The girls had their first camping experience. We left early on Thursday to try and get to the campground before they locked us out. They were nice enough to stay a little late and let us in at 8:30. They really wanted us there but 7pm, but their website said 9pm. So we held them to their website.
We got there in the dark and in the rain. Joy checked in and hopped back in the car. "The guy said to go right up the hill and don't be bashful with the gas peddle." Off I go remembering that the hill was very steep and not likely to have changed since we were there last (7 years ago). We get to the top and where is the guy? A few minutes later he shows up shaking his head "No, No, No. You needed to go straight and around up the other side of the hill." Turning around wasn't an option so we had to leave the camp ground and do a U-turn in the main road to come back in correctly.
This time we are lined up right, but I can't seem to get the camper to swing as I would like with the incline and such. The guy took pity on me and since he was standing in the cold wet rain I took him up on his offer to back the camper in. Wonderful, we are now on our site in the pitch dark and raining. Joy pulled the car around and aimed the head lights onto our site, with the girls tucked in their car seats inside the nice warm dry van.
Now, onto the setup. I'm still in my kaki's, dress shoes and dress shirt. I did put on my rain coat for this, but step one was to get the camper level then we wanted to get our tarp up over the camper. I know it seems silly. Why bother with a pop-up if you are going to cover it with a tarp. In the long run it is easier, in the short term it is a mess. I think we spent about 1-1.5 hours setting up the tarp, poles, and stakes. At this point we are shaking, cold and wet. What a great trip right? Well by about 11:30 we had the heat going and getting the final touches in place along with bringing the girls into the camper. Then off to bed.
The next day we wake up to hear the girls making their little morning noises and hanging out in their car seats. We were all warm and dry. I got the camp stove going to boil some water to heat the bottles and we decided to head out for breakfast rather than to try and cook in the light rain. Here comes the next bump in the plan.
We got dressed and cleaned up to head out for breakfast. Loaded the girls into the van and it wont start. Great! We left the head lights on too long while during set up the night before and now we were out of luck. We drained it so bad that the battery couldn't run the motors to open the side doors. Joy had to head over to another site and ask if they could give us a jump which did the trick. Now we don't want to stop the car for breakfast just yet. Which left us with heading into town about 10 miles away.
I wasn't sure this would be far enough to charge the battery so we found an open NAPA store in town and I parked in front to give the van a quick test. It started up with no problem. On to the next big task. Where could we find a country breakfast from a local joint. Believe it or not Brevard didn't seem to have anything popping out at us. So we looked at the pamphlet from our campground and drove all the way back to the campground and beyond to find the best country breakfast we have had in years!!!!
Yup, the night before we both talked about what we wanted for breakfast and stuffed ourselves. We had omletes, hash browns, toast, and split a large stack of blue berry pancakes. Here is a tid bit. How do you know you are eating a good country breakfast? Your fluffy blue berry pancakes will taste like there is a hint of bacon in them even though there is no bacon on your plate. Oh man it was good. We decided right then that breakfast would be at the same spot on Saturday. Good old "Grammy!"
While at the restaurant we talked to several people. Not because Joy and I looked so interesting, but because we were traveling with our rockstar twins. Table full of retired couples were very interested in the girls and asked lots of questions and thought they were just cute as could be. The wait staff swung over several times to check on us and the girls. The owner's mother stopped by to chat. Then the owner and her little girl sat down and chatted with us a bit. It was really quite fun. When we went back the next day the owner's mom even remembered the girls names and everyone checked in on us again. It was a great friendly atmosphere that really made Joy miss the country town she grew up in. So if you are ever near Brevard,NC or Cedar Mountain, NC check out
Grammy's.
The rest of the day we spent hiking with the girls who seemed to have a great time. Alana loved riding in the Baby Bjorn. She would stick her tongue out, then pull it in and open her mouth and eye wide open and kick her legs and flap her arms. It was like she was trying to help fly mommy up the hills. Kira was a bit more laid back. She was very interested and seemed to take it all in, but was a bit more laid back about it all. The girls loved hiking so much it was really pretty hard to get them to sleep. Until after our last hike. We stuffed them with some Gerber carrots and peaches then hit the road for dinner.
We found ourselves at a wonderful little restaurant called
Falls Landing. We felt a little under dressed to go in and our girls had fallen asleep. Which left us with one option really, to brave the slight chill and eat at the tables on the sidewalk. I ran in and explained that it may seem odd to want to eat out in the chilly air, but our girls had finally fallen asleep and we didn't want to disturb them while they slept in the van. They completely understood. So, we lowered the windows a bit, opened the sun roof and took our seats outside next to the van. This was great until an Ambulance came by. After the appetizer we heard some crying from Alana. Oh well, there went that plan. Then once the meal came we heard Kira erupt. Ah it would not be the proper twin dinner if the parent's didn't eat their meal cold now would it?
Again, the patrons were wonderful here. They were very friendly and you could tell regulars at the establishment. We even had some spectators from the inside of the restaurant too. We had some sort of cilantro lime shrimp tacos as an appetizer, Joy had some sort of trout and scallops dish and I had a pistachio crusted salmon with a side of lemon white wine fettuccine and vegetables. We wrapped it up with carrot cake for the birthday girl.
Jim & Alana (Dinner)
Jim & Alana (she loved Jim's strings)
Our campsite at Ash Grove Campground in Brevard
Kira on left - Alana on right
Joy & Alana
Kira in back
Jim with Kira
Day two we headed to Grammy's as I mentioned above, then off to Dupont State Park to check out some waterfalls. We saw a few people running the rapids and kiaking off of the falls. While heading out of one section we ran into this lady and her daughter who were acting almost like they knew us. The mom goes "Its the TWINS form last night!". Um excuse me? I don't remember you? We didn't say that, but I sure thought it. Joy thought she remembered her being in the group that was watching us from inside the warm restaurant. They were quite nice and visiting from Memphis. We chatted a little about their area and about Hot Springs. We were both sad to see how industry ruins quaint towns and local businesses. It just seems like so much has to be a franchise or sell food from distributors. I'm sure you have heard of my take on Apple-bee's like places...Open a can of steak and serve...yum
I know this post didn't have much about the girls. They did great and seemed to enjoy the hiking. I suppose this was mainly to preserve some memories of our first camping trip. Well, off to bed I guess.....
