging. Dems supposedly didn't get out and vote in as big numbers as in 2020, but I find that so hard to believe. I could go on and on about trump/maga, but I won't. It's just a sad day and all I can do is hope that congress won't let anything through.
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| Turkey Swamp |
11/6 - I hadn't planned on going to Assateague Island, but saw that it was on my way to little Washington, NC to visit Kate and decided to stop. I'm glad I did. I was surprised that I couldn't get a beach site, but in the end, I think I preferred the area I was in. In the AM, on our morning walk, we came across some of the ponies. Zoe is so calm around them.
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| Just hanging out by the water fountain. |
After leaving the site, I headed to the beach and saw more horses. Zoe and I took a nice walk on the beach.
I was getting ready to leave (considered staying another night due to my stomach killing me) and on a whim, decided to head back to the beach because I saw some people with surfboards. I left Zoe in the van because she's so slow and I wasn't going to be long, which is when I came across some horses on the beach. There was one who went around to three different people to check for food. She was pretty entertaining!
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| victim #1 |
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| Victim #2 |
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| Victim #3 |
I had booked a BW site for the night, so we headed there. It was a nice spot on the water and with water and electric for up to 4 RVs. What a great setup! There was a travel trailer in the farthest site and I saw them come back, but didn't interact at all. It was very peaceful.
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| I would have loved to hang out on this dock, but I've never seen so much bird poop, so we went back to the van and sat outside. (Well, I sat outside while Zoe laid on her bed in the van. |
We had a long drive (for me) to Kate's. We took a break at a visitor center that happened to also be a park called Dismal Swamp. It's a cool canal system of the inland waterway and a nice break.
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| I love the leaves and reflections |
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| Boats on the Dismal Swamp Canal |
Then we stopped in Edenton for a break and to explore. I would have liked to take the trolley tour, but they didn't allow dogs, so we walked around to most of the stops. I didn't take many photos, so here's just the one.
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| Zoe waiting for court to be in session. Edenton. |
Onto little Washington. After touring Kate's house and walking Zoe, I left Zoe in the van and we walked into town for dinner. It's a really cute little town. I've been before, but will happily go again!
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| Kate's beautiful house in little Washington. Walking distance to town. |
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| Enjoying some sun outside the van. |
11/9 - Back to Beaufort! Once again, I felt like I was coming home... Unfortunately, I only had a week Jason's cottage, since his parents were coming into town and staying there. After the week at the cottage, I ended up moochdocking at Lynn's townhouse that she was moving out of. The house I had rented from Mary and John across the street, had been sold to Mark and Isabelle, so no option for me to rent that! I really did miss the back porch, but Jason's is new and comfortable.
During my stay, I hung out with my FIA friends, Jason and Arlene, Mike and Catherine (got a tour of their new home, which is in progress next to Isabelle and Mark's), Tonya, Nancy and Tom, Kaye and Mark, etc.
I really do love Beaufort and the people and seriously think about renting there for a few months every year. We'll see!
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| Jason added this nice sitting area in the back yard, which we enjoyed quite a bit. |
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| It's so hard to face the day! |
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| Lots of big boats in town (these aren't the big ones though...) |
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| Tuesday evening FIA gathering. So great to see these lovely ladies again! |
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| Zoe and Jasper playing (well, Jasper is playing, while Zoe looks like she'd like to play) |
Thursday, I met Lynn for lunch and checked out her new home, which she was just moving into.
Dinner with Kaye and Mark and their pups.
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| I love how dog friendly Beaufort is! |
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| Hey, where are my treats??? I know this place! |
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| King tide. This is an hour or more after high tide! |
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| Yummy steak au jus lunch at Queen Anne' Revenge. Super yummy and my stomach liked it too. |
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| Lunch spot view |
Headed to Fort Macon to walk on the beach at sunset.
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| Breakfast at Cru - Love their bagel with lox! |
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| Really, they're closed? Can't be! |
I left Beaufort on 11/20 and slowly made my way towards Western NC to do some volunteering. As usual, I didn't make plans for volunteering, so I was just winging it. Because of cold weather coming in, I went slowly and stayed at a HH near New Bern for the night (not far from Beaufort), before heading farther west. It was a great place with a few camping sites with water and electric (still not needed) and a very nice bath house, which is always a treat. Even though I didn't need one, I took a shower as I never know when will be my next chance! Josh showed me around and gave me a tour of his hydroponics setup for growing grass for the cows and donkeys.
11/22 - Another HH at Foothills Brewing in Winston-Salem. Great food, good beer, and excellent music. Parking spot was good too, next to grass and separate from the Brewery parking.
