01 JUN 2024
GREENFIELD LAKE PARK
GETTING THERE
We woke up to a gorgeous North Carolina morning, so we decided to take the kids out for some fun. Originally we were going to hit up a local nature path, but our youngest was vehemently against it…I hinestly have no idea whst drives her whims 😆
So we decided we would go to Greenfield Lake Park, downtown. (That’s where most of @rorykl guitar covers are recorded)
We saw this food truck with a super rad paint job while we were hesding into town; actually it was like a convoy of food trucks! So while my wife frove us into town, she put me on the task of figuring out where they were headed - she loves food trucks for some reason…I don’t honestly care much ine way or the other, but sometimes they do have some pretty bomb-ass food.
This one turned out to be a tea truck(???) Whatever I guess. But I found that there was a food truck festival happening in the next town over, from 11 to 5…so we had our lunch plans set for after the lake.
We arrived at the lake around 10:00 in the morning.
The girls stop everyone walking a dog and ask if they can pet it…kids really are spectacular humans.
They have this nice plaque at the entrance…and Allie wanted to climb the big rock behind the cherry blossom tree (is that a cherry blossom?).
Today I came prepared; I brought my @rorykl stickers and a bag of unsalted peanuts to share with the wildlife.
…but it turned out the pedal boat rentals don’t open until 11:00, so we had an hour to kill. Luckily, there’s a pretty nice playground right off of the lake trail, so it wasn’t hard to find a way to take care of that hour.
PLAYGROUND TIME!
The lake can be seen from the playground…its actually just right across the path, and it’s a really nice backdrop.
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We explored every bit of the playground, and pushed kids on swings until I was thoroughly done with it lol - but it was fun :)
When 11:00 hit, we headed on back to the boat rentals.
PEDAL BOATS
Apparently it’s called the Dickson Baldridge Docks? Huh.
They have a nice little boat house, with several options for rental - but I advocated pretty hard for thr pedal boats. I love pedal and pontoon boats for family outings on the water. I guess I just like space they offer.
The girls played eith the rocks in the boathouse, and were having a blast with it - but I could tell the guy working there didn’t line it, so I made them stop. They were good sports about it for the most part.
After we paid for the boat ($17…seven dollars more than it was teo years ago, but still ot bad) and got our life vests, we were ready to get on the water!
Although I was unable to get the attention of any of the numerous crows around the lake, the turtles were absolutely BONKERS for the peanuts. This little guy basically followed us around the lake for an hour, chomping peanuts along the way…if only crows were so easy 🤣
I debated tabling the next set of images as I did above with the playground shots, but I really wanted these ines to stand out a little more - this was such a beautiful place, teeming with abundant wildlife.
This old turtle was very brave. He had been perched in the sun with two others - but they took off when they saw us coming. This old wizard just didn’t give a shit!
The girls loved getting close to the animals…although when we came across alligators later, Lucy was not as brave as her sister 🤣
We circled back to the brave old wizard turtle one last time. I really wanted to get a picture of him up even closer if he’d let me - and he did! He didn’t scatter until i tried putting some peanuts on the log in front of him…but for all I know, it was him that wound up trailing us the rest of the day :)
Most of the alligators at Greenfield Lake stay pretty low-key. If you’re not paying attention, you could honestly breeze past them without ever knowing.
Get a load of his rad little chiller!!! This little turtle was maybe about the diameter of a baseball, all covered in moss - a legit seasoned beteran for his size!
Although the gators tend to prefer staying hidden, this guy was clearly giving zero shits. He strolled right uo to the solar panels (can anyone tell me what the solar panels might be doing in the middle of a lake?) and climbed right up on them to get some sun. Lucy was dead scared of his ass…Allie asked if we could give him peanuts 🤣
Our little tour arou d the lake was loaded with fun, but pedal boats are not known for speed, and our hour was about up, so we headed back to the docks.
Lucy insisted that I take her picture by the recycling bin on the way out of the park, and I had no reason to refuse :)
FOODTRUCK FESTIVAL
Belville was the name of the town! Thank goodness I took this picture, or I never would have remembered that 😅
Pretty much it was an open field with a wagon circle of food trucks and picnic tables in the center. We went to some NYC truck. It was real good. I had a chopped cheese sandwich, which I loaded down with habanero sauce. I didn’t take any pictures of my food, I just ate it.
They had this little business card holder at the ordering window, so I thanked myself for having the foresight to make my Hive promo stickers in business card size, and dropped a few in the holder…maybe we’ll get some new recruits around here if anyone ever scans my “sign up here” QR code!
Although most of the side attractions cost money, there was a bounce house rental company that graciously allowed kids to jumo and slide for free. I was tempted to hit uo the beer tent and grab a few brews while we watched the kids bounce - and my wife was down - but when I checked out the tent, I just felt all the beer options were a little too wimpy to be worth $6 per glass. To be honest, I never really buy a beer that’s less than 7% ABV, but these ines were also fruity flavored and, call me old fashioned, but I like my beer to be beer flavored.
Not a big deal, I just came back to the bounce area and told my wife the selection wasn’t really our style.
HEADING HOME
After the festival, we hit the grocery store to get stuff for dinner, and then headed home to hit the pool. (see my homeboy Crowdey back there?)
Lucy got in her swimsuit and got all suncreened up, but pretty much immediately decided it was too cold. Allie splashed around for a bit, but ultimately came to the same conclusion.
MaryAnn and I laid out in the sun for a while, and the kids played inside. Eventually I got hot enough and jumped in, but by that time I was so cooked that the water just felt plain old awesome.
And, finally, to bring things to a super lame close, we made dinner and cleaned the house.
Today was a really fun day, every moment was a reminder of how fortunate we are, and I am grateful for the many blessings that have graced our lives…now I am going to make some fresh squeezed lemonade and grapefruit juice, splash in some Sprite and a healthy dose of vodka, sit back, and relax for a bit before I close my crinkly old eyes for the night!
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