North Carolina

We made it to North Carolina late last night. Our resort, Fairfield Mountains, is nestled waaaayyyy into the Smoky Mountains. Driving here was fun for a while. The roads wind back and forth and around so intricately that it almost felt like a rollercoaster. Driving in the Camaro, you can imagine how much Chris was enjoying it. But after about an hour of winding slow driving, we were ready to get there and be done driving for the day.

We were also a bit worried about getting in because we had called earlier to confirm our arrival time. We had read that we needed to do so if arriving after 6pm. Apparently, the front desk building closes then. So the staff member I talked to said she would leave our key in a safe on the front porch.

And she also said that we might not have electricity.

There had been a bad windstorm yesterday morning, which we began to see traces of as soon as we got within 2 hours of the place. There were trees and branches all over the sides of the road, on top of boats, through fences, pretty much everywhere. As we drove through a couple very tiny towns around 8-9pm, we had some trouble figuring out if the power was out or if everything was actually just closed.

It was closed.

Businesses, gas stations, even restaurants close by 9pm at the very latest. Most close by 5pm. Yep. So that’s been a little difficult for Chris and I to get used to. They say it’s just because they do things a little slower down here, but feeding the hungry tourists doesn’t seem so fast-paced, does it? Our dinner last night consisted of wine, cheese, sausage and crackers that we bought in Wisconsin.

Tonight, we again missed dinner because we were on a tour out on Lake Lure that docked at 8pm. And of course, even the restaurants that claimed to be opened until 9 … were closed. Lol Luckily, we had the foresight this morning to stop and buy some basic groceries at the little convenience store up the street. So we are now sitting here waiting for our Digorno frozen pizza to heat up in the oven.

We tried to go to this beautiful park not far from here earlier today, but it was closed due to the windstorm. It had knocked out the power and there were some trees down on the paths. We’re hoping it will be opened tomorrow because we hear that it’s a magnificent view.

So instead of hiking up in the mountains, we walked through the little town’s shops and ate ice cream. It’s right on a river, so we walked along that for a bit, which was very pretty. This funny guy that sounded like he just might be in the Italian mafia offered to take a picture of us because we were trying to do it ourselves. He even had us move so the sun wouldn’t be behind us, saying “If I’m gonna do this, I’m gonna do it right.” haha

The boat tour, which we took a while later, was pretty neat. It was just nice getting to be out on the water. We got to see all of the million-dollar vacation homes around the lake. In one stretch, there are four houses that have all appeared in “Better Homes and Gardens.” These places were monstrous, really.

One of my personal favorite parts of the tour was a little cove which the locals call “Dirty Dancing Cove.” This is where parts of the movie, Dirty Dancing, was filmed. This particular cove was where they filmed the scene where Johnny is practicing the finale lift with Baby. Pretty neat. Right after the tour, we went and rented the movie to watch tonight.