RoadNotes: North Carolina Vacancy

Foothills Family Campground, Forest City, NC May 31 through June 1, 2016

EJ was quick to point out that we had the opportunity to eliminate a vacant state on our travel map. About 5 miles separated us from our location in Gaffney, SC and the North Carolina border. Now in order to fill that annoying vacancy you have to follow the rule. You can only eliminate a blank state if we and BG spend at least one night in that state. We have been in and have passed through NC on many occasions, but Big Guy has never spent the night.

So we come up with a plan to make a short run up to Forest City, NC and spend a couple of nights at the Foothills Family Campground. That’s what’s great about not having a fixed schedule. It was a total of 23 miles which included a stop at the Cat scales at the local Pilot Station.

Freightliner thought Big Guy had put on a little weight, about 350 lbs worth. We wanted to verify that so our next door neighbor suggested we try the Cat Scales at the next exit off of I-85 here in Gaffney. It turns out, Big Guy is getting a little porky and has been the victim of an expanding waistline. I think EJ is hiding rocks on her side of the bedroom and EJ thinks it’s all the stuff I have down below. We really suspect that maybe last years weigh in may not have been correct. As an added bonus at Cat we were also able to get Sunny (our tow car) weighed.

We checked into the Foothills Family Campground where they let us block one of the roads into the park to unhook Sunny. Just as we started disconnecting cables and such it began pouring rain. The owner came hurrying out of the office and told us to just go sit in the motorhome until the rain quit. So we did. If he wasn’t worried about the blocked road, we weren’t going to worry either.

Then as we were setting up in the site they assigned us, he came running over again. He said “I see you have a satellite dish on your roof. We need to move you to a better site.” So he assigned us to a spot with a clear view of the south west sky. We were feeling pretty good about picking this campground. Plus, our Passport America membership reduced the nightly fee by 50%.

Once we got settled in Miss Mocha assumed the position meaning she expected food, and soon!

After her supper, it was time for a nap. I hope I’m not crowding her.

Wednesday morning we went on a mission to downtown Forest City. EJ had found an ad for a drugstore that had an old fashion soda fountain inside serving a $3.99 breakfast including coffee. We ended up not ordering the special, but shared a big ol’ omelet, sliced tomatoes, toast and 2 cups of coffee for $6.18. Now that’s a deal!!

Small towns are so interesting. They intrigue us, make us wonder about the history and how they came to be located where they are. In studying this mural, we learned Forest City was previously named Burnt Chimney.

Back at the RV and after having taken care of some chores, it was time to have a ceremony for the reason we came up here. We added our 45th state. Only DE, RI, NJ, MD and HI are left. Don’t think BG will make it to HI, but we might be able to get the rest in the future.