Packed up our stuff and departed Charlotte despite knowing we will be obliged to return to pick up our shade canopy around the first of May. We headed back west to King’s Mountain area where we turned off on U.S. Hwy 74 westbound until we hit I-40 near Asheville. From Asheville, we continued west until we exited for Waynesville, NC. We stayed at a place called Pride RV Resort which, not surprisingly, is located pretty near to Maggie Valley and not Waynesville just like it is not stated in the Good Sam RV Guide. The closest exit to Maggie Valley is actually Exit 20, not Exit 27 where the Garmin lied to us about the location to exit I-40.
Pride RV Resort advertises itself as a “5 Star” resort but I am not too sure who issues the stars or how many stars are possible in resort ratings by unknown entities. Anyway, the park has minimal wi-fi unless you go to the main office to access the internet but it does have great cable TV, wide pull-thru spaces, a nice creek flowing right through the park, lots of birds and squirrels and a good laundry facility. The folks running the park are very nice. However, if staying here again, I will ask to stay pretty close to the creek because the other option is to stay near the road and it seems quite a few folks in this part of the world prefer noisy exhaust systems on their cars and trucks. There is also some kind of a wood processing facility across the road and they start it up promptly at 7:00 AM each morning. It doesn’t make a great deal of noise but you can always hear it when it is running. The scenery surrounding the park is beautiful.
Once we arrived and set up the Invader, we sat down for a drink, fired up the cable TV and loafed for the remainder of the

Woke up to continued hard rain. We thought it would crap out after a couple hours because it was raining so hard and figured the storm couldn’t deliver too much more. We were wrong. It rained for about 10 of the 12 light hours of the day and it rained hard. The weather channel indicated the were a couple times during the day where it was raining 2 inches per hour and it appeared they were not fibbing. There was a short lull in the action so Peg and I went to a local Trader Joe’s to stock up on food and get diesel for tomorrow’s trip. No sooner had we returned when it started raining very hard again.
I am glad we have sealed up all the possible leaks in the Invader because if we hadn’t we would have drowned inside this box. All the heaters work and the TV is getting about 20 channels so we are hunkered down inside, nice and cozy. There are repeated flash flood, thunderstorm and a few tornado advisories coming up on the tube and phone but we are up a grade and have not spotted any tornadoes, as of 7:40 PM. Hope the tornadoes, if any, go elsewhere. If it gets hairy tonight, I think I’ll go to Hendrick Motors up the street. He is an owner of not less than about 4 Sprint Cup teams and he also owns teams in the lower divisions. I figure he should have been able to afford pretty good buildings with his millions.

We got up early, for us, at about 8:00 AM and hooked the Invader to Charlotte so we could go back to Golden Gait Trailer where the mechanics took the awning off the side of the Invader. They were very efficient and were all done in less than an hour. They sealed all the screw holes and the hole for the electrical connection and sent us on our way. We think we will return about 5/1/15 to get the new awning installed.
In another hour we were back at the Speedway park and set up for a short stay. We contacted my niece, Sarah, who drove from her place in Charlotte to where we were camped and she brought along her boyfriend, Eric, and Max the Dog.
We all piled into Charlotte the vehicle for a tour of Charlotte, the North Carolina city. The city is a gorgeous place with what seemed like a vibrant downtown area despite the locals calling it “uptown.” Sarah works at a private college called Queen’s which is a beautiful place with quite substantial red brick buildings. If the buildings were the reason someone would teach here, you would never leave. The area surrounding Queen’s is also quite stunning with tons of houses with wonderful architecture. The streets are gently curved and the trees hang over the road so it seemed we spent most of our time driving in dappled shade, which was great. Charlotte, the city, is quite striking and it is plainly evident why people choose to live here.
After some cruising around, Eric and Sarah took us to a craft brewery called Sugar Creek where they fortunately had great porter. It was a bustling place with both inside and outside seating, some outside beanbag games for the semi-drunks to play and a good crowd. We got the porters plus a flight of their beers and all but one were okay with me. If I lived around here, I would spend most of my time at this brewery. They serve great products.
From the brewery we cruised around a bit more to Sarah’s apartment to drop off her cool pooch, Max, and to scope out a house she was considering purchasing in an area under pending urban renewal or gentrification or whatever is the currently PC term for revitalization of areas scheduled for upgrades. She may be right – where she is considering seems to be low-crime, has bike trails, greenways and pending light rail. We continued on to a tip-top barbecue restaurant called Midwood which had about the best ribs I have ever eaten and also a good bar. The wait was short, the staff was great, the porter was cold and the food was excellent. The prices were also great – so good I picked up the tab.
We finished up the day with a drive back to the Invader where, unfortunately, Sarah and Eric took off to get back to their lives. Shortly thereafter, it started to rain and it is definitely open for business.

