North Carolina State Fairgrounds

As mentioned in the previous post, the record-setting temperatures in North Carolina have been too hot for this northern man  There were a couple of dry camping opportunities in the Raleigh area for less money, but I laid my money down for a bare bones grassy field  with electrical hookups at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds’ campground.

Besides air conditioning, there was proximity to the airport, a dump station/garbage services, and convenient location to laundry, grocery, etc.  The bonus is that some kind of horse show was going on across the street from the campground.

Callie and I took frequent walks over to the exercise pen where we saw many beautiful horses.  My favorites were the high-steppers and the horses pulling carts.  I’ve ridden lots of times but they’ve either been horses on the farm or trail horses.  These were fancy horses at the show.

There are a few things missing at this campground.  There are no showers or even bathrooms on site.  I did get the chance to test my plumbing repairs undertaken this summer and took a shower in the wet bath.  It felt great after a couple of days of dry camping.  I still used two or three gallons of water.  In the long term, that’s not sustainable for two people to take daily showers without frequent refills of the water tank and stops at the dump station. The baby wipes and sponge baths will have to do on some days.

I will have stayed here for three nights when we leave for the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  Hurricane Dorian gave a hard blow to the Outer Banks.  Our campground has reopened, although there are some places we probably won’t get to, including Ocracoke Island.  Julia and I have never been to this part of the country.  I  don’t know if we will be back, so we are going to proceed and see what happens.