July 26-Aug 3 2012: Norwood NC, Norwood Campground, Uwharrie Forest Off Roading, Concord Mills, Indian Creek Campground, Hickory Nc

Thursday, July 26 through August 3 re-cap

Preparing to hit the road to travel to Norwood NC with our neighbors, the Hyet's. We will be staying at Norwood Campground on Berry Hill Road until Sunday, July 29th. On our way to Norwood we stopped at MasterTow, in Fayetteville, to replace a tow dolly fender and while traveling through Cameron we caught one of our back levelers on the deep end of an entrance into a gas station. We will be getting this fixed at Tom Johnson's in Marion. We pulled into Norwood Campground and were assigned site 21; this campground is not necessarily Class A friendly as their site overhead electric wires droop into the path of driving; note to motorhomers-always look up! We settled into our site and then checked out the town. Friday brought us into a hot, humid day and we ventured into nearby Albemarle and lunched at Blue Bay. Friday evening brought the Hyet's to site 29 and a camp dinner of burgers and salad. After a pleasant breakfast on Saturday with the Hyet's Dave and Bud headed to Uwharrie National Forest to do some off-roading in Bud's NEW jeep; Doreen and I stayed on the ground and headed to Concord Mills.

We met back up at camp at the end of a successful day; the guys survived the mountains and the girls did some great shopping! We celebrated and dined at Applebee's in Albemarle. Sunday Doreen and Bud ventured back to the mountains to the east and we began our journey to the western part of NC. We arrive at Indian Springs Campground just south of Hickory NC. Nice area, nice campground, very secluded. We re-grouped with Sam and Jean Jones, good friends from long ago when Dave was in Moyers Corners Fire Department and Carrier Corp. and I began cake decorating interests with Jean. The four of us were a great bowling league team and found that no matter the years that have passed we reconnected as if we had seen each other just a week ago. During our four-day reunion with the Jones's we explored the high country of Blowing Rock, Boone, Grandfather Mountain, a couple of Hollers, wine tasting (and purchasing) at Carolina Mist Winery, antiquing and enjoying delicious meals together. It was wonderful to be able to wish Jean and Sam a special Happy 50th Anniversary. On Thursday we arrived at Tom Johnson's in Marion for our Friday morning RV service. What a great place and great staff! We then drove further west to Asheville to begin our stay at Asheville Bear Creek Campground.