Meandering to Fayetteville, North Carolina

Wednesday, 16 September 

As Sprinty waved goodbye to Virginia, he headed for Oak Hollow Campground, a county park, in High Point, NC. Most of the drive was on I-74, either actual interstate or future interstate.

Oak Hollow Campground is a county campground located very near I-74 in High Point. A check of campground apps shows there were not many choices nearby. Not really an issue as Sprinty does not normally seek out urban campsites - just if you were winging it, the closest alternatives are 20-30 minutes away.

When we called, David at Oak Hollow Campground said he had sites available for the two nights and selected site C12 for Sprinty. Sprinty got a nice view of the lake in a site most might think too sloped. But it was the second best site for Sprinty in the B loop - some sites were sloped even more.

While the site was full hookup, the sewer connection was located at the back of the site, out of reach for Sprinty's macerator hose. And the campground did not have a central dump station. On our walk through the park, we saw a vacant site nearby that we could reach to sewer connection. A quick call to the office confirmed we could use the site for the few minutes we needed to dump our tanks.

Oak Hollow Campground had cable TV, but no Golf Channel. The campground WiFi was very good - good enough to stream video including the Golf Channel via our Comcast account at home.

The campground consists of 4 loops. Sprinty was in Loop C. Most of the sites in Loop C are for RVs less than 30 feet, and over 80 percent are pretty sloped as is often the case in older campgrounds. The B "Loop" is a gravel parking lot with "sites" so close, you can pass the Gray Poupon from RV window to RV window - maybe useful in the rain? The "D" loop is their overflow area, which is like the B loop. The A loop looks like it can accommodate larger RVs in most of the sites, and maybe a little less sloped.

A quiet evening. We did have an interesting moment. The guy with a Winnebago View, a Mercedes Sprinter-based Class C RV, a few sites over came over to ask us questions. Unfortunately, he walked right up to the open window and was less than two feet away when he started asking questions, sans mask. Darrell immediately asked him to step back. Apparently he took offense, decided not to continue the conversation, and walked away.

At 8pm, we joined over 400 others on a "Keep Your Daydream" Patreon live chat via YouTube. What an interesting couple, and just fun to follow. They currently live near-full-time in an Airstream travel trailer. We hope to meet them in person some day. That would be super cool.

Thursday, 17 September

Light rain arrived around midnight, as forecast. We woke up to light drizzle and a forecast for heavier ran later in the day. Thank you Hurricane Sally.

With it raining and rain forecast until mid-day tomorrow, we had a leisurely day. We streamed the Golf Channel for a few hours, the first time we have watched golf in weeks. After awhile, Darrell scouted out the campground laundry "room" and found it met Dr. Fauci/CDC guidelines for safe laundry during COVID.

The challenge was that the rain dripping off the roof of the building was splashing on the front of the machines. A little tricky loading and unloading the machines while holding an umbrella. Especially taking clothes out of the dryer and keeping them dry.

Another chore completed was securing a campsite for the weekend. A call to one possibility came up empty. We were able to get the last electric site at a state recreation area near Wake Forest, NC, perhaps the result of a recent cancellation as most state parks and state recreation areas in this part of North Carolina had no available sites for Friday and Saturday night.

It rained the entire day. Darrell's only venture out of Sprinty was to do laundry at the nearby bathhouse. Kris stayed inside all day.

With rain forecast to continue into the middle of the day Friday, we left the plan for the day flexible.

Friday, 18 September

Anticipating that the rain wouldn't taper off till mid-morning, we started with a leisurely morning. A review of golf options found that Quaker Creek Golf Course in Mebane, NC was a course we had played once before in our travels through this part of North Carolina - 6 years ago, pre-Sprinty. A phone call confirmed they were open despite the rain, that it would be cart path only, and we secured a 11:30 tee time.

Arriving early, as we usually do, we found that we could start earlier than our tee time. And it had stopped raining. We both started with great tee shots, only to wind up with a bogey on the long par 5. Kris started to make pars and a birdie to make the turn at even par. Darrell was far enough behind that it seemed unlikely he could catch her. For the first two holes on the back nine, it looked like Darrell might be making a move. Not to be. Kris played the back nine better than Darrell to take honors on the day by 10 strokes.

We enjoyed playing the course again, and were surprised the course condition was as good as it was after all the rain.

