Pride RV Resort

Waynesville, North Carolina

Leaving Damascus, in particular, Laurel Creek RV Park, turned out to be quite an adventure.  The park is located on the opposite side of the creek from Damascus and is accessed by a single lane bridge with a 90 degree turn on the RV park side.  Crossing the bridge and making the turn when we arrived here was a non-issue.  Leaving and making the turn to enter the bridge was another story altogether.  We did not swing quite as wide as we should have and as we were slowly making the turn it was evident that the side of the RV was going to scrape the inside guard rail.  We stopped and maneuvered back and forth and had to fold the mirrors in on the truck to allow it to move further over in order to finally get the RV to clear without scraping.  The driver’s side mirror’s plastic housing has a little scuff on it from where it rubbed against the guard rail (this gave us the idea to fold them in to gain more room) but other than that we got out unscathed.  The rest of the drive was uneventful and we arrived at our next destination to warm 70 degree sunshine.

After checking in and setting up, we drove into Asheville to an REI store to buy much needed new hiking boots.  After we selected our new boots, which Amy did very quickly but Dan couldn’t decide between three competing brands, we decided to check out a local brewery that came highly recommended.  We each had a flight of beer and a burger to finish out our day of travel.

On Wednesday, Halloween, we took a hike in the mountains that was pretty close to our campground.  It wasn’t a very strenuous hike but it was a good one to break in our new boots.  The views were fabulous as we were finally beginning to see color at or close to peak.  This post’s featured image above is from this hike.  One of the features of the hike was a restored log cabin touted to be one of the oldest log cabins and the one built at the highest elevation in the Appalachains.

When we got back to the RV park, we decided to try shuffle board for the first time.  What the heck, we’re retired so I think we are supposed to play shuffle board.  It was actually quite fun and we both got better as we played.

Thursday and Friday were not the best of days when it comes to weather with Friday being the worst of the two.  Before the rain hit on Thursday, we managed to go into the town of Waynesville and wander around a bit, checking out the local shops and getting lunch at Boojum‘s, a local brewery on main street.  We both had the chili, which was delicious, and a beer (of course).  We finished our outing with some grocery shopping and barely got our purchases into the RV before the rains began.  

Today (Saturday) turned out to be very sunny but somewhat cooler with temperatures in the mid-50’s.  We found a hike just north of us on the Tennessee/North Carolina border that followed a stream to some falls.  The hike was actually in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park at the Big Creek entrance.  The drive there and back was absolutely breathtaking as the area is definitely now in peak color and the drive takes you through valleys between mountains. Simply gorgeous.  

The hike was an easy 3 miles in and back and was very pleasant with the cool air and fall colors.  Tomorrow, we pack up and move to our next stop at Twin Lakes Campground in South Carolina.  This will be our first stop at a Core of Engineers (COE) campground.  We’ll let you know how it goes in our next post.