South and North Carolina.

South Carolina.

April Valley RV Park, Pickens, SC.

On site at April Valley RV Park

Well, its Thursday morning, July 10th and as always Pete is up and rearing to get going. I am not a morning person so i have to go at my own pace (as he has learned, painfully!) we set off for a small town called Pickens which was only going to serve as a day or so stop over, as we were heading towards Tennesee, but when we arrived at April Valley RV Park we thought it was a such a lovely peaceful site that we would stay for a week and with only one fifth wheel and 2 caravans there we thought we would take advantage of all the space and the peace and quiet.

One of the lakes at April Valley, Pickens, SC.

On site at April Valley.

Arriving at 2-45 at April Valley, a gentleman came to us in a pick-up truck and introduced himself as Phil, the owner, he told us we could park anywhere we liked, and how we liked as the site was virtually empty, so we decided to face one of the beautiful lakes, and again it was like a dream for Amber the choice of two lakes to swim in, just heaven!! We took many photos to prove it.

Amber just loves the water! April Valley, SC.

The second lake at April Valley RV Park, Pickens, SC.

Amber, taking a break from swimming! Pickens, SC.

Phil and his wife also have a chocolate lab called "Lucky" I didnt think too much of that to begin with, until they told us of all the wild animals that live in and around the campgound. There were Black bears, Coyotes, Bobcats, Mountain Lions and the usual poisonous snakes. With a few smaller things like Black Widow spiders and a brown one called a Recluse spider, which if it bites you, it rots your skin!! Oh, and we have to keep a close eye on Amber ,as a dog and a cat have both gone missing in the past,(some wild animals lunch maybe!!) there are also 'snapping turtles' in the lake, but Phil said Amber is too big for them to bite. I can tell you right now, i hardly slept a wink, listening to the Coyotes howling and all the trees and bushes rustling behind us, any noise at all, i just thought "It's a bear or a big cat!!" and checking under the toilet seat was also a priority. Pete, as usual, didnt have a problem sleeping and never heard a thing!

After catching up on some sleep Saturday, Sunday meant it was our usual 'lets go and check this place out' we found a few shops, including a Supermarket and a great Chinese that served a fantastic buffet lunch and what a bargain at $12 for us both, and we could eat as much as we liked, it was great, we always came out stuffed after 2 or 3 visits to the buffet counter, we never once thought of Mac D's or Burger King.

On the journey back to the site, from the 'reccy' mission, we found a really interesting looking building, we thought at first it was the old Town Jail, but then discovered it was an Antiques shop, but it was the building itsself that was of interest, see if you think its looks like a Mexican prison out of an old Clint Eastward 'spaghetti western', perhaps.

Old Antiques Store, Pickens, SC.

EASLEY

Main Street, Easley, SC.

Phil told us about another town in the area called Easley, which he said was a nice town and he was true to his word. You have to check these photos out, we felt like we had stepped back in time or we were in an old movie, i didnt think they still had towns like this anymore. it was amazing! The railway ran right down the middle of the Town with roads on either side with old fashioned looking traffic lights.

View straight down the railway tracks, Main Street, Easley, SC.

Railroad crossing, Easley.

This came first......

Then this massive train followed shortly after.......

Look at the containers, stacked 'two high' . It took 3 or 4 minutes for this train to pass through Easley!!

Doodle Station, which stood at the side of the road, was the original name of the railway station in the 1700's. It is now a large Pizza Restaurant but a metal plate is embedded into the floor, just to remind locals and visitors alike, what the building originally served as. The whole town has been revamped but has been carefully done to retain all of the old world charm and character. It was great to see.

Doodle Station memory plate, Easley, SC.

City Hall, Easley, SC.

Mountain View Antiques, Easley, SC.

We were hoping that the humidity would have subsided with us traveling further North, but no such luck. It is still well into the 90's and the only person who is not bothered at all, is the water wonderdog, Amber. She thinks its great i'm sure, she would stay in the lake the whole time if we could have stayed out in the heat to keep throwing her pink frisby for her, but it was just not on we were sweltering and wet through with sweat just watching her.

Amber, with her pink frisbee, April Valley, Pickens, SC.


The day before we moved on, we tried out our new carpet steam cleaner (see, a womens work is never done!! ) and we successfully managed to shampoo all of the interior fixed carpets and all the 'loose' rugs and hang them all out to dry in the sun. We also started, which was now a very familiar process, to get everything packed up and stowed away, ready for the off the next morning.

After all the panicking (on my part, not Pete's) and of all the wild animals and spiders we were told about on arrival and, believe it or not, although we were at the foothils of the Great Smoky Mountains, we had not seen anything, no spiders or wild animals! I am not sure whether to be dissapointed (Pete was!) or not?? We will see what North Carolina and Tennesee brings!!!

