Last Days of Bandits Roost

June 26 - 29

Bandits Roost, NC

Click on picture to see album

As mentioned in the last post the four of us (A's & B's)drove to Boone, NC. We met with the rest of the group (C's & R's). After catching up on news of family and friends we went out to eat (And yes CW, we do a lot of eating!) Mellow Mushroom was the restaurant for the day. That was the best pizza we have ever eaten! We ARE going back, CW! We had pizza prezels for appietizers dipped in marinara sauce that was out of this world - our granddaughter, Deidra would have loved them.
June 27 & 28
The last couple of days have been spent at the campground. Buddy has been napping and knapping. Those of you that don't know the terms - Napping includes snoring and drueling. Knapping is the "art" of making arrowheads out of flint, glass and obsidien. (see pics)

Bandits Roost June 23 - 25

Bandits Roost, NC

This posting comes with a warning! “Get a cup of coffee or beverage of your choice”. We need to do some catching up on the blog.

After leaving Stone Mountain, our next destination was Bandits Roost Campground. It was only a 30 mile drive. It’s a COE park – Corp of Engineers. They only had a couple of sites available and one was a handicap site (They took one look at Bud and said we could have it). It’s real nice but right next to the bathroom, dumpsters and dump station. *** It’s Bud! She’s never satisfied! The nice man took pity on me, and gave us a camp site where he knew it wouldn’t be very much trouble for me to cleanup! And, I think he knew our appetites would be altered somewhat – must of thought I needed to loose some weight. One whiff of the dumpster or the dump station has a devastating effect on one’s desire to consume food!! ***end Although we are only 30 miles away, the area seems so different. At Stone Mountain we had deer and humming birds right at our back door – here we have chipmunks and a lot of song birds. *** Me again! For the record, I’ve seen at least three hummers at Bandits Roost. ***end I am amazed how tall the trees are. I bet they are 80 plus feet tall. You know that’s true or Bud would have ***’ed me!

We will be traveling with John and Sue for the next month or so. They are well seasoned RV’ers and know a lot of the campgrounds and towns. We all needed to do laundry so we went to town to the Laundromat. *** Really! This was very exciting! The Laundromat has a wanted poster on the doors! Seems two shady characters (boyfriend and girlfriend or husband and wife) ripped off the change machine, while on video. Got their pictures and tag number and description of the get-a-way car!! That’s why I’m not a professional thief. I wouldn’t be smart enough to figure out what those little gadgets are hanging above the doors or the identical ones outside in the parking lot either! ***end It was right next to Miller Brother’s Automotive. They restore old classic autos. Josh would love it! (see pics). The people here are so nice – the guy at the shop invited us to come in and walk around his shop. *** Bud again! No kidding! These guys do outstanding work. If anyone likes old classic cars, they should look these guys up if they’re ever in Wilkesboro, NC. ***end

We have been taking nice long morning walks. *** Yes, it’s me again. They are very, very long! ***end. There are trails that take you around W. Kerr Scott Reservoir. ***Yeah, Bud We don’t know for sure if the trails go completely around the reservoir, since we have not gone completely around the reservoir. And I for one do not plan to, even if they (the trails) do! ***end We are going to check out the dam later in the week.

June 25, 2008
Got up early today and met with Sue and John to go on one of those “very long” walks. Plans changed – when we met up with the Augustine’s plans changed. It seems their electrical hook-up was not working right. They needed a 50 amp service and only had 30. A decision was made to move them if possible. (Remember the campground is about full) Off the four of us we went with coffee cups in hand, searching for a possible site. We discovered a 50 amp site in the process of being vacated. Our hopes were high, especially Sue’s! We perched ourselves on a wall next to the registration office and waited for the attendant to arrive. Everything worked out – Buddy and I stood guard over the new site while John and Sue prepared to relocate to the new site. Veterans that they are, it only took about 20 minutes. The rest of the day was spent shopping in town and eating!
Tomorrow we are driving over to Boone (our next campsite) to visit with friends.

Comment

Great pictures of the sunset......why do most of your posts include food?? Looks like you guys are having a lot of fun.....!

