A little about these two places. Warriors Path State Park is located just a couple of short miles off I-81N at exit #59. You can access the park from many different roads in the area. It is surrounded on three of it's sides by the Patrick Henry Lake. Most of the campsites have views of the waters.
It's a large park with about 94 campsites at the main park and an overflow location with about another 39 sites. Like most State Park campgrounds it has everything needed except sewer on each site. It does have two dump stations that are easy to get to. All sites have water and electric, several bathrooms and a separate bathroom/bath house. The lake offers boating and fishing. Other amenities such as a large playground for children, walking trails and bike paths, plenty of picnic shelters and grills separate of the campground. The park is located close to shopping, food stores and restaurants, as well other attractions in the area. The cost per day for the campground is $20.00 minus any discounts you may qualify for. Entry to the park is free. Conveniently located within a short commute to Johnson City, Bristol and Kingsport. You can also be across several state lines within minutes as well, North Carolina, Virginia and Kentucky. The Great Smokey Mountain State Park (Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge) is only an hour and a half south on I-81S and I-40W, Ashville NC is an hour away on I-26E, This area is home to the Carter Family and Tennessee Ernie Ford as well as being the birthplace of country music. The area is rich in culture and steeped in traditions. Just too much to cover in such a short blog.
Bays Mountain is located just off I-26W and a couple of short miles from Warriors. It is also a great attraction with such amenities as a planetarium, wildlife exhibit complete with large wolves, adventure trails, walking and biking trails, as well as a barge ride on the reservoir, adventure rope course and zip line. The campground is separate and private, part of the Eastman Chemical Corporation. It has 50 campsites all with water electric and sewer. Fire wood is free and in plentiful supply, cut and stacked at several shelters. All sites are spacious and plenty of separation between you and your camping neighbor.
Did I mention the campground is private and restricted to Eastman employee's only. We are camping here for two weeks, don't ask and we won't tell :) As Einstein would say, "it's all relatives." Now that my younger brother has retired, he has the time to be here with us for the next two weeks :) He's the Eastman employee and our camping host. It's only $10.00 a day for all this and if that's not enough a short drive will get you everything mentioned earlier. Our stay of two weeks is from March the 20th to April the 3rd, then leaving and going back to Warriors.
In the mist of all this I celebrated another birthday. No fanfare or hoop-la. It was one of those events best gone without notice. The older I get the less birthdays I want to see. It's one of those that you can't turn the numbers around to change. It is what it is and that's the way it is. But the good news is I save a lot on my car insurance. For the next couple of years, then they will cancel me due to being to old to drive, haha. I won't tell you my age as it's not important. Not to me at least, I have long since made it my goal to no longer celebrate those events in public. I can however tell you that I remember when stamps were 6 cents to mail a first class letter. A dollars worth of gas was about 6 and 1/2 gallons. Things sure have changed over the course of my growing up. When you hear people talk about the good ole days, they don't mean those days were good. I think we are living in the good ole days now. Times have never been as good as we have it now. I'm sure I will get some flack from those who's opinions differ from mine. My life is good and I have no real complaints :)
Right in the middle of my big Birthday celebration came the New Seymour House delivery. Taking the Vaca house to the dealership, we parked the two units side by side, door to door and unloaded and loaded. It was a four hour task. We started at 10 am and didn't finish until after 3 pm. Kathie and I were both tired. We didn't put anything away, just made the transfer and stack it all in the new Seymour house, wherever we could find a place to set it.
With the move of our stuff from one to the other, we were ready to haul our new home back to the campground. I'm not sure anyone noticed as we slipped back to our perch at the Eastman campground. We spent the next several days trying to find places to place all our things. We took time to entertain company and visit with family.
My older brother and his bride, Glenda came by to wish me a happy birthday. They didn't stay long as we were trying to make it livable and find a place to put everything. We were getting tired and was hoping for help but they left as fast as they arrived and once again we were faced with where do we put all this stuff. I'm not sure but all that stuff just seems to multiply. All I know for sure is it was a long day and I was tired by the time we pushed off the bed and made room to sleep.
Brother David and wife Susan found the theater seating very comfortable and relaxing. Still they aren't quite ready to give up their North Carolina cabin and take up the traveling lifestyle.
For the next several days we continued to place, move and replace items. It was trial and error as to where it would end up and remain. We were also packing up items for our trip that would go into the smaller unit. That was a challenge as to where to place it. The underneath storage area was full of items just as was the living space above. I lost track of the total time taken to put it all away but we managed to get it done. What once was cluttered, is now a neat and organized home. Kathie did the bulk of it all and I was only to happy to let her take charge. Leaving on April the 3rd we headed back to Warriors Path State Park.
Finally on April the 6th we picked up the new towable trailer. We had left it when we first inspected it due to a problem with the slide out room not sealing as it should. You have problems with new items not being as intended, the good news it is new and under warranty. We wanted to assure it was right as we would be traveling a long ways and repair facilities may not always be available. The second inspection was without problems. We had a great guy at the dealership (Wes), he wanted to assure that we were completely satisfied. Kathie was all smiles as she accepted the keys from Wes.
We towed the New Micro Lite trailer back to Warriors Path State Park and staged it beside our Seymour house. Parked on sites numbers 25 and 26 they were side by side. That would make it easy to ready the smaller of the two for the big up coming trip.
Taking all that we had stored in the Seymour house, we started the transfer process. We had bought extra dishes, pots & pans. A lot of the décor items we had put in the previous Vaca house we used in the Micro Lite trailer. We spent the afternoon making ready to go.
The New Micro Lite is 25' of living space, 28' over all counting the tongue.
The Seymour house is seen in the background.
The rear door opens to the large bathroom.
A view looking forward from the rear bathroom.
This will be our home on our five month trip to Alaska and back.
The Micro Lite feels cramped after living in the much larger fifth wheel. We will surly have to learn to live together in a smaller and less roomy environment :)
We are ready to go and now await the final day. We will be headed for Alaska, leaving on April the 21 via a stop in Mobile, AL. Until then we will enjoy our life style of full time RVing and all that the nomadic life offers.
While we await our start date for our track north to Alaska, don't forget the Seymour Acronym contest. Those that have submitted entry's have come up with some great phrases. So put those thinking caps on and get your name on the list, it could be worth $100.00 We will announce the winner on this blog, once the contest has closed. That will be after the first of June, you have time to get your entry in. You will want to keep up with the blog as there will be other contests as we travel thru Alaska and our return to the lower 48 states.
Until our next post, Dutchey and Kathie (http://whygodutch.blogspot.com)
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