Getting Into The Great Outdoors: Our 1st Adventure Continued

Post 3 on our camping excursion.

I Got A Car.

Saturday greeted us with rain.

I believe it greeted me first by saying: go piss before your sheets are done for.

I threw on my jeans and grabbed my toothbrush and toothpaste.  I may be alone here but brushing my teeth makes me feel like a new person.

Happy news alert!  As I walked up the hill to the bathroom I noted that the rain had stopped!  What was hitting the camper was dripping from the trees around us and not from the actual sky.  Perhaps this 30% deal my husband had mentioned was on point...perhaps.

After breakfast (muffins of course) we took off for a daytime stroll of the park.  We were hoping to get on a trail and do a little hiking.  Sadly, the gate attendant said there were no trails to use on that piece of the campground.  He said that they had not been properly maintained and he couldn't advise us to use them.

Because of all the rain the playgrounds were mush.

I started getting aggravated.  We'll call it part mama bear part PMS-ing broad.

Once back to the camper we loaded up in the car and went to the main area of the campground.  The welcome center had some good things to offer the kids (and us).  We spent time in the museum and learned that when you retire in Florida you move to North Wilkesboro to work as a volunteer at dam & reservoir.  You also learn that Wilkesboro flooded back in the day and that is why the army moved in to build a dam.

The hubby had found a few trails to hike while in the welcome center. Our next adventure consisted of going to the trail head and taking off.  Once we got there (and out of the car) the rains started again.

Back in the car and down the road.  Or should I say....

Up the road we go!

My lovely husband drove past our entrance to the campground we were staying at.  If it was going to rain we were going to go on an adventure....somewhere.

I must say I'm pretty good at navigating and finding my way.  Its just a talent I am blessed with.  Until I met my husband I thought all people had this inborn ability to navigate with common sense.  I was wrong.  It is a blessing the man can get to and from work without a wrong turn.  Ha!  Just kidding love ya.

Up, up and away we went.  Leaving Wilkes County and entering Caldwell County.  Caldwell County was a narrow road that was winding like a black snake.  The homes were out of a bad movie based in West Virginia and we felt as if we were on the road to nowhere.

Eventually we stumbled on a place called Fort Defiance.  Now, I'm not a military buff or into the Revolutionary War, 1812 War, Civil War, or anything like that. My husband is equipped with testosterone so his interest was a bit peaked.  He pulled in and I was just hoping they sold snacks.  {This sudden road trip was done with zero diapers and zero snacks.  You can imagine how hungry we were having only eaten a few blueberry muffins four hours earlier.}

We pull up to this Ft. Defiance place and there is an old home and a primitive building beside it.  The hubs and daughter get out.  Since the baby was asleep I hung out in the car begging my cell phone to find some miraculous service.

Guess what I learned when they returned to the car?

There is no fort at Fort Defiance.

What?

No Fort.

It is just some old dead white man's house who was all about killing some British Loyalists during the Revolution.  He named his damned house Fort Defiance.

I bet his neighbors made the crazy sign when his name was mentioned back in the day.  I bet it was complete with rolling eyes and coo coo being mouthed silently.

Next we stumbled upon a place called The Patterson School.  I had never heard of this place before and lets be honest I only live like three counties away.  Of course good ole Wikipedia was down so I couldn't quite figure out this place.  We didn't stop either but now I was wondering just what this school was.  It looked very old and very shut down.

It turns out this school was founded in 1909 as an agriculture school for mountain boys.  I kid you not.  It started with roughly 19 boys enrolled and grew to having 200 boys enrolled.  It is no longer a school but more of a learning center for students in Caldwell and neighboring counties.  Check out their website for more information....its kinda nifty ya'll. The Patterson School Foundation

Also, from what I read about this school it turned into a development center for basketball players. Then shut down.

Our mission was now to go eat.  Screw sandwiches back at the campsite.  It was raining, it was cold, and we were going to eat something good.

You just read "it was cold" - yes it was.  On July 19th it was 60 degrees at 1:00 PM.  I was wearing jeans, a tee shirt, and a fleece jacket.  I'm built for 88 degree summers not 60-degree-no-sun-in-site summers.  I am from North Carolina not North Dakota.

Our vehicle is not the best on gas.  The next adventure would be getting gas for said vehicle.  I noticed our elevation was quite high at this point and figured we were headed to Boone.  I knew where the highway we were on would lead us to - south was Hickory and north was Blowing Rock/Boone.  Since we were going north I wasn't in shock that the high country was slowly greeting us.  We'd need gas for the trek.

What took us by surprise was that this one station we found {or came to first} had gas cheaper than anywhere else we had been.  Since petro is extremely expensive these days you know how excited you get when you see it for a cheaper than average price, right?!?!

We pulled in.  The place advertised breakfast biscuits, lunch sandwiches, and dinner pizzas.  The gas pumps were your typical 1980 somethings.  In the land of 2014 were weren't sure if we could even pay for gas with a debit card at this place.  I sat in the car with the kids while the hubby went in.

This is crazy.

Those retro pumps were ran off of an iPad.

How the hell can you make the old school, basic gas pump run off a damn iPad?  The whole store practically ran off an iPad!  My husband prepaid inside, the girl accepted his payment via iPad {nothing new} and then set up the pump via the iPad.  Are you kidding me?

We were seven miles from Blowing Rock.  When he asked the attendant where we were she couldn't answer him...just said we were 7 miles from Blowing Rock.  Cool.

The rain gently fell and the fog was out of this world....that's how you know you're in the Northern Mountains of North Carolina.  When it rains its foggy and gross.  When it does it in summer its extra gross.  Like always, the roads of the mountains are always getting expanded and repaired.  We crept along the narrow byway to get into Blowing Rock.  Finally there we decided against any local fare and to just settle for some good ole Outback.

A Blooming Onion has never tasted so wonderful.

I began making mental notes of a weekend trip, no kids, for the hubby and I.  In my mind we are staying at Green Mountain Inn and shopping at the Tanger Outlets and finding some water to canoe.  At night we're downing good drinks at an adult establishment that does not offer a kid's menu.

After a yummy lunch we headed to Boone and then to 421 for a quicker trip back to the camper.

----

When we arrived back it was still nasty and wet and more rain on the way.

Screw it all.  We packed everything up and our daughter cried the entire time.

Our neighbors did the same.

See, after our arrival back to the camper from our adventure our bedding was wet.

Un-freakin'-cool.

So yes....we unpopped the pop up and hitched her up and came home.