Konorock, Gene Watson and home

 August 25 2023 Friday

It was surprisingly warm sleeping last night; I expected it to be cooler here in the mountains. This whole trip the temperatures have been unpredictable. We’ve seen chilly nights in North Carolina and warm ones in Virginia, that’s ok, it's all good except that hot day in the cemetery. I could make a bad meme about the Bray cemetery being hotter than H@!! but they all seem like good folk so I'll refrain.

One thing we’ve experienced this summer that is not good is ticks. Both Millie and I have had multiple tick bites, in spite of us using repellants. We even switched from the name brand Deet based bug sprays to tick specific repellants and tick killing treatments for our shoes and clothing. It’s just a bad year for them, I guess but I've already got one tick borne condition and I don't want another!

I cooked eggs outside on the griddle and Millie made biscuits for our breakfast this morning. We will visit with the Pedigo family later today. We also want to check out Grindstone Campground on our way over to their place. Yesterday someone told me he had just come from Grindstone and the no hookup loop was open to camping. Grindstone is the Federal Campground that was closed two years ago due to a failed septic system. It’s pretty sad that this beautiful forest campground remains closed. It clearly was the best of the parks in the Jefferson National Forest. 

On our way out later that day, we detoured into the abandoned Grindstone Campground. The primitive camping loop turned out to be a bust. It was mostly a tent camping area when the campground was in full operation and the sites are too small, too unlevel, too overgrown to be any use to us. Not to mention, no facilities what so ever. We’ll continue to use Raccoon Branch for our trips here.

We had a very pleasant day at the Pedigo’s. Their son Jason was there and cooked a gourmet lunch consisting of baked rigatoni, salad and garlic bread. We spent the afternoon in round table discussion about government conspiracies, presidential politics, anything that anyone wanted to debate! 

The Pedigo homestead

It was five pm when we realized we had been there all day and made our leave. They sent us home with leftovers and fresh garden tomatoes. We will return tomorrow, when Millie will attend church with her sister. Saturday is the Sabbath at Betty’s church.

August 26 2023 Saturday

Millie, Betty and Jason went to church services this morning and I stayed with Paul. Although he is in decline from Alzheimer’s disease it was no problem sitting with him. He is a gentle soul and still knows who I am, so it was easy for both of us.

The Pedigo’s fed us lunch again today and we continued solving all the problems of the world, but it was a shorter session today. Millie and I have tickets to see Gene Watson at the Lincoln Theatre in Marion Virginia tonight.

The Lincoln Theatre was built in 1929, it was in disrepair and abandoned in the 70’s. In the 1980's the lengthy process of refurbishing the theatre began.  It took three decades to completely rebuild while preserving the Mayan Revival style architecture of the building's interior. It reopened in May of 2004. It now has a busy schedule with live performances, feature films and taping shows for broadcast.

We just saw Gene Watson in 2021 in Newberry South Carolina but took advantage of this opportunity to see him again. He is turning 80 this year and is on an 80th birthday 80 performances tour, so it was a little different show than the last time we saw him.

He’s still a great performer and his new blues songs are very good, we’re glad we got to see him again.

August 27 2023 Sunday

We got underway at 9am, funny how it always works out that way. The destination for today is our home in Myrtle Beach, it will be a run of somewhere between 275 and 300 miles. 

Racoon Branch to Myrtle Beach

True to form for us we have a route planned on local roads with no interstate highways. Admittedly our way takes longer, but we like the more leisurely pace. We stopped once for lunch and fuel in one of the many small towns we passed through. Arriving back in our town we dropped the RV off at the storage lot, unloaded the frig and zipped five more miles down the road pulling into our driveway at 4:30 in the afternoon. 

Home Sweet Home