North Carolina.

The trip from South Carolina to North Carolina would turn out to a disasterous and very expensive journey for us. Details to follow.....................................


ON THE MOVE AGAIN.

As is the normal for Pete we are up at 5-30 preparing for the off and after saying goodbye to the site owners and his daughter who had been away while we were on site and had been waiting to meet us just because we are English (can't imagine why!) we headed for the petrol station to fill up the thirsty RV the good thing about the pumps here is you can leave them running, while you go inside and get a coffee, and as you can guess it takes sometime to fill these tanks which hold around 125 gallons and the total bill was about $400 (about 220 Pounds!) but still alot less than the UK where it would have cost over 650 pounds for the same quantity, so leaving the station at 9-50 we were off to the Great Smoky mountains.

We spent roughly about 1 hour travelling and yes the roads were a bit on the narrow side and the view over the edge my side was at times a little scarey but we made it up one side and down the other side and all seemed fine,we arrived in a small town called Rosman ,North Carolina and as we came upto a set of lights a truck came up on my side and said we had a flat tyre on the car and if we pulled over the lights there was a repair shop on the left ,what luck we thought as they are few and far between ,I thanked him and we pulled into a large petrol station car park. as the repair shop was very small and had nowhere for a 40ft RV to pull on to,I got out first to see what had happened and nearly died ,both front wheels were smoking so bad its a wonder they didn't catch fire and they were both flat, Pete couldnt even get near to the wheels to investigate further, the heat was too intense! So while waiting for everything to cool down a little, Pete wasted no time heading off to locate the garage. It was only a small family run place with two brothers, Kirby and Frankie, and as it happened turned out to be very helpful.

The time was 11-00 we had not been on the road very long, thank goodness someone told us about the tyre as Pete cannot see that much detail through his rear view camera and since the RV has a 400 Cummins engine in it, Pete would not have noticed any dragging caused by the flat tyres on the car, also considering how much fuel we had just put in the RV i dread to think if we had continued to travel and not noticed the car on fire, we could have lost the RV, everything!!! we were extremely lucky to be stopped just in the nick of time. Pete came back with Frankie and started to assess the damage, Pete opened the drivers door on the car and immediatley spotted the cause of the problem. Our 'Brake-Buddy' box had fell forward somwhere on the steep mountain descent and somehow rested itself gently on the brake pedal, hence causing the brakes to stay on all the way down the mountain. Frankie asked us to get the car off the tow hitch and drive it carefully round to his garage as it was only about 25 meters, we disconnected the car from the RV and Pete gingerley drove it towards the garage and round to the rear with 2 flat tyres, a car full of smoke and no brakes at all!!!! (Pete stunk of 'burning brakes' and swears he had the smell up his nose for days after!!!!

Written by Pete!!!

After a very embarrassing 25 metre drive (which just happened to include 20 metres down the main street of Rosman!!) on flat tyres and smoke still coming from the front end of the car, i inched the car forward into one of two repair bays at Kimseys Garage and Frankie immediatley started taking the wheel nuts off the front wheels of the car, I can tell you now the heat was still intense, you could feel it even when standing 10ft from the car!!!

"You might be lucky and just need a set of brakes and a couple of tyres" Frankie explained with optimism, but deep down i feared the worse and suspected that i wouldnt be that lucky!! Yep, i was right! After the removal of the front wheels the true extent of the damage became apparant, basically, anything that had rubber or plastic components or anything that was filled with grease was 'cooked' literally!!! It needed new brake pads (Front and Rear!), brake discs, callipers, track rod ends, top and bottom ball joints, new front axle (halfshaft), wheelbearings and assemblies, 2 new tyres and 2 new wheels, Grand total $3400 which included $390 labour from Kimseys garage. Ouch, Ouch and Ouch again!!!!!

After Frankie had explained all the damage and the cost to put our Jeep back on the road, he splashed some cold water on my face to try and bring me round a bit, and helped me up off the floor and dusted me off!!!!! The next problem was locating all of the parts and getting them delivered to Kimseys the same day, alas, it was not to be, and the best we could arrange was to collect the parts from the local Jeep dealer at 8am the next morning (some 35 miles away!) and Frankie said he would deliver the Jeep back to me at the RV park at around 4pm the next day (yeah righto!!) A backstreet garage, in the middle of nowhere, up in the mountains, 'that'll be a few days, at least' i thought.

