Well we had a great July 4th weekend with the kids and grandkids from Florida. Ally was to begin here choir camp at Elon University on Tuesday so it was time for us to begin the next leg of our trip. We said our goodbyes the previous evening so we just had to finish putting things away outside and in and take off.
We decided to take a different route heading west toward Nashville due to the work being done on westbound I-40 I mentioned in a previous post. Using one of our favorite travel tools, Streets &Trips, we discovered that the route we had planned to take on westbound I-40 was only 13.5 miles less than heading north from Winston-Salem to Virginia then to Knoxville, TN and east. So we decided to avoid the possible delays on I-40 and headed north. Once north of Winston-Salem not only did the traffic thin, the landscape became more rural.
This days journey was relatively short, only a few hours. As we were nearing the Virginia border we passed through “Andy Griffith” country. Mount Airy, NC (Mayberry) is his hometown and Pilot Mountain, NC (Mt. Pilot). Andy made numerous references to traveling to Mt Pilot. We did not stop as it was already becoming unbearably hot and we were just anxious to get off the road.
Pilot Mountain, NC
Arrived at Fort Chiswell RV Park in Max Meadows, VA at 1 p.m. The outside temperature was 106. Got setup and then ready for a dip in the pool. Well the dip didn’t last long. The pool was hotter than bathwater. What a disappointment. It was too hot to use the grill or stove so we just nuked some hotdogs and opened a can of fruit cocktail for supper.
When the sun got a little lower we took a walk around the campground. We met a couple from Georgia, who stop at this campground twice a year on the way to and back from Vermont. They were sitting at their picnic table playing dulcimers. After talking with them a few minutes we discovered that they got interested in dulcimer playing at Stephen Foster State Park in Florida. We were at Stephen Foster State Park several years ago. While there we were invited to a campsite to listen to music. There was a bagpipe player, violinist, and guitarist. According to the dulcimer couple, there is a certain weekend a month when musicians gather.
The next day was going to be just as hot so we got a 7:30 start. We headed toward Knoxville, TN, and stopped for gas and LP there. The temp. sensor on the side of the motorhome read 113. The Flying J was a madhouse and it took us a half hour to get back on the road.
The next campground was in Crossville, TN just a couple of hours east of Nashville. It was a nice place, mostly seasonal sites but there was a large section for folks like us. I imagine if we were there on Friday, Saturday or Sunday it would have been busy with folks from the city getting away for the weekend.
We did meet some former Wisconsinites there. The are now in Arkansas. They came over when they saw the dogs. They had a neat Class B. They were so proud of it they gave us a tour. What a nice little unit.
A short 2.5 hour ride took us to Nashville Country RV Park where we will stay for four nights. The temperature was 105 when we stopped for the day.
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