Time Out in the Tar Heel State

Leg 8 – North Carolina 10/30/2021 – 11/28/2021

Week 1

We arrived at our “home” for the month in Mebane, NC just in time for Halloween. Mebane is located between Chapel Hill and Graham, NC. We have family in these areas and will be spending the month visiting with them. We are staying at Jones Station RV Park and were thrilled when we arrived. The park is beautiful and the sites are huge. We back up to some woods and guess what?? We have a fire ring!! This is the first time we will be able to have an actual fire since we started our journey. How exciting!!

Trick or Treat

We spend Halloween with Bill’s parents and his brother’s family. We went trick or treating with our nephews. They were more than happy to share their candy with us, especially the peanut butter cups, which neither of them really cares for. My luck day 😉 It is so nice to be here and share this time with them.

Fall is in the air and the trees are shedding their leaves. The days are warm; like we can wear shorts warm. The evenings are cool, perfect for sitting by the fire. We decide to have everyone over to roast hot dogs and make s’mores. Michael, my brother-in-law, would bring his projector and outdoor screen so we could watch a movie. How special is that? The first order of business was to find some firewood. We located some on Craigslist and got ¼ cord for a great price. While Bill went to pick it up, I stayed back and watched my nephews.

Campfires, Movies and a Football Injury

Longfellow wrote, “into each life a little rain must fall”. While Bill was out picking up the wood a little rain fell in my life. Those sweet little nephews of mine wanted to play catch with the football. Okay, I can do that. Playing catch turned into who can kick the farthest, which then turned into playing touch football. No problem, I got this. Well my old body doesn’t move as quickly as it did when I was 20 or even 30. I zigged, my nephew zagged and I tumbled to the ground. I didn’t really fall that hard, but it was hard enough to fracture my finger. Ugh…. My ring figure started swelling immediately and I was not able to get my rings off. I didn’t really think a lot of it because I could still bend my finger just fine. So, we went on with our plans for the evening of hot dogs, s’mores and a movie.

It was a blast having the family over to our campsite and watching a movie outdoors. It was a perfect, crisp, autumn evening!!

The next morning, my finger was very swollen and ice was not helping. I waited 2 more days before I sought medical attention. My rings ended up having to be cut off because they were slowly cutting off the circulation. As soon as they came off, I felt immediate relief and the pink color returned to my finger. Yay!! However, the x-ray revealed I had a small fracture just above my knuckle and I would have to wear a splint for 4 weeks. Sigh…

Hey From Mayberry!

I’m not going to let this little injury slow me down though. On Saturday the 6^th we pick up my mother and father in-law and head to Mt Airy, NC. Did you ever watch The Andy Griffith Show? It was one of my favorite shows to watch after school or before dinner when I was a kid. The show took place in a little town called Mayberry. Mayberry was based on Andy Griffith’s hometown of… Mt Airy. This town is a little tourist trap, but it was fun visiting Floyd’s barber shop, having a pork chop sandwich at Snappy’s Lunch, checking out Wally’s Service Station and the courthouse. The Andy Griffith Museum was a nice stop as well. The museum contained early childhood items, tickets from some of his early concerts, scripts from the show, memorabilia of other cast members, his suit from Matlock and many other artifacts. I did not realize Andy Griffith began acting in high school and had a career outside of Andy Griffith, Matlock and gospel singing. He has been involved with the arts his whole life. It only took about an hour to go thru the museum but well worth the stop. We made the 1 ½ hour drive back and had everyone home before dark.

What will next week’s adventures be? Stay tuned, we will be stationary this month. It will be a nice break from moving every week. I hope to work on some projects while we are sitting; one being updating the window coverings in the rig.