A Baby, a River, and Springtime in Carolina!

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

We had a great weekend seeing our daughter and son-in-law and babysitting our 6 week-old grand-daughter. Leaving Little Pee Dee State Park on Thursday, April 9^th, we spent part of the day driving to the Greensboro/Jamestown, North Carolina area and checked into the Oak Hollow Campground. It's located on a nice lake in the city park of High Point, N C. We picked out a nice spot overlooking the lake and unhooked the toad, and hooked up the rig to the water, electric and cable TV!

Luxury accommodations with a view!

Thursday evening we drove over to our family's hotel and had dinner while we ogled the little one. They had a long drive there, while the baby slept the whole way, (babies and cars...), so we didn't stay long. We were glad to have our own car to get around. Friday we did chores, (laundry, groceries) then drove back to their hotel and babysat while they attended the rehearsal dinner.

Saturday we recovered from babysitting the night before and rested up for the night's babysitting. The wedding was outdoors in a great setting and the reception indoors in a castle on the same property. We arranged to drive the RV, our portable babysitting vehicle, to the wedding venue and parked in the lot. Mom handed off the baby. Dad was already there since he was the best man. The weather was beautiful, so we stayed outside until sundown. Our grand-daughter was entranced by the bagpipes playing while the guests arrived. But once they stopped, the crying began! First time we've had a fussy baby to soothe in our small RV. I was wishing for a rocking chair! Greg and I both drew on our dormant swaying skills and did the best we could. Mom and Dad appeared after the wedding and whisked the crying baby into the car seat and took off to go through the nightly ritual of getting her to sleep. Greg and I very tiredly drove back to the campground and re-hooked up the rig at midnight. So happy to have time with all of them, but really made us respect grandparents who wind up raising their grandchildren. It is exhausting at our age!

Fussy Granddaughter and fussy Grandpa

Sunday morning we left Oak Hollow. It was a warm, beautiful day and we enjoying seeing the blooming trees and unfurling leaves. We drove east across North Carolina across the Piedmont region down to the Tidewater region. After New Bern and before hitting the coast we drove into Flanner's Beach campground along the Neuse River in the Croatan National Forest. We stayed here two Aprils ago when we were waiting for warmer weather in order to head north to visit Atlantic Canada for the summer. This was the second campground we've stayed in here. The first one that is closer to the beach is closed for renovations.

Campsite at Flanners Beach in Croatan National Forest

The campground is mostly full. When we were here it was mostly empty as most people prefer the other one for longterm camping. We are surrounded by snowbirds and full-timers working their way north a few weeks at a time. There is electric, but no water hook-up. Greg has been driving the water jugs to the faucet at the entrance. Yet another use for the new car! Nice showers here, too. The only drawback is that we are next to the Marine Corps Air Station New River and have frequent LOUD, low-flying jets passing over day and night, although they stop precisely at midnight.

We've had a couple nice walks through the woods and to the beach. Greg is happy to have found hiking trails through the Carolina woods that he can bike on, and has been exploring. The weather was great until yesterday, but now we are having showers on and off and will have until we leave here on Friday. Showers are also forecast for the Outer Banks for the next week, so I guess we'll have some more wet weather camped over there.

Stairs down to Flanners Beach on the Neuse River

Flanners Beach

A cypress grove remaining along the receding river shore

Fun biking on the 7 miles of trail of pleasant, fairly easy trail with enough narrow, tricky sections to be interesting.

Enjoying the breeze on the bluff along the Neuse River

Mayapples greening the forest floor!

A month from today we start our work camping job at Geneva Point Center on Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire. We have been talking to the Executive Director about what he would like us to be doing. Greg is looking forward to lots of outside and hands-on time with the maintenance and operations guys. I am going to be handling the gift shop and the ice cream shop which will be adding a coffee shop, and have a couple of staff to work with and input into the gift shop stock. I'm looking forward to the challenge. We are getting a really good vibe about this place and are ready to get started.

We'll be living in our rig. The Center provides full hook-ups plus cable TV. We'll eat all our meals in the staff dining hall and we get paid! We'll have use of the beaches, hiking trails, and canoes and kayaks. Also, free concerts in the chapel. The 200 acre setting looks beautiful, and the staff is international. There are lots of interesting groups staying there, and happy people having fun in a beautiful spot. I think our 5 and a half months will go quickly.

Now we are deciding which route to take to the Outer Banks. Our tow assembly hangs a little low, so we are concerned about driving on the ferry. We may forgo the watery route and drive further and take the bridge. We'll see...Tune in for some Outer Banks scenes next week!