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.

Another day of hunting waterfalls. This part of SC has a bunch of them but some are harder to find than others. We initially went to Chau-Ram County Park which has a nifty waterfall that you can see from the parking lot but after we paid it started to rain so we ducked out temporarily to go eat instead.
We ended up at a place called Yousef’s, which seems a bit strange for this part of the world considering the locals’ feelings about minorities in general and Arabs in particular. Once we got inside, we met Yousef who was wearing blue jeans, a nice shirt and a baseball cap and spoke English better than I do. He was a very nice guy and his restaurant serves great food, particularly chicken. The waitress we had originally lived in Chicago. Quite a few people seem to have emigrated to this state which is not surprising considering the scenery, which is spectacular, and the prices, which are low.
After pigging out at Yousef’s, we went back to Chau-Ram Park but it was raining even harder than when we left. The waterfall in the park is technically on Ramsey Creek just upstream of the confluence with the Chauga River, hence Chau-Ram. The park is very nice with a visitor center / meeting hall, picnic shelters big enough for groups of about 20 or 30 and some neat trails up both Ramsey Creek and the Chauga.
We left Chau-Ram and sort of wandered toward a waterfall called Riley Moore Falls which is up a dirt road with a new form of SC signage – none whatsoever. We were unsuccessful in our effort to find this waterfall and we are not sure it even exists considering the local knowledge one must possess to ascertain the location where it may or may not be.
After driving many miles back down the dirt road from the alleged location of Riley Moore, we got back on a paved road and cruised to Reedy Branch Falls near Long Creek, SC. Reedy Branch is about a quarter mile down a gravel and dirt road and you need to walk down the road to get to it since the US Forest Service maintains a locked traffic gate where the gravel road hits the paved highway. It is fortunate they maintain the locked gate because the road is almost completely washed out near the falls. However, the trail to the falls splits from the gravel road right before the washout and the trip up the trail is definitely worth the walk. The waterfall at Reedy Branch is gorgeous. The water tumbles over the bluff about 60 or 80 feet above the pools at the bottom and cascades down a series of rock shelves. We were absolutely alone here; nobody else was around which is surprising considering how beautiful a place this is. It was a tragedy.
After hitting this spot we headed back towards the Invader with only about 3 or 4 little forays off the highway to find things that do not have signage such that idiots like us can find them. Even getting temporarily lost in this part of the world is fun. The scenery is beautiful, the roads are moderately well paved, the access fees to the parks are dirt cheap and getting lost is actually pleasant. What a place.

This date does not have much of a story. We did the laundry in the campground facility which had good washers but slow dryers. Peggy also spent a good part of the day doing taxes with a TurboTax program we purchased recently. When it comes to taxes, almost all the news is bad so I won’t elaborate on today’s activities. Droll comes to mind.

Today’s destination was Issaqueena Falls in Walhalla, SC. Walhalla is a quaint little town with quite a few really neat houses and a nice downtown area where we stopped to eat at a place called the Steak House Cafeteria. This place has pretty good food at a very reasonable price but, unfortunately, no steak. They do have really good fried chicken that the tourist guides for SC indicate has been designated the best fried chicken by Blue Ridge Magazine. I’m not sure it is really that spectacular but it certainly goes way beyond being nominal.
After lunch we continued up the road to Issaqueena Falls, which after about a 2 minute walk are plainly visible from the top. Another 2 minutes takes you to a nice viewing platform where the entire falls can be seen. It is a very nice natural asset to this area and, although one is required to leave the designated trails to access other viewing areas, they are very nice, too. A short walk for younger folks than me takes you to the bottom of the falls where there are large, flat rock formations where you can sit and gaze at the surrounding beauty. Another quite well-used but undesignated trail takes you to a ledge beneath the very top of the falls where you can walk behind the cascade of the creek without getting wet, sort of like I saw in the movie, Last of the Mohicans. If we were a bit younger and in better shape, we would have been all over this place.
Leaving Issaqueena Falls we decided to do another drive through the rural countryside surrounding the area and the scenery was again great. SC has extremely confusing road signs which resulted in us turning around and backtracking a few times to remain on the roads we desired but even going the wrong way was scenic so the confusion was not bothersome. A word to other travelers: road signage here can tell you that despite being on a road that runs west, the signs may indicate you are on a highway that runs both north and south at the same time. Don’t trust the signs. Frequently a fork in the road will have signage that indicates the route you wish to remain on runs down both forks. Sign designations frequently indicate you are traveling on not less than 5 different routes simultaneously but the location where you wish to turn will be carefully unmarked until some 5 miles down the road.
We ultimately made it back home before dark but I think we may have been lucky. Navigation here must be by dead reckoning which may make you dead.