Sarah P. Duke Gardens at Duke University, NC…

We feel no trip to this part of the state of North Carolina is complete without a visit to the Sarah P. Duke Gardens. The gardens are composed of approximately 55 acres of beautifully landscaped and native vegetated woods near Duke University. There are nearly five miles pathways throughout these splendid gardens where every turn is a photogenic opportunity.

The Gardens are a memorial to Sarah P. Duke, wife of Benjamin N. Duke who was one of Duke University's early benefactors. What a grand gift to give to a remarkable University for all to cherish in the years to come. There is pay parking near the main entrance and there is some nearby free roadside parking but it is rather scarce. There is free parking in the paid lot before noon on Sundays and after 5pm which is nice since they charge $1 per half hour to park during the peak times.

With the park divided into at least four sub-gardens it takes spending the best part of an afternoon exploring what each one has to offer. My two favorite gardens are the Oriental Arboretum and the Native Garden. The native garden gave me the opportunity to identify many of the trees and shrubs I have seen in the nearby forests since many of them are labeled. One particular plant I have been wondering about was all over the gardens but I never once was able to see one identified. I guess I will simply have to figure it out on my own before we leave the Carolinas.

The Oriental Arboretum not only has many different tree species but there are some simple art pieces and a very picturesque red bridge that make sitting on benches in this part of the gardens very appealing. Watching the ducks and geese swim around is also very entertaining as there were many baby ducks this time of the year.

     

By extending our stay here at the fairgrounds we were able to have a place to stay during the very busy Memorial Day Weekend. It also meant we will be able to see our daughter one more time before we leave. We have finally made some tentative plans to go to Mount Airy NC next and then to the Shenandoah Valley after that. We will leave the Fairgrounds on Monday and start the trek north .....

NC State and Pullen Park…

Wow we find ourselves wondering when the rain will stop in this neck of the woods. I shouldn’t complain considering how hard the Oklahoma area was hit and you can bet our hearts go out to those in distress there. I called my sister who lives in north Texas near Ringgold, Tx where the first tornado touched down albeit for a brief moment before heading into Oklahoma… Everyone there in the small town of Henrietta, Texas are fine but they too are concerned for the families impacted by that very nasty twister.

Well between rain events we try and get out and about to continue our exploration of the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area. We have now visited all the universities in this triangle and were able to visit a nice park near the North Carolina State University yesterday.

Pullen Park is a family friendly park that has been added to the National Register of Historic Places since it was founded in 1887. It is a small but very nice park to take a stroll in and it has a 1921 Dentzel carousel near its center. This carousel features more than 50 hand carved and hand painted animals and only charges a single buck for the kiddos to ride. That along with a one buck miniature train ride in this park make it a kids dream. We enjoyed our walk around the park and also liked its proximity to the NC State campus.

After exploring the park it was a short walk to the University where we enjoyed a stroll through the center of yet another major University offering its gems to us in exchange for absolutely nothing… It is the energy emanating from these Universities and Colleges that are our fountain of youth! It always makes us feel so energized after spending some time in one of our nations Institutions of Higher Learning… But alas the rain and thunder and lightening came once again so we headed back to the RV park when we suddenly realized it was Tuesday… Why was Tuesday so special? Well our favorite little pub, Buffalo Brothers, has a great happy hour on Tuesday where any draft beer is only $2.75 US! A great opportunity to try some new IPA’s that were normally priced from $4.50 to $5.50 US. I was able to sample a few new IPA’s while we also enjoyed half priced appetizers… Yeah, our life is pretty sad isn’t it???

So hopefully we will get some sunshine and clearing between rain events giving us the opportunity to go out and visit a few more parks we have read about near Raleigh that we haven't been able to explore yet… So from here we will likely head towards Roanoke, Virginia next and then on to the Shenandoah Valley where we had an enjoyable stay a few years ago when we were in this area.

