The Carolinas & Blue Ridge Mountains

So after Hilton Head and the hammered hip, it was time to move on, we were on the verge of outstaying our free welcome because of my injury.
We had booked a state park near Columbia in South Carolina for a weekend, but because of a “faulty ladder” Lol, we had to cancel the initial booking as I had to see the doctor on the Monday (That was a waste of time) the drive to our next stop would have been over 300 miles so we re-booked the state park on the way, it was still a drive of 170 miles, which with my fractured pelvis was a real pain in the ass, and that was literally!!!!!
We stopped off at “Sesquicentennial state park“, in South Carolina, where we had our first real campfire and chilled in pure silence,

while sat there we saw some flashing around us and the woods just lit up with fireflies, an amazing sight that made me grin, almost the same as when I first saw the Northern Lights.
Lenoir in Northern Carolina was our next stay for 10 days @ Green mountain RV park.

The park itself is set in the woods at the foot of the mountains. A very rural setting, but the park is “Tired” and needs some tlc.
It is just 22 miles from the Blue ridge parkway and right at the foothills of the Blue ridge Mountains.

A stunning area with fantastic views in the spring and a place to return to perhaps in the autumn. I am sure this is one of these areas that would take dozens of visits throughout the year to The blue ridge parkway is just shy of 470 miles long and relates to a road that goes through several states and runs along the Appalachian mountains. We joined it at “blowing rock” and headed north on one day, and south on another day, driving the parkway for approx 75 miles admiring the views at many of the lookout points along the way.

We have now been in the states for 8 weeks and it takes a while to get used to the language and pronunciations, and a couple of things that tickle me are the following;

“Niece on” is in fact that well know Japanese car manufacturer “Nissan” then we have the good old
“Hun die”, yep similar to the above, it is in fact the “Hyundai”, . Americans eh! We gave them a perfectly good language and they go and ruin it.
Now we don’t do a lot of TV over here as most of it is adverts of cars and drugs, but talking of drugs…I’m getting scared! Wow, NO, I’m getting petrified!!

Lots of drugs are advertised on TV and they are usually followed by “ if you notice sever bleeding, suffer major allergic reaction, shortness of breath, Suicidal thoughts, Seizures, Trouble swallowing, Urinary tract infections or periods of unconsciousness, stop taking this medication and please talk to your doctor…….Wow, no shit. All of that for a headache tablet, hey I can cope with my headache thanks!
Now just to finish off my minor rant…Greetings, Hello, Good Morning/afternoon/evening, all statements that we use in the UK, since we have been here we get greeted by “how you doing”? A question, yes!
So what would you do? How would you respond? No I’m not 100% sure either as to how to respond, however, when they greet you this way, why the hell do they carry on walking, why ask, if your not interested, don’t ask how are you and then wait for my answer, and for just one minute……I thought they cared!!

One of the highlights of our stay at Lenoir, besides the beauty of the mountains, and the weather, and the Parkway, and of course the……… No seriously, it was a family that we met called the Hayes family, Paul Snr, Debbie, Paul Jnr, Quinten and young Owen (so much like his Mother!) who live around Tallahassee and were staying a couple of units up. Debbie had spent 4 months in the UK previously and was happy talking to us Brits, in fact Debbie was quite happy talking full stop! Kathryn went out horse riding with some of the family and also went to Bo’s, bowling, and laser tagging.
It is amazing as to how different people can be, compared with Brits in general they are so friendly, generous and welcoming. Several times they came back from being out and bought us gifts back, a box of 12 doughnuts, some “real” birthday cake, a 14 inch Papa Jons Pizza, they even went out and bought me a tens machine to help with my pain and recovery. We also had an eat out over a camp fire, hot dogs, and Smores ( cracker, with chocolate on, heat the marshmallow on the fire, place hot Marshmallow on chocolate to melt and put another cracker on top) sweet but tasty. They also took us out to sample “Five guys, burger and fries” very very nice meal. (Although the directions there took us the wrong way down a one way street, thanks Debbie!!I thought we were going to get deported)
Would we see that type of welcome in the UK?
A great family to meet and hopefully we will meet them again.
We also spent an afternoon with Jim and Pam, Jim would go pass our rig daily with their dog Gypsy and would stop and talk. We were invited over and they were able to give us a vast amount of information on where to go and stay and things to see. They have been fulltime RV’ers for 6 years and have traveled most of the states. A nice couple to meet.

A couple of random pictures from the area……

Well that’s it for this post…roll on decent Wifi somewhere!!

Until next time, take care out there (says he:-S)