THE ADVENTURES OF PLATY AND THE GANG
2005 Volume 11
Grayson Highlands
We spent the
months of September and October camp hosting at Grayson
Highlands State Park in Virginia. We were here for four months
last year (May thru August) and have already signed up for next year in Sept and
Oct. The campground is only open for 6 months so we have now
experienced the whole season.
The
Fall Festival is held every year on the third full weekend in Sept. Ken and
Phyllis Weber were here for a couple of weeks during that time.
Every body is comparing their goodies that they bought at the craft booths. Judy
bought a necklace and earring set and Kenny is holding one of the handmade bowls
he bought.
Phyllis checked out the pony auction but didn't bid on any. I think a pony
would have fit just fine in the Airstream.
25 "excess" ponies were sold in order to keep the
herd to 120. The proceeds are used to pay the expenses of maintaining the
health and welfare of the ponies.
Ken and Phyllis sat on the hill and enjoyed the music while Judy and I worked in
the park booth selling shirts and stuff.
Saturday was sunny and warm. They had demonstrations of apple butter,
cider and molasses making. The team of horses was used to grind the sugar
cane. There also was a blacksmith making items for sale.
Sunday however it rained all day and the crowd was a lot less, a few hundred
rather than a few thousand people.
The next two weekends we had "Haunted Hayrides". 'Backwoods
Bob', who was reportedly raised by wolves, was the narrator.
Stacy, Ranger Kevin's wife, was a witch. Ken and Phyllis were in charge of
refreshments for the people waiting. We ran 4 trips each night with 20-25
people each trip. Ken also went along and was attacked by "Demented
Ranger Jim" on each trip. He was dragged away and hacked to pieces
and his arm was thrown back into the wagon. One little girl was so upset
that afterward we had to show her that he was all right. She hit him and
said "but you scared me".
John and Jane Canfield arrived in the beginning of October. Of course we all biked the Virginia Creeper Trail. It's everybody's favorite. I had a tire blowout about half way down, but with the help of John's tire patch kit I made it all the way down.
Jane was also a victim of "The Demented Ranger" on the
hayride. She was able to escape however and jumped back in the wagon for
the return trip.
Both John and Kenny worked on projects while they were here. Kenny cleaned
and painted an old horse drawn mowing machine that the rangers dragged out of
the woods where it had been for probably 50 years or more. Jim, the
maintenance man who builds all the rock walls in the park, build this
display area near the park entrance for the completed mower.
John made and installed this set of doors so that the country store can be expanded next year.
The other major project in the park was the paving of the campground
roads. There are no more potholes to jar your teeth when you drive
around.
We
arrived May 1st last year before the trees had leaves and saw a few days with
hail and snow flurries. This year we experienced the end of the season and
had snow during the last week we were here. We had 2" one night
and 3" the next with 40 MPH winds. The campground road was icy and
the tree limbs were hanging low from the weight of the snow. At Massey Gap
the road was completely covered and was closed to the Visitor Center.
When you drove down the mountain from the campground (elev. 4300') the snow was
less. At Sugarlands Overlook (elev. 4200') the road was clear and at the park entrance
(elev. 3800') there was no snow.
Well, that's all for this chapter and this year's
trip. We're leaving 11/1 for Ft Myers for the winter. More to come
next year.
P.S.
The night before we left I made one last round thru the campground to check for
new campers (we only had one other besides us). It was almost dark and I
caught something out of the corner of my eye in the playground. When I
looked I saw a herd of 10 black cows. I asked the campers about
them. They said they had been there for about an hour. I called the
ranger (Daniel) and asked if he knew that we had cows in the campground.
He said that there wasn't any in the park. When he came up later he said
he hoped we weren't pulling a Halloween prank on him. After a few phone
calls we found out that someone had opened the gate to the National area where
they were grazing and they had walked 1.5 miles to go camping with us. The
owner came to round them up the next morning. Overnight they had
visited the entire campground and had left piles of manure everywhere. I
had no idea 10 cows could make so many piles. I'm glad the campground was
closing and we were leaving.