The 12 Days of Camping... (Part 3)

Our trip got

more

and 

more

exciting 

as the days ticked by...

We left the KOA in Asheville

and 

had another spot lined up.

We figured we would

campground hop our

way through the

Asheville/Morganton

area...

Our next destination was

in Balsam Mountain.

Just outside of Waynesville, NC.

We stayed at a 

the best named campground I have heard of yet...

Moonshine Creek Campground

Once I saw the name of this place...

we HAD to stay!!

We arrived Friday afternoon....

we were staying through Monday.

We were literally in the middle of NOTHING!

Yet, managed to find things to do!

We wound up being creekfront again...

The kids made fast friends,

like they always do

and 

it took all of about 5 minutes

for the littlest person in our family

to get wet...

SOAKING WET!!!

But - 

that's what camping is all about,

right?

I am pretty sure we just hung out at the campsite

Friday afternoon

and

evening.

We got a little rain

so we dried the youngins off

and 

hunkered down inside for a bit. 

This is one of the BEST toys

Santa brought this past year...

and it travels so well!!

The next day,

was more exciting.

We went exploring!

We started out by 

taking a hike

around the campground.

There were a lot of butterflies

hanging around...

daddy was able to pick up one up!

So for the next 15 minutes,

we watched as each of the kids attempted to pick one up, too.

Then since I brought my camera

and saw this neat bridge over the creek,

I thought it would be a good picture 

opportunity...

and as the norm with kids...

I took quite a few 

and this is the best I got...

I have NO idea why Mr. T was showing off his belly!

And as it goes with any hike or walk with kids...

someone always has to be held

or 

carried...

I am just thankful they are 

getting too big for me to do

the carrying

or

holding!!

We got back to our site and decided to build our first

fire of our camping trip thus far.

And we roasted marshmallows...

for brunch!!

See what the hubs is doing?

His marshmallow caught on fire

and

he is trying to blow it out.

Got it.

We will revisit this in a bit...

 After we filled up on marshmallows,

we headed out of the campgrounds to 

explore our surroundings.

We had passed an apple orchard on the

way in

and I insisted on stopping by!

It was a farm stand

and 

bakery

as well!!

We grabbed a couple of things:

apples

corn on the cob

and a couple of 

homemade apple treats!

Including an apple turnover

or 

two.

They were just ok

and the apples weren't ripe yet.

So I was a little disappointed.

But it was a nice little stop.

We ventured on in to Waynesville

and walked around downtown.

Super cute town!

They have done well with keeping up the 

Main Street area.

It was rather busy too.

Even though we had been eating all morning,

we hadn't had lunch.

So we started checking out the restaurants.

We saw this menu 

and it immediately

took me back to when I was a child.

Like less than 5 years old kinda chid...

Corn Bread -N- Milk!

Are you kidding me? 

I have never seen that on a menu...

ever!!

I have very vivid memories

of climbing in my 

grandfather's lap,

after Sunday lunch,

while he was sitting in "his" chair.

We would share a big ole mug

of cornbread in milk.

The cornbread was fresh made

by my grandmother

and 

even though we had just had lunch,

there was always room for that 

after lunch treat!

I can see the room,

the chair,

the mug...

He died not long after that...

Ok, 

nostalgic moment is over,

kinda...

While we were in Waynesville,

my folks showed up!!

I had been talking to my mom

about joining us on our camping adventure.

She grew up doing family camping trips.

My dad, however,

was not too excited about camping.

He lived as if he were camping 

most of his childhood,

so he chose not to intentionally 

camp

if he didn't have to!

So they stayed at a cute little hotel

down the street from us

at the 

Balsam Mountain Inn

(source)

We teased my dad a little because he wanted to stay

in a hotel instead of our camper with us.

(which is honestly fine)

But...

his hotel didn't have A/C,

nor did they have a TV in their room

and the bathroom in their room

was about as big as ours in the camper...

We had A/C

and TV

and a potty!

But I am sure it was way more comfortable

to have their own room

rather than squeezing two more people in with us

in the camper.

I get it.

We ventured back to the campgrounds

and 

relaxed!

We had a little fire starting challenge

for the boys...

Papa and Daddy were their coaches.

Luckily we had snacks to munch on

cause it took them a while...

 So we decided to take some pictures while

we were waiting...

I wish this one had turned out better,

it looks like a GREAT picture!!

Mr. T then got wet again...

imagine that.

So after he got cleaned up,

we attempted to entertain him

with his race track again.

See all the clothes on that table?