The next order of business was into Mebane to the Starbucks for Kris to pay up. An advantage to the earlier start was to do our traditional Starbucks stop before Kris' 3pm cutoff. She draws the line at 3pm saying that having the treat after that keeps her up at night. We then continued east to Falls Lake State Recreation Area near Wake Forest, NC.

Falls Lake has three loops two with water-electric, one non-electric. Almost all the sites are very spread out, with a few sites that look to be close by design - for family or buddy camping. Sprinty's site ws big enough for any size rig.

Before dinner, we walked the B and C loops for some walking exercise.

Saturday, 19 September

With cooler temperatures, we were in no hurry to leave the warm comfortable Sprinty pod. High temperature was forecast to be 64 degrees, partly sunny with 13mph winds.

The activity today was bike riding. The Raleigh/Durham area has a number of greenways and Rail Trails - enough that we could spend a couple weeks in the area on our bike-golf rotation plan.

For today's ride, we picked the Neuse River Trail. From TrailLink: "Along the eastern outskirts of Raleigh, the Neuse River Trail follows the river for nearly 30 miles from Falls Lake Dam to the Wake/Johnston County line. There are several river crossings along the way, including two on suspension bridges. The scenic, tree-lined trail offers numerous wildlife viewing opportunities, especially on its boardwalks through wetland areas."

https://www.traillink.com/trail/neuse-river-trail/

Neuse river is the longest river in North Carolina, over 240 miles. Falls Lake Reservoir, the central feature of the Falls Lake Recreation Area, was created with the construction of the Falls Lake Dam on the Neuse River in 1981.

As with other bike rides we have done on weekends, we expected that there would be more people on the trail than on a weekday. Our first confirmation came as we were exiting the Recreation Area, and saw a number of serious bike riders coming into the park. And many more behind them as we drove away from the park.

The selected trailhead looked to have a parking area for about 30-40 vehicles. When we pulled in, they were completely full. At the bike store next door, we asked about alternative parking places. They suggested a place about a block away. While the regular parking area was full, dozens of vehicles were parked on the shoulder of the road in both directions. Sprinty picked a nice spot and parallel parked like he did it every day

As expected, the trail was very busy with walkers, runners and bikers. Some of the bikers were serious riders riding as a group. We rode south for about an hour, and found a convenient bench to stop for lunch. The ride back was not as busy - perhaps the exercise folks like an early start to their day. When we got back to the trailhead, the parking area had vacant parking places, including a couple of pull through spaces that Sprinty could have used.

We rode 12.1 miles of the Neuse River Trail's 30 miles. The trail is asphalt in excellent condition. Following the Neuse River provided nice scenery, as well as some character bridges, small hills and curves. We never crossed a single road during the ride as the trail went under the few roads it intersected. Our turnaround spot was close to another trailhead, making it convenient for riding more of the trail in the future.

Back at the campground, we tried OTA TV to get NBC to watch golf. While we got a number of OTA channels, no NBC. So we fired up the NBC Sports app, and streamed the golf tournament until dinner.

The low temperature was forecast to get into the 40s, Sprinty's first night sub-50 degrees since last winter. Sprinty handled it like a champ.

Sunday, 20 September

We enjoyed the cool night, and our Alde heating system kicked on as scheduled so we woke up to a nice comfortable temperature inside.

Our original plan was to use our Harvest Hosts membership to stay at a golf course tonight. When we called yesterday to make arrangements, they did not have any tee times today due to a two day tournament. So we made arrangements to stay and play Monday morning. Harvest Hosts is a membership program which organizes wineries, breweries, museums, farms, and golf courses as free places to overnight. While there is no cost, you are expected to support the business by buying a bottle of wine, dining in their restaurant, taking a tour, or playing a round of golf. So staying at a golf course makes a lot of sense for Sprinty and his humans.

With that golf delayed a day, we decided to play golf today anyway. We called a nearby golf course for a tee time and learned they are not doing tee times - it is first come, first served. We decided to chance it anyway.

After a stop dump our tanks in preparation for two nights of dry camping, and to get provisions, we arrived at the golf course to an overflowing parking lot. Which worked out better for Sprinty as it was easier to get him settled in the overflow than in most of the regular parking spots. We took some comfort that there were not too many people in the queue to start.

