Back to North Carolina

03/21/22 – 04/22/22

It’s back to North Carolina for a month before we start our “Journey West”. Sticking to the backroads, our drive time from Milledgeville, GA to Mebane, NC would be about 8 hours total. To better enjoy our travel days, we try to limit our drive time to 6 hours a day or less. This would get us to the Charlotte, NC area where we would overnight. Then an easy 2-hour drive into Mebane the next day, where we would spend the next month. Using our new truckers atlas, the route we took was GA 540, US 221, I 20 (for about 15 miles) into South Carolina, onto US 25, SC 121, SC 72 and SC 9. Then things went awry.

For whatever reason the GPS wanted to take us up to Charlotte on US 521 and then back down to Monroe on US 74. This added an extra hour onto our trip and I couldn’t figure out why. I pull out my trucker atlas, look at Google maps on my phone and decide to take a chance. We turn on NC 75 and head to our final destination, a Harvest Host site, Sharonview Farms. Veering away from the GPS route always makes me a little nervous. Our GPS contains our height and weight and will route us based on this info. I always double check any height restrictions on our route, but my biggest fear (other than snakes) is getting stuck somewhere in this monstrosity of an RV and not being able to get out. We arrived safely and without incident 😊.

Harvest Host – Sharonview Farms, Monroe North Carolina

This was our 4^th Harvest Host stay and we absolutely love it! Our hosts were Teri and Nasi and they own 450 acres of which 1 acre is used to grow mushrooms. They take the waste limbs and small trunks left behind from their tree harvest and turned it into a thriving mushroom business. The large limbs and small trunks are drilled with holes and then injected with mushroom spores. Once complete, they are transported to the acre of damp shady land where they are left to do their thing. The logs will produce shitake mushrooms 2-3 times a year. We were able to pick a few mushrooms but the majority were harvested a few days before our arrival. They sell the mushrooms fresh or dried. The dried mushrooms will last 10 years! They sell them locally at farmers markets or you can purchase them from their website, www.sharonviewfarm.com

The property was beautiful and Nasi even has some trails cut thru the woods. He encouraged us to take the jeep out for a trail ride, which of course we did. Bill managed to find some mud and got the jeep nice and dirty.

We love the Harvest Host program. If you use it just two times a year, it pays for itself and the experiences are far greater than those you will find in a parking lot or an RV park.

Fun and Family

We arrived safely to our campsite in Mebane. We are spending the month at the same RV park we stayed in November, Jones Station RV. The park is out in the country, yet close to shopping. It is quiet and has huge sites. When we left in November, the leaves were falling from the trees. Now the trees are all in bloom and we get to see the forest wake after its winter sleep. I enjoy sitting outside in the evenings, listening to the birds sing and the owls hoot.

  More Mushrooms

First order of business was to visit Mom & Dad and take them the gift we purchased from the mushroom farm. We bought them their very own mushroom log to put in the garden. Now they will have fresh mushrooms for the next 10-20 years! The gift that keeps on giving, LOL!!

I took some of the fresh mushrooms I purchased and made a lovely Cream of Mushroom Soup. If you know me, you know I DO NOT like mushrooms… at all. I can tolerate the shitakes, in very small amounts, since they don’t have that spongy texture. So, I will be brave and give it a try. To my surprise it was good. I did take a can of tomato soup… just in case. If you want to give it a try, click here.

  North Carolina Zoo, Asheboro North Carolina

We were blessed with a sunny spring day and decided to go to the zoo. Hopefully with the crisp cool weather, the animals would be active. I love animals, I love zoos. Two of my favorite zoos are the LA Zoo and the Miami Zoo. I hope it will be worth the 1-1/2 hour drive.

The zoo is broken into two sections: the North America section and the Africa section. We parked on the North American side and explored this side first. First off, this zoo is HUGE in the area it occupies. By the end of the day, I logged 7.7 miles, so wear comfortable shoes and take water. They do offer a tram service from one section to the other. You could walk one way and ride back but we opted to get the steps. At the end of the day we were sore and tired, but in a good way.

As we were walking from exhibit to exhibit, we found the majority of the animals were sleeping; the bears, the gorillas, the chimps, the wolves, the lions, the rhinos. It was just after noon, so I guess they’d had their lunch and were taking a little snooze. Well, the exception being the bison and elk.

 Living out in the NW we have seen our share of both bison and elk and we almost walked by this exhibit without stopping. I am glad we did not. A young bison was coming down the hill and headed to the elk, then he started running around and playing with them. The elk just got up and moved somewhere else. Seeing the large bison bounce around in the field chasing the elk made me laugh.

