Monday night, October 16th, as we were preparing to leave the next morning we saw news reports that it was snowing in the area of Mt. Pisgah. Right where we were headed. In fact, they had to close 31 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway due to the snow. The BRP was a road we would have to travel on to get to our destination, so it was a major concern. Cue the sleepless night.
But the next morning reports were that it was re-open, so we breathed a sigh of relief.
Then, there was even more fun. While we were getting ready to leave Stony Fork Campground on Tuesday morning we needed to re-open the kitchen slide-out in order to reposition the long-ass slide-out cover the mobile tech removed from the other side for us that we’ve been hauling around inside the RV on travel days. When we tried to re-open it we discovered it wouldn’t move more than 3 inches and then stopped. Great! Another slide-out issue, this time on the opposite side of side of the RV.
It seems like so many things have broken or needed repair lately and I probably lost it a little bit. I was yelling and cursing and telling Cindy that I was through with this life and how everything in or on the RV was crap and blah, blah, blah. I just needed a little venting time, lol.
We were able, thankfully, to move it back in so it wasn’t sticking out 3 inches while we drove down the highway. After we dumped and flushed we were on the road around 11:30 am. Our route took us through Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina for about 4 hours, reaching Mt. Pisgah Campground around 4 pm. Cindy had reserved us a pull-through site, so no extra time spent trying to back in to a site. Yay!
We tried the kitchen slide-out again, but it was still a no-go. Where our living room slide-out is a rack and pinion type, the kitchen one is completely different and known as a Schwintek slide-out. It’s named after the motors at the top of each side of the slide-out. And something…something about how to remedy the situation was rumbling around in my memory, either from the course I took or something I read in the past. But I couldn’t nail it down and we had no connectivity (which we already knew) here at Pisgah, so I couldn’t look it up.
We were hungry and tired, so we drove back toward Asheville to get Voyager fueled up and to grab something to eat. With the kitchen slide-out stuck in we were unable to open the refrigerator door or even get out pots and pans. After getting Voyager gassed up we stopped for dinner and I started searching online and found what I was looking for fairly fast. It said that if you performed a certain sequence of actions using the in/out switch for a certain number of times that you could re-sync the Schwintek motors and get your slide-out working again.
We got back to the campsite as quickly as possible after dinner, tried the sequence and….IT WORKED!
Man, I was SO happy. I guess we’ll keep doing this a little bit longer, lol.
This stop is one Cindy has been looking forward to ever since we scheduled it last year. Our cabin that we used to own is about 30 miles away from here, so we had often hopped on the BRP or driven up through Waynesville to get up here to the Pisgah Inn, right across the road from the Mt. Pisgah Campground. We’ve enjoyed many wonderful meals with family, friends, and even just us over the years. And it was 20 years ago or so that Cindy and I took our first camping trip together, here in the Mt. Pisgah Campground, in a tent of all things because we were a lot younger then, lol.
Her mom had been coming up here for years before that, starting shortly after she successfully battled breast cancer, and fell in love with the place. We drove up here our first time to meet her parents and camp in our brand new tent, using part of the site they had their pop-up parked in. You can see the place in the photo album. It was around this time of year and, like it was the Monday before we arrived, weather was an issue. It was raining, sleeting and cold. We were bundled up on an air mattress with lots of blankets, trying to keep the sleet and cold out of the tent for a couple of days and nights. At about 3:30 in the morning of our next to last day here, the ground around our tent flooded and we were soaked by freezing cold water. It was quite a wake-up call!
Anyway, because her mom loved this place so much, and especially because she loved a twisted, gnarled, unsightly tree that was on the side of one of the loops and sat in the shadow of Mt. Pisgah itself, her mom asked that her ashes be spread in the hollow of that tree when she passed away. Cindy has been looking forward to coming to visit the tree while we were camping here.
But first, for a couple of days before we arrived here, Cindy had been having a bad toothache so we had made her an appointment at a dentist in nearby (24 miles, lol) Waynesville and that’s where we headed on Wednesday. As it turned out, the dentist could not see what’s wrong on the x-rays and thinks she may have an abscess BETWEEN the tooth that is bothering her and the one behind it. He gave her an antibiotic, but she’ll have to see her regular dentist (which she already has an appointment with) when we get back to Orlando in November. She’s been treating the pain with Excedrin Migraine but the pain did lessen the past day or so.
Then we went to Michael’s because, well it’s there and so Cindy must go to it. We picked up a few groceries and stopped at Barber Orchards for fresh Apple Fritters, Apple Spice Donuts and Apple Cider. Please don’t tell my endocrinologist!
Most of Thursday, Friday and Saturday were spent enjoying the campground, walking Bella on trails and exploring the campground loops. We went over to the B Loop where we had stayed in the tent so many years ago and found the site we all were at. It’s not open now so maybe they “retired” it after we left, lol. We laughed as we recalled when Cindy needed to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and made me walk with her through the freezing cold air and fog-shrouded trees to get to the restroom. I kept scaring her during the walk because it was so ghostly and eerily silent after midnight.
Saturday morning we left early to drive over to Maggie Valley so we could have breakfast at Joey’s Pancake House. We stopped along the BRP on the way and took photos of the sunrise and it was beautiful! Since it was a Saturday we had an hour’s wait to get a table. We sat in Voyager in the parking lot and took advantage of the connectivity to do some things online. When we lived here it was one of our favorite places to eat breakfast. As usual, the food was delicious and our server was delightful.
It just so happened that the Maggie Valley Craft Fair was taking place at the fairgrounds. Cindy used to be a part of that with her Mountain Creek Candles business, so we thought it would be fun to go. Lots and lots of vendors and most of it is the things you would think would be popular in a country, rural setting like Maggie Valley. And we did see something we had to buy!
When we sold our log cabin nearby and bought the RV, Cindy’s daughter said, “Well, now you have a log cabin on wheels” and we thought that was funny. But it turns out that one vendor was selling a small, mantle-sized travel trailer made of logs and we (Cindy) just had to have it for our fireplace mantle. It IS pretty cool looking!
Then we stopped to visit an old friend, Tina, at her store, Momma T’s Mountain Made which was almost right across the street. She used to sell Cindy’s candles before Cindy closed down her business. And whether it was just “nice talk” or not, when she told Cindy she just hasn’t been able to get candles like Cindy’s…well that made Cindy feel very good. She always took pride in the quality of her handmade candles, and it showed.
Saturday afternoon we walked over to her mom’s tree and while she sprinkled rose petals in the hollow of the tree for her mom I took photos and videos for her to remember it by. The tree is still ugly, gnarled and twisted, but now it also looks like it is dying. I’m not sure how much longer it will be here, so I’m really glad she had the opportunity to visit it now.
Sunday was a day of relaxation. Monday morning we had a reservation for breakfast at The Pisgah Inn across the road. The food and service here were also just as we remembered them. We had a nice table near the window that overlooked the valley and Pisgah National Forest. It was just perfect. Afterward we went out to the deck and took lots of photos and videos, even though we have thousands already from previous visits with family and friends. The beauty is just so mesmerizing.
Then we spent the afternoon and evening getting ready to leave the next day. I was happy to hear Cindy say, many times, how much she enjoyed this stop on our travels.
Thanks for following The Wandering Wetheringtons.
Yummy pancakes!!