Our story will start Saturday morning past, right after breakfast. It seems the little cafe in Marion where our gang went for breakfast was also part of the local Saturday morning flea market. After walking the market we all decided it has lots and lots of fleas. Haha.
Anyway, cousin Sharon was going to tag along with us today, and we wanted to go to Spruce Pine to visit The Soap Shed. That, along with a nice ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway, and scouting for a campground were the three major items on our agenda for the day.
After seeing all the fleas, the three of us loaded up in Truck and headed up the mountain on Hwy 221/226 to head up the mountain to Spruce Pine. Now 226 is a narrow, winding, full of switchbacks type of mountain highway. For some reason, Rob didn't turn on 226, but stayed straight on 221. After a few miles, he asked cousin Sharon who was riding shotgun if anything looked familiar to her. She replied that it had been along time since she ridden on this particular stretch of 221, prompting Rob to realize he had missed the turn off.
But, we were enjoying the view, the road was a much easier climb, so a quick vote (3-0 in favor) was made to continue on our present course.
Highway 221 crosses the Blue Ridge Parkway at the little town of Linville Falls, NC. Also located very close to the intersection of the BRP and 221 is Linville Falls Campground. Cousin Sharon told us she had checked this campground out this summer and liked it, picking out favorite sites for both Splash and Pod. So we did a u-turn, and checked it out too.
Having a particular weekend in mind, we asked to tour the campground, checked out the open sites and booked a reservation for the first week in October. What lucky missed turn adventure!!
This wasn't the campground we had planned to check out, in fact, we drove right past that one and didn't even bother.
This wasn't the campground we had planned to check out, in fact, we drove right past that one and didn't even bother.
Here's a picture of the office Rob snagged from the campground's website.
Now as to the why we needed a campground for this particular weekend in this particular area, you'll have to read about over on the Trip's page.
After the campground visit, it was south on the BRP, with a stop along the way to give Cousin Sharon an opportunity to photobomb a picture Rob was taking (WARNING!! Repeat Picture Ahead!).
Then a quick stop for gas in Spruce Pine, a longer stop to shop for soap at The Soap Shed, and we were headed south on the BRP once again on our way back to the campground.
So the moral of this story is sometimes it pays to, "take that left turn at Albuquerque" that Buggs Bunny always seemed to miss!!
Until next time, stay safe out there.....-R,T,&J.
Your blog is the best!
ReplyDeleteElaine