Steven and Betty RV Adventures

OUTSIDE NEWLAND, NC (Day 7). Today was spent visiting Grandfather Mountain and Boone, NC, particularly Samaritans Purse Headquarters.

The ride to Grandfather Mountain was slowed by the bottleneck at the entrance, where traffic coming from both directions were stopped by those hoping to enter the park.

Once inside, one travels narrow winding roads that required a speed no higher than 25 mph to keep in one's lane. Along the way are many wonderful views, picnic areas, walking trails, the museum with its gift shop, grill, and animal exhibits (or zoo). At the very top (mile high) are the swinging bridge, photo exhibits, and another gift shop.

Forrest Gump Is Shown Running Up This Curve in Film

Betty Poses Next to Exhibit in Museum

Large Burl from Black Burch Tree

We Had Lunch in the Grill (Restaurant)

Bald Eagle at Zoo

Black Bear at Zoo

Cougar at Zoo

Elk at Zoo

River Otter at Zoo

We then headed up to the top to the mile-high swinging bridge area.

Betty Was Eager to Cross the Bridge

I tried to cross the bridge, but the strong wind was swinging the bridge too much. I felt too woozy to continue. But Betty persevered, as did many others.

Those Who Crossed Over Continued to the Peak

The views from the top are wonderful.

The quality of these images are not the best, since we both forgot to take our DSLRs and shot all these with our phones.

Then we drove slowly down the steep roads of the mountain to make our way to Boone, NC. We were surprised by the heavy traffic in a small town, but Boone looks like a great place to spend the hot months of the year.

We fought with the GPS for a long while until it finally led us to the Samaritans Purse headquarters. I was expecting a converted airplane hangar or the like where Christmas boxes and relief supplies could be packed and shipped, but what we found was a pristine complex of buildings with well-groomed grounds.

Below is a panorama of the complex, with the office building on the left, the visitors center across the street far back at the center, and the packaging/loading/shipping center on the right. The low sun toward the end of day complicated photography, especially using cell phones.