Goodbye Fancy Gap and Hello Shenandoah Valley...

21 March 2022

Harrisonburg / Shenandoah Valley Campground, Virginia

Marc-  We packed up early this morning and headed off to Roanoke to visit a Camping World for some service on our camper. The staff seemed very interested in helping us put in a warranty claim but required that their mechanics install the new brake unit.  However, there were over five trailers ahead of us and we did not want to stay there for several hours.  The solution was to get a new brake kit at our expense, and I will install it later.  

Spring flowers are starting to bloom here in Virginia.  The farm fields are turning green, the cherry trees are turning pink, and the forsythia bushes are turning yellow.  There were many farms with cows grazing in the fields. We drove over to the northern part of Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park. Most of the trees had yet to bud at this elevation (up to 3850 feet) yet this gave us unobstructed views.  Our new campsite is fine and in a valley location.

Departing photos from Fancy Gap

Fancy Gap KOA

Horses in a nearby field

Our cozy site

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Cherry blossoms

Forsythia

Skyline Drive views

We plan to hike tomorrow.

On top of Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains...

 18-19 March 2022

Fancy Gap / Blue Ridge Parkway, Fancy Gap, Virginia

Marc-  We completed a six hour trip from Huntington Beach to Fancy Gap and climbed about 3000 feet in elevation.  About half way here a gentlemen on the street waved and said that one of our trailer wheels was making a loud screeching noise.   We pulled over, listened while we moved forward and then backward and we heard something rubbing and jingling.  We continued on our trip to the campground.  I jacked up the axle causing the noise and could not turn the wheel.  The next morning I disassembled the wheel-hub-brake assembly and found the brake assembly was missing four bolts that should have attached it to the axle.  

We visited Mt. Airy, South Carolina (also known here as Mayberry).  Mt. Airy is the largest town in the area and is just over the border but some 2000 feet below Fancy Gap.  The town is famous for being the birthplace of Andy Griffith and the inspiration for his long running television series called The Andy Griffith Show.  Mt. Airy has used all of this to its advantage and plays up all references to shops and places in downtown that just happen to be in Mayberry.  It has a thriving downtown as well as outlying shopping centers.  The highways keep most of the heavy traffic away from Main Street but it continues to be busy. 

After lunch in Mt. Airy we headed back up to the mountains and headed out on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  This is not just a road but also a National Park.  It is 469 miles long and connects the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia to the Great Smokey Mountains National Park in North Carolina. We drove about 60 miles of the Parkway and stopped to hike and see some interesting sites along the way.  Note that the Blue Ridge Mountains are part of the Appalachian Mountain chain that goes from Georgia to Maine.

Please note the fine print.

Mountain music is played here.

Shades of Mayberry

Barney was the deputy sheriff

There really is a Floyd's Barber Shop.

Opie's Candy Store is certainly playing on the TV character

Our lunch stop named after a scene from the TV show where a goat on the loose eats sticks of dynamite.

Gomer Pyle worked here.

Andy Griffith's actual house

Not everything in town is playing on the Andy Griffith Show.

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Sites along the Blue Ridge Parkway

The Mabry Mill

The Mabry Cabin

The Mabry Still

Nearby cow pasture

White tailed deer

Rocky Knob trail

Taking in the ridge views

more views

Final days in South Carolina...

 16-17 March 2022

Huntington Beach State Park, Murrells Inlet, SC

Marc-  We spent the 16th shopping and touring in the rain.  Included in the touring was a trip back to Georgetown to visit the Rice Museum that we had missed last year on the boat (it was closed due to Covid).  The Museum is housed in a former hardware store with old school technology in having a large central open core to the building.  Items were stored upstairs and below the main floor.  An item could be requested and then sent to the retail floor easily using winches.  Since the core was open, requests could be called out.  On the top floor we found a partially intact 18th century wooden schooner, with its cargo of bricks, that was found  in the Waccamaw River mud in 1976.  Apparently the mud has the distinction of being a very good preservative.  The Museum curator explained the incredible success of the Indigo and then rice plantations in this area.  The five richest people in America at that time resided in Georgetown County.  The demise of Indigo was due to closure of the British market after the Revolution.  The demise of rice was due to the Civil War giving freedom to slaves, as well as the inability to mechanize.  When the Indigo and rice were gone, lumber became the major export.  Today, pulp and paper is the leading industry.  

On the 17th we returned to BrookGreen Gardens and enjoyed visiting more areas with Craig and Donna Lewis.  We saw more sculptures and gardens, did a boat plantation tour, and saw the amazing zoo.

Craig, Donna, Sue and Marc

Rice field

Dock inhabitant (non-venomous)

Flowering Dogwood with Spanish Moss

Local birds

River otter

More river otters

Bald eagle

More visits to Brookgreen Gardens...

15 March 2022

Huntington Beach State Park, Murrells Inlet, SC  

Marc-  Our exploration continued today mostly at the Brookgreen Gardens nearby.  This included visiting more gardens and seeing many more beautiful sculptures.  We also took a tour of the old plantation cemeteries (both slaveowner and slave).  The Huntington family ensured that these places have been preserved.  The most recent burials have taken place in the African-American cemeteries.  There are still relatives of the people in these cemeteries who are eligible to be buried there.

Native Americans are represented here in what was once their homeland.

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Buffalo

                                Some of the African Americans moved West to become cowboys.

Spring flowers everywhere

Goats were common on the plantations here.

Bald Eagles are still present here.

Many Squirrels here.

A quilt to explain slave escape routes.

A farmer and his horse.

Modern times in South Carolina