A Mountain Saturday......

Happy weekend everyone.  We hope all of our readers are enjoying the same beautiful weather we're enjoying this weekend!!

We are back in the North Carolina High Country camping this weekend.  Rob had same pretty painful oral surgery this week, so he took Friday off to recover.  He's still taking ibuprofen on a regular schedule and slowly feeling better.  

As soon as Trisha got home Friday we were off, arriving about 5:30 with just enough daylight left to set up camp and then we hopped back in truck to a favorite Mexican Restaurant for supper.  

We sat out by the Little Red Campfire to enjoy the evening and were off to bed about 10 p.m.  

Today we managed a breakfast buffet, a quick stop by Wal-Mart, a quick stop by The Soap Shed to say hello and chat a bit, a stop by an outfitters, then it was back north on the Blue Ridge Parkway to view the sights.  Followed by a stop by Linville Falls Winery to sample and even buy some wine.  Then back to campground to just relax and for Trisha to grade some papers.  

Here are just a few pictures of our day so far......

Thanks for checking by today!!  

Until next time, stay safe out there.....-R & T (J is grandma sitting this weekend)

Gathering Supplies......

Happy Sunday morning everyone.  We never did finish telling about our camping trip this past weekend.  There simply wasn't very much to tell. 

We slept in till about 8 a.m. Sunday, dressed, ate breakfast, broke camp (the temperature was about 33 degrees when we got up so we weren't in such a big hurry) and pulled out of the campground about 10 a.m.  

We could have drove straight home, but there's no fun in that, and since the morning dawned bright and clear, we chose to make about a 30 mile detour north along the Blue Ridge Parkway just to see the fall color.  The views were spectacular as always, and even more so on this crisp clear morning.  

That wraps up the last camping trip, so onto the topic of today's post.   If you remember, the purpose of this weekend's camping trip was so that Rob could attend a class on the art and science of soap making.  Rob thoroughly enjoyed the class, and has been busy gathering supplies, and building some items for his foray into soap making for himself.

But first, a soap update.  Here's the very first batch of Castile soap Rob made in his class, moments after it was poured into the mold....

And here it is, seven days later when Rob popped it out of the mold so it could breathe better for another seven days....

In another week, Rob will cut it into bars and then it will dry another few weeks before being ready for use.  So far, so good with this first batch of soap.

As we said earlier, Rob has spent the week ordering and gathering supplies.  From the dollar store, Lowes, Amazon, other online companies, Rob has ordered a scale, base oils, Lye, fragrance oils, essential oils, and a few other odds and ends.  

This weekend he has spent building two pound wood molds to pour the soap mixtures into.....

He has even built a wire hand cutter to cut the soap, and a mitre box to help keep the cuts straight.  

He's even pressed into soap making service a couple of old stainless steel cooking pots to mix the lye solution in, and now he's on the lookout for old crockpots.  

That's about it for today.  It's a cool, rainy, dreary day here in our part of the world.  A perfect day to just stay inside and read a good book.

Until next time, stay safe out there.....-R,T,&J.

School On a Saturday......

Happy Monday to all.  Yup you read the title of this blog post correctly.  Rob did indeed have school on a Saturday.  From 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Rob spent his day with Tim the owner of The Soap Shed in Spruce Pine, NC and one other student to learn the art and science of soap making.  

The morning was spent learning some of the history of soap making, chemistry involved,  the safety requirements of working with caustic soda, the math calculations needed, the different oils used and why, reviewing the supplies needed to be successful maker of soap, and making a batch of lye soap.

This took us to nearly 1:00 p.m.  After a break for lunch which was provided as part of the class fee, we then made our own batch of soap.  Rob said he really had a blast taking this class and it was way fun to talk with Tim to learn some of the tips and tricks he's learned over the past 17 years or so in the soap making business.

Yes, Math is involved.

Tim, mixing a demonstration batch of lye soap.

Tim checking his notes as the other student watches.

At last, Rob's first official batch of homemade soap.

After class, (and paying for Trisha's soap purchases) we headed back to the campsite, to talk with the owners a bit, run and get our propane bottle filled, and then head to supper.  

Tonight we chose Italian for supper, and it was really good......

That's it for this evening's blog post.  Be sure to check back tomorrow to hear about the rest of our weekend camping adventure.

Until next time.....-R,T,&J (who is sleeping in Rob's lap as he types this post!!)  

A New Campground.....

Happy Sunday afternoon everyone.  We've been to the mountains camping this weekend.  Rob had a soap making class at The Soap Shed in Spruce Pine, NC.  Trisha just wanted to have a weekend of shopping without Rob to bug her.  

This past week had been a bit of a chore with Rob finding out on Wednesday he needed to have a old dental bridge replaced, and with Trisha finding out on the same afternoon she needed a new crown.

Can you say KA----CHING??

At any rate, we set out Friday afternoon just as it started to rain here.  We arrived at the Linville Falls Trailer Lodge and Campground about 5:30, after the rain had left.  The owner told us it had been drizzly all day.  We quickly set up camp and set off to a Mexican Restaurant in Pineola, NC.  

As you can see from both of these pictures it was a grey, over-cast evening.  After a delicious supper, we headed back to camp to set beside the Little Red Campfire a bit before heading in for the night.

Before going to bed for the evening, Rob set out the ceramic heater so if we needed it through the night, it wouldn't take but a minute to plug in and turn on.  Sure enough, about five a.m. Rob had to plug in the heater.  About three minutes later, the power went off.  Now it was real windy all night long, and this campground is under a heavy tree cover.  So Rob switched on the propane furnace, switched the fridge over to propane, and switched on the propane for the hot water heater and went back to bed.  All was good until about 7:30 when the propane tank ran empty.  Now you have to understand we've used this same tank of propane since buying Pod in December 2009.  So Rob simply switched over to the spare tank and we were back in business.  