Stone Mountain II

Stone Mountain II

June 18, 19 & 20
When we arrived here on Tuesday there were plenty of sites to choose from. On Thursday we began to see a few more RV’s, Pop-ups and tents – by Friday this place was packed. There was a constant flow of bicycles and tricycles buzzing up and down the campground roads. Oh, and dogs – it seems most of the veteran campers have at least one dog and they very in size. We figured the smaller campers have bigger dogs and the larger campers have several dogs. The people across from us have a pop-up camper and three small ankle biters. When evening fell this place was lit up with campfires. (Bud says it’s a good time to shut the windows and turn on the AC) The children walked around with their flashlights, little lanterns and flashing shoes. We can official call them “Weekend Warriors”, but I guess they say we aren’t “Real” campers in RVs. Buddy just returned from the shower with a smile on his face and a story about a Dad and his little boy – Evidently, the Dad got the little boy (Buddy said the boy was about waist high so I’m thinking he was about 3 or 4) anyway, the Dad got the little boy showered and proceeded to take his own shower and the boy decides he wants to go outside and check on a friend. The Dad said, “No, just stay here with me.” When Dad finishes his shower, the little boy wants to take another shower on the other side. Dad said, “No, that’s the women’s side.” The little boy says, “I like it on the women’s side.” Buddy thinks the kid will probably turn out ok.
We asked some local Rangers about a good place to eat. They told us about a place called Carol’s Restaurant. It took us two days to find it. All the roads in Traphill are named Traphill something or other. We tried out the restaurant on Friday when John’s sister and brother-in-law (Joanne & Jim) came to visit. Carol’s turned out to be a small, older, single wide mobile home. The place was packed, but we lucked out and got right in. It wasn’t much to look at; however, the food was good! We had a good visit with Joanne & Jim – we will meet up with them again in a couple of weeks.
Yesterday, while hiking we found a spot on the mountain that we thought would make a good photo at sunset. So, on Friday evening the four of us trekked back up the mountain and waited for the sun to set. (see photos)
We have done quite a bit of walking up and down the mountain this week, so we are hoping for some rain tomorrow (Good excuse to sleep in). *** Didn’t rain! But, I slept in anyway – Patsy got me up at 11:00 AM.

The pic of me was taken by John while I was trying to adjust our camera for a group shot.

Checking In

Buddy and Patsy - I am enjoying reading the tales of your travels. Patsy writes real well. Doc Paula and I have just returned from the farm in Centrailia, Missouri. We drove and took two of our Rhodesian Ridgebacks. We were visiting Doc Paula's family and checking in on the farm. Sure is wet up there. Whelp, gotta go. I'll touch base with you from time to time. Ya'll have a good time. Alan

Stone Mountain

Stone Mountain State Park

Traphill, NC (Stone Mountain)

June 16, 2008
We left the hilly country of the Waxhaw region (Andrew Jackson’s birthplace) in South Carolina (Sow Cur Linuha). About 2 hours later we started entering the Blue Ridge Mountain region in North Carolina. By 12 noon we were at our new campsite (Stone Mountain State Park) near Traphill, NC. We met John and Sue “A”, our neighbors from home. We went for a walk with them after dinner on one of the nature trails. We saw several deer. This is a very nice park, it is paved, has gravel sites and clean bathroom facility. (very will kept park) The only downside is, there is not much shade and no phone or internet reception. We plan to walk to the top of the mountain tomorrow.

June 17
It really cooled off during the night. We woke to an exhilarating 53 degrees! After breakfast we packed Buddy’s camelpack with water and snacks. At approximately, 8 AM we began our trek, of which, John assured us it wouldn’t be long (only about 4 miles). After 5 ½ grueling hours of climbing rock faces and stepping down hundreds, if not thousands of steps we made it back to our camps. The trek was worth the suffering as you can see from the photos. John and Sue said the trails had been improved since their last visit two years earlier. While walking the trails we met one of the descendents of the Hutchinson’s family, who settled this area back in the 1700’s. She told us a little bit about her great, great, great grandparent’s homestead (pictured in photos). She told us that there were about 32 families that lived in this area before it was a park. The families got together and decided to sell their properties to the NC Parks rather than develop it. Later in the day we drove to Elkins, NC for a birthday dinner with the “A’s”. Happy Birthday John! Note: See the B-B-Q sauce on John’s shirt.