We made it over to the Africa section and finally the animals were starting to wake up. The giraffes were munching on some hay, the elephants were hanging out near the pond and the chimps were walking around a little bit. My favorites are the gorillas, though. I’ve always been fascinated with them and just enjoy watching them. I’ve even been fortunate to see one gorilla interact with its trainer.

By the time we got back over to the North American section, the bears were up too. The grizzly was playing in the water with a stick, the black bears were sitting out saying, “hey look at me” and the polar bears were hanging out too. Do you think they know they are on display?

I enjoyed my day but probably would not come back. It is a large park, but the number of animals/exhibits is a little underwhelming. It is nice to see once, but now it’s “been there, done that”.

A Visit With the Kids

It is a special treat to get to see our kids and I will never turn down the opportunity. I haven’t seen them in four months and for Bill it’s been a long eight months! Some kid time is good for the heart and soul. Our flight got in late on Thursday night, like 11:45PM late. Our oldest insisted on picking us up at the airport even though we offered to grab an Uber. Does this mean he was anxious to see us too? I like to believe so. 😊 The weekend was pretty low key but we did manage to make a trip over to the coast. It was cold and windy, however, it was nice to see the coastline again. The saying goes “guest, like fish, start to smell after 3 days”. We were there for four. I hope we did not wear out our welcome. Chris and Delaney were exceptional hosts and we enjoyed our visit very much. I loaded up on all the hugs I could get too. They will have to last until we return in July.

RV Updates and Maintenance

FINALLY I can share with you the updates we have done to the interior of the motorhome. Theo is 17 years old but you’d never know it on the outside. She’s a beaut. Inside, though, her deco was showing her age. I decided to give her a little facelift. We started by replacing the jackknife sofa with two reclining theater seats which are so much more comfortable.

Next, the old gold corduroy and maroon flower upholstery on the windows needed to go as did the chairs. Bill removed all the window valances, one at a time, and I took them to my Dad’s to recover them. It took about 1 day to do each of the valances in the living area of the coach. We had to remove what seemed like a million little staples so that I could use the old material to use as a pattern to cut the new material. Then it was like putting a puzzle back together getting the new material on, cutting and folding in the right spots and stapling where nothing is seen. We did it and ended up with (what I think) beautiful new window treatments.  

Same goes for the bedroom. Out with the tan/gold/rust/black décor and in with the new shades of blue. Again, the window valances were recovered. I made a new quilt for the bed and created a quilted headboard.

After all this was complete, I thought a few new pillows might jazz it up a bit. So, I created one pillow for the living area with a map of the US and stitched out our inaugural journey from OR to FL. Then I got real creative and made a pillow with an appliqued picture of Theo for our bed. I was so tickled with the way it turned out. Don’t you just love it when you have a picture of something in your head and are able to execute it perfectly? Both of these pillows turned out just as I imagined them.

After adding a few little decorative items, Theo really feels like “home” now.

Bad A/C

And……. we all know home ownership comes with maintenance and repairs. Our rear A/C started freezing up and was not producing cold air while we were in FL. This becomes a problem when the temps start getting up into the mid-80’s outside during the day and even more importantly warmer temps at night. We like it nice and cold when we are sleeping.

My handyman likes a challenge and saving money. He gets on-line and starts researching. It looks like this will be a job he can do himself, with an assist from his brother. A new A/C unit is located, ordered and shipped. It arrives at his parents house, damaged. ☹ Mind you, we are not in NC yet. One of the things you must take into consideration living this lifestyle is logistics. Where are you going to be and how long will you be there?

Immediately, Bill is on the phone with the dealer. We get the bad unit returned but they are now on backorder. Will we have time to get it shipped to us in NC or will we have to wait until we are back out in OR/WA area? What is our backup plan? Luckily, the units came in quickly and they were able to get one shipped out while we are still in NC. Our son in WA dodged a bullet. You are welcome, Chris.

It was a nice Friday morning, perfect for working outside. Bill and his brother get the A/C unit, haul it up to the top of the coach, disconnect and remove the old unit and install the new unit. Piece of cake. 😉 (easy for me to say, I was on the ground watching and snapping pics) We now have a cool bedroom and are ready for those hot summer nights. Thank you, Michael for your help and thank you Mom & Dad for being our shipping/receiving department.

Chasing Pollen

Spring has come to NC and the pollen levels are through the roof. Leaving the windows open for one day resulted in a nice little pollen film on all the surfaces inside the coach. We had pollen when we left FL in March too. It occurred to me, instead of chasing sunshine and weather for the next month, we may be chasing pollen. I sure hope not… my nose and eyes are in misery.

The Journey West 2022

We are officially starting the Journey West 2022. Our first leg will take us to Kentucky, home to some tasty bourbon and magnificent thoroughbreds. Both are on the radar.