That is because I didn't have a clothes line up under

the awning 

and it was raining so much

clothes could not dry as 

quickly as these guys were getting them wet!

And

YES

we brought bathing suits!!

We attempted to move the underwear and shorts

from the table so that we could actually eat dinner.

After dinner,

dessert!

And we are camping...

so what could possibly be for dessert?

Yep,

more roasted marshmallows.

Dad/Papa decided to chill inside a bit

and the rest of us were all around the fire.

Remember that picture I told you we would revisit?

This one?

 

Well, typically,

when your marshmallow catches on fire,

you bring it close to your face and blow it out,

right?!?!

Well apparently MY marshmallow

got too melted

when it caught on fire

and I brought it up to my face

too quickly...

and 

thanks to Sir Isaac Newton

we know

that an object at motion

tends to stay in motion

unless acted on by an outside force...

or something like that.

On the 4th Day of Camping 

I gave to me...

I literally 

FLUNG

a flaming hot,

molten

marshmallow into my

EYE!

It landed right in 

and 

around my right eye.

We all kicked into panic mode.

Including my kids.

That was the worst part!

I was still more worried about

them and that fire

than I was about me

at the moment.

Once we all calmed down,

and attempted to assess the situation

including calling my two favorite nurses...

mom and I decided to go back into Waynesville

to find an Urgent Care.

It was IN my eye afterall.

I couldn't see,

couldn't blink,

it hurt...

bad!

We couldn't find an Urgent Care open

and I wasn't up for the additional 30+ minute 

drive to Asheville hoping to find an

Urgent Care open.

So we went to the only open store,

grabbed some supplies recommended

by the sister nurse.

And hunkered down for the night.

I didn't sleep very well

and 

mom and dad were back over

early the next morning 

so the hubs could take me into 

Urgent Care.

He did some funny stuff to my eye

and put some funny stuff in it,

one of which was numbing drops.

He wouldn't let me take those with me,

no matter how hard I begged!

He did send me home with some meds,

then the hubs and I got to have an early

anniversary date

at a bakery we saw on Main Street the day before.

City Bakery 

Oh.My.Goodness!

Why hadn't we discovered tried this place the day before??

I decided on another apple turnover.

This one was MUCH different than the 

one from the orchard...

this one was AMAZING!

Nothing like lots of calories and sugar and butter 

to make your eye feel better!  

I pretty much laid around the rest of the day resting my eyes.

I was pretty worthless.

But daddy and Nana took the kids on another hike

and let them swim some more.

This is one of the BEST pictures of the trip!!!

My crew was running out of clothes!

I had packed enough for us to 

MAYBE have enough clothes...

especially if they lived in the bathing suits

and if I could get clothes to dry outside.

We should have been fine,

but I brought laundry stuff...

just in case.

Boy am I glad I did.

I had gone up to get change earlier

in the evening,

once I decided to join the living again.

I decided I needed to wash and dry some of

our wet clothes.

Unfortunately,

as you can imagine,

the laundry facilities at a campground...

in the mountains...

were lacking.

I did two loads of wash at the same time.

Then came the fun part...

the drying...

OH.MY.STARS!

Those dryers didn't work for NOTHING!!!

I spent every last quarter I had

and literally HOURS

walking back and forth to the laundry facilities

(luckily that were right across the creek from us).

I finally ran out of quarters

BEFORE the clothes were dry!

And again...

it was raining.

So I couldn't hang them anywhere outside.

Couldn't fold them up either...

so what did we do?

Dried them inside...

I opened every door,

every drawer,

hung clothes on every 

surface I could find...

that would allow them to dry.

I figured the A/C would dry them...

it kinda worked.

Most of them were ok the next morning.

Again,

bright and early,

we headed back to Urgent Care for a follow up.

Luckily they had told me that the eye regenerates 

and heals itself within 24-48 hours.

Well, apparently, I fell into that statistic

because the doc who did my follow up

couldn't find any damage to my eye!

Whoo hoo!!

Now I could quit putting "healing" drops in

that made me not be able to see!

And keep up with the antibiotics

and we were good to go!

We said goodbye to Nana and Papa

and headed back to pack up the camper.

While daddy and I were packing the camper...

guess what the kids were doing...

yep,

taking

one.last.dip

in the creek.

Sigh...

more wet clothes...

Right before we pulled the slide-out in,

we had Rico climb on top of the camper to sweep 

any limbs and leaves and debris

off of the slide out.

He got a kick out of that task!!

We hooked up,

navigated our way back to the highway

and

were on our way to stop #3...