We Really Did Taste Nine Bottles of Wine

Day 54 - Tuesday, September 6, 2022

Carrollwoods RV Campground and Winery, Tabor City, NC

Every day that we take a walk around the park, we pass by the sign for the Grapefull Sisters Winery and promise ourselves that we will visit before we leave for our next destination.  So with only a couple of days left here, we go late in the afternoon to taste the wine. 

A sign advertising Wine Floats greets us as we come in the door and Herb jokes to Amy, one of the Grapefull Sisters, that it must be illegal to use wine to make a float.  We know about Coke Floats and Rootbeer Floats, but never thought about using wine.  

Amy laughes about his comment and says she is not doing anything illegal.  

The sign also says there will be live music on their porch on Saturday from 2-5 pm, and we are disappointed to miss it since we plan to leave on Thursday.

For the tasting we pay $12 each and Amy lines up nine bottles of muscadine wine, explaining a bit about the muscadine grape.  The vineyard next to the tasting room is planted in muscadine vines, which are native to North Carolina and the southeastern United States.  The grapes are available from late August through early October, so we are here at the right time.

Amy gives Herb and me a sheet to make notes about each wine, and pours a small amount in our glasses.  The other Grapefull Sister, Sheila, takes a photo of us as we write down our comments.  Amy tells us what each wine is best paired with, and when she serves one that should be "sipped as if it were a hot cup of coffee," I don't follow her directions, so she has me 'taste/siiiiiip' that one again.  Amy is fun to visit with and makes us laugh a lot as she demonstrates the tasting.

Another group of people comes in and Sheila seats them at the counter around the corner from us. While Amy walks over to serve them, Herb and I get a chance to look around the store to see the gifts they have for sale.

While there are so many interesting items for sale, and we enjoy looking at each one, we do finally make our selections.  We prefer a dry wine, but all these wines are either sweet, semi-sweet, and semi-dry, so we settle for Waccamaw Red, which is a traditional southern red muscadine, and named for the 150 mile long river in North Carolina and South Carolina.  I think it is really sweet.

No, we didn't buy the sign about unattended children; we don't have any puppies to give away.

As we wave goodbye, we are pleased to see a book for daily Bible readings on a chair by the door.  A religious sculpture sits nearby.

Shark at Shallotte Point

 Days 52 & 53 - Sunday & Monday, September 4 & 5, 2022

Carrollwoods RV Campground and Vineyard, Tabor City, NC

This morning raindrops are still dripping off the trees onto the roof of Sweet Georgia Brown, and we see puddles all around, so this is second day that we don't take our morning walk here at the RV park.  We also discover the high speed internet furnished by the campground is not working; our hotspots provided by our phones and iPad are quickly put into use.

Oh, my!  Our spirits are dampened.  Do we need a change of scenery today?   Yes!   One day when returning from a visit with Kenny in Shallotte, we had seen a sign for Inlet View Restaurant, so we decide to check it out.

Choosing seats at the bar on the lower floor, we are given a menu, and I find two really tasty appetizers -- Sea Skins and Crab Cakes.  The bartender's shirt tells me they are promoting their shrimp today.

But first we should take a walk along the dock to see the boats.  Having sold Willie's Tug and bought a land yacht, we still enjoy seeing all the boats -- especially those in the water.  Near the boats in the second photo below is a sculpture of a shark hanging from a sign that reads, "Home of the Poor Boy's Shark Tournament, Shallotte Point, NC"

A couple from New Hampshire join us at the bar, and tell us they have come to look at real estate.  I'm sure they will find something they like, but I also know they now live in a beautiful state that we visited recently.  We remember how much we really enjoyed our stay at Copper Cannon distillery in Chesterfield, NH.

Of course the conversation gets around to dogs and their beautiful black lab, and we are too happy to tell them about Dr. Jake C. Harleton, our golden retriever, who had his own Facebook page.

Our spirits are now lifted, and we plan to return for lunch another day while we are still in this area of North Carolina.

Willie of Sweet Georgia Brown,

   and of Walldog and Willie

   September 4 & 5, 2022

Herb's Latest Toy!

Day 51 - Saturday, September 3, 2022

Carrollwoods RV Campground and Vineyard, Tabor City, NC

It's raining!  So we don't take our morning walk, but decide to drive to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to visit Costco.  By the time we walk around the store to pick up all the items on our list, we will have the exercise equivalent of our 'morning walk.'

Reasons to go to Costco:

• Buy our must-have groceries only available at Costco
• See what they are sampling and decide if we would like that food item
• Walk around the store
• See what new appliances they have
• Buy other stuff -- and we do!

Herb finds a Ninja electric grill, and while loading it in his shopping cart, he meets a couple who also drove from North Carolina to shop.  

Back home to Carrollwoods, Herb enjoys his new toy outside, grilling salmon for dinner.  It is very simple to plug it into an electrical outlet in one of the motorhome bays.

  

Willie of Sweet Georgia Brown,

   and of Walldog and Willie

   Saturday, September 3, 2022

Here we are in the Swamp!

Day 50 - Friday, September 2, 2022

Carrollwoods RV Campground and Vineyard, Tabor City, NC

There's so much to see in the front of the campground, and today on our seventh day here we explore.   No trees here, but we see many farm implements scattered around the yard.  The first thing we come to as we enter, of course, is the dark red building where we check in and pay for the number of days we will rent our site.  

Nearby are two bright red implements, one of which may be a disk or a plow that would be towed by a tractor or a team of horses or mules.  It is a decoration now, but it could have been used to plant the vineyard across the side street from the check-in building.  I have no idea what the other one was used for.

Also across the side street is a whole other area where the vineyard is located, as well as Grapeful Sisters wine tasting room that we hope to visit another day while we are here at Carrollwoods.  Walking past the vineyard, we see trees that look a lot like apple trees, and I make a mental note to ask about them.

The entrance road into the campground leads past the check in building and toward the back area, which I call 'The Swamp,' because that is what it looks like to me.  Another clue is the name of a highway leading to the campground -- Swamp Fox Road.  

Walking back into the swamp, we arrive to Sweet Georgia Brown, which has a sunlit site.  In spite of the blue skies straight above us, there are still too many trees blocking StarLink from seeing the satellite to give us Internet.  The good news is that Carrollwoods RV park furnishes high speed Internet, so Herb puts StarLink away for a few days.

Willie of Sweet Georgia Brown,

   and of Walldog and Willie

   Friday, Septemberr 2, 2022