The cemetery Trip

 September 22, 2022

Day one,

The plan for the day is to drive from Myrtle Beach South Carolina to Henderson North Carolina without using the interstate Highway system. Myrtle Beach is situated to the east of a vast low land area. Most of it is not suitable for highway construction and we have one road that crosses it. No matter which secondary road you use to exit the beach you will end up on 501 through Conway. It’s crazy but that’s the way it is.

Drive day one from home to Hendersonville NC

Once you cross the river your options open up and this trip we elected to take Hwy 378 west all the way to Columbia, a distance of about 150 miles. Columbia is the state capital and has many ribbons of concrete weaving their way around and thru it. I decided to drive straight through downtown for no other reason than I’ve never been downtown before. 

What we saw was very nice, it was clean, the buildings looked well maintained and businesses prosperous. Keep in mind it was the business and government center and that may account for the upscale urban vibe. I’m sure there are some run down sections too, but we didn’t pass by them.

We did get on an expressway to get out of the city, it was convenient and we’ve never been on I-126 before. As soon as practical we exited the road, it was now merged with I-26 and I-20 and very very congested. We stopped for fuel and then rode Hwy 176, a two lane country road all the way to Spartanburg. It was a world of difference from the madcap mayhem on the interstate.

Just northwest of Spartanburg we did get on I-26 for about 30 miles. Traffic was much less up here in the mountains, lots of trucks through. We crossed into North Carolina and continued on to our exit (53) at Henderson. We are spending the night in Town Mountain Travel Park which is one mile off the interstate.

Town Mountain RV Park

The park is clean and well manicured, the Manager, Mike met us and helped guide us into our back in site. He is a nice friendly guy. The site was not level and I had to unhook in order to jack the front of the RV high enough to level it. That’s ok, as we planned on driving back to the internet exchange and eating dinner at the Cracker Barrel there. On the way back to the RV Park I fueled up the truck, we are ready to roll in the morning.

Parked for the night at Town Mountain

Town Mountain Travel Park: Full hookup site, city water/elec/sewer. Also had cable TV, we didn’t hook up to it. Mike said the campground wifi was not very good. We didn’t try it; we had 4 bars of 4G on our Verizon hotspot and used that. Park appears to be mostly occupied by long term renters in travel trailers, seasonal RV’ers and traveling workers I imagine. They are very quiet. Lots of highway noise, Lots of loud cars went by earlier this afternoon; I think they were coming from the high school around the corner. It seems to be quieting down as evening comes.

Friday September 23 2022

The traffic noise quieted down I guess, or we both slept like rocks because nothing bothered us all night. We did “no real hurry” departure but we always end up on the road around 9AM. Unfortunately the first ¾’s of today’s travel was on the interstate, two actually, first I-26 and then I-40. At the first opportunity after crossing the Smoky Mountains we exited and traveled the rest of the way on local country roads. 

Driving day two continuing our way to Sevierville TN

It was a good day, even with the turnpikes, which are our least favorite roadway. It’s got nothing to do with towing; we just think RV travel should be relaxing. The truck is always ready to run with the big dogs; it has not met a hill it can’t climb at speed while pulling the RV and it also has plenty of power to maneuver in traffic.

We arrived at our destination for the day at 12:30 pm. We are staying at Douglas Dam campground near Sevierville Tennessee. It is TVA (Tennessee Valley Association) park at the base of the namesake dam. It is laid out on about a mile of waterfront on the French Broad River.

Our site along the French River

The park is nice, paved road, gravel sites, water and electric hookups. No sewer, but they have a dump station in the park. Every site is either waterfront or with a clear view of the river. It has all the other expected amenities; bathhouses with shower, playground, trash dumpsters. There is also a launch ramp for those that bring boats, but the most important amenity is, the office sells ice cream!

View from the scenic overlook above the dam

We have been watching the formation of hurricane Ian today and are getting concerned about it interfering with our plans. Two of its possible courses will affect us. The western path will send it inland and directly over our next destination. When those big storms hit the mountains in southwestern Virginia, they always dump deluges of water. The middle path will send it directly at our home in Myrtle Beach. 

The French River running along side the campground

We will check the hurricane center forecast in the morning and if it looks like it is going to chase us or aim for Myrtle Beach we will alter our plans. The change in our plans will be leaving here a day early so we can still go to Virginia. From there we next planned on traveling to Martinsville Virginia to do some work at the family cemetery and attend a Bray family reunion. 

Watching the progress of Hurricane Ida

All that is up in the air, we may get to go and get the cemetery work done, or maybe we will have to make a beeline for home. I have storm shutters for all the windows in the house that will need to be installed, that’s why I would be heading towards the storm instead of evacuating away from it.

Pigeon Forge news roundup: Just like Our home town of Myrtle Beach, something is always changing, but the result is always the same. Glitz and glitter and too many tourists! We decided not to see any shows on this trip. We don’t like the ones that portray country people in a silly characterization, that eliminated about half the shows here. We’ve seen most of the shows we like several times recently and weren’t ready for a repeat performance. We thought about going to Dollywood, but even with senior and military discounts it would be $200 after taxes for the two of us. We would only be interested in the musical shows within the park and that’s seems a bit much for us to pay.

