We really enjoyed our time in Mount Airy, and we know it’s an area we’ll return to again. The people are friendly, the scenery is beautiful, and there is a lot to see and do.
Mayberry Campground is one of the nicest places we have stayed, and if you are passing through the region, put it on 
your list of places to stop. The park is laid out in a terraced design, with roomy full hookup pull through and back-in RV sites, and the Passport America rate of $12.50 a night is a heck of a deal.
The only drawback to the campground was that our Verizon air card was on National Access, instead of the high speed EVDO signal, so our internet connection was pretty slow. The campground has free WiFi, so most people wouldn’t have a problem, but I don’t have a WiFi adapter on the desktop computer I use, so I had to put up with sluggish service.
As much as we enjoyed our stay, we had places to go and people to see, so yesterday we hit the road and took U.S. Highway 52 to Winston-Salem, where we hooked up with Interstate 40 eastbound. For the next 120 miles or so, as we passed Winston-Salem, then Greensboro, and on past Raleigh, we were in moderate to heavy traffic most of the way.
From Raleigh we took U.S. Highway 70 east to Kinston. Except for all of the traffic, it was an easy driving day. We covered 220 miles, and according to the Silverleaf engine monitoring system, we averaged 7.9 miles per gallon. Except for a few short climbs, most of it was downhill. The elevation at Mayberry Campground was 1175 feet, and the elevation in Kinston is only 37 feet.
We arrived in Kinston about 4:30 p.m. and took a site at Neuseway Nature Park. Situated on the Neuse River, the park includes a 52 seat planetarium, museum, nature trails, fishing ponds, and a campground with full hookup 50/30 amp electric back-in RV sites. At $12 a night, it’s a real bargain.
Soon after we get settled in, Patti Ivey came by to visit. We met Patti and her husband Mickey soon after they became fulltime RVers. Mickey developed the excellent RVer’s Notebook computer program, which is great for keeping track of all of your RV travels, equipment maintenance schedule, the people you meet along the way, and a ton of other information and memories. If you don’t have the RVer’s Notebook, check it out. It’s an excellent resource.
Unfortunately, we lost Mickey suddenly three years ago, and Patti is no longer traveling. She returned to her hometown of Kinston, and continues to market the RVer’s Notebook. We have not seen her since she got off the road, so a visit was very high on our agenda for our trip to North Carolina.
After giving Patti a tour of our Winnebago motorhome, we went to dinner at King’s Restaurant, a North Carolina legend when it comes to barbecue. The food was delicious, and we enjoyed talking with Patti about life on and off the road, and the curveballs life sometimes throws at us.
Meanwhile, Bad Nick was back at the motorhome, writing a new Bad Nick Blog post titled It’s Called Humor. Check it out and leave a comment.
We’ll be here a few days, visiting our friend and getting to know this new area we have never explored before.
Thought For The Day – Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
No WiFi adapter on the desktop ! The Greeks will be online shortly … probably all of $15-20 assuming you have a USB port open.
Our Verizon MiFi is great — for the laptops it works as a Wifi receiver, and for the desktop it becomes a modem when plugged into a USB port. And we just exchanged our Verizon air card service for the MiFi, gave them $50, which they then sent back to us a as a rebate. Cost of service? Exactly the same as the air card had been.
The only drawback — when the Mifi is plugged into the desktop. it will not provide a signal to the laptop — so for us, if one is on the desktop, the other can’t use internet. However, when we are both on laptops (which is how we prefer to work), be both have a great signal and can be on-line at the same time. I guess we could try an adapter for the desktop.
Be sure to visit the CSS Neuse State Historic Site.
That is GEEK, without the “r”, Snowbird. 🙂 Besides, we’re American! Sure would like to go to Greece someday, but I digress…
I should have set you up with a USB wifi adapter in Celina, Nick. You only think of these things when you need them.
Remind me when you get to Florida.
Happy Trails!