Wednesday, October 17, 2012

He thought “I’d fallen, and I couldn’t get up!”

When I chose to stop in Wilson, NC, on the first leg of my journey to Okefenokee NWR in Georgia, I knew nothing about the area.  I picked it because the campground was an easy 135 drive for my first day back on the road.  Well, it turns out there’s quite a bit to see in this area, and this morning I decided to extend my stay at Kampers Lodge Campground through Saturday night.  This campground allows you to use the Passport America 50% discount for up to a week, so I’m just going to kick back and enjoy my little ‘vacation’ between volunteer assignments.

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I figured I’d visit some place of interest each day until I leave on Sunday, and today it was the Farm Life Tobacco Museum in Kenly, NC.  I’ve always been interested in how different agricultural products are grown, and I learned a lot about that today.

70 On the way to Okefenokee, 20122

There is a 6000 square foot museum to visit along with dwellings, barns, and other outbuildings that depict the life of the tobacco farmer as it was from about 1880 to 1930.

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I first watched a great movie that explained everything that is involved in growing this crop that is so important to the economy in North Carolina.  Most interesting to me was learning about how flue-cured tobacco became the first cash producing commodity for this region during the late 1880’s.  These tobacco farmers are a proud bunch, and I thought the $7.00 entrance fee was worth it for me. 

When I got back to the rig, Emma and I went for another walk around the campground and were sure to visit the donkeys once again.  Afterwards, I figured there was no better time to lube up the levelers that were a little recalcitrant yesterday.  I got out the silicone spray, and an eight foot piece of indoor/outdoor carpet that I carry.  If I was going to crawl under the rig for the first time ever, I wanted something underneath me to help cushion the gravel.  I started with the front passenger’s side leveler.  Getting in and out to do that chore about made my miserable hip force me to scream.  Ouch!

After a little rest and recuperation, I tackled the other levelers with a slightly different approach that didn’t result in so much pain.  As I was crawling out from underneath the third leveler, the owner of the campground came running towards me yelling stop!  He thought, and was worried, that I’d fallen under the rig and couldn’t get up.  I assured him that I was fine, and just trying to slowly take care of things.  He insisted on doing the last leveler, and I let him.  Crawling around under there wasn’t my favorite thing to do, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought, so now I’ll be more comfortable doing it again.  Just another one of those little learning experiences.

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy