Bryson - Sylva, NC here I am!

I am staying at this great little campground outside of Bryson City, NC called Smoky Mountain Meadows RV park (I'll do a full write up when I leave). In the evenings you can actually sit outside without being eaten alive. Outside my RV in the open field I am able to enjoy fire bugs lighting up everywhere! Even had one almost land on me.

One of the views from my RV! Most nights I sleep with just a fan and open all my windows so I can wake up to a view of these moun

The only drawback to this picturesque mountain town is wi-fi/cellular. Verizon is very limited everywhere. I have barely any signal at the campsite. With my booster I can just barely make a phone call and in town the library and businesses have slow wi-fi. As such I drive 19 miles over to Sylva, NC every day where the library there has blazing fast wi-fi. Towns have vibes. Bryson City feels like a tourist town. You either are a local or a tourist. But in Sylva its a real working small town where I feel welcome and have already made connections. 

The library where I work. Just a short walk to main street Sylva. Hours aren't great, they don't open till 10am, but you can always sit outside on their rockers and still access the wi-fi.

View from 2nd floor of library. Great office window!

Split rock on a trail at the near by Pinnacle National Park. This is a far as I made it on this very steep trail! Out of shape, am I!

The trail is all straight up. I made a new friend, Sheila, who was out for her first walk after eye surgery.

One nice thing about the area is that there is always hiking near by. So I can take a hike before or after work without having to drive far. In Bryson city you can easily get to the road to nowhere. It's a road that was being built and then not finished so it just stops. I didn't really enjoy this trail because the tunnel freaked me out (its longer than it looks). I've noticed that once I get a little scared by something on a trail my fear just keeps compounding and I stay in a slightly easily panicked state the rest of the trip (something for me to work on).

The tunnel.

End of the road! Just forest and some trails after.

I guess the road to nowhere needs some trails to nowhere. Just drops off the edge of the mountain (yes I know its runoff line).

For the weekend I did two great activities, first I went for a hike near Bryson City called Deep Creek. I was originally going to just do a short 4 mile loop but decided I wasn't done hiking when I hit my turning point and continued on. Overall I did 12.6 miles. Not too bad except where it went straight up for 1.5 miles or straight down for 1.5 miles. This is such a beautiful day hike. It took me 6.5 hours with little to no breaks (I'm a slow hiker though). There are plenty of campsites available and some longer trails that could turn this into an overnight. However, the campsites are at lower elevations so I wouldn't recommend during major bug season.

You are near water most of the hike.

There are 3 or 4 different waterfalls.

These fungi are cool!

The next day I met up with the Foothills Paddling Club at Brookside Camp on the Nanthala for a day of rafting. I had enjoyed this activity with them a month ago when I was in Greenville, SC and it was just as much fun (but with a much shorter drive!). The river is a bit low right now because of drought they are doing later and shorter dam releases. Pictures from a company of our raft going over the last rapid.

So far I'm really enjoying this area. Looking forward to going backpacking this weekend!

North Carolina Beautiful Paddles

A group I met in Wilmington, NC is paddling to a place called Bear Island in August. I won't be here then but I hate to miss out on such a fun trip so I started to look into the place to go myself. I ended up finding a great website devoted to paddling guides for East North Carolina called Beautiful Paddles. Great job they do outlining the trip, providing maps, insider tips and pictures. I decided to do 2 trips from this site.

Thursday evening (7/14) I did the New Bern trail. A 3 hour paddle near by. It was a warm day but a beautiful paddle. Long day considering I also have to pack up so that I can get out of here Saturday evening.  It was a beautiful paddle, I found the hidden 'lake' and saw a beaver/otter swimming by multiple times. I didn't do the full circuit as storms were coming but a nice paddle overall.

There were birds of prey in the trees.

