On Thursday afternoon, we embarked on our first camping trip of 2019. We were supposed to start the season a couple weekends earlier, but the flu hit us and we smartly decided to cancel our shake out trip. We hit the road around noon and headed west toward Marion, NC with Mountain Stream RV Park as our destination.

The trip went smoothly even after a white knuckle ascent up a winding mountain road. And WOW – the RV park was beautiful and welcoming. It’s situated on a bend of Buck Creek which bubbles along in the background of every space in the park. We reserved a site with a deck that overlooks the creek and thoroughly enjoyed meals while watching the water rush by.

The rain started coming though Thursday night which made us all very thankful that we invested in a camper and were not in a tent. Our son woke up at the crack of dawn wanting to go outside to play in the mud and continue throwing rocks into the creek. By mid-morning, we all had cabin fever and hopped in the car to go explore.

Marion, North Carolina is home to the only touring cavern in the state – Linville Caverns. Tours of the cave system started way back in 1937 and has been a hugely popular tourist destination for decades. After waiting for the school groups to make their way through the cave, we entered into the dark and cool mountain. In retrospect, touring a cave where you can’t touch anything isn’t the best activity to do with a 2-year old. Our sincere apologies to everyone else who had to share the tour with our screeching toddler.

After another rainy night, we drove 30 minutes west into Asheville, which is one of our favorite places to visit. Asheville is where we spent our honeymoon and where my sister recently got married. We love the food, the beer, and the local art. Saturday morning, we hit up our favorite coffee shop and walked down to the local Museum of Science to let our kid play and get some energy out. The we grabbed lunch at our favorite spot – White Duck Taco along the French Broad River. Just as we were finishing eating way too much food, another rain storm pushed through. We packed up and drove across the river to grab a beer at New Belgium Brewing but unfortunately the place was packed with an event going on. So rather than subject another group of people to our cranky toddler, we decided to head back to the campground.

Our last night was spent with local beers around a campfire with the sound of a rushing stream in the background. Mountain Stream RV Park is truly a gem and should be on everyone’s list to visit. They also have yurts and campers to rent if you don’t have your own RV. We packed up everything we could on Saturday night because we knew Sunday morning would be a washout. Right on cue, it started raining around 11:00 pm as we went off to bed. Packing up and hooking up the camper in pouring rain on Sunday morning was miserable. But we’ve gotten more efficient with every trip and didn’t have to spend too much time getting soaked. We out ran the rain on the drive back to Raleigh and got home while the sun was shining.