New River State Park: 5 May, Thursday - We did some early morning tennis in the cool of the day, had breakfast and packed up to leave. We checked out a day early and the system automatically credited our account - so simple! While heading to New River State Park, going up a mountain smoke starts to billow our of the engine! Luckily there is a perfect, wide pullout spot to stop. Billy says it looks like transmission fluid coming out. We called AAA and found out a bit late that our car is covered for towing, but the trailer is not. We never thought to check on that! There are nice, helpful people on the phone and they arrange for a flatbed truck to put the car on and tow the trailer behind. A call to a repair shop lets us know that, surprisingly, they would be able to look at the car today! While waiting we admired the spectacular view as we were almost to the top of the mountain and only 2 miles short of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
A super friendly young man puts the car on the flatbed, hooks up the trailer and takes us about 8 miles into the town of West Jefferson, NC. It turned out to be a great repair shop with skilled technicians and personable manager. Turned out the that transmission fluid had been overfilled (not sure when and how that happened!), the fluid got hot and came up the breather tube and all over the hot manifold. The repair people got the transmission fluid to the correct level, cleaned off the overflow fluid and took it for a good test drive. The whole ordeal took 4-5 hours, but we were back on the road the same day!!! We arrived at New River State Park to an over-the-top visitor center, beautiful campsites and a bath house that looks like a spa. There were only 20 RV sites so it was not crowded and all spots were private and meticulous. We decided to park it and stay for 8 nights. Whew!! Time for dinner and bed. |
The New River: The New River is an ancient river system, the oldest on the North American continent and second only to the Nile River in Africa as the oldest river in the world. It begins as two streams in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, before merging into the New River four miles from the Virginia line. And therein lies another quirk of this ancient river – it flows northward rather than southward like most of the other major rivers along the eastern seaboard. It meanders some 160 miles through the counties of Grayson, Carroll, Wythe, Pulaski, Montgomery and Giles in Virginia before it turns into Bluestone Lake in West Virginia and emerges later as the Kanawha River at the Gauley Bridge. The New River ends its metamorphosis when it empties into the great Mississippi River. (from https://dwr.virginia.gov/waterbody/new-river/)
The name "New River" came as early explorers came across the river that was not on their map, so they named it the "New River". |