Friday I woke up, went to early Yoga, put in a day's work and then headed to do my next paddle. This was an overnight camping paddling to a place called Bear Island, a part of Hammocks Beach State Park. I booked a primitive camp site for Friday night on the beach side, campsite #6. Upon arriving at the park you have to leave something of yours to use the cart to get your kayak down to the dock where they have great canoe/kayak launches. When I arrived winds were around 12-14 mph with white caps. I was in for a long paddle! Little did I know. I had done a poor job reading the details from beautiful paddles and only remembered in my head to follow the orange markers. I thought that meant the orange buoys. It did not! 2.5 hours later, after paddling against strong head winds with gusts,  I finally arrived at the beach. There were times as I was paddling as hard as I could but moving only inches, it seemed, I started to think how tired I was and how hard. But I know that attitude matters and by reminding myself that I was out here because I enjoyed it, because I wanted to enjoy the scenery and paddling to a place I can't get to by foot, I quickly turned my mind around. As soon as I quit my negative attitude and reminded myself why I was here, without even thinking about it the words 'This is Awesome!' came to me. A reminder to me and others that your attitude can make the difference between a good and a bad experience, that even when things aren't going your way, how you think about it, will determine how you experience it.

Campsite # 6. Directly to the left of where you land your kayak. Awesome site! Note for paddlers, make sure you are there at high tide or you will not be able to get through the lagoon to paddle to the back side of the campsites.

I was able to get my tent set up with minutes to spare before a storm came. Thankfully it quickly cleared. The beach was awesome, I loved my campsite, I loved the beach, I loved the quiet. The biting bugs were a hassle once the sunset and before full sunrise (vicious creatures) but overall it was a nice stay.

I returned home Saturday morning, finished packing up and started my drive to my next location. I was supposed to leave on Sunday but it's over 7 hours of driving and that's a bit much in an RV. I decided to leave Saturday night and camped in a great rest stop on I-40.

Eating in and around New Bern, NC

Places I tried while here and my thoughts:

Baker's Kitchen Restaurant & Bakery - Cute little place downtown. Great service until its check time, then they get super slow. Big crowd on Saturday morning. Food was okay. First time I had Chicken Fried Steak with scrambled eggs. Eggs were cooked well, biscuit was super moist and tasty, but chicken fried steak and gravy almost seemed frozen (even though they say nothing is) and a bit greasy. Second time I had a basic breakfast, two eggs over medium, bacon and their baker's potatoes (hashbrown casserole). Eggs were undercooked, bacon was good, casserole was ok. Overall I would say the place is average and works if you are downtown needing a bit, but I think I'll keep exploring.

El Cerro Grande - Craving mexican, decided to stop in and check 'em out. Super inexpensive. Fun decor. Really good tacos. I had the Taquira, which is the style with cilantro and onion instead of lettuce and cheese and such. The tortillas were homemade, the carne asada and el pastor seasoned well and the green sauce was tasty but not too spicy for a gringo like me! Service was fast.  You pay at the register when you are done.  I'd eat here again. Next time I want to try the Gorditas as they are hand made tortillas too. BTW they also serve cow head, tongue and tripe tacos!

Lawson's Landing Cafe - Stopped here mostly to work. Sat outside right on the water. Service was really good. Had a fantastic red table wine for $6. Just got an app, bruschetta with mozzarella added. It was very large and filled me up. Was okay. I wasn't blown away but I was happy with my food.

Morgan's Tavern & Grill - Swung by for lunch. They are located downtown. I went with a burger and salad. The burger was super tasty. They use ground steak, brisket and sirloin for their burgers and season and grill them well. The salad was good with nice ranch (I'm picky, I don't like tangy bottled junk)! Service was good, atmosphere was good.