We dodged some light rain, prepped the Invader for travel, dumped the tanks and departed Kings Mountain and drove NE on I-85 to Concord, North Carolina. Our first stop was Golden Gait Trailers to have the damage to the awning assessed by someone less ignorant than me, which is almost everyone. We were directed to a guy named Ron Ulp, who was quite sharp. He surveyed the awning for damage and informed us that we needed new support arms and a new fabric section and informed us that we could probably get the whole thing fixed like new for a mere $1300.
I asked if I could get the wrecked awning removed from the trailer so I could continue on the trip and return once all the parts were available at Golden Gait’s very nice facility and he said that was possible, but not today. Tomorrow was the first opening he had to get into the shop so we agreed and then drove Charlotte and the Invader about 5 miles back down the road where we pulled into a park surprisingly called Charlotte Motor Speedway. It is actually across a street and a big parking lot from the Speedway but it is right next to the Steve Kinser dirt track and the zMax drag strip that all seem to be part of the same complex.
After setting up, Peg and I heard some rather loud motor noises coming from the direction of the Speedway. We attempted to drive to some road surrounding the track but the only route to where we thought we could see was a road into a landfill which was gated and locked. We resorted to driving in the main entrance to the track and drove around to the backstretch where we miraculously found an open gate and were able to drive right up to the backstretch fence. Four or five stock cars were out on the track testing, I guess. They make a great motor noise and I was delighted to see some stock cars running since during our travels since June ’14 I have only seen one race, a very meager amount for a NASCAR fan.
About dark it started to rain and pretty much stayed at it until I went to sleep around 11:00 PM.

It was still raining in the morning but by about 10:30 it stopped for a bit. During this time, we were able to re-caulk the corner joint of the trailer using supplies from Mr. Anal’s goody box. Peg alleges I am anal about bringing along all the stuff I did but, surprisingly, we have used quite a bit of the stuff doing minor repairs during our travels.
We also used a discarded kitchen knife and some zip ties to secure the failed shade canopy in a position which seems suitable for travel. Soon we will know if this rather strange lash-up will be sufficient for travel on the highway. If it is not, the canopy will open as we zip down the highway and promptly be torn from the side of the trailer by drag. Uh-oh. I hope the Rube Goldberg repair holds until we can take the ailing canopy to a guy to fix or replace it.
We also rode into town to a McDonald’s parking lot where we got phone service and wi-fi and from there we made reservations for the rest of the month which will all be in North Carolina. We also got diesel and went to the visitor center at the adjacent King’s Mountain National Military Park and roamed around in there. It is raining. I have mandated that it should stop raining and clear up but the gods are not paying attention.

Everybody’s favorite day in the U.S.A. – tax day.
It rained hard all day and we pretty much just hunkered down in the trailer to watch movies. Peggy discovered a rather substantial leak in the right rear corner of the trailer and attempted to gather up the water that seemed to be piddling in from the outside during this torrential downpour. I popped outside for about 30 seconds and found a spot where the exterior caulking was bad but it was pointless to attempt repairs during the downpour.
We figured this was not going to be much of a problem but, right about then, the shade canopy apparently became overloaded with water and collapsed. Bummer.
The rain gave up for about 60 seconds during which I was able to jury-rig the shade canopy such that we were able to pretty much retract it for travel. I believe it is toast and when I get to some civilization I will take it to an RV repair joint and see what they say. We were also able to get the back corner of the trailer exterior dry for a second and we temporarily repaired the water leak with good old duct tape.
It rained pretty hard right up until we went to bed. We got in some good movie viewing and watched Last of the Mohicans off a Blu-Ray disc. When I finally went to sleep, the last thing I heard was hard rain.

