Boone North Carolina

Steve and I had never been to Boone North Carolina. And I, for one was very excited to be going there.

Boone NC

Boone was actually our second choice to visit in the North Carolina mountains. Our first choice was Asheville because Travel + Leisure listed it as one of America’s best food cities. We had spent a few days in Asheville way back in 2004 and always talked about returning. It’s a really gorgeous area with lots of attractions, including the Biltmore Estate. But there were no RV parks available. We had waited too long to make reservations.

We had also heard a lot of wonderful things about Boone North Carolina. And we even have friends who bought a summer home there about 15 years ago. So we decided it was a great option. Especially since our friends would be there to show us around.

Scary drive

Unfortunately it poured throughout our entire drive. This made for an unpleasant journey. In fact about 15 miles from our RV park, Steve was questioning why we were going there. The roads were steep and winding and our coach was groaning uphill at a snails pace. At some point Steve told me that we weren’t going to make it! “The engine is going to blow up” he said. If you’ve seen one mountain, you’ve seen them all!” he added. “We can NEVER go anywhere in the mountains.” Which would have sucked because that would eliminate most places in America. I asked if the engine was overheating. It wasn’t. So because I am the eternal optimist I calmly said “Just keep going. Even if we have to limp in and call a mobile mechanic in the morning.” And that is what we did.

But the really great news is that no mechanic was necessary. The engine was just fine. The driver not so much. When Steve told our son about our stress he informed us that all that needed to be done was to take it out of Overdrive!!! Disaster averted. Thankfully we can resume our plan to head west to California and travel many more mountains.

Flintlock Campgrounds

We stayed in Boone North Carolina for 4 nights at the Flintlock Campgrounds. Great place and perfect location. Directly behind Ladybug was a lovely little babbling brook. The water ran rapidly and had the soothing sound just like being on the beach. And the weather was glorious. The rain was over and we decided to go for a drive to explore the area. There was beauty everywhere we looked. And at that point Steve proclaimed that he loved it in Boone.

Blowing Rock

We headed toward the town of Blowing Rock. Along the way we spied a house for sale and stopped to enjoy the spectacular vista. For a nano second we imagined living there and then came to our senses. RVing full time is the life we truly love.

Next we stopped at a magnificent horse farm, took a short drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway and ended up in the charming Blowing Rock downtown for a bit of retail therapy.

Downtown Blowing Rock has an abundance of wonderful little shops and restaurants. It was about 4 o’clock in the afternoon. Too early for us to try any of the food for dinner. We usually don’t eat until 9pm. So we just wandered in and out of the many souvenir shops, galleries and boutiques that lined the main street. We have started collecting magnets from each place we visit so we had fun searching for just the right one from Blowing Rock.

These magnets are placed on the side of my Kobalt tool chest that houses the tools of my trade. It’s really fun to track our journey by glancing at the side of that tool chest as we enter and exit Ladybug.

With so many splendid attractions we were certainly looking forward to our next couple of days in Boone. I will tell you all about them in my next couple of posts. Stay tuned.