Days 4-5 Western, NC State Parks

We’ve been having a couple of wonderful fall days here in Eastern North Carolina. So much so that I’ve been feeling a bit bad about not having caught up on our 2-week trip we took at the end of July. Will and I also chatted with a few family members a week or so ago who let us know that they were at least familiar with the blog (at least someone is right?) So I’m diving back into the blog to share the remainder of our summer adventure.

We last finished up with day 2 and 3 of our trip at Stone Mountain State Park when we had finally gotten internet access so that I could write up those first few days. Of course, we are much farther removed from the next few days of that trip now, but jumping back into day 4 takes us to New River State Park. We only had a short drive from Stone Mountain to New River (about 55 mins) and we were camping at New River for the night so we decided to take advantage of a day without too much traveling.

Will quickly found Canoe the New Outfitters which was only a quick drive down from New River State Park. When we arrived at the outfitters we spent a bit of time exploring the New River General Store that houses the outfitters business. We stocked up on moon pies, packs of nabs, and water to take on our 3-hour canoe trip down the New River. We actually had to spend a bit of time waiting on the transport to the drop-off point, but we were able to back Will’s truck up to the banks of the river and drop the tailgate so that we could sit and enjoy our snacks while watching the river flow by.

The actual canoeing was a wonderful experience itself. We were completely alone on the river and felt completely isolated and removed from our normal hustle and bustle. It was absolutely glorious and I wish that I could be right back on the water tomorrow.

After canoeing that afternoon we spent some time getting to know our campground neighbors who were quite intrigued with the teardrop and actually shared quite a bit with us about traveling into Canada and Alaska, which we have our sights set on are our Great American Adventure. Also, nice tidbit to know, the New River State Park campground has bathrooms that are so nice, they could almost pass for hotel bathrooms.

Day five started with a short drive to Mount Jefferson State Park. We spent some time exploring the visitor’s center here before hiking to the summit. It was early in the morning so we weren’t able to see too much because of the fog, but it was nice to start another day with another crisp, cool hike.

A park ranger at Mount Jefferson State Park encouraged us to check out Ashe County Cheese in downtown West Jefferson. We made sure to purchase a few things of cheese and fig jam and then stopped for a quick look at the Frescoe paintings in St. Mary’s Church. If you’ve not heard of this before, you’ve got to check it out. These paintings were completed in the Italian tradition on wet plaster in the mid-70s by North Carolina native, Ben Long. The church is quite small with only a handful of paintings, but they are truly something to see.

Leaving West Jefferson, we made our way to Elk Knob State Park. Now, this park is truly in the middle of nowhere. It is over the river, through the woods, and up, and up, and up. There is quite a beautiful entrance to this park with a large grassy knoll and a winding drive, canvased by Staghorn sumac (not the poison) on both sides. We chatted with the Park Ranger inside the visitor’s center quite briefly. She, of course, told us that we could, under no circumstances, take any of the sumac from the trees. Will and I hiked the Beech Tree trail, which penetrates a large American Beech tree forest. We also read on multiple signs that the majority of the trails in this park are great for snowshoeing (how cool would that be?).

Our trip back down from Elk Knob was a bit of a fiasco, although it eventually ended okay. For reasons unknown, Will and I both failed to think about having the breaks on the trailer up and running prior to this trip. I suppose we have gotten so used to the flat land out here east of I-95 that we didn’t think of pulling the teardrop up and down the steep mountain roads. And of course, the drive down from Elk Knob State Park quickly let us know that we should’ve taken care of that. We probably hadn’t driven 2 miles or so away from the park when the brakes on the truck started squealing and smoking a bit. We quickly found a small parking lot and pulled over to let the brakes cool down while attempting to find a route into Boone.

In Boone, we tried to find an auto parts store that had what we needed, but every auto store in the entire town was out of stock. We knew we weren’t too terribly far from our next campsite near Grandfather Mountain so we decided to continue on and worry about the brakes the following day. As we got to our campground, Grandfather Mountain RV Resort, we realized that we had visited this area before and that we were quite close to the original Mast General Store in Valle Crucis. We dropped the teardrop at our site and decided to spend the afternoon at the Mast General. 

We’ve been to this store before and thoroughly enjoy sitting in the rockers and sipping old-fashioned sodas on the back porch. We did the usual looking around the shop and then made our way to the back porch. As we sat rocking, a family speaking German sat nearby. Presumably, a grandmother, grandfather, and their grandson sat with a kazoo, desperately trying to figure out how to make it work. I sat observing them and honestly wishing that I was able to help them get the kazoo to work properly. I turned to Will to let him know that I wanted to help, which started our own debate on how they work (you hum into them, by the way, ahem, you’re welcome Will). Before we mustered the courage to help, the family had walked away. Will, in an effort to end our own debate, bought a kazoo of our own and subsequently learned that you hum into them to make them work (Ahem). As we continued to walk around the grounds of the store we noticed that the family was still walking around and that the grandchild was still trying to get the kazoo to work. We quickly walked up to them and Will asked them in German if they spoke English (he took 4 years of German in school). Thankfully, they were able to understand us well enough to know that we were trying to help them with the kazoo. Although our language differences soon fell short, Will finally just simply showed the child what to do with and how to hum to make the kazoo work properly. He tried a few times with no success, but his eyes and smile lit up in pure joy when he finally got it right. His grandparents seemed quite relieved that this American toy that they had bought for their grandchild was not actually broken after all. It was a great feeling to know that we had helped this German child to figure out how to get this toy to work, although we’re still taking bets on how long the grandparent’s patience with the noise lasted after that.

The Mast General store is a wonderful place in itself, but the original store is so unlike the others. It is a place of solitude, a place a joy, and a place full of just enough magic. Once again we had ended another day in a magical way. We’d hit a few bumps in the road, but everything always seemed to work out in the end.

Life in the right lane,

Rachel