THE CAROLINAS

The finale of the Rally was to attend the Kentucky Colonel BBQ Reunion in Louisville. This is an annual event held on the huge grounds of a church. The entry fee included a good lunch of pulled pork or chicken barbecue sandwich, baked beans, potato salad, buttermilk pie and lemonade or iced tea. You also had tickets for two soft drinks or water, two alcoholic drinks, and a cup of burgoo, a spicy soup. Different music groups performed throughout the grounds: gospel singers, blue grass, jazz and ‘moldy oldies’. Some people were dressed as Colonel Sanders or in dresses of the 1800s and the trumpet player who plays the Call to Post at the Derby was also there in his outfit.

We thought Kentucky was lovely with its rolling hills of lawn (I think everyone in Kentucky must own a riding lawnmower) but the Carolinas even has that beat. Living in Arizona, we didn’t realize how much we missed greenery. The drive over the Smoky Mountains was gorgeous. We could see how the mountains got their name as the mist rising off of them looks like smoke. The green highway divider had startling red poppies blooming in them that really caught the eye. Occasionally they would be set off with light pink poppies and dainty white daisies. What a pleasant drive.

We headed to Gaffney, South Carolina to have our 25,000-mile checkup on the rig performed. Gaffney is where the Freightliner factory (that made our RV chassis) is located. We trust them to do a very thorough job.

On the way we stopped in Asheville, North Carolina for a couple of days. We had visited the beautiful Biltmore Estate before so this time we just wanted to get a case of the good wine they make there. We had also had dinner there before so this time we went for lunch at the Grove Park Inn on the other side of town. The inn was built in 1913 from hand-cut boulders that were hauled by wagon from nearby Sunset Mountain. It was a wonderful setting for lunch as we gazed at the distant view.

The people in the South are so warm and helpful but we were reminded of the other side as well. About 40 miles from us in Gaffney was a parade of Ku Klux Klan last Saturday.