After loading up, we got in line. After about 15 minutes, we were off. We both started with great drives and both made par. The day was off to a good start. It was also Sunday golf slow - four-somes made up of people who don't play regularly and lots of waiting. We stayed within a shot of each other for the next 8 holes, making the turn tied up at three under par.

On the back nine, we stayed within a shot of each other again, and tied the back nine as well, to tie for the day. We both played well, making good shots with only a few oops shots.

We finished early enough for our traditional Starbucks stop nearby, then headed for Goldsboro, NC. As they asked us to arrive after 6pm due to the golf tournament, we picked an athletic park near Goldsboro to hang out. We were able to get a NBC OTA channel on the TV, so we settled in to watch the U.S. Open golf tournament on TV while we waited to arrive at our Harvest Host for the evening.

We arrived to a full parking lot. Upon checking in at the Pro Shop, they directed us to a grassy area near their outside wedding venue.

Monday, 21 September

Sprinty enjoyed a quiet night despite the nearby highway. With the cooler temperatures, everything was buttoned up. Just before dawn, we started to notice some road noise.

Although we had made a tee time for 9:30, it was more about picking a time when we were told the morning tee times were wide open, than it was for a preferred time. After our breakfast routine, we decided to go ahead and play.

We moved Sprinty the couple hundred feet to the regular parking lot, primarily because we had backed him in pretty close the the fence and were going to have to move him to get the golf clubs out of the back. We picked a nice pull through parking place that would be out in the sun - which resulted in a gain of 20 amp-hours of charge while we were playing golf.

After hitting a bucket of balls and some practice putting, we moved to the first tee. We both hit drives to the right and walked off with each making a double bogey. Not our best start for sure. The greens were much faster than we have been playing recently, and we struggled to adjust most of the round. With the double bogey out of the way, Darrell started making pars - seven on the rest of the front nine to make the turn ahead. Three pars and a birdie on the back nine sealed the honors for the day.

Lane Tree Golf Course is a great Harvest Host location. Fairly level place for up to four RVs, and a golf course in very nice condition. The rate we paid was amazing as well - they were running some sort of special so it came to $54 for two golfers riding and a bucket of range balls.

This led to a short philosophical musing - which is better? Pay for RV camping and get free golf? Or pay for golf and get free RV camping? In this case, the latter got the nod, although we recalled a Harvest Host we used in May that the golf was not as good.

As Lane Tree Golf Course was located in Goldsboro, it was easy to locate a Starbucks for Darrell to pay up. Kris insisted on the 10-stroke rule for the next larger size treat.

Our destination for the night was a Boondockers Welcome host outside Fayetteville, NC. Boondockers Welcome is a membership program that provides access to over 2,600 hosts worldwide. Hosts are often RVers or former RVers who have space they make available for traveling self-contained RVers to stay for the night - for free. Unless they charge for power or water. Basically, it is dry camping (a.k.a. boondocking). Some host in extra space in their driveway, some are on farms, some are behind their place of business, etc. Sprinty has enjoyed using Boondockers Welcome several times.

A minor drawback to Sprinty making greater use of Boondockers Welcome is that it requires contacting the host via the Boondockers Welcome portal. No doubt, it is to authenticate the user and the host and avoid scams and spams. But it introduces a delay in when you make a request and when you get notified that the host can or cannot host for the requested night. If one plans a day or more in advance, it can be very useful. If one only plans a few hours in advance, most hosts don't respond that quickly.

In this case, we selected the host based on its proximity to Fayetteville, NC, our destination for a couple of nights so we were able to plan more than a day in advance. Located about 15 miles southeast of Fayetteville, the host location is near the Cape Fear River in farm country. The hosts own a fifth wheel RV and seems to be developing a small campground on their property - they can host up to 15 RVs.

As the hosts profile indicated they were teachers, we said we would arrive late afternoon. With golf completed early, we had plenty of time to make the trek from Goldsboro to Fayetteville. We arrived and met Mike, one of the hosts, in the driveway spreading gravel. He had us park is site 7 - a very nice wooded site.

After we arrived, two other campers arrived. The location was quiet and secluded.

Although the host indicated the only cell service was Verizon, we were able to get limited AT&T via our cell booster, decent Cricket via our roof-mounted antennas, and T-Mobile via the MIMO antenna. In other words, we did not want for connectivity. We used the connectivity to get caught up on our YouTube videos and other chores. And posting the blog update.