I had called Jims RV park in Milton WV and was assured that though he didnt take reservations there would be no problem getting a spot for Sat nite. I called Hominy RV park in Candler NC and made reservations for Sunday nite. We planned on stopping at the Camping World in Indy to return a couple things we bought on 1 of our trips back from FL at the Nashville store. Yes, we could have gone that way but we decided to see some country we hadnt seen yet(be careful what you wish for).
The day before we left I called Camping world to make sure they had a part we needed, they did not. Ok cancel that stop. I put the destination of Jims RV park in the TomTom and surprisingly it still routed us through Indy, hmmmm. Looking at the full route it didnt look like I expected but hey, we were going to see new country.
Things went pretty well until we neared Cincinatti OH and the gps took us off the interstate and put us on state route 9. We had planned to just stop at a campground somewhere before WV for the first night. Well, state route nine does not have a lot of campgrounds or towns for that matter. The first recognizable town we came to was Maysville KY. We passed a sign that said 'blue licks battlefield state resort park campground .20 miles'. So we proceeded a ways and didnt see anything else. I pulled off the road and searced the gps for nearby campgrounds. One popped up 3.4 miles away. I called them and asked how far away they were. 20 miles he said, on the other side of the river. Do you have any spots I asked. No, we are still recovering from the flood! Not one to give up easily I headed back towards the Blue Lick sign but saw another sign directing us to turn for it. Went a little ways and saw another .20 sign telling us to turn onto a rather small road. This road was not built for A 50 foot 8 foot wide truck & trailer. Fortunately we only had to drive for about a half hour to find a side road big and straight enough to back onto and head back to civilization.
I gave up and headed on down state route 9 and eventually ended up at Grayson KY at about 8pm and found a small campground AND diesel fuel and a Chinese restaurant.
Up and at'em the next day. Since we were only about 40 miles from Jims RV Park we decided to head furthur into WV befor stopping for the night. We settled on Beckley WV and Lake Stephens Campground judging from the Trailer Life Directory. Here is the review that I later pulled up online.
"If you can find your way, the campground was clean but the sites are very narrow. With an antenna, we were able to receive three channels. The vast majority of trailers (we saw one other motor home) appeared to be long term residents with lots of young children. The narrow road coming in is 9 miles of twists and turns including a 5% downgrade. (Hot brakes and bad nerves) DO NOT follow your GPS because you may never be seen again. If you go here, you are on your own. Never again."
Add to that, there was a "free concert" that day that had the road lined with cars & trucks and sometimes they were parked on the road. At the CG the spots were all pull throughs, imagine a loop with pull throughs on both sides and an 'exit' road inside and outside the loop. You parked your tow vehicle in the street behind your rig and our RV fit in the spot but our awning hung into the 'exit' road.
We went to a coal mine museum and small tour of a coal mine that was very interesting.
On Sunday we headed for our reserved spot at the Hominy Valley RV park.
This was a Passport America park for $17 a night you got full hookups and 50 amp service but no office, showers or host. We found it with no problem at all and pulled into the park. Did I mention that this was a 6 site park that backed up to the Blue Ridge Mountains with nothing but the the hookups and a picnic table. There was a large mailbox with self addressed stamped envelopes to mail your check to the owner and the rules of the park. At the exit was a sign pointing to which way to town, fuel and the Blue Ridge Parkway.
So of course after setting up we headed to the parkway. This road was by far the steepest, smallest, curviest one we had been on yet. Most of the time I was looking out the side window to see where we were going. Finally got to the Mt Pisgah store and asked where can we see some neat stuff. She asked where we came from and got a good laugh when we told her the curvy steep road but directed us to 'sliding rock' and 'looking glass falls'. Found our way to both by not following the GPS directions and they were interesting. Wondering how to get back we pulled off a little past Looking Glass and studied the GPS. Took off, rounded the next curve and there was the stoplight and road that led us back to the campground.
Took of the next morning for the rally at Sevierville and of course the GPS led us down the narrow 2 lane road to the campground instead of the 6 lane hiway.
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