A very interesting campground!

We had to make a choice some time ago about how big a motorhome is best?  Obviously bigger is better in some regards as to living room and storage, but too big also keeps you out of a lot of campgrounds and makes maneuvering a bit challenging sometimes.  Well, as you know, we went with big, 45' long and almost 13' high.  And we accepted the fact we were cutting ourselves out of a lot of places, i.e., we can't stay in Yellowstone at Fishing Bridge anymore due to our size.  We also are in the habit of asking whenever we contact a campground if we can fit.  We use the Trailer Life/Woodall directory to choose most of our campgrounds with huge emphasis on their rating system, particularly the last number.  They rate using 3 numbers, such as 8/8/9.  The first number is completeness of the facility, does it have a pool, mini golf, clubhouse, rec hall, etc, we don't really worry about this, in fact we like a lower number on this as it means a less hectic place.  The middle number is how clean and nice are the rest rooms, showers, and laundry, we don't care about that either as we don't use the campground's facilities.  It's the last number we look at and that is visual attractiveness.  How beautiful are the grounds, how scenic is the area, is the landscaping nice, etc.  The rating go as high as 10/10/10, and there aren't too many 10's out there.

Soooo, after our mad exodus from the OBX, we were looking for a campground somewhere in the Asheville area and saw Mama Gertie's, rated 8.5/10/10!  And it was shown as big rig friendly.  Now big rig friendly means that the sites are big enough, the roads are wide enough, the trees trimmed enough, the turns can be made all for a 40-45' motorhome or 5th wheel.  We called ahead and made a reservation, they said no problem for our size, good to go.

So just east of Asheville we get off the exit, make a left and head UP a narrow two lane highway towards the campground.  Okay.  Then we see the entrance, nice and wide and well marked and notice how STEEP the road is, hmmmmm.  In we go and stop at the office, and there is such a slope that I say to Jan with a smile that I will stay in the motorhome in case it slips down the hill.  As I sit there I look around and although it is very wooded I notice other rigs parked way, way up the mountain in front of us.  Thinking wow, they are up there, well they did tell us there was a gorgeous view.  Jan comes out and says they will escort us up the hill to our site, and be SURE to drive exactly where the golf cart goes, hmmmmm.  Well straight up we go, winding our way past all the rigs I saw from the parking lot, then on up and up past another group of RVs, on up and up twisting around and scraping pretty bad in a couple spots, finally up to the top, and see the U-turn in front of us knowing I can't make it with the Jeep still attached.  Yeah, it is still hooked up, I had no idea what we were in store for and no one said to disconnect, and there was certainly nowhere on our ascent to unhook.  So we unhook and make it around to an absolutely beautiful site with an amazing view, but with the over shadowing feeling of dread knowing we would have to go back DOWN the hill and around several very sharp turns!

We had a very nice stay, met some very nice people, enjoyed our million dollar views and then the next morning went down the hill.  It wasn't pretty, very scary, front tires sliding along one time, hitting the rear end of our motorhome enough to mangle our rock guard, but we managed to get out and we have to say as nice as the campground was and as incredible the views were, we will never take our motorhome there again.  Now if we were smaller, I would go back in a heart beat, it WAS that beautiful.  Also the owners and managers could not have been nicer.  They have put a lot of work into this place and are adding more sites to the top of the hill where we were, and were willing to help and alter things to make it better.  We were the first 45'er to go all the way up, and they mentioned they have a Prevost coming next week, and they ride even lower than we do so.......we'll see.  He is going to try to fix some of the areas where we dragged and we wish him luck because this place could be spectacular.  But for us we get to chalk up another one of THOSE experiences to our repertoire. 

Our site

Looking out past our neighbor

Our view