On the road again but not very far away we pulled into King’s Mountain State Park which is in South Carolina but you have to drive into North Carolina to get there. Strange. The state park is right next to King’s Mountain National Military Park which was set up to preserve a battlefield where the Patriot (U.S.) forces first beat the British forces in the Revolutionary War. The British forces were mostly South Carolina militia but their commander, a guy named Ferguson, had issued some threats to the locals that if they fought any more against the crown, he would overrun North Carolina and kill everybody and burn their homesteads.
A considerable number of the residents in the area were Scotsmen and Irish and they did not respond well to the threats. They all joined together and slaughtered Ferguson and his forces, killing or wounding about 300 and taking 800 prisoners. Cornwallis (British commander in America) later said this battle was the beginning of the end for the British and it appears he was right.
It was raining on the way here and while we set up but cleared up later, so we went into the town of King’s Mountain, which is in North Carolina, to shop at the local Food Lion. However, by late evening, it started to rain and it is open for business.

Dianne called early this morning to tell us she had contracted a mysterious ailment and was taking the day off from work. We both piled in the truck and popped over to the their house and did our taxes which the Fed will want in two days from today. Peg finished up our taxes on TurboTax and was just as happy as could be since that ends the misery for another year. I mostly loafed around in the their spacious living room watching Top Gear reruns on Netflix. We went to get gas on the way home and only got lost once.

Today was tour day but I am not sure I could tell you where exactly we went. We started by driving Charlotte to the Diane’s and Gary’s house where we piled into Gary’s quite comfy Honda Ridgeline (?) truck. From there we went to pick up Diane’s dad, Dan, who is a real character. From Dan’s place we initially went to breakfast at the Waffle House where he picked up the tab and then we went up a myriad of rural roads and highways, some of which were allegedly in North Carolina but there wasn’t much in the way of signage so I had to take the word of our guide, Dan. We drove up some pretty steep mountain roads which made Peggy quite nervous because she wasn’t driving and thinks that any other driver may want to kill him- or herself when transiting roads of this type.
Two places we ended up were mountain overlooks of the low country below and were truly breathtaking. We drove right up to a waterfall which dropped a couple hundred feet to where we were parked and then through a culvert only to promptly drop off another bluff about 150 feet to the valley floor below. Truly spectacular here.
We also drove up to Chimney Rock State Park, where some of the Last of the Mohicans was filmed. It is plainly evident why they filmed here – the country around here is magnificently beautiful. Where else we went is a complete mystery to me because the roads in this area are quite circuitous but we finally got back to Don’s place where we met Dianne’s sister, Debbie, who lives next door. Then we went to another place for dinner named Rory’s (I think) where they again had buffet-style dining with an interesting addition. No sooner had I found all the stuff I wanted to eat when a waitress showed up asking if we would want a grilled pork chop or a grilled sirloin steak. Peg and I bit on the steaks, which were petite but tasty. All of this for about $10 a head. What a great spot.
We finally got back to the Dianne’s and Gary’s place and hopped in Charlotte for the drive back to Paris Mountain State Park.

Departed Carolina Landing TT and drove up I-85 to Greenville, SC. Although we were on the interstate, the scenery was still quite nice and spring is in full bloom in this part of the country. We ultimately landed at Paris Mountain State Park just north of Greenville. Not too long after we arrived, Diane and Gary drove up to our campsite.
Peggy worked with Diane back in pre-history when we initially moved to San Diego, CA in 1984. Diane and Gary moved back to South Carolina when Gary was assigned there in the Navy back in 1989. We had not seen them since then and were delighted to see them now. Gary is one of those types that just does not get excited and Diane is a firecracker with an excellent sense of humor and a great laugh. I would have been able to tell these were the same folks I knew back in ’89 even if I was blind.
They took us on a drive around the Greenville area and we finally ended up at a place called Mutt’s to eat. Mutt’s is a buffet-style barbecue house with good food and to make things even better, Gary picked up the tab. The food was good and the service was great. The staff acted like they owned the restaurant and wanted to make sure we were perfectly satisfied with our dining experience, which we were. After dinner, the friends drove us back to the park where we promptly crapped out.