Waiting for the Rain to Stop in Raleigh…

We have been enjoying the Raleigh area once again as we stayed here a couple of years ago.. We have been revisiting some of our favorite places in town and nearby such as the Duke Gardens and the town of Carrboro. Most of the photos today are from our visits to William B Umstead State Park where there is no admission to enter. We had a lunch and afternoon visit with Sharon's Aunt Frances who lives in Raleigh and were fortunate enough to see our daughter and her roommate who both came up for a weekend visit. Now we need to start been planning where we may want to go next.

Our initial plans were to go along the outer banks of North Carolina but the early chilly weather compounded with my concern about our disappearing coolant mystery has me wanting to stay closer to the bigger towns and cities in case we need to be towed again. Why you may ask? Well Good Sam’s roadside assistance will only tow you to the nearest facility that will agree to work on your RV and if you want your RV towed anywhere else you have to pay the difference.

We learned this with our experience in Carthage, NC because when arranging the tow I  had asked to be towed to H&H Trucking since Cummins recommended them as the closest authorized dealer. However when calling Good Sam’s they said that many other places closer may be able to read the engine fault code since the software to do so was readily available. Fortunately for us though no other dealer closer than H&H (which is south of Fayetteville) had the software so were towed to H&H after all. We figure we may not be so lucky should it happen again out in the boonies along the coastline.

As a result that leaves us looking at the interior of NC and Virginia. We do plan to make a stop at our friend's place in the Shenandoah Valley if that works out before going for our mini vacation in Niagara Falls so at least we have a target to shoot for. We originally planned to leave Raleigh today but the weather calls for rain over the next two to four days so we will extend our stay here at the Raleigh Fairgrounds for a bit longer since it looks like it would be raining wherever we went. Besides we have lots of laundry to do anyhow…

So hopefully we will get some sunshine and clearing between rain events giving us the opportunity to go out and visit a few more parks we have read about near Raleigh that we haven't been able to explore yet…

Having the RV towed… Yikes!

Monday morning came and it was time to move from our Carthage, NC location north to the Raleigh Fairgrounds for a weeklong stay. SO we went through our normal moving day routine… breakfast and coffee followed by the necessary litany of things to be tied down and secured for the travel day. After all was secured we pulled in the slides and retracted the levelers and were ready to go…. or were we?

I noticed the check engine light seemed to stay on but thought that as the motorhome warmed up a bit it would go out. So I backed out of our site and attached our CRV to our roadmaster hitch. I fired up the motorhome once more and the check engine remained on as did the shut engine off light… SIGHHHHHH! Looks like we are in for a delay. A call to the Help Freightliner 1-800 line confirmed my worries… we were going to have to get Abbey towed into a dealer who could diagnose the failed engine code which only read “01”.

We have always depended on our insurance coverage with roadside assistance to take care of any of our roadside issues… that is until we had the the tire issue when we were in South Carolina. It was then and there that I decided a little additional coverage wouldn’t hurt and we signed up for a year of Roadside Coverage with Good Sam’s. Serendipity at its best… A call to Good Sam’s roadside assistance and we were assured that a tow truck would be at our location in about two hours. Remember we are down a very narrow dirt road in the boonies of NC.

Well the two hour wait turned into a 4.5 hour wait as the tow truck driver became lost and couldn’t find the park. Can you believe that this day and age that a tow truck driver doesn’t have a GPS???? Well this one didn’t but he lifted our front wheels up and detached our drive shaft (required for towing a FRED) and we were off for a 50 mile jaunt to H&H Trucking in Hope Mills, NC just south of Fayetteville, NC.\

It was a little sketchy getting down the dirt road but this driver was a trooper and did an excellent job of avoiding any unnecessary damage to Abbey as she followed in tow. But then what does the driver do? Turn out the wrong direction of course… SO we passed him and had him follow us to the road where we knew a good spot to turn around this 75 foot long unit! Once we were on the black top and pointed the right direction we both breathed a sigh of relief.

Following your motorhome down the road while it is being towed is a bit disconcerting especially when you are watching your driver get the tires over the white line into oncoming traffic or very, very close to the edge of the road and the grass along the side… Sigh… After what seemed to be an eternity we arrived at the freightliner shop around 6:30 some 7 hours after we first made our call to Good Sam’s. Probably longer than it should have taken but not Good Sam’s fault.

