Morganton
Campground
Steele Creek Park and Family Campground
This was a family friendly campground out in the country. It had a creek running through it which they dammed to create a great swimming area. There was also a playground, pool, and a mini golf course. It was very quiet during the week but filled up on the weekend.
Hiking
To make a long story short ...
The Wedding of Kimberly and Tom
This is why we were in this area in the first place. In September of 2021, our daughter Breanna married Kyle in Prescott, WI. She asked me to provide the sound for the pre-, mid-, and post- wedding festivities. Meanwhile, Kyle's sister Kimberly was engaged to Tom (who is from England). Due to the COVID restrictions, Tom's family was not able to travel to the U.S. for a couple of years, so their wedding kept getting postponed.
During this past winter, we were in the southwestern part of the country making plans to spend the Spring and Summer going north into Utah and exploring Montana. Well, during this time, many of the world's COVID travel restrictions were eased and Kimberly's and Tom's wedding plans started taking shape. So they asked if I would provide the sound system for their wedding, as I did for Breanna's and Kyle's.
You should know that our default answer is always "yes". We aborted our UT and MT plans and started making plans to go from NM to NC for a late July wedding. We had plenty of time. We typically don't like to stay anywhere less than a couple of weeks, which lets us explore any given area without feeling in a hurry. We didn't have THAT much time, but we stayed a week here, two weeks there, etc. and happily showed up outside Morganton NC the week of the wedding.
We had stayed in Asheville almost a year prior and loved it, so we were looking forward to being in the area again. The campground we stayed at was wonderful (see above) and the wedding venue, Brown Mountain Beach Resort, was about 8 miles away. What a beautiful venue, too. The immediate family and wedding party all stayed on the grounds - IN YURTS! Yes, they have (I think) 12 huge yurts and some other rent-able cabins.
The family planned several get-togethers; a 60s-themed birthday party and a family BBQ. Kimberly asked me to play for a couple hours at the BBQ. Super fun!
The venue catered all the food and drink. A D.J. was hired for the reception. The wedding ceremony was on the beach along the river. It was SUPER HOT AND MUGGY, but everyone made the best of it.