I have been a bit lax in the maintenance of this journal for the last many months. Faithful readers may think that Dorcas and I drove our motor home off the edge of the world and disappeared forever. But no, we are both alive and well!
We departed from our winter home in Titusville FL and arrived home in Winston Salem on April 22. In the following weeks one or the other of us had a doctor's appointment about every other day. We maintain a busy travel schedule, but we try to be home for a month or two in the spring and the fall, when North Carolina is at its finest. So that's when we schedule all our doctor's visits. Heaven help us if one of our doctors has a sick day or otherwise takes a day off, and we have to reschedule!
In June we took the coach down east for a 2-week trip. Our first event was the Newmar Kountry Klub (NKK) Carolinas State Rally in Fayetteville. We stayed at the Fayetteville RV Resort & Cottages just north of town right off I-95. I don't often mention this, but I was born in Fayetteville.
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| Our camp at Fayetteville RV Resort & Cottages |
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| I love my folding bikes! |
We lunched one day at Gaston Brewing Company, where I found a very interesting and unique plumbing fixture. |
| Recycling at its finest: returning fluids to their source |
On another day we visited the Cape Fear Botanical Garden where we enjoyed a private guided tour.
Our next stop was at Sycamore Lodge in Jackson Springs for 5 nights. Sycamore Lodge is a membership camping and cabin resort associated with Travel Resorts of America (TRA). We had a coupon for 3 nights free camping, and we acquired 2 more nights relatively cheaply. After attending a very low-pressure sales presentation, we were presented with a coupon for 3 more weeks of free camping at any other TRA resort. (Spoiler alert: We didn't buy the membership.) There are 3 such resorts in Minnesota, so hopefully we can use at least one of these coupons when we head north in the fall. 
Sycamore Lodge: A Resort With a History. The Loverings, a Boston family, purchased the property, that would become the Sycamore Lodge, in the early 1900s.
They planted trees along Sycamore Lane, hence the name of the estate. The Loverings planned to grow Peach Trees here, but the sandy soil in this section of North Carolina doesn't support this type of tree. Undeterred, the Loverings decided to farm trees. Pine, Sycamore, Dogwood, Oak and Magnolia Trees were planted on the property.
The first building on the property was a barn with living quarters on the second floor. It is now the the Registration Building & General Store.
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| The 6000 SF lodge was built around 1905 |
Our final leg of this trip was for a campout and gathering at the Little Pee Dee State Park near Dillon SC with the Lumber River Canoe Club. Here we paddled, biked and told tall tales and lies around the campfire with old friends and new friends.
At Little Pee Dee State Park, while riding my RAD Power Bike I stumbled upon a Rivian Adventure Network (RAN) charger. Go figure! Rivian is placing chargers specifically at trial heads, parks and other places to facilitate the outdoor enthusiast.
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| My RAD by the RAN |
In July we attended another NKK rally, the Mayberry Rally in Mt. Airy. CLICK HERE to see the video.
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| Dorcas, Andy and Opie |
This guy brought 2 Lamas in the back of his mini van. Then he went back to the farm and brought 3 more. Check out the video to watch lamas exiting the mini van.
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| Aerial view of Mayberry Campground |
In the meantime we have been doing home chores and other local activities. I have been playing pickleball regularly and Dorcas goes to yoga at the Robinhood YMCA almost every day.
Exciting news!!! Three local public parks have opened dedicated pickleball courts: Joanie Moser Memorial Park, Oak Summit Park and Sedge Garden Park. All of a sudden: so many courts, so little time!
The City of Winston Salem converted 2 existing tennis courts to 6 dedicated pickleball courts at Oak Summit Park. They left one tennis court to placate the other riffraff .
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| Oak Summit Park |
The City of Winston Salem converted existing tennis courts to 10 dedicated pickleball courts at Sedge Garden Park. CLICK HERE to see a short video clip of the new courts at Sedge Garden Park.
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| Sedge Garden Park |
The two Winston Salem city parks described above opened quietly and with little fanfare. For several years we had been playing pickleball at Joanie Moser Memorial Park, which is a Forsyth County Park, on tennis courts using portable nets. On August 18 there was a major ribbon cutting ceremony at Joanie Moser Memorial Park for nine new dedicated pickleball courts. County Commissioners, county park staff, the general contractor and members of our Winston Salem Pickleball club made remarks, which altogether lasted way too long ... and then we played PICKLEBALL!!!! I'm proud to say I won the 1st 3 games I played at the new Joanie Moser Park. And of course I launched the drone and made a video. CLICK HERE to view the video.
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| Joanie Moser Memorial Park |
Two more Winston Salem city parks are scheduled to convert tennis courts to pickleball courts. One is Old Town Park, only 11/2 miles from my house, where we will have 8 new dedicated courts.
In other news, we have finally "cut the cord", so to speak, and disconnected our Spectrum cable TV/internet service, and have begun streaming. We picked up a T-Mobile 5G Gateway router that provides pretty fair cellular internet service, generally 50-100 Mbps, which has proved to be adequate for our internet and TV streaming needs. Additionally I installed a TV antenna on the roof, and we get all our local programming over-the-air. I bought a Tablo device which is a DVR with a local programming guide for over-the-air TV viewing. We have subsequently subscribed to a number of streaming app services: Netflix, Prime Video, AppleTV, Paramount+, all at no cost. By dropping Spectrum and going to T-Mobile the sum of our monthly bill for cable and cellular services has dropped from ~$330/mo to $130 mo, but with enhanced service. Best of all, we can take our T-Mobile router with us on trips. The T-Mobile plan has unlimited data usage, while previously we had been limited to about 5gb/mo by Spectrum Mobile using the personal hot spots on our iPhones when traveling.
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