Pickin' In The Park

This past weekend, we took the RV to Hagan-Stone Park in Pleasant Garden, NC (just south of Greensboro) to attend the High Lonesome Strings' 12th annual "Pickin' In The Park" bluegrass festival. We arrived on Friday afternoon, set up camp with about 30 other RVs owned by lovers of bluegrass music, enjoyed a group hot dog feast and then played bluegrass music all evening long. On Saturday morning, I started the day by attending a fiddle workshop down by the lake which turned into a bluegrass/old-time music jam that lasted until the early afternoon. While I was jamming, the official "Pickin' In The Park" event got started on an outdoor stage which showcased many local bluegrass bands as part of a free concert that lasted until about 6:00pm. After dinner, jamming started up again in the camping area and we all spent the evening picking tunes with friends. Lots of fun despite the occasional rain and we're already looking forward to next year.

Keeling, VA

On Thursday, we hit the road again to attend our Sams-O-Wake RV club's monthly campout in southern Virginia. We were joined there by about 18 other RVs from the club and we had a wonderful long weekend visiting with old and new friends, sharing tales of everyone's RVing adventures and eating out at local restaurants.

On Saturday morning, we went with most of the club to visit the American Armored Foundation's Tank Museum in Danville, VA. We spent many hours wandering around the 350,000+ square feet of the most extensive collection of international tank and cavalry artifacts from around the world (over 20,000 artifacts). They even had displays of military uniforms, small arms and over 700 hats and helmets. Quite an interesting place to visit. We returned home on Sunday to spend a few days of 'normalcy' before leaving on our next trip.

Cape Hatteras National Seashore

Yesterday, after spending three whole days at home, we drove the RV out to Camp Hatteras RV Park in Waves, NC - about as far East as you can go in NC without getting wet. Our campsite is on the Outer Banks within a stone's throw of the Pamlico Sound where we're attending the 2009 North Carolina WIT (Winnebago-Itasca Travelers) State Rally with about 70 other RVs made by Winnebago. We've met some nice folks and have enjoyed sitting back and watching all the 'kids' parasailing in the Sound in the gusty coastal winds we have today.

We drove about 25 miles further down the Outer Banks to visit the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse this morning and, thanks to several busloads of kids with tickets that were waiting in line, we decided not to climb the 250+ steps to the top today. We did view a movie about how the lighthouse was moved over 2,900 feet inland in 1999 to help preserve it. Quite impressive indeed and one more lighthouse magnet now hangs on our fridge.