A Reunion of My Franklin Kin

On the second Saturday of August each year the descendants of Samuel Franklin and Dorcas Burns Parker congregate at the Linville Falls Community Church for a grand reunion.  On August 10th Dorcas and I were to attend the 87th annual Franklin Reunion, our first in more years than I want to admit.

We left home about noon on Thursday, August 8 for what we expect to be an 8 week fall trip. More on that in the next post to this blog.  Our destination this day was the cul-de-sac at Bob and Donna Benner's home in Morganton.  Our trip was uneventful except for a 35 minute backup on I-40 at US 601 near Mocksville.  However, Google maps suggested a detour that took us around this mess with minimal delay.  The Benner's house is our regular camp when we stay in Morganton, and we always like to visit with our long-time friends the Benner's.  Bob has a regular meeting with friends each Thursday at 4:00 at the Brown Mountain Bottleworks to suck back a few cool ones, and we were invited to come along. My brother Ran was also in town, spending the night with a friend, so I called him to meet us at Brown Mountain Bottleworks.  It turns out that that was exactly where he was when we called.  Go figure.

The place to be in Morganton

Bob Benner and his daughter Dawn

Our camp in the Benner cul-de-sac

On Friday Ran met us for breakfast at Timberwood Family Restaurant where Dorcas and I enjoyed a western omelet with country ham.  Ran and I had recently sold our mother's house in Morganton so we did some business at Wells Fargo bank and at the courthouse.

The historic Burke County Courthouse, with cute Honda Pilot and Bell canoe in the foreground

On Friday we moved up the mountain to the Linville Falls Campground on the Blue Ridge Parkway for 2 nights.

Site 37 at Linville Falls Campground

Matilda wading in the Linville River

At 10:00 on Saturday we headed over to the Linville Falls Community Church for the reunion.

Linville Falls Community Church

I am descended from Samuel Franklin and Dorcas Burns Parker, and from Samuel's son David S. Franklin. As far as we can tell there has never been another Dorcas in the family until I married my Dorcas. 

Roots of the Samuel Franklin family

Samuel and Dorcas' monument at Pisgah United Methodist Church near Linville Falls

The reunion featured entertainment including singalongs with the Franklin mountain jug band, and a genealogy lesson.  There were over a hundred Franklin descendants and family in attendance.

The Franklin mountain jug band, with Jesse on guitar and brother Ran on bass. 

And of course there was food.

My cousins

More cousins plus Uncle John and Brother Ran

After the reunion the Wilsons (my mother's family) hung out at the church long after everyone left.  Then the party moved to the Linville Falls Winery where there was live music and local wine.  We closed down the winery and moved the party once more to my cousin Melissa's house and sat on the porch with Melissa's 4 dogs, our dog Matilda and watched her horse in the pasture.  No moss on the Wilson stones

Moses is a 100 pound mastiff rescue.  Moses is cool.

After the all that reuniting and eating and partying Dorcas I headed back to the campground and enjoyed sleeping in the cool mountain air. On Sunday morning we departed about 9:00 and headed north, Minnesota-bound.

Home Again

Dorcas and I, and little Matilda arrived home last night late. After six nights at Mt. Pisgah CG on the Blue Ridge Parkway, we reluctantly left the relative cool there at EL 4980' and headed down the hill to the sweltering Piedmont. Had we not had appointments today in WS, we would still be on the mountain. We spent Sunday afternoon with my mother in Morganton, and helped her with some chores. Specifically, we hung some pictures, re-hung some pictures we had previously hung and moved some furniture. Mom is about to get all of her stuff settled and nailed down. Unfortunately, she is still missing a few things. They will show up sooner or later though, because we left nothing in Mississippi and we left nothing on the trucks.

I have posted several photos of Matilda previously, but Dorcas insisted I post this one showing Matilda with several of her favorite chew toys. Her most favorite chew toy is not shown, however. That toy's name is Dorcas. Matilda really likes how that toy smells and tastes, and especially how it squeals and moves when she bites it. I hope she outgrows that chew toy very soon.

We will be home for a few weeks and then off to the upper midwest. We will leave sometime near the end of June and will attend the first of three RV rallies beginning July 1 in Amana Colonies in Iowa. From there we will go on to Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, coming back home sometime in September.

