Our last week at Kings Mountain was the last week of April, but I’ve had so many things to write about in South Carolina!  This week I am finishing up my South Carolina posts and will then move on to what we have been doing in Ohio.

Our last week at Kings Mountain was as much fun, and as full of surprises, as all our other weeks.  There was a Volunteer Appreciation Lunch on a Thursday with all the staff at Kings Mountain coming to share lunch.  Since we were the only volunteers there that day, we felt very appreciated.  They even drove all the way to Shelby to get Calabash Chicken from Fatz!  The office space at Kings Mountain is very limited, so seating was really tight, but it was nice to see everyone together.  They gave us some lovely parting gifts.

The Monday after that, Tom and I took some of our coworkers to supper – the Interpretive Rangers and Wilma.  We ate at Ronda’s which is one of those local “diners and dives” that has excellent food.  It is the closest place to the National Park to eat, so we often recommended it to others, but we had never been there.  The hamburgers were excellent and the onion rings were some of the best ever.  Our waitress was a hoot and we had a great time.  We did not get the Mike’s Burger (one pound of beef with two thick slices of ham and a pound of french fries) but Lamar, one of the rangers, did and he actually ate the whole thing!

On Friday of our last week, Tom and I went to the North Carolina Visitor Welcome Center and arranged a display in their showcase.  We had prepared the display a month before, but had to wait for the showcase to be emptied.  While we were at the Welcome Center, we gave a little impromptu interpretive talk to the employees so they could answer questions about what was in the display.

The Saturday of our last week at Kings Mountain was eventful with a rescue.  We had huge numbers of scouts that day and one Girl Scout troop had gone for a hike with Ranger Leah.  Shortly after they left we got a radio call that one of the adult leaders on the hike had passed out on the trail.  Leah asked me to call 911 and wanted Tom to grab the first aid kit and come down the trail toward them.  When I hung up from calling 911, a woman in front of me said that she was a physician – did I want her to go with Tom?  Definitely a God sighting there!  I said yes, and she was very helpful with the woman who was diabetic.

Eventually the ambulance and two fire trucks arrived.  Tom, our Law Enforcement ranger, some state rangers, and the firefighters carried the woman out on a litter and she went to the hospital.  The EMTs were too out of shape to help with carrying her over the rough trail.  During all this time, I was the only one in the Visitor Center coordinating the rescue and handling the 400 guests who showed up before anyone else got back.  Ranger Adrian was leading a group of military historians on a tour and missed all the excitement.

Our last day, Sunday May 1, was somewhat rainy and quiet in contrast to the previous days.  We used the time to erase our footprint at Kings Mountain, put away our costumes, and talk to Rangers Adrian and Leah.  Tom got to give a final battlefield tour.

It is always hard to leave a place and people we have grown to love, but we had a wonderful last week at Kings Mountain.  And, we get to go back for six weeks this fall, so we will get to see our coworkers again.