The only stroke of luck for us was that there was a RV park just up the road, about 1.5 miles away. Frankie gave me the number and i proceeded to give them a call and book us on for 2 nights just to be on the safe side. "Headlands Outfitters Adventure Village" was indeed a very peaceful and relaxed campground and we selected a really nice pitch, on grass,(the RV, not me!!)right next to the stream. Just before we settled in for the afternoon and evening we ordered a taxi to take us into the nearest place (Brevard) with supermarkets and civilisation.I worked this out to be about 12 miles away, but we needed supplies, our unexpected stopover meant we didnt have much in the case of food. (and alcohol!) so off to Brevard and wal-mart we went!!

This is where Amber always ends up! Headlands Stream, NC.

After instructing our taxi-driver (We'll call him Dick Turpin shall we, you'll see in a moment!)to wait for us outside wal-mart, we raced inside and grabbed a trolley. Honest, it was like bloody 'Supermarket-Sweep' we both entered Wal-mart and i went left towards the beer and wine aisle (Ahem....i had the trolley!) and Sue shot right towards fresh meat and poultry (we had decided on a bbq that evening and Sue likes her food!) we must have looked a right sight going up and down the aisles just grabbing what we needed and chucking it in the trolley, not even checking our choices to see if they were on offer, in date, had already been opened, contained Anthrax etc etc...... The meter was running and we didnt have time!!! After one of our less strategic grocery shop's (we still have'nt eaten the chicken 'Innards and Gizzards!) we shot through the 'self scanning till point' which proved to be extremely frustrating as most of the stuff took about 4 attempts to scan the barcode, we could have manufactured the food quicker, i swear! Even the woman who monitors these self scanning tills was getting fed up with visiting our till to check on items that wouldnt scan and to 'identify' some of the fresh produce Sue had chosen. 30 very long minutes later we had all the shopping in the boot of the taxi and were on our way back to the RV at Rosman. Some idle chat filled the car and 15 mins later we pulled onto the RV park and alongside our RV. "Jeez, that's a mighty fine recreational vehicle, that must have cost a packet" commented Dick Turpin, and to be honest alarm bells were ringing in my head, but i couldnt figure out why, until his answer to my question "How much do i owe you buddy? Well, for the second time that day, cold water on my face and a bit of fresh air was needed to bring me round again!! $86!!! I couldnt believe it! I told Dick Turpin i was in the wrong job, and what colour would he order his new Ferrari in?? but he didnt appreciate my English sense of humour. Needless to say, no tip was given!! It puts a whole new meaning to the phrase 'daylight robbery' i'll tell you!!

On site, Headlands Outfitters Adventure Village, Rosman, NC

I must admit, after what was a disasterous (and very expensive)day, the alcohol flowed freely till late in the night. Well, we had no car so we had nowhere to go!!! That was my excuse anyway, not that i need one i might add.

The next day saw us just chilling out around the site, walking the dog and Sue wiping the tears from my eyes each time i thought of how many cases of beer $3400 would get me. Just after Lunch i decided to put a call in to the Insurance company to see if we were covered for such an eventuality. After explaining exactly what had happened (3 times) to numerous people at Progressive Insurance, i finally got connected to the guy who would be handling our claim. " Hmmmmm so you were'nt actually driving the car when this happened?" I explained that as good a driver i was, and all the years of driving trucks, even i couldnt drive 2 vehicles at the same time! "Since the vehicle in question was being towed at the time, i'll have to investigate further, i'll get back to you" came his reply. I must admit my heart sank a bit, this unforseen cost would eat into our budget, and i believe just such an incident is why you have 'fully comprehensive insurance' I would have to be patient! (which, as Sue will tell you, i'm not!)

Pitch with a stream, Headlands, NC

Anyway, it got to about 4.15 pm, we were sat outside with the dog, enjoying the sunshine and the cool, fresh mountain air and just chillin' when low and behold, out of the dust appeared Frankie in our Jeep! Frankie told me he had put everything else on hold and he and his brother had worked on our car all day, i was impressed to say the least, we broke down at around 12 noon the previous day and it must have been 3pm before we established what parts were needed, and when we would get our hands on them. And yet, here we were 24 hours later, with the car back, all fixed and ready to go! Frankie indeed, was true to his word! And Kimseys Garage did an exeptional job, doing what i believe even a Main Dealer would struggle to do, go above and beyond to keep the customer happy, deliver the car back, on time, and on budget! Well done Guys!!

'Gazebo on the lake' Headlands, NC

As nice as Rosman and the surrounding area was, we were behind schedule, and we had a campground booking to honour at Pigeon Forge which we were already late for. Plus my Father and his wife were flying out to us at Colorado in late September, we decided to move on again, on the Saturday Morning for Pigeon Forge, Tennessee!!

This Journey also included an incident that saw us lying underneath the RV, toolkit in hand, for 2 hours or more.

Details to follow............