Our North Carolina stops

We headed for North Carolina and our plan to visit our friends, both old ones and new ones. We were at Gafney SC and while they were working on our motorhome at Freightliner, we drove up to Rutherfordton NC to spend the day with our new friends, Bob and Sandy. They live in a beautiful Log house locate in a forest, they built this home themselves. They also have a Mandalay and we met them at the Rally in Goshen and at the factory in Elkhart last year. We had a great time with them at the FCOC rally in Florida also. We enjoyed spending the day with them and checking out the area. They took us to a lot of interesting places, but I had forgotten to bring the camera, so have no pictures from that day.

After our coach was done at Gaffney, we headed for Pride RV Park, a campground near Maggie Valley NC to visit a very good friend of mine and her family. Rhonda and Bill and their 2 daughters Alysia and Allison. Rhonda and I had not seen each other in about 8 or 9 years, but we picked up right where we left off.

We stayed a a nice RV Park and spend a lot of quality time with Rhonda and Bill. Joe and Bill played golf and of course we had lots of home cooking at their house, which is also a Log home. Rhonda is a great cook, and her Mother and Brother visited from Charlotte NC while we were there. Sunday was Easter, so we watched the girls color Easter eggs and we roasted marshmallows outside at the fire pit beside the stream in their backyard.

We also went for a scenic drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway, a little cloudy and overcast, but very beautiful and well worth the drive.

We had a great time visiting this them, and are already planning our next visit. This is a beautiful area of the country, and I am sure there are lots more things to see in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina.

Our next stop was Smith Lake Campground, this is the Army Travel Camp at Fort Bragg Army Base near Fayetteville North Carolina. A friend of Joe's that he worked with 33 years ago lives in Linden about 15 miles away. They had lost contact with each other about 28 years ago, and Joe just recently learned how to contact him. The next few days we visited with Ray and his wife Hanna, and we both had a great time. Joe and Ray talked and laughed about old times and some of the people they worked with, you would never guess that so much time had passed. They had a great time talking and laughing. Ray and Hanna are both warm and friendly people and we sure did enjoy spending time with them.