Test

Hi! I think I finally made it into your blog so I can make comments. Several of us working stiffs here in Hernando County are thoroughly enjoying you and Bud's travels and accompanying commentary and film footage - wow! Thanks for sharing. Be safe!

Andrew Jackson State Park

Saturday, June 14
We walked up to the school house and museum (without a camera). The one-room school house is an example of how school houses were constructed in the 1700's in the Waxhaw region of South Carolina. There was suppose to be a copy of the Lancaster County teacher's exam of 1917. (Sorry Lisa, I could not find it). Most children learned enough at local common schools to read the Bible and run their farms. More ambition parents, like Andrew Jackson's mother, paid the school master to teach advanced classes. The museum held artifacts of the Waxhaw area and Andrew Jackson's life from childhood through presidency, to death.
Mike, Diane and Jessica (my brother and his family) were coming for dinner so we decided to use our new charcoal grill. Buddy expected to pull it out of the box and attach a couple of legs. When we opened the box we found dozens of screws, wing nuts, washers and miscellaneous parts --- 2 1/2 hours later we were ready to cook. Mike, Diane and Jessica arrived with shrimp, steak and wine in hand. I made new potatoes, in my crock pot, fresh (frozen) corn from Fraziers and homemade blackberry (from the rock mines) cobbler. After over indulging ourselves, we took a walk around the lake on one of the nature trails.
June 15, Happy Father's Day
We went to Mike and Diane's for lunch. Again, we over indulged! Another great meal. Afterwords, Buddy and Mike jacked up a shed in Mike's backyard and replaced some timbers. Somehow we managed to cut the cable line, oops!
June 16 - After washing the truck and taking a walk, we decided to lounge around. I wanted to take a picture of us sitting around the camp. It sounded so simple. Problem was - I didn't know how to set the controls on the camera. So we opened a bottle of wine, and the manual for the camera. We finished the bottle and you can see the results in one of the pictures below. By the way, just click on the picture to see the complete "album". We will be on the road again tomorrow - we are meeting up with John and Sue (our neighbors from home) at Stone Mountain, NC.

Andrew Jackson State Park

Andrew Jackson State Park

June 13, Andrew Jackson State Park We got to the park at about 12:30 PM. It’s a pretty large park but the camping area is small, only 24 sites and they filled up fast Friday evening. The park is covered with hardwood hammock. We have definitely left the flat country and are seeing some rolling hills. There is a fairly large pond, a couple of walking trails, a museum, decent bathroom facility and amphitheater. Last night they had a free 2 man concert and served free homemade ice cream!(Vanilla, strawberry, banana, peach and coffee) However, down at the camping area there is a group of campers that brought their own instruments and they sounded even better. My brother, Mike, lives in Charlotte, which is only 20 some miles away. He and Diane are coming over tomorrow. And if you missed it on our last post --- it’s Lisa’s birthday!

Catfish Danny's

Catfish Danny's

Click picture to view album

June 11/12/13
We got up early and visited, did a few things around Danny and Marie’s. Then we packed up and went to the bass and bream pond. Danny uses bream for cut bait on his catfish bush lines. It is a man-made pond that is next to a wheat field. (Real nice setting) Danny showed me (Patsy) how to use his bass pole. Neither Bud nor Danny wanted me to make “bird nests” in the bait cast reels, so they took turns casting for me. After several minutes Danny caught two – 2-3 pound bass. He then cast out the line for me and went to check on Bud. He didn’t get but a few steps away and I said, “I think I got hung on something.” He turned around and said, “No!" You got a fish! Set the hook! Set the hook!” So I did. BIG FISH I was reeling in and the fish jumped out of the water. Both Buddy and Danny were laughing. “Reel him in!” I got him up to the steep, weedy edge and could not lift him up. And Danny came to my aid. As we tried to lift the fish the line broke. And 20# of bass swam away – ha ha – It was somewhere between 8 – 10 pounds per Danny and Buddy. Boy, talk about 3 upset fisher people! Danny kept telling me that I did catch that fish! We caught a total of 4 bass to have for supper. Then we caught 50 bream to use for catfish bait. Marie and I fixed a great meal that evening.
The next day, Buddy and Danny wired up an outside electric box and worked on Danny’s ice machine. It makes goooood crushed ice! That evening Bud/Dan/Sassy went out to set the brush lines for catfish. They set about 25 hooks.
Bud/Dan went out at 6:30 AM to retrieve the lines. They came home with 2 – fifteen/twenty pound catfish and two slightly smaller ones. Shortly after that we left to continue our adventure; while Danny had to stay home and clean slimy catfish! Marie made Buddy a gallon of sweet tea and Danny gave me a bag of crushed ice to go! We had a great time and a good visit.