H&H is open till midnight but they didn’t think they would be able to check out Abbey’s fault code till the morning so fortunately for us we were only an hour’s drive from our daughter’s apartment. We stayed at her place where we hoped we didn’t impose too much on her roomies and planned to return to H&H that next morning. A call to H&H around 10:30 yielded little info as they hadn’t gotten to Abbey yet. A later call yielded unwanted information as the only thing they knew was that it was a coolant issue and that all five gallons of it were gone! Where could it have gone? We just had it pressure checked and topped off at Gaffney, SC! Hmmmm, it makes one wonder if someone dropped the ball there and didn’t top it off don't you think???

Anyway H&H said they needed more time to check it out. They pressurized the coolant system and found no leaks, they removed the EGR and verified that it functioned properly, check the oil and transmission for any unwanted water in the system. The conclusion after 4.5 hours of shop labor… they have no idea where the coolant went and they felt pretty sure there is no leak in our system.  . So after the drive down to Hope Mills to pay the bill and take Abbey to Raleigh we are certainly hopeful the coolant doesn’t “disappear” again!

H&H did remove the mandatory $90 initial shop fee and took off 1.5 hours of labor since they were unable to solve this dilemma however they did warn us to be vigilant and watch our coolant levels closely. The big lesson learned from this experience for us was, when getting our annual maintenance, even at a highly respected facility, we will ALWAYS check all our fluid levels before leaving. We still don’t know what really happened and can only hope it doesn’t happen again…

So for now we are settled into our site at the Raleigh Fairgrounds and at least we didn’t lose any coolant on the trip up here…

A day in Fayetteville, NC…

As our days were rapidly winding down in Carthage NC we had one more day trip to complete before heading to Raleigh to stay. This last day trip took us a little less than an hour away to the city of Fayetteville, North Carolina. Sharon made us a list of things to see and do in town that were free.

Our first stop was to the Fayetteville Farmers Market where as we had suspected it would still be a little too early in the season with all this cool weather for much availability of fresh produce. It did turn out to be too early in the season but we strolled by the Artisan Booths to see the local offerings. And since the farmer’s market was right next to the free Transportation Museum we took advantage of the situation to pay it a visit. As it turned out it was a small but nice museum located on what was once the Southern Railway Company's largest steam locomotive servicing facility and had opened in 1983. It was filled with interesting artifacts and information not only from the transportation industry but of the Civil War, and Fayetteville history.

Our second stop was as the Airborne and Special Operations Museum where at the entrance was a large impressive statue of Iron Mike honoring Major General Michael D. Healy who served five and a half tours, leading the 5th Special Forces group for almost 20 months, and earning him his first Distinguished Service Medal. The museum itself is well laid out and took us through time with some really cool exhibits and interesting artifacts.  Movie times are posted and there is a section where for a fee one can experience in a simulator what it feels like to parachute from a plane. Sharon's fear of heights made her want to pass on that experience.  This is a great stop for those interested in learning more about the fine men and women who risk their lives for all of us in protecting our freedoms…

Next up for us was a long hike along the Cape Fear River Trail a nearly four mile, one- way hike and bike trail along the Cape Fear River. Boasting over 700 species of plants and trees, and 150 species of birds the River Trail offers up a pleasant hike to take in what mother nature's offerings in this neck of the woods. While entering the trail we were greeted with several brown thrashers thrashing around leaves. One was even kind enough to stay still for me as I was able to capture it in a picture. This was a rather hilly but very enjoyable hike.

Our final tour stop was at Fort Bragg  as civilians are allowed to visit this military base that is home to our nation’s Airborne and Special Operations personnel. Visitors are encouraged to visit and all it took was for us was a quick stop to show the gate guard a valid form of identification and vehicle registration.  It was then necessary to open all the doors and trunk to allow them to inspect the car.  It took no time at all and the gate guard was friendly and professional. We then followed a driving tour we printed off the internet to tour the base. We also stopped at the 82nd Airborne Division Museum to see some more information and exhibits about our military forces stationed at this base.

