Festivals and Fun

On Saturday, the 12^th, we went to the Maggie Valley Summer Arts and Crafts Festival. It was fun to see all the different crafts people had to sell. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed walking through the various tents.

Our friends, Ken & Stacy, arrived on the 14^th. It’s been fun to see them again. We had dinner together that evening and then a fish fry together for lunch the next day. (We do enjoy our food on the road.)

At last report, we were going back to Marion to get our air conditioning fixed. We did that on the 16^th, or so we thought. After returning to Creekwood and getting set up, the A/C started doing exactly the same thing. Apparently they had tightened something and thought it was fixed. Now they have ordered a new part which is scheduled to be installed on Tuesday, 7/29. Hopefully that will be the end of it. I’ll let you know.

On the following Saturday, we went to Waynesville to enjoy the Folkmoot parade. We were surprised at finding a parking space so easily, but didn’t get too excited. We had lunch and then met up with our friends to sit and enjoy. Oops! It was held on Friday! Were our faces red!!!!! Stacy had commented on it earlier in the week and referred to it being on Saturday. I checked that morning and it said the 18^th and I just didn’t connect that it was already the 19^th. Well, we had a good lunch out anyway. (Duh.)

So Sunday, Julian and I took a drive down to Franklin, NC. Our friends had told us about an RV park there that they had liked so we wanted to look into it. Besides, we just needed to get out and explore. The park turned out to be no big deal. So we just drove around and then had a very good lunch at Cody’s. We came back through Cherokee and tried to stop at the casino. Unfortunately there wasn’t a parking space to be had in the building and we figured it was probably pretty busy on a Sunday anyway. So we headed on home.

Yes, we have been to the casino… three times so far. We have not spent as much as we had budgeted, so we almost feel like winners. If you can bring money home, that’s a good thing!

Last Monday, our neighbors, Larry and Barb, arrived here at Creekwood. They have been all the way out to Washington state, on the road since May. They’ll be here for two weeks.

On Thursday, the four of us took the dogs and went up to Hot Springs, about 35 miles north of here. These are mountain roads, very winding, and it took over an hour to get there. But the scenery was fabulous.

We went to Murray Branch to do a little fishing. Julian and I had been there two years ago and had really enjoyed it. Since then, the Forestry Service has moved out and the park upkeep has suffered somewhat. But it was still a beautiful place to spend a day.

Here’s Heidi and me – ever watchful for that big fish to hit the line.

Larry was the only one to catch anything. He caught four, none big enough to keep. Here’s one of the smaller ones.

On Friday, the four of us went to Asheville to their Farmer’s Market. It wasn’t really huge, but we bought all kinds of produce, snacks and goodies. From there we headed downtown to a Thai restaurant we’ve been to each of our trips to this area. Traffic as awful – and then we realized that one of the largest street fairs in the South was taking place this weekend.

We finally found a place to park and started walking towards the restaurant – on the opposite end of town. The walk was good for us and the food was as good as we had remembered.

We took our time walking back and enjoyed much of what Bele Chere had to offer. There were two streets, the length of the downtown area plus most of the connecting streets full of vendors of nearly everything imaginable. This is Donna, Barb and Larry looking at trees made of twisted wires. They were so cool!

The fair stretched all the way down to the tower you see in the center of this picture. I’d guess it was probably a mile long, give or take.

Here’s another view of how far it all went.


It turned out to be a great “accident” to have stumbled onto this fair. We really enjoyed it.

Yesterday was the International Festival Day in Waynesville. This is part of the two-week Folkmoot celebration going on throughout this part of North Carolina. I had expected more crafts from around the world, but the majority of the vendors were from North Carolina. They had nice wares, but it was anti-climactic after being at Bele Chere only the day before.

We’ve also been doing a lot of hanging around the park. We walk up to 2.5 miles most days. We have cocktails by the creek with all our friends. Last night the six of us played cards in the afternoon. I’ve been doing some paper crafting. We both have been reading and generally relaxing whenever we can.

We’ve got some fun planned for this next week (besides the trip to get the A/C fixed). So I may actually be getting another entry made in the near future. You just never know.

Happy Trails!