15 million years ago...

Fifteen million years ago, a little north and east of the town of Aurora, NC, a piece of ancient ocean was blocked off from the sea and evaporated, leaving for humans to discover the world's largest phosphate mine. Digging through the accumulated silt and sand, the mine owners have discovered layers of fossil rich dirt filled with ancient sharks teeth, petrified crocodile skin, sea urchin spines, whalebone and many other delights including coprolite or petrified fish poop.

This picture, from the Aurora Fossil Museum website, shows one of the mounds of mine tailings provided by the phosphate mine for museum visitors to explore. There is another pile where school teachers and almost intrepid librarians can collect buckets of this stuff to share with their students. Usually, I'm providing early literacy programs to preschoolers, but during the summer, I'm often presenting to school age kids and a real live fossil hunt makes for a great presentation. The best part of the museum for me is that it is just a few miles up the road from my friends with the private campground on Blount's Creek.

Well, I needed some fossil dirt, and my Scamp-owning friend from Virginia, Mary, had not been to this part of our state. So I invited Mary to meet me the weekend after Memorial Day at Kathy Daniels' Middle Creek Landing where Jessie and I had stayed last year. Kathy runs Middle Creek Landing as a women-only private retreat and she was having a gathering of RVing women that weekend. It was to be an opportunity for women who might be traveling alone, like Mary and I, to meet others that might want to caravan or meet up as Mary and I sometimes do.

Mary and her 16' Scamp

It was only a very short trip. I drove down early Saturday and met the gang for lunch, hit the museum with Mary that afternoon and headed back the next day.

We met for lunch on the Middle Creek Landing grounds but gathered again for dinner in Little Washington at Blackwater Jack's Tiki Bar and Grill. Kathy grew up in the area and seemed to know everyone. Her mother joined us for an evening out. It was a great group of women, including the woman who owns the bar itself and generously provided us with discount coupons and great samples. A couple of women were retired military, several of us were widows, all of us love to RV and explore the back roads.

Membership in the private club is nominal and hookups are modestly priced. And the bathhouse is great. No reservations are required once you are a member but membership is strictly limited to women. If you have an interest, I can put you in touch with Kathy.

I have bought my membership and I look forward to coming back (and probably will have to at least every summer as long as I do summer programs). And I really look forward to crossing paths again with this great crew.