A pleasant end to the day was a surprise call from our daughter who wanted to meet us in Fayetteville and buy dinner to honor Sharon for Mother's Day.  A great meal with fun conversation was a perfect way to round out the day.

We found that a lot can be seen and experienced for free in the city of Fayetteville NC. Returning back to Carthage we had dinner and began the task of packing up for our journey to our next destination of Raleigh NC which as the next blog will tell didn’t start off so well…

Weymouth Woods, House in the Horseshoe and meeting a blogger…

We made sure in our last few days here to squeeze in a few other sights that we wanted to see. One of these sites was visiting the Weymouth Woods. Weymouth Woods is a Sandhills Nature Preserve near the town of Southern Pines that is being managed for both the Longleaf Pine and the red-cockaded woodpecker. Also benefiting from this management are the pine barrens tree frog and the bog spicebush.

                      

Weymouth Woods is a a great place to see the impacts of prescribed burning to manage understory brush in the pine forests. The photos above show what fire does to understory species when properly carried out. Of course although this may benefit the many targeted species it does sometimes negatively impact some of those that are not targeted for preservation… kind of a double edged sword.

Weymouth Woods is a great place to get in a good walk and take in a little nature. Another interesting nearby place we had yet to visit was the House in the Horseshoe. This is one of the North Carolina Historical Sites found between the towns of Sanford and Carthage NC. “The house (ca. 1770) was owned by Philip Alston, whose band of colonists seeking independence from Britain was attacked here in 1781 during the American Revolution by British loyalists led by David Fanning.”

The house sits atop of a small hill overlooking vast valleys below that have been planted in mostly corn as they were in the day… This little white house is still riddled with bullet holes from the muskets of the attackers of the Alston home. Besides the Alston House with it’s four furnished rooms there is also a reconstructed loom house with a working loom in it (there is a blogger out there that may be interest in this – you know who you are Karen). I took a picture of the loom room through a very old window as seen above. There is also a corn crib, and a well house on the premises giving a feel for what life may have been like for the Alston’s and their nine children.

   

Another neat thing we did was meet up with another blogger that I have been following – Dawn and Jeff of Dawn’s Bloggy Blog. Dawn is quite the birder as her blog will attest to and Jeff is a fellow that has much in common with me. As usual, for us bloggers, it seemed as if we already knew each other and we had a great time at a local foodie spot known for its hickory smoked bar-b-que in North Carolina – the Pik-n Pig in Cathage. Located by a small runway it is frequented by pilots passing through the area. One small plane was leaving at the same time as we were. We really enjoyed meeting up with Jeff and Dawn and certainly hope our paths cross again in the future…

Our month is about up here…

Well another month sure moved by quickly and as of Monday we will have to find a place to stay since our time is up here at Heritage Campground. As a result we have started to redo some of our favorite things in this area which have brought us much joy. Another visit to the Carolina Inn was just in time to see the last flash of color from all the azaleas. The rains we have had here have begun to knock down all the blooms and in fact as of today there are few if any left showing those brilliant blooms. We will have to wait till next year to see them again…

We made another trek on Tuesday over to the Maness Pottery and Music Barn to enjoy the picking and grinning of the local musicians playing a nice mix of bluegrass and country. The vittles provided there were also top notch this time around. We never had the opportunity to visit with Clyde the owner of this musical venue this time around but that too can wait till our next pass through here… We also made one more trip over to Reservoir Park to take in several rounds of disc golf and to enjoy a leisurely three mile hike around the reservoir. I figured out a few tricks in the disc golf game and shared them with Sharon which has made her game much better… More fun on the links for the two of us!

But now that we are leaving on Monday we had better get our butts in gear and figure out where we will go next. We figure that we can always go up to the Raleigh Fairgrounds for a few days to a week but where will we go afterward? Then one morning I got my weekly Travelzoo email full of goodie trips and noticed they had one for Niagara Falls a destination we thought about going to see this summer. So we booked a few nights at the Ramada Inn in Niagara Ontario in Canada so at least we now know where we will be on June 16th… Now all we have to figure out is how we will get from here to there over the next six weeks. Oh well looks like we have some planning to do!