Part Five-Moving on to Damascus Virginia

 Part five

Sunday August 18, 2024

When we rolled out of bed this morning at 7:30ish, some folks had already left the Rally grounds. We took our time and by 9:30 when we departed about half of our neighbors had vacated their RV sites. I was happy to note that even though hundreds of RV’s probably dumped their holding tanks this morning the sewer system here handled it all without so much as a burb. We were parked about in the middle of this huge flat field and I don’t know which direction all the affluent was headed, but its all gone somewhere.

Dark blue line is our route

Our route this morning would take us on country roads up through Linville Falls, Grandfather Mountain and Boone. It sure is pretty country up here, it’s a shame it gets cold in the winter, I'd sure like to live in a place like this, but I don't do cold. 

No more cold for me!

Our trip to Damascus was only about 90 miles and we traveled through North Carolina, then a little bit of Tennessee and finally Virginia. Damascus Creekside RV Park is right in the town of Damascus. It is a small park consisting of around nine or ten sites, all of them backing to Laurel Creek. Cindi, the owner, spends half a year at the campground and the rest of the time at her property in Florida. It must be nice!

Either Monday or Tuesday, I will ride my bike on the Creeper trail from here to Abingdon, a distance of 17 miles. It’s overcast and we had a bit of rain here today, so I’ll see which of the next two days looks better. The trail is gravel with several wooden bridges across low areas, creeks and rivers. It crosses the Holsten River at about the halfway point which is the lowest elevation. No matter which direction you start from, your first eight miles are a gradual drop in elevation and then the ground rises about the same height on the second half. The drop in altitude over the eight miles is about 1000 feet, it should not be too hard to pedal the upside.

The part I would do is on the left from Abingdon to Damascus

 

Back in part one I explained how we rescheduled the trip because of the hurricane. That worked out well for us, but now we are shuffling the deck once again. The first stop we moved from the front to the tail end of the trip was Damascus. Here I would do the bike ride and Millie’s sister lives near here. The next stop is Martinsville where we planned on checking on the family cemetery and then stopping in Greensboro to visit Millie’s other sister.

While we were still in Marion North Carolina Betty called to tell us that she and her son had come down with Covid. She probably contracted it while visiting her husband who is in a nursing home. Anyhow, we will not be visiting them on this trip.

The second stop in Martinsville will still happen, I doubt anyone in the graveyard has Covid. However, Millie’s sister Lucille who lives in a nursing home called to tell us we probably would not want to visit her on this trip. She is ok, but many other residents have come down with Covid. She is staying in her room with the door closed, we hope she can dodge the bullet and not catch the virus. We will not be stopping to see her on this trip.