The Deck at the Double Tree - My first night in I wanted to explore. Stopped here because it was on the water, had live DJ that night and seemed fun. I ordered a drink and burger at the bar and then sat down. The first guy I ordered from at the bar seemed like he was on vacation, luckily the bar tender was on spot. After a long while I flagged a waitress asking about my food and a drink refill. They seemed to have forgotten, Mr. On Vacation came out with my food, cold. I think it would have been tasty if it had been warm, but blue cheese on cold beef, not super good. Drink refill or water never came. Walked up to bar, asked for drink and water, mentioned cold food. The second bar tender, was also on spot and apologized, gave me both my drink and water for free and was quick. I would have liked to stay and enjoy, but a large family decided to swarm the benches surrounding me (literally one of their knees practically in my back) and then started using my table to sit and talk at. So overall, I left not wanting to return.

MJs Raw Bar - Stopped in for lunch after yoga. Great fresh crab cake sandwich.

Bay Leaf - A good little Indian restaurant with lunch buffet. Reminded me of Bay Leaf in Baton Rouge!

Paso Fino (Wilmington) - Would definitely come here again. House made items from various latin influenced countries. Super friendly owner. The Pinot Noir was actually pretty good. Shag dance lessons on Tuesday nights.

Unexpected fun and a city off my list!

One of the great things about travelling, while keeping an open mind, is the unexpected. Today, I

traveled to Wilmington, NC (2 hour drive) to meet up with a new backing group from Meetup.com. Decided to travel down early and just work from there for the day. Well that didn't go quite as smooth as last time (did the same thing last week to meetup with kayaker to paddle the Intercoastal). First, I thought it would be fun to work from the library downtown so I could walk it at lunch. The library started off with a 2 hour parking limit (was told to move my car every 2 hours when I asked about being there all day), next they had several police officers and lots of rules about bags. Turns out this is where individuals with no daytime employment hang out. It was noisy and the conversations, hard to drown out!

Rant Warning! I mean seriously, in your top three bills you pay a month is satellite TV when you don't have a job?!?! Wow the lives of the priviledged impoverished.

So I moved from there to Barnes & Nobles. Which was fine till the Internet cut me off. This isn't the first time so I am beginning to think they have a limit per device.  Next I moved to the library I used last week but they close at 5 and I had a 5 and 6 oclock meeting.

By random luck I found a local authentic Latin place called Paso Fina (fresh food, nice staff) and today they have Shag dance lessons.  So although I have a 7 o'clock meeting I'm going to stick around till 7 to enjoy at least 30 minutes of this stumbled upon awesomeness!!

BTW that slide finger typing thing that devices can do, totally neat (first time using! )

I ended up chatting with this great group of people from the backpacking loop for longer than expected so never made it back to Shag dance. The location we were at, Brewers Kettle and Wine, had a great patio and beer selection.

To sum it up, I've spent 2 days in Wilmington now and find it to be just another crowded large city. Not on my future list of places to revisit. However, I never made it to TopSail which was recommended so I will have to remember to visit there next time.

Moonlight Lake RV Park - New Bern, NC

Moonlight Lake RV Park is located about 10 minutes from downtown New Bern, NC. The park is a small fairly inexpensive place to stay. Good things about the park: inexpensive laundry machines ($1.50 each), clean bath house with 2 private bath/showers, nice helpful staff on site (Stephanie!), decent location and seems to be safe. Bad things about the park: wi-fi is poor, verizon coverage is poor (had to buy a booster WeBoost 4G-X, after $500 still only slightly better), sites are close together, no trees for shade, campground needs  maintenance (sewer pipes not buried), 20amp connections don't work and utilities are all bunched together (water/electric too close for my comfort).

When I first showed up the spot they were going to put me in was even smaller then the one I'm in now. Fortunately, being a single woman backing up a TT myself Stephanie gave me a larger spot to make it easier. Unfortunately, I have nice neighbors who are here for a month also, but they have several dogs and the dogs park anytime I am outside, or they hear me. I can't even enjoy an evening outside and have a phone call because the barking is so loud and constant.

Things to note: $50 a month electricity allowance, if you go over you pay the difference. You can pay cash when you get here instead of credit card, if you want to have the freedom to change your mind. That being said the other parks in the area are more expensive, or as I hear, riddled with bugs.

