Orange County

Friday 26th May
Before leaving the Boone area this morning we went to see the original Mast Store up the road. It was a 3 storey wooden building complete with veranda and rocking chairs in a little village surrounded by fields and could have come right out of the Waltons. There was no mistaking that it was original as the day it was built. Inside it was just as amazing. The store had been and still is a general store selling everything from nails and bolts to toys and kitchen utensils. All around on the high shelves, hanging from the ceiling and on the counters were lots of artefacts from the 19th Century so it felt that you had just walked into a time capsule. Nails were sold by the pound and the shopkeeper had a wonderful southern drawl and gave us a home cooked apple turnover as a thank you for visiting ‘despite our joke of a president’ in his own words – such hospitality was wonderful. All the floorboards creaked as you walked on them and the central staircase was worn and slightly wonky, leaning over a little, the upper floor also leant gently towards the staircase as old wooden buildings that have settled are apt to do. We purchased a toy pickup truck for Finley and a sign for Peters shed before returning to the car.

By now the sun was out and the temperature rising. So it was hood down and we hit the road. It was a 3.5hr drive to Chapel Hill where we planned to spend the night. On the way we stopped to fill up with petrol. We were shocked to watch as another driver light up a cigarette and smoke it as he was holding the petrol nozzle and filling up his car. We couldn’t believe our eyes and were very nervous as he was in the car in front of us! We also watched as someone else walked to the door of the kiosk and threw his cigarette away on the forecourt! Amazing! They cannot have the same rules as we do but I’m pretty sure their petrol is as inflammable as ours!

As before we scoured the internet for a room once we arrived in Chapel Town and plumped for another Comfort Hotel as last nights had been so good. We booked through Hotels Tonight website. However, when we got to the hotel our booking had not been received. We had a confirmation email but it didn’t help. To cut a long story short, we rang Hotels Tonight several times as did the hotel receptionist. We, and the hotel receptionist were put on hold, cut off given credit card numbers that were invalid and asked to ring alternative numbers that seemed perpetually engaged. In the end, I insisted they cancelled the booking and refund our money, we then booked a room directly with the receptionist and she gave us a discount for the trouble!Read more