The View from Buzby Beach

The missus and I are camping in the Poplar Point Campground in the Jordan Lake State Recreation Area this week. We have a site that backs up nearly to the lake and affords us a beautiful view from two of our windows. We were all set up and ready to begin enjoying our trip when the wind began to pick up. A quick check of the Weather Channel showed a storm heading our way. A run of the mill thunderstorm we can handle. What we weren't expecting was the wind. Our campsite is adjacent to the cove you see on the left side of the photo. As it happened, the wind came roaring across the open expanse of the lake, up the cove, and smack into our portable screen room. The wind grew stronger. The pressure on the screen room increased, and we realized we either need to take it down or watch it fly off into the woods. Just as we reached to start breaking it down, the first tie-down cord snapped. Luckily, we were able to untie the other cords and get the room folded and into the truck before any m...

Shortly after we left the RV park yesterday, a car pulled up beside us at a stoplight and told us one of our trailer tires was going flat. I immediately pulled over and discovered she was right.  This discovery was an unpleasant surprise, to say the least. Whatever was causing it to go flat must have happened after leaving the campground, as I had inspected the tires before pulling out, something I always do.  After realizing what was happening, I eased the trailer up to a convenience store parking lot where we could park safely removed from passing traffic and analyzed the situation.  You may not know this, but campers are no longer sold with jacks and lug wrenches due to the number of times people raised one side too high and tipped over their rigs. Yeah, I know, right. And, alas, my truck jack, sturdy as it is, was not up to the task. Neither was its lug wrench. It was too big for the lug nuts on the camper wheel. Our camper is, however, equipped with a spa...

  As mentioned in my previous post, The New River Trail State Park is a linear park some 57 miles long running the course of an abandoned railroad right of way. The photo at the top of this post was taken with my phone camera using the panorama setting. On the right is the beginning of the trail. Yesterday, the missus and I hiked 2.6 miles north up the trail, starting at the southernmost point. This is a close-up of the Fries Mill that operated from 1903 until 1989. The town grew up around the mill. The dam that powered the mill is out of the picture to the left. A short way down the trail, these cliffs come into sight across the river. The New River is considered the second oldest river in the world and has spent eons eroding its path through these mountains. Geologists estimate the river " may have been in its present course for at least 65 million years." [1] The terrain on the near side of the river is relatively flat and, while tempting to build or farm on, is subject to...