Hyco Lake Campground

We arrived just before 3pm (I know, a little earlier than most of the time?).  After driving past the marina, I was a little confused as to exactly where the office was (see a couple of photos below and you'll find it)

This is the turn for the campground - across the street is Buoy's (restaurant).
The campground office is the little white building in this photograph below.

Park Details

This campground is privately owned and is next to Lake Hyco. 

205 Pointer Dr, Semora, NC 27343
(336) 599-4343
Open from 9am - 5pm

Hyco Lake is a very large man made lake.  This campground is along the shoreline of a portion of Hyco Lake.

There are 65 RV Sites, $35 a night.  There are also some primitive sites.  Many of the people staying at this campground are staying for a longer period of time than a state park (maximum of 14 days in most cases).  A good number of the people appeared to be leaving for work during the weekdays.

Campground Details

• Water/Electric (has dump station)
• 30 and 50 amp electric
• Picnic table, Fire ring
• Back in sites
• Shade/gravel – some sites were not shaded, but a good number are
• Playground, pickle ball courts, amphitheater, disc golf
• Bathrooms/showers
• Checkin is 3pm
• Checkout is 1pm
• Quiet hours are 10pm till 7am
• Campers must provide current rabies records for all dogs during check-in process

Our campsite was #58 – while not on the lake, we did have a lake view from our campsite.  This campground has the hookups for campsites set up such that for every 2 campsites, the hookups are next to each other.  In our case, the hookups were on the ‘wrong’ side for us to back our camper in which is standard practice.  Don’t get me wrong, the size, shade, and overall campsite was perfect – this was just something I had not run into on our travels thus far.  And…it presented challenges since our electric cord and water hose was 30 feet (that’s been fixed now!).  For this campground, I recommend having a 50 foot water hose and 50 foot electric cord just in case you need the extra length.

Our first night we cooked outside and enjoyed the lake view. 

Nothing like dog supervision while cooking!

Ollie didn't care about dinner, she was sleeping under the camper.

After dinner we took a short walk over to the lake and photographed the sunset.  The first photo is from our campsite.

Short walk to the lake side for these photographs.

Boating on Hyco Lake

There is a marina with a couple of boat ramps that are available for use for a fee.  Our friends brought their pontoon boat over to the lake and we spent a couple of hours seeing the lake from the boat.

Wonder why there isn't a photograph of Ollie? Because she was sitting in my lap most of the boat ride and there wasn't a way to take a photo of her while she was in my lap.  Here's one photograph my friend, Janet, took of us.

Proof that my lap was full!  They used to do this years ago when they were small and they think they can both still fit.

Power plant along the way cruising by...and the overall lake (it was a gray, overcast day when we went out in the boat)

The lake front lots have a rather steep decline to get to the lake.  There are also rules about what a boat house can look like on this lake - and it cannot be just a dock - must have a cover (roof) on the boat house.  These folks have a slide. 

And some have such a steep decline/include to the lake that they put in an elevator!

The majority of the homes on this lake are vacation homes - big vacation homes and are not lived in year round.  Many of the people come from the Raleigh area and enjoy the lake at their vacation homes.

Inside the camper....

Ever wonder what the dogs are doing in the camper?

Um, that's Ollie!

Jim playing with Rue - she has arthritis in her joint on the left left (and in the elbow on her right leg) ...if you notice Jim put the paper towel roll over her leg to see what she would do.

Literally, the dogs were probably so tired that they had no issues just laying around when we aren't doing anything.  Course, our camper is small so you can't do a lot when you're inside (read, watch tv, cook, bathe, play a game - not much else).

Mayo Lake Park

There are 2 campgrounds in the area of Roxboro, North Carolina - one is Hyco Lake Campground (privately owned) and the other is Mayo Lake Park (county owned).  We decided to take a drive over to Mayo Lake Park and check out the campground and look for a trail to hike and let the dogs go out and get some energy released.

Mayo Lake campground is a bit different than what I am use to seeing.  In this campground a lot of the sites were parallel parking (so to speak) along the roadway.  The sites look like they are very close together as well.  Overall the campground is very shady and pretty, but there were a LOT of people camping and enjoying themselves as we drove through.

We drove around a little bit more and finally found where the 'main entrance' was and started off on a hike to see what it was all about.  Along the way, we came across what was a really pretty hiking trail.  The Sappony Walking Trail is unique to us because this trail has lots of beautiful green moss growing on the trail.  This also makes me think that perhaps the trail isn't hiked a lot and we didn't see anyone else on this trail.

Eventually we came across a water source - apparently a spring that was damned up at some point - but for the dogs, it was a welcome treat.  Abby is all for getting in the water if she is allowed to.

Map of Mayo Lake Park (from the internet)

Visiting Henderson, North Carolina - my father's birthplace

I haven't been in this area of North Carolina in a good number of years now - but we were close and didn't have any specific plans so I thought maybe it would be a good time to drive over to Henderson, North Carolina and do a little 'memory lane' trip.  So much has changed, yet so much hasn't.  We went down main street, then cut over to take a photograph of the high school my father went to.

For those of you that do not know, my father grew up as an only child - his older sister died as a baby.  He was born in 1928 - almost 100 years ago!

