​On Wednesday, May 29th, we visited the Greater Foscoe Mining Company, which was less than a mile from our campground. Yes, I realize this is just one of those tourist trap thingies, but there used to be a gem mining place on the Outer Banks and we went there on a regular basis, just because it was something we really enjoyed doing.  We had a great time here!

We did a ton of adventuring while in the Boone, NC area! I think we are finally getting in the groove on getting out and seeing things!

​First thing we did on Tuesday, May 28th, was visit the Hickory Ridge Living History Museum where we received an awesome private tour (only because no one else was around). The guide explained to us that the Boone area had originally been settled by free men of color and runaway indentured servants, because there was no law in the area. The oldest home on display was built in the early 1700s! General was actually permitted to go on the tour, and in the buildings with us!

We left Raccoon Holler Campground on Monday, May 27th and headed for Grandfather Campground, about 10 miles south of Boone, NC. We traveled on the Blue Ridge Parkway for most of the trip, until I realized our Garmin was once again giving us bad route information (it was trying to direct us down a dirt road, with our trailer in tow). LOL. Yeah, right.
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Our next campground was Raccoon Holler Campground in West Jefferson, NC. Why did we pick this? Well... we actually didn't. It kind of picked us. LOL.

On Monday, May 20th, I called our preferred next campground to make reservations (yes, we prefer to do it that way), and found out they were totally booked because of the Memorial Day holiday weekend.

Ararat is a very small town, about 10 miles south of Mount Airy, NC. Very well located to the adventures we chose to do in this area. On Thursday, May 16, we moved to Homeplace Park Campground in Ararat. A very nice resort type of campground, with its own waterfall! It was not yet running at full steam for the summer season, so we had plenty of room!