Steven and Betty RV Adventures

SWANNANOA, NC. Today we received the replacement for our AT&T hotspot that died after 3 days of use about 3 weeks ago. I had gotten it to stand in for our lack of connectivity with our Verizon's hotspot's "unlimited" WIFI coverage, which peters out after a couple weeks. To Verizon it seems that "unlimited" means to give 5 GB of good service, then revert to nearly nonexistent service for the remainder of the monthly billing period. If our AT&T had not died, it would have served its intended purpose of filling in the days without Verizon coverage. As of today, we are back online.

I have added more images of the pottery that we saw in the Seagrove area. These are images that Betty took.

The images below were taken by Betty at Eck McCanless' pottery shop. As the size and complexity of the work increases, so does the selling price. By a lot.

On Thursday, July 6, we drove down to Hickory to look at the furniture establishments. We first stopped at the Visitors Center of the Chamber of Commerce only to find a sign on the door saying that they were closed until July 10th. It seems many businesses in this town close for the entire week of the 4th. We asked around where we should begin in our furniture quest, and a realtor (who was open) told us to try The Furniture Mart, a four-floor one million square foot building that one may enter either at the top or the bottom. The bottom floor entry was located down around the other side of the building. For someone from Florida, this is a truly amazing arrangement. The place consists of many retailers of furniture with large showrooms to sell their wares to pilgrims from all over the country (or world).

Above is a panorama view from the entry on the fourth (top) floor. You can click on any image to enlarge. There are showrooms after showrooms.

Betty shot the following to give you an idea of the scale of this building.

From Top Floor Looking Down

View from Bottom Floor

To me, nearly everything looked alike. It seems they all are trying to appeal to the same targeted consumer. Except for the Amish furniture, which we found the most appealing, mostly because it looked the most traditional. All the other manufacturers seem to have abandoned the traditional.

Entry View of Amish Showroom

Amish Bedroom Furniture

View from Bedroom Display

When we got back to the campground, we realized that we had not posted any photos of the unusual park where we are staying for the month of July.

Prior Camper's Description of Mama Gertie's

When we entered the campground on July 1st, we drove up a steep winding narrow road, all the while wondering if we had made a wrong turn somewhere. When we arrived at the office and got an escort to our site, we drove up a steep narrow road, then had to do a sharp left hook, then drive down to our site (see below).