Happy Birthday to Lisa! She is, well, she is older today!

Stop Along the Way

June 10
Before leaving Rocks Pond I persuaded Buddy to get up early and sit with me on a hard swing by the lake so I could take a picture of the sunrise.
We stopped by (ex-brother-in-law), Danny and Marie’s in Sow Cur-a-linuh (as Rusty pronounces it). He wanted us to stay at his place. So here we are! Danny and his Jack Russell (named Sassy) met us, on his golf cart, at a restaurant just down the road from his house. It was good to see him – he was talking a mile a minute (he had not changed a bit). I stayed with the RV while Buddy, Danny and Sassy checked out the access road to his house. After cutting a few limbs they returned. It went like clock work – Bud pulled down the road to the neighbor’s house, made a loop and then backed in Danny’s driveway. He had water and power for us; although, they had to make some minor up-grades to the service box. We got things set up and then Danny was ready to show us around the neighborhood by way of the golf cart. He is proud of their place and his dog. Danny and Sassy go out everyday in a small (what Danny called) river boat and put out lines to catch catfish. He told us one morning he and Sassy went out in the boat to put out lines. He said Sassy likes to sit on the bow of the boat so she can keep and eye on things. Danny said, “You have to keep an eye out for moccasins on the river, there are a lot of them.” Well he spotted a moccasin in the water; he pulled out his 45 and took aim. He fired and missed, and then the snake turned heading right for the bow of the boat. “POW, he shot again, he said Sassy flew off the bow of the boat and sailed right into his lap just shaking. Another time he hit a log in the river and Sassy (she hates water) flew off the bow right into the river. He thought she’d never come up, but he said she finally pop-up and he grabbed her – she wasn’t amused. Tomorrow, Bud and Danny are going to wire in an outside receptacle, do a few things around the place, and go fishing.

Maintenance at Rocks Pond Campground

Sunday, June 08 - We arrived at our second destination – Eutawville, SC – Rocks Pond Campground. It is a privately owned facility that sits on Lake Marion. There are 550 sites. Our site faces the lake and they have planted trees in-between each lot, which looks nice and gives us some shade (pecan, fig, and crape myrtle). We sat at the edge of the lake on a very large swing and enjoyed the warm (95 deg) breeze. The lake was teaming with PWCs (personal water crafts). It was too hot to hang around so we retreated to the AC.
We forgot to mention that at our last campground the squirrels ate holes in our drinking water hoses (both of them). After getting the 5th wheel set up Buddy had repair one of the hoses. Our only other maintenance was giving Bud a haircut.
And Happy Birthday to Daddy – today is my Dad’s birthday!