Having to be at Soap making Class (another blog post, hehe) in Spruce Pine by 9:30, we showered, dressed, and loaded up in Truck to head out after talking to our neighbor's to confirm the power loss was more than our site. 

On our way out of the campground, another camper stopped us to see if we had some jumper cables.  Rut-roh.  Of course we did, and we stopped, helped this poor cold tent camper get his truck started, then were finally on our way.  

As we hopped on the BRP, Trisha suddenly remembered she didn't have her purse.  Rob offered to go back to Pod and get it, but no, her purse was locked safely in her car back home.  Oh well, Trisha got to do a bunch of looking and very little buying.  

At this point, we'll stop our story and give our impressions of Linville Falls Campground.

Pros...
1.   Very, very clean bathhouse.

2.  Very quite.

3.  $35.00 (cash only) a night included 30 amp, water, and sewer.

4.  The site was a good sized pull through.  (the only pull through)

5.  This was one of the only six or so 30 amp sites available.  The 
rest were 15 amp service, water, and some sewer.  

6.  This entire campground is wooded, so lots of shade.

Cons....
1.  Power issues.  When our power went out, Rob checked the outlets at the power pedestal with his Fluke meter.  The outlets were not energized.  The only reason this is a con, is when talking with the owner later that afternoon, he said he never reset the breaker in the main box for our site, so he couldn't understand why we didn't have power.

2.  The five 30 amp sites are a nice size.  The other sites could be a bit small, but totally do-able for r-pods, T@Bs, etc. In fact we're in site 27 in three weeks for the weekend again.  It's $25.00 a night for just water and 15 amp electric.

3.  Not sure if this is a con, but if your in one of the 15 amp sites in cold weather, you need to have a way to heat other than a small electric heater.  Also, in summer, no A/C could be used, but at 3800 feet in elevation, most likely wouldn't need it.

In sum up, if your looking for a quite, small, rustic, campground, high up in the NC mountains, less that half a mile from the BRP, this is it.  If your looking for a more "resort" type of experience, keep on driving.  

We enjoyed our time here and as we said earlier, have reservations for a return trip in three weeks.  This weekend was extremely busy as camping weekends go, so check back tomorrow for the next part of our story.

Until next time, stay safe out there.....-R,T, but no J (grandma sitting again)

A Tale of Two Yeti's and a Happy Birthday.....

With apologies to Mr. Charles Dickens, happy Saturday to everyone.  It's been a busy few weeks around here, with the start of school and looking after elderly parents with health issues.  We hope this weekend is going to be a not so busy time.

Rob stopped by Stone's Seafood Thursday after supper, to get some fresh seafood for Friday's supper.  He was planning to fix something yummy Friday evening to celebrate his mom's 90th birthday!!

While he was there, he got to talking to the owner.  Rob's been wanting a bigger Yeti to use for our summer beach trips, the off-grid trip we're planning for the mountains next summer, and for the Christmas trip to Hunting Island SP we've got coming up in just a couple of months.  We have a large cooler (in fact, Rob has about 10 or so coolers now) we used on our cross country trip back in the summer of 2008.  But after a couple seasons with the smaller Yeti, Rob wanted to add a larger Yeti to the cooler family that lives in his shop.

To get on with the story, the shop owner made Rob a good deal, and so Yeti #2 rode home with him in the back seat of Truck.  Yeti #1 or little Yeti is a Roadie 25.  Yeti #2 or Big Yeti is a Tundra 45.  
With the assistance of Truck, here's a picture of the two side by side.....

Well that's about it for this Saturday.  We're off to the mountains for a weekend camping trip at a new campground Friday, so be checking back here to read all about it.  

Until next time, stay safe out there.....-R,T,&J and the rest of the gang here at team R&T.  

Our Missed Turn Adventure......

Happy Monday everyone!!  The whole gang here hopes everyone's week is off to a great start.  The title of today's post has a lot of story behind it, so let's get started.

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.  

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.

P-Nutty Rides Again.....

Happy Saturday everyone!! It's P-Nutty here and I'm taking care of the blog duties today.  It's great to get to tell everyone about our weekend camping trip.  

This weekend Mr. R, Mrs. T, and I are camping at Mountain Stream RV Park in Marion, NC.  It's a beautiful little park, with no cell service and while the wi-fi is good, its satellite based, so we're very limited in how much bandwidth we can use.

This is just a quick weekend get-away type of trip with family and friends.   Our campsite overlooks beautiful Buck Creek. 

We're even camping beside Aunt Sharon and her The Coffee Cup.....

Never mind the tarp over the roof.  Seems the screws that hold the front window covering on to the trailer weren't properly sealed, so Aunt Sharon with some advice from Mr. R will be fixing that little problem as soon as The Cup is back home.

There's even another pod here, named Lily-Pod out on it's first adventure with it's new owner, who actually taught with Aunt Sharon.  How wild is that!!  

Welcome to the Podding Community....

Last night after setting up camp, the Mr. and Mrs.  rode back to town for some supper at Smokey Cues.  This morning a group of campers went into town for breakfast.  They said both meals were yummy.  Then we all took off up the mountain to ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway, scout out a campground for a trip in October (reservations are made), and stop by The Soap Shed in Spruce Pine for some more handmade soap.   

Of course they had to stop along the parkway for some pictures, with Aunt Sharon even photobombing one of Mr. R's shots.....

So I guess this photobombing thing runs in the family!!!

Anyway, thanks for checking by today.  Have a great weekend. 

Until next time, stay safe out there......- P-Nutty