11/23 - Arrived in Hickory and volunteered there. Stayed in Morganston at Angela and Annelise's house, someone I found through a facebook group. We had a fire in the evening and they told me that they do Trusted Housesitters with their dogs. I'm going to try it.
Volunteered in Black Mountain the next two days and stayed one night in downtown and the next night in the parking lot next to the volunteering place. I've been sleeping really well and not having any trouble with noises even though many places do have noise.
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| Went for a walk in Black Mountain on a trail by a little creek and this is part of what I saw. For the most part, I tried to not get close to the devastation. Swannanoa was really bad, right along 70. I think that may have been the town and it was so trashed, but the road was in OK shape. |
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| Yummy Salmon Cakes for dinner at the Trailhead Restaurant. Zoe and I were the only ones on the patio and it really wasn't cold. |
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| Zoe using her new blanket again at the Trailhead. |
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| This is where I volunteered for 2 days in Black Mountain. Lots of food and blankets and DIAPERS!!!, some clothes, not enough cleaning supplies or paper products. This location worked well for me to take a break to get Zoe out. The temperatures cooperated too. |
On Wednesday, I volunteered in Asheville prepping food and stayed at another HH brewery there. Archetype brewing. They had limited beers due to not having water/clean water for a while due to the flooding.
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| Who comes up with this stuff? Cute. I would never be that creative... |
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| This devastation along a trail along the French Broad River. It is hard to imagine that this will ever get cleaned up. It's mostly trees down and garbage hanging from branches. There are houses up on the hill that used to enjoy a lovely view of the river and now they have a view that will remind them daily of this catastrophe. |
11/28 - Thanksgiving. Marta invited me to go to her family Thanksgiving, so I drove down to Charlotte. Nice crew. I ended up staying with Marta and Annie for 6 nights due to trying to avoid the cold, but that didn't go so well, since I left there on 12/4 when it was relatively warm and the night is relatively warm, but then it gets super cold (teens) again on Thursday night and Friday night. I want to do more volunteering, but now I'm worried about Zoe being too cold!!! Argh! If it's sunny, maybe she'll be fine.
We did Thanksgiving, then Marta's sister's birthday party the next night. Annie and I took Zoe for a couple of walks (Marta had a cold so didn't join us), we all hung out, went to the Illusion museum and we were all supposed to go to see Wicked and go to dinner with M&A's friends, but my stomach was killing me (yes, it's still a problem!!! 😧😩😫ðŸ˜), so I bailed and stayed home with all the dogs.
I'm sure they were ready for me to leave. Marta suggested I stay longer, but this cold weather is just sticking around, so I just had to move on or I'd be there another several days and I didn't want to over overstay my welcome! They are both salt of the earth kind of folks! I'm lucky to be able to call them friends.
One of Annie's and my walks were at the Whitewater Center, which was mostly closed down, but would be a blast in the summer. The water was all drained for the white water activities, but it still has biking, and zip lining, and has ice skating.
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| Whitewater Center. Climbing wall over the water, so no harness needed. |
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| Empty white water area |
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| Finn, Freddy, Zoe, Annie, and Alvin. Quite the crew! |
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| And Marta too! |
12/2 - The three of us went to the Museum of Illusions, which was really fun.
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| infinity mirror |
12/4 - I headed out and went to a BW in Rutherfordton, NC. I ended up staying there 2 nights because it was a great place and I had electricity to run my little space heater. I don't know why I'm so resistant to relying on my diesel heater. I really need to get over that and it would reduce my stress about cold weather.
12/5 - I woke up with a sore throat and runny nose. 😕 I thought that I made it out of Charlotte without picking it up, but no such luck. I tried to visit a tiny home community nearby, but though it wasn't gated, they had a no trespassing sign. I get it, but it's disappointing to not be able to check it out. I had contacted someone and she said they wouldn't be showing it until spring again when the next phase starts. After that, we went into the downtown of Rutherfordton and walked around. It's a cute town. I got some chicken noodle soup for my cold from a restaurant and headed back to the BW house. It was supposed to be 18 degrees overnight. I managed to keep the van warm for most of the night and it was just below 60 when I woke up, which is great at that temp.
12/6 - I considered staying another night as I wasn't feeling good, but decided to move along, even though where I was going was going to be colder than Rutherfordton. Oh well. I have electric hookup there too. It was only a high of 35 today and windy. Thankfully the wind died down after I arrived.
I tried to visit another Tiny home community (Acony Bell), but they never got back to me and it is gated. I decided to drive over since I was only 10 miles away. I could have walked in around the gate, but I didn't want to be rude. It seemed like a nice community, but very close to the road. On Sunday I'm planning to visit Yvette, who I met in Monument Valley, at her tiny home nearby, so at least I can check that one out!
I'll end this post with some pretty pictures from tonight's HH stay.