I knew that the house my grandfather built was in bad shape and had been abandoned, but I still wanted to take a look just to see how bad it was - and it's bad, so sad.  A small two bedroom wooden house that was apparently originally a log cabin or had some logs in the structure hidden away (I never saw them as a child).  The crape myrtle tree is still there on the corner of the property but wasn't blooming at the time we drove by. In the back on the other side it looks like the roof is falling in potentially leaving the inside to be damaged by water.

Here's a photograph of the house back in around the year 2000 - you can see that the house is starting to show signs of neglect - the front porch has stuff stacked in boxes - but overall, it's still the house I remember.

August 1958 - that's the month before my father got married to my Mom.
And here's a photo of my paternal grandparents (Ollie and Pearl Perdue) with my father in the middle, Tyrus Ollie Perdue.  Through the years, they always seemed to pose in front of the crape myrtle tree - it had pink flowers.  In this photo my father seems to have his tongue between his lips (I am betting that my mother took this photo).  And the smile on my grandmother (Pearl) face as she looks at them and not the camera.  My father was almost 30 when this photograph was taken.

The memories these photographs bring back....we lost all of them in a six month period.  George Ollie on August 17, 1972; Odessa Pearl on October 24, 1972 and my father, Tyrus Ollie on February 23, 1973.  I have no idea how my mother did it - but she did - carried on in life and raised us three girls.

The last stop was the cemetery where my grandparents are buried - they are buried in the city cemetery, Elmwood Cemetery.  It's huge and oddly enough is located on Breckenridge Road - which is a dead end road (no pun intended) and passes by the city jail.  Why? Good question.  My sister was able to give me some clue where their graves reside - and after a good amount of looking and sweating I finally found them.

So, you might notice something when you look at this - my grandfather (my father's father) passed away just before my 10th birthday.  I love this guy! He was so cool - and I only remember little bits about him because we didn't live close and we visited each year up through my 9th birthday I guess. But pay attention to his name - yes, his middle name is "Ollie" and that is the name he went by as his father was "George".  

If you're paying attention closely, you'll recall that I have a female dog named Ollie....and there's a story behind that.  I actually didn't have anything to do with her name.  We fostered Rue and Irma (yep, that's what the rescue called her) because these puppies came into the rescue with Hurricane Irma.  Yet, I personally had some issues calling a little baby pup "Irma" (sounds old).  So I called her 'Red' (red fur) and 'Three' (she was the 3rd puppy of the litter we photographed) - anything but Irma.  Then it was time for Jim and I to take a vacation with our dogs, Jimbo and Abby.  So these little girls were being fostered by others within the rescue while we were gone for a week.  I met the girl that was fostering them to pick them up and she told me, well - we kinda changed her name from "Irma" to "Olive" and then "Ollie" ....and that's the story behind how my little girl dog got named after my Grandfather "Ollie Perdue".

Jim was kind enough to help me clean up the stones a little bit - we didn't really come prepared, but he found a little razor knife in the truck that helped.  Emmett Foster Brummitt is the brother of my grandmother, Odessa Pearl Brummitt Perdue.  The large upright stone says "Perdue" on one side and "Brummitt" on the other side.

Couple things to note should I or anyone else go looking for their graves - first, once you go through the gate take the road to the left. Here's a photo of the gate - you can just barely get a clue that there is a turn coming up quickly on the left.

From the street, look on your right, kinda up the hill....but you'll see these upright stones starting with the one closest to the street - Watkins, Palmer, Satterwhite.  The 4th one in says Perdue - that's it!

After we found the stone, wind blowing, sun in my face and sweat rolling, I stopped for a quick photograph.

Buoy's Restaurant

This is a dog friendly restaurant that is apparently within walking distance of our campsite - except we didn't know that there were stairs down to the main road that we could use and then cross the street to the restaurant.  So we drove what should have been 5 minutes max - got stuck behind someone going to the dump station, then behind a lawn mower and well we definitely could have walked there faster!

If you are camping here or in the area - it's a great place to eat and hang out.  Nice area outside to hang with the dogs.

Here's a photo of it from the campground at sunrise (hence the empty parking lot).

Buffalo Springs (on the drive to Hyco Lake)

Buffalo Springs is located along our route on Highway 58 between Virginia Beach and Hyco Lake Campground.  We stopped to take a break from driving and this was a wonderful stop.  It is located very close to Highway 58 and Buffalo Springs Road in Virginia.  Address is 177 Buffalo Springs Road, Buffalo Junction, VA 24529.

“Mineral (Lithia) water springs. In 1895 the water was sold for $5 a dozen half gallon bottles. It's free to the public today. Buffalo Springs is located off Highway 58 West only minutes away from Clarksville, Virginia's only lakeside town, on the shores of Buggs Island Lake/John H. Kerr Reservoir.”  Footnote: Buffalo Springs

There are several different historical signs with information about this location.  Part of the information is copied here: “*Historic buildings no longer on the site, having been dismantled and removed; Facilities available: public picnic area and shelter, historical interpretive signs, vault toilet, and drinking water. This area is free. It is owned and maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, John H. Kerr Dam & Reservoir Project. *”

Abby so wanted to go swimming....but I didn't want a wet dog in the car while we finished the drive to the campground.

Hyco Lake Campground Map

To see more photographs of our stay at Hyco Lake Campground, click here.

Our next stop is Falls Lake Recreation Area in Wake Forest, North Carolina!