Website: http://www.moonlightlake.com/
Location: New Bern, NC
Monthly Price: $450   Weekly: $140
Includes Wi-fi, Cable, Electricity, Water, Bathhouse
Date of Stay: June - July 2016

Meeting Intentions

Before I started this journey I kept telling myself, as soon as I hit the road I'm going to get back to being healthier, more active, more mindful, more open. I laugh now as I think about it, since I often say that if someone says they are starting their diet or new lifestyle next week or on January 1 then most likely they won't succeed. I felt this way because lifestyle changes aren't something you start and stop, they don't have a finish line, they are daily choices you make. My INTENTIONS were good and all but that's all they were. My excuses were equally as good ;)

I've given a lot of thought to intentions. I hear people all the time say someone 'means well', they have a good heart, they are trying.. but often this simply means that they have verbally stated that they intend to be a good person, to do a good thing or start a new habit. The reality is WE ARE NOT our intentions, we are the culmination of our actions and choices. I may want to be healthy and active but if each day I make the choice to eat bad foods and not exercise then I am not a healthy person. Just as someone may want to be a good person, but if they make choices and do things that hurt others consistently then they probably aren't a good person.

Intentions are meant to help us grow, to help us make goals and new directions, but we must ACT on them to get anywhere. As I set up in a new town and started thinking of my intention to be healthy I decided to look in town and see if there was a yoga studio. I found this great place called 'A Hopeful Balance' that offered a $30 for 30 day new client deal. Since drop in classes are $10 a class, this was a great deal. I signed up! I paid! I scheduled classes! And I went! (Notice all the action verbs!!!!)

This morning I enjoyed a beautiful class of sunrise yoga by the water. This evening I meet a meetup group out of Wilmington to kayak.

I'm not healthy yet, I still make unhealthy choices, but each good choice I make, each action I do brings me that much closer!

Here's hoping you live out your intentions and they become your reality!!

If you are in New Bern, NC, I highly recommend checking out this Yoga studio. The classes are great and the teachers are awesome.

Exploring the NC Coast

For the 4th of July weekend I visited my friend Sarah and some of her friends in Avon, NC on the outer banks. I really enjoyed the ocean and beach there and definitely want to come back. The journey started out with a 1 hour 45 minute drive from New Bern to my first ferry of the day. The Cherry Island ferry leaves at 7 but if you reserved a spot you had to arrive at least 30 minutes before. I had a spectacular sunrise to greet me on my way. The ferry ride was 2 hours and 15 minutes across to get to Ocracoke.

Selfie from the Ferry

Ocracoke Ferry

I took several hours to explore Ocracoke as recommended. Ocracoke is a small island. I recommend parking at the parking lot by the ferry (arrival) and walking. You can rent a golf cart or bike if you prefer. The town has lots of small shops, galleries and piers. You can take a walk to see the light house (not open to public inside, except on 4th of July) and enjoy a bite to eat. They even have a Blackbeard exhibit there!

Lighthouse on Ocracoke

I enjoyed a bite to eat at Howard's Pub and then walked back in the rain to get my truck and drive to the beach. If you have a 4x4 and a permit you can even drive on the beach. The water was soft and the perfect temp. I donned my rain jacket and enjoyed the beach all to myself! This time in Ocracoke was 'chicken soup to the soul' for me!

It's just rain! I think I enjoyed the beach during the rain more than I would have with sun!

Toes in the water!

 Next I made my way onto my second ferry to Hattaras, 60 minute ride! Once there I made my way to Sarah's friend's trailer on Avon. We enjoyed 2.5 days on the beach just relaxing, swimming and hanging out.

Relaxing on the beach!

On my way back from the weekend, I got to see a 'ferry' float and visit the historic and quaint town of Beaufort.

This loaded up in Hattaras on its way to Ocracoke. Super cute!

Cute town of Beaufort.

Beaufort has a great walkway on the water. Came up in an article I read as one of the great beaches to visit.

Took the article I read suggestion and visited the 300 year old burying ground.

Burying ground.