Sea level in our rear view mirror.....

We have hardly been above sea level for months, and in one day we not only passed the 1,000 foot elevation mark, but we passed the 2,000 foot mark!  Ahhhh, but that is the the cart before the horse.

Friday morning broke with a mostly cloudless sky, but cold....still....maybe 39 at 8 am.  I wanted to get out of camp by 10, but it's only a guideline, not a rule.  I noticed this park sold propane, so I walked over first thing to ask Ron what his propane price was....$3.50/gallon....hmmm....a little high....okay....it's so convenient, I'll pay a little more....some of the places we have squeezed into in order to fill our propane tank have been TIGHT!  We were a little under 1/2, so it wasn't urgent, but if we fill up now we won't have to for a long time....it's getting warmer and we won't need to use the propane heaters too much more....maybe we can make it through the summer before we have to fill it again.  We only took on 26 gallons, so had 22 gallons left.  We managed to get on the Interstate by 10:30 and continued north by northwest.

I had noticed on Gas Buddy that a Murphy Gas Station in nearby Laurens, SC was selling diesel for $3.63.....well, I didn't need to fill up, but when you see one of the best prices you've seen since El Paso, TX in February of 2012 you jump on it!  The station was about 16 miles up the road, so we headed there, took on 87 gallons and then jumped on I-26 for Asheville, NC.  We probably could have gone all the way to Indianapolis before filling up again, but now we're good for a long time...it's been just about a month since we put fuel in.  Of course, 30 miles up I-26 after filling up I see a Shell station advertising $3.55/gallon....doh!  Well, can't complain too much I guess....diesel is selling for over $4.30/gallon in SoCal.

Lovely I-26 drive into the Blue Ridge mountains

We gradually gained altitude up to around 800', but then we hit the North Carolina border and we went to 2,300' in less than 15 miles.....the coach did great, although at one point we hit a 7% grade for about 3 miles and dropped down to 30 mph in 2nd gear.  The engine temp stayed right around 190, which considering the grade, is below what I normally expect....usually close to 200 degrees.

We found our rest stop for the day about 2 miles inside the NC border, and TLE made me a late breakfast (around 1:00 at this time).......I love breakfast for lunch!  In this case it consisted of 2 fried eggs on fried mashed potatoes.....yummy!  

We only had 37 miles to go as we pulled out of the rest stop back on to I-26 around 1:45... we arrived at Wilson's Riverfront RV Park at 2:30.  This is a small, cool RV park right on the French Broad River.  The French Broad Greenway bike path runs right through the park.  This is the first time we have been this close to a bike path in a long, long time.  

Site #15 - Wilson Riverfront RV Park

 The turn into the park is right at the end of the offramp for Amboy Road, and the right hand hairpin turn is impossible to make, even without the trailer, so we drove about a mile further to the first gas station we came to and usedtheir lot to turn around in and head back.  We were able to cram our 62' into a 56' spot.....how, you might ask?  A picture is worth a 1,000 words.

The back wheels are off the grass....:)

Watched some more NCAA basketball....Louisville, U of Michigan,  Duke & Florida advanced to the Elite 8 round.  Kansas U. lost a heart breaker in overtime after being in control of the game for 38 minutes. Elite 8 starts Saturday evening with two games, then 2 more on Sunday....then we will have the final 4.

Thanks for stopping by!