Carolina in Our Minds
At the start of November, we headed east from out spot in Tennessee with Carolina (the northern one, specifically) in our minds. We had a gorgeous drive crossing a portion of the Great Smoky Mountains. Driving through mountains can be beautiful, but going up and down the grades is concerning when you are pulling a trailer. At one point near the top, we followed signs instructing all trucks to exit (still not sure if we’re actually subject to that kinda thing with our RV). Further signage just warned us about the low speeds needed to drive down the grades and switchbacks, and to be mindful of brake temperatures. Our truck is a champ though. The engine braking on our big diesel slowed us down so much I never had to touch the brake pedal. Easy!
Before too long, Carolina was no longer only in our minds. We had arrived at our home for the next two weeks, Forest Lake RV & Camping Resort, not too far outside of Winston-Salem. Forest Lake is part of the Thousand Trails network which means there are usually other families around, and a playground for the kids. Izzy enjoyed the playground and made a couple of friends during our time there. She even got to attend an (outdoor, socially distanced) birthday party.
The family of one of Izzy’s new friends is fulltime in their RV, they do a great job of getting out and exploring the areas they visit, and they were nice enough to invite us to join them on a couple of outings.
Izzy and I followed them to nearby Boone’s Cave Park to do some exploring and hiking. The legend is that a 15-year-old Daniel Boone and his family lived in the cave while building a house in the area, but I rather doubt the stories are true. I may be biased, as the last cave I had visited was Mammoth Cave, but the caves we found weren’t too impressive and didn’t seem livable. They were fun for the kids to climb around in, though.
Izzy and her new friend also got to check out a very cool dinosaur playground up in Winston-Salem. These dinos were impressive. They were around life-sized (as big as all the live dinosaurs I’ve seen at least), with great color and detail, and somehow able to stand up to all the kids climbing on them.
Charlotte missed out on the previous adventures due to work, but did manage to get in a trip to her favorite store, located in her namesake city. Izzy went along to make it a girls shopping day.
After two quick weeks, it was time to head ’em up and move ’em out. See you down the road!