Where in the USA RV?: The Most Expensive Flight (of beer) EVER!

When we left Freighltiner in Gaffney, we had a short trip to Windsor Run Cellars near Hamptonville, North Carolina. This Harvest Host was a welcome stop after the short distance, but heavy rain!

Bob followed the hosts directions and pulled in near their distillery. Once we were set up for the evening, we walked over to the tasting room to sample their goodies!

The tasting room was busy as a group just finished a tour of the distillery. I sampled 4 of their wines and Bob sampled their honey beer. All the wines I sampled were good, but of the 4, I liked the port best....yes, I got a bottle!

We spent a restful night at Windsor Cellars and were ready to continue our trip the next morning. Our next stop would be the longest of this trip...4 nights! Once again, the travel day was going to be a short one, but there was an accident on I-77 that closed the interstate in both directions. We stopped at the Virginia Welcome Center to find the best route around the closure.

The hostess in the welcome center had print outs of alternate routes depending on your destination. We took our directions and continued on our way following US 52 until we could return to I-77 just south of Wytheville (pronounce 'wistful' with a lisp), VA. Our home for the next 4 nights would be Stony Fork National Forest Service Campground at the base of Little Walker Mountain. The sites were all paved. Our site had electric, some had water and electric, and others had no hook-ups.

It was too late in the day to start a hike, plus rain was in the forecast. Our choice was to visit downtown Wytheville to do a geocache adventure lab and visit the local brewery. Our first stop was Seven Sisters Brewery. It was a nice place with live music, seating inside and out, plus quite the list of local brews. Bob ordered a flight of beer (4, four ounce pours) with one of them being for me. Well, when I heard the price, my jaw hit the floor! It was the most expensive flight of beer EVER! And to top it off, the beer wasn't even the best! Okay, I guess you want to know how pricey it was....it was the same price as a 12 pack of what Bob usually drinks! Yes, it was $17.45! And that was without tax. Needless to say, we just had the flight and left.

From there, we walked around the downtown area doing the historic adventure lab for Wytheville. Of course, when we were farthest from the car it began to pour! Time to get back to the car, check one more destination to complete the adventure lab and head back to the campground. The last lab location was Wytheville's smallest church which is open 24/7 year round. It is 12 feet by 16 feet.

The next day we decided to try Three Sisters Trail along the ridge of Little Walker Mountain. The trailhead is located in the campground and we knew it would be very steep. We weren't wrong!

We were able to hike UP about 2 miles before we decided to turn around and head back to the campground. The views would have been great, but it was an overcast day.

It sure was faster going down the mountain that climbing up the mountain.

Overall, it was a good hike.

The next day I used AllTrails to find a hike. Crystal Springs Recreation Area on the south side of Wytheville was our choice for the next 2 days. The first day, we hiked Crystal Springs Loop Trail. There were some interesting signs along the trail.

The trail follows the stream throughout the area.

As we approached the junction of Woodpecker Run Spur, we spotted the trail's namesake having his lunch.

There were two small waterfalls about halfway around the loop.

As we continued on the trail, out of no where there was a yellow azealea! It is not a mountain rhododendron, it is a tall, leggy azealea like you would grow in your yard! It was the only one along the trail, hmmm, I wonder how it got there....

Nothing else was blooming on the trail...the rhododendrons had buds, but they won't open for another couple of weeks!

The second day we added more trails to our itinerary. We started on the Waterline Trail, intersected the Crystal Springs Loop Trail and then finished with the Woodpecker Run Spur. To keep track of the turns, I was constantly checking AllTrails.