Fort McAllister

Friday, June 6 – We went for a brisk (+or- 2 mile) morning walk – we had to walk briskly due to the deer flies! *** Fulkerson aka “Spiderman” guess who! The deer flies here are plentiful; however, they haven’t figured out that this FL Cracker boy don’t just shoo them away – I must have killed 5,000 *** This is Patsy – that was exaggerated just a little!
It was an uneventful day – we cleaned the love bugs off the truck and trailer. We also found their (Richmond Hill) Wal-Mart. Did a little shopping.
Saturday, June 7 – The campground is located in the Fort McAllister State Historic Park. We decided to take the self-guided tour of the museum and renovated fort site. During the Civil War, Fort McAllister was constructed around 1860 to defend Savannah and the Ogeechee River. The sand and mud earthworks were attacked seven times by the Union ironclads, but did not fall until captured in 1864 by General Sherman during his infamous “March to the Sea”. The earthen mounds used for bombproofs and shelter proved to withstand bombardment better than the forts built with 7’ thick walls of brick. At one of the gun placements they had a “hot shot” furnace. The furnace was used to heat cannon balls red hot and fired threw the smooth bore guns at wooden ships in the hopes of setting them on fire. It’s one of those times in our history that saddens us.
We dined at one of the local restaurants called Love’s Steak & Seafood on the north side of the Ogeechee River. We ate King Crab balls (and they were huge), Prime Rib, Georgia White Shrimp and Bourbon Pecan Pie (best I ever ate). *** This is Bud! No! No! No! We did not eat King Crab Balls! Patsy, misunderstood me. We ate as an appetizer, crab balls, made from most likely blue crab meat. When they brought them (two) out, Patsy was expecting crab claws, I guess? I said, no they are crab balls, probably from a male King Crab due to their size – went right over her head! I’m just now explaining it to her. She’s laughing, but does not want me too include this – oh! But yes!!*** On the way back to the camp, we saw a Painted Bunting. It is an incredibly beautiful bird. If you have never seen one please look it up on the internet.
We will be heading to Rock Pond Campground tomorrow.

Pictures on your blog

If you go to Picasso Web albums they will show you how to get a slideshow on your blog....sounds like you guys are off and running. It is interesting how Buddy sees things differently than you do Patsy!!!! Are you doing some poetic licensing in your blog??

Savannah

June 4, after a 6 hour drive we arrived at Fort McAlister campground at 3:30 PM. The one thing we both noticed is, it is green (due to rain) the further north we traveled. The park is older, but nice. We are nestled back in the woods. As we backed the trailer in we spotted a deer. I thought “How nice, it’s so pristine” Buddy thought “M-mmm, fresh venison”. There is a small park with a dock on the edge of a salt marsh and creek, called Red Bird Creek. We sat on the swings and enjoyed the nice breeze off the water which also kept the deer flies away.
June 5, we planned our day trip to Savannah. In downtown Savannah we caught one of the open air trolleys. It was pretty nice because we could get on and off as we pleased. (We could not! This is Buddy. We could get off and on, at designated stops!) We jumped off at “Lady & Sons” (Paula Deen’s restaurant) and ate lunch. (We did not! This is Buddy. We jumped off at stop # 8 and walked a couple blocks to the restaurant.) We had the buffet; fried and baked chicken, meatloaf, collard greens, creamed corn, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese and more. It was all delicious! For dessert we had cheese cake and peach cobbler. Buddy said the cobbler tasted like his mother’s--very good! The people displayed the true southern hospitality. We caught the trolley again and went down to the Savannah River front. We browsed in the shops then walked up to the Six Penne’s where scenes were shot for the Julia Roberts movie “Something to Talk About”. Savannah is also the place Forest Gump was filmed. We learned that they had to temporarily place a park bench in front of the court house just for that movie. (No! This is Bud again. They temporarily placed a prop-bench in front of a park named Chipewa Park and turned the one-way street into a two-way street for the movie.) We took a very interesting tour of the Owen –Thomas mansion. It was designed by William Jay when he was 21 years old. It was built in 1816 – 1819. The interior of the house has Greek-inspired ornamental molding, half-moon arches, and stained-glass panels. We were only allowed to take pictures in the garden area. After that we boarded the trolley and returned to camp. It was a hot but very interesting day.

I have not figured out how to add a photo album to the blog - but I will.

Your Off!

Glad to hear that you are on your way..........again................ Are you heading up towards Mike's? I easily slipped back into my daily grind after my mini-vacation. Seeing Jessica graduate and George W all at the same time was a blast. I was also introduced to 2 Buck Chuck by Mike and Diane. Quite a pleasant experience! Keep the blogs coming.

Your favorite Sis

On The Road Again!

Monday late afternoon Lazy Days called and said the RV would be ready Tuesday around 3 PM. Everything went pretty smooth. As we suspected the freight was more than the part. And we have to thank George W for the stimulus check - it covered the bill!

After we got home we filled a couple of holes with expanding foam that might have been doorways for critters and loaded up. This morning after a blueberry pancake and bacon breakfast we loaded the refrigerator items and headed out the door!