Left the campground in N Carolina pretty early this morning. The caretaker wasn't even there yet. Up into the Alleghenies, through the fog, past the Appalachian Trail, the tree's had fewer and fewer leaves the higher the mountains went. Once again the dogwood and red bud tree's were in bloom as spring is just now coming to this region of the country. It has been wonderful to experience spring 5 or 6 times this year already.

   Followed the Interstate for some of the way this morning but finally managed to jump off once the border of West Virginia was passed. Heading down a country road that called itself Highway 19 we breezed through towns called Kegley, Shady Spring and Ghent and on past Pigshin Ridge and down the Bluestem River. Would of loved to have been in a little sports car, the road was just made for a low ride with about 5 gears forward. Not so great for a full sized pickup with a double axle trailer behind it, but we managed to make it okay.

   Made it into Fayetteville, WV around 3:30 this afternoon and found the RV park without to much difficulty. Had to phone up the owner to come down and check me in, but the porch on the camp store had a couple nice rocking chairs on it and the sun was shining, so what the heck. Picked out a nice site back in the trees and got the trailer set up with out to many problems. The site could be a bit more level, but with all my 2"x blocking under the downhill wheels it isn't so bad.

   Decided to go ahead and defrost the fridge and freezer this afternoon while I was doing a bunch of other errands around the place. After nearly 8 months on the road it was probably time to do it before things started sticking themselves to the walls of the freezer. Didn't take all that much time and it will probably make ice cubes a lot better now, a very important consideration now that summer is getting closer.

   Wanted to use up a few things in the fridge, so opted to make, or maybe build is a better word, a casserole for dinner. With a tortilla base, a can of refried beans, blackeyed peas, some spanish rice, diced zucchini, portobello mushrooms, fresh spinach, jalapeno slices, salsa and cheese. It actually turned out better, and tastes much better, than it sounds. Will probably end up eating it for breakfast in the morning also... cuz that's just the way I do things... oh, it probably won't be heated up either!

    Had a friend call this evening and talk for a little while. Very pleasant to hear her voice again. She'll be in town here this weekend for the dance so that will be nice, need to find a hike or drive or something we can do for a couple hours on Saturday morning. Will head out and explore a bit of the surrounding country in the morning. Need to find out where this weekends dance is going to be held, it doesn't look all that far on the map, and how long it will take to get there from here. Also need to go pick up some additional perishables at the store to replace the one's that got used up tonight. Otherwise it is likely going to be an easy week here for me while time passes before the dance this weekend.

    Speaking of dancing, here are a few photos of the camp from last weekend.

The main lodge at Camp Sertoma, a 4-H camp built by the CCC's, (Civilian Conservation Corp.), back in the late 30's or early 40's. Just a wonderful building to look at and all built in a time when 'hand tools' were all they had and really meant something. I particularly liked all the rocking chairs on the porch. 

The actual dancing took place in the 'Barn', a building also built by the CCC's. Not sure if it ever really functioned as a barn, not only because of it's interior layout, but also it's location on top of this little knob of a hill. A neat building though, built of 2"x6" studs on about 12" centers. Big metal trusses for the main roof supports with what looked like 2"x8" rafters on 12" centers spanning between them. The wooden floor was actually pretty decent to dance on, a few soft spots and some spots that seemed to alternate between being slippery and sticky. A nice stage for the band and caller and the acoustics were even pretty good considering it's nothing but a huge empty cavern. The decorations certainly helped as well as having a very good sound guy running the board this weekend.

Another view of the stage and dance floor. Forgot to ask anyone why the weekend was called 'Spring Dance Romance', there has to be a story there somewhere. Will have to remember to find out next year.

A view of the other end of the hall and a beautiful stone fireplace. At night when the dance was going on, the main ceiling spot lights would be turned off and the chinese lantern lights would be dimmed down to where there was a beautiful warm yellow/orange glow in the room.

This house was across the road from the campground I had the trailer parked in. All of the additions, I counted at least 4 main ones, intrigued me. It's a wonder what stories that house could tell. It made me curious about what the long, single story addition in the middle was all about and what it had been used as.