It is time to pop smoke… I use this military term all the time, not thinking it may cause those I’m talking to say to themselves, “what did he say? “. Well, when in a combat zone if I throw out a smoke grenade a helicopter will see the smoke and zoom on in for extraction from a hot area (nope I have never done that). Popping smoke also provides cover so the enemy can’t see our position as we move (nope never done that either). But what it also means it’s “time to go”. Yep we have done that a thousand times since we went full timing. In fact one of our (“sweet nothings” we whisper to each other is ) “we are starting to know our way around here (a certain geographical area)”, so it is time to pop smoke. Yep, sorry, I digressed.
We left the ‘boro (kuntry slang for Statesboro, GA) after staying about 30 days at our DIL and sons place in the hay field. Hey, don’t snicker, we love the view of the pond, watching the fox and birds in middle of almost nowhere. We visited our kids and grands and got caught up with everyone. We downsized Gypsy by a tune of 750 pounds and filled up the storage shed where Frankie is resting. Yep, we took that many valuable items out of our 40 foot home on four wheels, can you believe it? Well it is so….and we are travlin’ lite!
The Gypsy arrived at the Ebenezer County Park in Rock Hill, SC on Monday to meet up with Chapter 11. Chapter 11 arrived yesterday (Sunday 30 April), after visiting Berny’s parents in N.C. From here, we will begin our trek together, “popping smoke” in excess of 70 times over the next 180 days on the road on the “Newfie Experience”.
Ebenezer County Park is very nice campground and boat launch. The girls went shopping Tuesday, while the boys installed 2 awg welding wire on Howie’s truck from the battery back to the bed terminated with a 175a anderson connector. This will plug into Chapter 11’s onboard dc-dc charger, so its’ 400 amp of lithium batteries can be charged simply while driving to one of our 70 stops. Gypsy has 1000 watts of solar, so both our rigs can charge up our batteries while on the road.
NASCAR Hall of Fame, Charlotte, NC
Thursday 4 May 2023
This was an unplanned excursion and a good one. Remember Awesome Bill from Dawsonville? We had a great visit.
The Biltmore Estate
Rob, Michelle, and Penny (the dog) met us here in Asheville. So the six of us spent one day sightseeing this historic house-museum and tourist attraction that is for profit. It is the largest privately owned house in the United States, at 178,926 sq ft of floor space. Still owned by George Vanderbilt’s descendants, it remains one of the most prominent examples of Gilded Age mansions.
For those of you that have been to Europe, the Biltmore compares all the way.
The Serra Nevada Brewing Company, Asheville, NC
We met Richard and Nancy at their favorite Brewery and we all had a great time. At the brewery they make a dark beer called “Bigfoot” with 9.6 alcohol. I downed a few of them, but it is a seasonal beer and they had none for sale, other than a custom filled before our eyes cans and brought it home for latter consumption. Berny and I split this once we got home.
Richard and Nancy invited us all to their house for a cookout. We all sat around and ate and had a great time catching up.