Plan B: Mt. Pisgah Campground, Blue Ridge Parkway

OK, I lied. Big time. We had intended to go to the Cataloochee Valley, but it didn't work out. We knew it would be difficult to get the coach into the valley. There are only two roads in. One is bad, the other is worse. The problem is, I didn't know which one was which. Both roads are narrow, winding, steep and unpaved. We had decided to approach from the west and the Big Creek area. The unimproved portion of that road is a little longer, but it was more direct for us, and it looked straighter on the map. Bad plan. We managed to get about 5 miles up the road. It was hairy, but we were making it. Think 8' wide RV on 10' mountain road and hairpin turns. Dorcas was holding on with both hands and all ten toes, and I was laying on the air horns at every bend. Luckily we didn't meet anyone going up. Funny how you forget to take pictures in those moments. Our luck ran out about 2 miles before Mt. Sterling gap. We entered the national park and there was a sign that said bridge ahead 5 ton limit. Uh-oh, we weigh over 15 tons. Do we go for it? Surely the bridge is designed with a significant safety factor. I was considering it, but Dorcas said "Hell no". Luckily, we found a forest service side road, and were able to turn around and head back down. We unhitched the Honda so she could warn on-coming traffic. Luckily, we only met one other vehicle; unluckily, it was a UPS delivery truck. Another hairy moment, but we made it.

When we made it safely down the mountain, we pulled over to discuss our options. Dorcas wouldn't hear of driving around and going into Cataloochee from the east. Not an option. We knew hot weather was coming, so some altitude would be nice. We decided to go to Mt. Pisgah Campground on the Blue Ridge Parkway. This campground is near EL 5000' and is the coolest place in many miles. We finally arrived late Monday afternoon and set up in a nice pull-through in loop A, dedicated for motor homes, with a nice grassy area for the pup. We registered for three nights, but may stay longer, depending on ..... well, I don't know, just depending.

Tuesday we just hung out and recovered from our ordeal yesterday. We read and napped and played with Matilda. We also set up the Coleman GeoSport 15' screen room we bought in Pigeon Forge at the Coleman Factory Outlet. It's pretty cool and the price was right. We figured it would come in handy in Minnesota this summer. This morning, we hiked about 6 miles round trip from the campground to the top of Mt. Pisgah. This afternoon, we drove into Brevard to do some errands. As I write, it is 89 degrees in downtown Brevard. I'm looking forward to getting back on top of the hill.

While in passing through the village of Pisgah Forest, we stopped in an outfitter store. They had a scale, so we weighed Matilda. She weighed 8.5 pounds. She only weighed 6 pounds when we left home 12 days ago. I'm not sure we've even fed her 2.5 pounds of food. She will be 8 weeks old tomorrow, and is chewing on everything in sight.

Fall on the Blue Ridge Parkway

We left West Virginia on Saturday, but we didn't go straight home. We had received a message from our friend Andy that he would be hiking in the Harper Creek area on Sunday, and would be camping at Julian Price Park on the Blue Ridge Parkway on Saturday. We had wanted to camp on the BRP once more before they closed the campgrounds for the season, and Andy is always fun to hike with, so off we went. It's nice to be mobile and have no commitments! We drove the BRP about 90 miles from Fancy Gap to Price Park and the fall colors were fantastic. We checked in at the campground just before dark. Andy and Christy joined us later at our campfire. It was a brisk evening. The low that night was 33 degrees.

On Sunday morning we drove south on the parkway headed for the trailhead. The colors on Grandfather Mountain and the views from the Linn Cove Viaduct were prettier than I had seen them for years. We pulled in at the Linn Cove Visitor Center and discussed a change in plan. We decided that we couldn't pass up a hike here when the colors are so gorgeous. Plan B was to hike from the Linn Cove parking area on the Tanawa Trail to Rough Ridge and return. This is a very easy hike of only about 4 miles. We hung out on Rough Ridge for over an hour enjoying the views of Grandfather Mountain and the bumper-to-bumper traffic on the Parkway. It seems that I have never hiked to Rough Ridge without seeing someone I know. This time it was Ken, who I had worked with at DAQ. After the hike we drove over to Valle Crucis and visited the original Mast Store. We then drove to Blowing Rock and walked around Bass Lake at the lower end of the Moses Cone Park.

We awoke this morning to fog and rain. We had considered spending the the last night of our trip at one of the Corps of Engineers campgrounds at Kerr Scott Reservoir near Wilkesboro. Need to break up that two hour drive, ya know. Considering the weather however, we decided to come on home. Of course, we found the weather in Wilkesboro and at home was fine. In any case, we are finally at home for the first time in five weeks.