Davidson River Campground-Brevard,NC

On Thursday we continued our journey northeast. We're at the Davidson River Forest Service(Pisgah NF) campground a few miles east of Brevard, NC. We would up with a nice site quite close to the river. On the way here we stopped at a bar-b-que restaurant for lunch. It was good but nothing real special. On Friday we drove to the Blue Ridge Parkway and had lunch st the Piscah Inn based on a recommendation from the campground host. A very good recommendation indeed. Carol had a veggie wrap and I had a Rubin. For desert we had this amazing pie. It was basically chocolate fudge with a wonderful nut based crust topped with a scoop of ice cream. I needed to walk back to the campground to work off these calories!!.
The Parkway was closed just past the Inn.Seems there was a very harsh winter this year and the road was strewn with tree limbs downed by the winter storms. That's a shame; our plan for this trip involved driving along the Parkway and staying at the campgrounds. The view from the mountains was really desolate. The winter was very long this year. The trees still had not started putting out leaves. Completely different from the other times we've visited here.
On Saturday we drove to Hendersonville. Went to the "Curb" market; a green market of sorts. Not really worth the stop. The campground host told us of a great bakery in Hendersonville but we were both feeling guilty about the desert we had with lunch yesterday so we passed on the bakery. Sometimes trying to be healthy isn't much fun.
We came across a nice laundromat on the way back to the campground and did a little grocery shopping at Ingles.
It started raining about noon time and is supposed to continue all night. Not so bad for us, but there are several families tent camping. Not much fun for them.

Twin Lakes Campground, Pendleton,SC

This morning we drove to the Twin Lakes Campground south of Clemson, SC. It's part of the COE Hartwell Project. Our campsite, #76, is directly on the wide part of the lake.
On the way here, we stopped at WalMart. As we left WM, Carol spotted a Panera Bread sign. Stopped for three oatmeal cookies ,two pastries,and a loaf of bread. Our first junk food stop of the trip.
It's been lightly raining most of the day; our first rainy day.

Mt. Carmel, COE Campground

This morning we drove to the Mt. Carmel campground still on the J. Strom Thurmond Lake. About an hour & a half drive north. We had our pick of the prime sites.(sites 30-33 are really nice).
This campground is even nicer then Modoc which was just beautiful. Our site, 31, is huge, very private and with a nice path to the lake. Once again, Gopher was able to roam around. There is not much civilization out this way. We passed through the town of McCormick. It had the only grocery store and gas station around.
One thing we enjoy is identifying birds. We have an Audubon guide plus a bird identification program on the i-Pod. Getting a positive ID is not all that easy. Bird coloration varies with maturity and season. It always seems that the bird we see is not the one shown in the pictures we look at. We did identify the Tufted Titmouse(Baecolophus bicolor); a beautiful small gray bird.
Monday: Gopher & I were sitting outside early in the morning. She was laying down near the woods. A Tufted Titmouse landed right next to her and began pulling at the hair on her back leg. Gopher looked as if to say "Who are you and what are you doing?". I tried to get a picture but, wouldn't you know it, the batteries in the camera were dead. By the time I put in new batteries the bird was gone. My guess was that the bird was collecting material for a nest. I brushed Gopher and left a few piles of hair here & there. Sure enough, about noon time we were sitting outside and the pair of birds returned. One started pulling at one of the piles of dog hair. This time the camera was ready!!. Just finished reading the article on this bird. Here is a quote "They line the nest with soft material, sometimes plucking hair from a live animal such as a dog." Funny.