Sunday September 25, 2022

The storm in the Caribbean is still intensifying and it looks like it will make land fall in the US somewhere in the Florida panhandle by Thursday night.  We have several things we want to do on this trip and nothing more to do in Pigeon Forge, we will leave today. We were on the road by 9:30 and on I-81 before 10 am. You have to do at least 70 on I-81 or you run the risk of being a traffic hazard because everyone else will be going at least that fast. We stopped for lunch at a PETRO travel Center and still got to our destination before 1pm. 

Our next two stops, Konnorock and Martinsville Virginia

We are staying at Raccoon Branch Campground (site 10) in the Mount Roger’s National Forest. This is our second time here this year. We are in a nice site in the corner of the campground with water and electric hookups on a halfway level site. We have a nice little picnic area under a canopy of trees and plan on having a camp fire tomorrow.  We have invited Millie’s sister and her husband Paul for a visit and meal, hopefully it will not be raining and we will have that camp fire.

After setting up today we took of in the truck to explore some land we thought we might be interested in. The ride through the country was very scenic and heightened our anticipation about the land for sale. 

Looks good from the air!

The old axium, “if it sounds too good to be true, it is too good to be true”, was very valid in this case, the community was a huge let down. Original laid out in the 1970’s for vacation cabins, it has several problems and we don’t see it changing anytime soon. Mostly it lacks any kind of structured oversight; There are all manor of buildings there, old travel trailers, mobile homes, homemade shanties and a few nice cabins. In addition there are houses that although most look ok, they do not fit in with the theme of what the neighborhood should be, cabins in the mountains. 

About half of the residences that appeared to have people living full time in them were…..what would be the right description? Low class, trashy, out of place, should be torn down, a step above a tar paper shack, you get the idea. In consideration for the folks who are taking care of their places, I will not disclose the name or location of the community. 

One last thought, the community may have been a mountain retreat at one time but a lot of the old shacks that might have been nice in the 1970’s appeared abandoned. It was very obvious that no one had been around to care for them in a long time. It was sad to see, I was so disappointed in the community I didn't even take any pictures.

Monday September 26, 2022

One of the nice things about being in the mountains in the fall is we sleep soundly.  Snuggled under a couple blankets with cool temperatures and we sleep all night. In the morning, the furnace quickly warms the  little RV, my Mr Coffee brews a pot of hot java and a new day begins. We look out our window onto a scene that could be a painting by John Muier. The campground is almost empty and there is nobody camped near us.

Racoon Branch Campground

One of the disadvantages of mountain camping, (I guess, depending on your point of view) is the complete absence of cell or internet service. Normally we don’t care, but this morning we would like to check on the path of the pending storm in the Gulf of Mexico. 

Bargain priced campging

We do have one radio station we can hear clearly. One thing I’ve noticed is most of the songs they play are covers of country hits but performed by an unknown singer. News so far has been just local, as was the weather report.

We stayed in Raccoon Branch long enough to visit with Betty and Paul, as I said previously we had them come to the campground were we shared a meal and then sat around the campfire for a bit.

Hope everyone that has felt the wrath of the storm is ok and those in its path are prepared for whatever it brings. We cut days from each stop on the trip so we could take care of the cemetery business and make it home before Hurricane Ian gets there. 

We stayed at Indian Heritage RV Park in Martinsville for two nights. We shaving time off this stop, like we have done at all our stops since we have been watching the storm. 

Millie did all the pressure cleaning 

releveling headstones

Woodrow gets a headstone

We spent two days working at the Bray family cemetery. We reset two large headstones and several flat markers that were unlevel. Most of these old graves are without a vault and have settled over the years. Millie pressure washed all the headstones and reset many of the foot markers. We set a granite marker for Millie’s Grandfather’s brother who had died as an infant. He never had a proper memorial stone, just a rough rock for a grave marker. Our final chore was mapping the entire cemetery and recording the locations of the graves and the available plots.

resetting footstones so mower can run over them.

remembering them

Thursday Sept 29 2022

Millie and I drove from Martinsville VA to Myrtle Beach SC this morning. When we got about to Conway it was like a mass exodus of cars and RV’s heading west. After all that rushing to get home, I still wasn’t sure how dangerous the storm would be. I waited a bit but finally decided I’d look pretty foolish if I didn’t put my hurricane shutters up and the storm hit hard here. 

Time to get home!

We’re only about ½ mile from the beach at the south end of Myrtle Beach. Anyhow, the RV is in the storage lot 5 miles inland, we’re home in our secure house 30 feet above sea level. 

Taking a beeline for home 

After the hurricane

Apache Pier needs a patch

Ian the storm, caused some damage directly on the beach, washing away sand dunes, some flooding, some houses damaged. One of the big piers (Apache campground) lost a section from the middle of the pier.

Mostly minor beach erosion

Here in Prestwick about ½ mile from the shore it didn’t feel like a hurricane, hardly like a storm at all. We suffered no damage; neither did any of the neighbors as far as I can tell. I raked leaves from the front yard the next day and that was it.