In stark contrast to South Carolina, North Carolina had a quiet RevWar. This was due to two primary facts: many of the fathers, uncles and older male siblings and cousins of North Carolina had already traveled to other states to fight the British and this left the remaining populace, mostly women, seniors and youngsters, skittish about joining in; and a key early skirmish, the Battle at Moore’s Creek Bridge (pictured above), near the coast, was won decisively by the British and not only devastated the remaining opposition headcount, but also broke the will of the locals to resist. Beyond that, there wasn’t a perceived strategic value to either the geography or resources of North Carolina to convince the British Army to invest troops to occupy it. The North Carolina blood and treasure contribution to America’s ultimate victory was invested elsewhere, much of it in Pennsylvania and Virginia.

This gives our RevWar mission a pause and lets us refocus on the travel aspects of our trip. We needed a stop between South Carolina and West Virginia, and we chose Asheville primarily to add a little support to the town after its devastation from Hurricane Helene in 2024. There is still a lot of visible cleanup going on. In fact, a whole section of Campfire Lodgings, our RV campsite, is full of workers that have come here temporarily since the storm “picking up sticks” as they say. How temporary are they? We met Steve, a crane operator from Alabama, who has been here for a year and a half. There are others in the campground who came here too. They expect to be here up to another year. We’re guessing most of them have their rent paid by FEMA, and Steve said that all the local campground operators have been very supportive. Massive piles of fallen trees and other river debris are all over town, with giant grinders reducing them to wood pulp and mulch. But life in town is recovering, especially the vibrant artist community along the river downtown. American resilience on display is always a joyful sight. And the steady drip-drip-drip of tourist $$$ helps to feed the engine of recovery.

We had a little resilience episode of our own on the trip up to Asheville, with a rear tire on the trailer disintegrating in spectacular fashion. As is always the case, a passing motorist fervently waved at us to let us know, but my rear-view camera had already registered the smoke cloud following us. By the time we got the rig safely over to the side of the highway, our tire had come nearly completely apart. This was an echo of just a few days earlier when, on the leg north from Florida to South Carolina, we had followed a truck towing a wide-load portable office that lost not one, not two, but all three of his trailering dolly tires on the driver side, which made for some exciting traffic moves to get that large assembly off the road running on just the rapidly deteriorating rims. And to top it off, it all happened in a construction zone, which makes me think what happened to him was a tire puncture that flattened one tire, which disintegrated under the stress, and that caused the weight of the load to shift to the remaining 2 tires which finally let go one at a time with a pop! and tread debris flying everywhere. Due to the construction, there was no way to get alongside him and alert him to what was happening 50 feet behind him, and it’s unlikely he could see it in his mirror while trying to navigate the narrow lanes of the construction. I’m guessing that could also be what happened to us because our little near disaster happened shortly after another construction zone. I can envision a new Tire Pressure Monitoring System for the rig in the not-too-distant future. Thank God for Amazon.

We have emergency roadside service through Good Sam, but when they informed us that it would be up to 2 hours before we could be serviced I got out all the trusty tools and managed to change it out with the spare in about 15 minutes. I pack for the road with this possibility in mind: all the tire changing tools are on top and readily available. We had a gas stop at Costco in Spartanburg, but they don’t carry trailer tires. We were directed to Discount Tires down the road a few blocks, and they took care of us in 30 minutes. Aldi was across the street, and joy-of-joys Michaels was next door, so we used that 30 minutes to stock up on groceries and yarn (the crafters reading this will understand). The way Willie sings it, we were soon “On the road again….”

While we were starved for RevWar sites to visit, we nevertheless made good use of our time in Asheville, relaxing to the max, both receiving and returning parts ordered from Amazon to repair our shower door (we ordered 2 options and used the one that fit), shopping at Old Navy to get our semiquincentennial (yes Sis, I used AI to find that) celebration shirts, visiting Walmart to buy a replacement for our 15 year old portable BBQ, and having a fabulous pizza and Greek salad for lunch.

All of this wrapped around our search for the one RevWar memorial in Asheville that 3 AI’s and Google Search Assistant could find: a plaque commemorating a woman, Laura Thrash Green, who was a great granddaughter of Valentin Thrash, a RevWar soldier. Sort of obtuse, but in the land of the starving, a veritable feast.

We move on to Flatwoods West Virginia, just outside of Sutton, which is purported to be a hotspot on the Civil War Trail, and apparently also a little on the RevWar thin-side. But we will make the best of it and report our findings.

Onward! Two Tippy’s for the price of one! [Legal Notice: Tippy’s contract calls for inclusion in every blog, and his manager has reminded us that he was left out of the lineup on the last blog, so today we Tippy you twice. In your face, Tippy’s lawyer.]