Another Carolinnnnnna ... First Down!

Saturday, November 5, 2016
The University of South Carolina is here in Columbia and the people here love their Gamecocks!  We spent the day with Stephen, Sandra, Michael, Heather, and a few friends tailgating and at the big game - South Carolina vs. Missouri...it was nice to be there and especially nice because USC won the game.  Football down here is like a religion I think, based on how many people showed up to the game and to tailgate all around the stadium.  Amazing all that goes on and the expense of the stadium which hosts only seven games this year...but as I said football is big...

I got caught up in the moment, hollering First Down! when the announcer prompted us with "Another Carolinnnnna", after each first down made.  I also hollered Game! when prompted by the cheerleaders followed by the other side of the stadium hollering Cocks!  I think it may be the only place that I've ever been that it was ok to say that word so many times in one outing :)  Don't even get me started about waving the white towel...you can ask Wilson about that, as I waved it in his face more than once...Why I even saw myself on the big game screen...how much cooler can it get!

All in all it was a fantastic day!

Tailgating Party!

Cousins & Columbia

Thursday, November 3, 2016

One of the things that I find I am doing is reaching out more to friends and family while on this trip. Generally I do not put myself out there (I know many of you may not believe this, but if you really think about it I think you may be able to see that it's true...maybe not for my relationship with you but with groups of people in general) -- It's not like I don't hold conversations with people, I just don't think that I fully engage or I keep things light and funny (yes Terrie, I am funny, voted as such at Rotary, don't forget that!).  Much of that is because I don't feel that I have anything interesting to share...well this trip has changed that.  Conversations now start about our journey and how we got to where we are...from there I'm finding it interesting to have other conversations, more engagement with people that I may not have engaged fully previously.  I'm enjoying this especially with my family members.

We are now at the home of my cousins, Stephen and Sandra, in Columbia, SC. Stephen cooked several Lebanese dishes, which were delightful.  Of course, this lends itself to recipes, conversations about our family, and memories....I'm looking forward to more of these types of interactions during our stay here.  Not only did we talk but Stephen and Sandra are also gamers and we've already played the Brazilian card game Trunca and are even planning some bridge...I'm especially excited by the bridge as I don't get to play very often.  

Steve preparing for an evening of cards.
He's the one in the background :)

                                           

Leave Beaufort 12:32 pm

80°

Rte. 21N►601N►then a bunch of little roads/streets w/o route numbers

Arrive Columbia (NE side) 3:50 pm

Bucolic Beaufort, SC

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Off to Beaufort, SC (the eau has a long u sound like beautiful) not to be confused with Beaufort, NC (the eau has a long o sound like the word bow).  Wilson has a cousin who lives in Beaufort where we will spend Wednesday night with.

The visit with David & Susan was very enjoyable.  This was the first time meeting Susan and I've only met David a couple of times.  Clearly you can tell that Wilson and David are related because they have the same teasing sense of humor which I have seen in many of the males in that side of the family.  Susan and David were warm and welcoming, which made for a comfortable visit.

Beaufort also got hit by the storm, lots of downed trees, but like the other places we have visited they are doing what they have to do to get back to normal...I so can relate to that.

There are a lot of old homes in this area, including the home where The Big Chill was filmed.  I think for a couple mil you can purchase it, but it needs quite a bit of work.  I didn't mention that while in Savannah you can walk by the diner where Jennie, from Forest Gump, worked as well as the place where Forest Gump himself expounded on life being like a box of chocolates....Wow!  Sound bites now too...maybe I am better at blogging than I thought :)

Beaufort is very charming...check it out....also, please note the family resemblence in the picture of Wilson and his cousins....

       

                                                     
Leave Hilton Head 10:15 am
74°
Rte. 278N►170E►21
Arrive Beaufort 11:29 am
Miles traveled - 42

Leave Pollacksville, NC 12:12 pm
Rte 17S all the way baby!
Arrive Myrtle Beach Camp Ground 4ish maybe???
Miles traveled 211ish

Day Trip to Savannah

Monday, October 31, 2016

I've wanted to go to Savannah ever since reading Midnight in the Garden of Evil.  I've also heard so much about how wonderful it was, which added to my desire to go there....there was a lot of build-up leading to the visit, that I didn't realize until after I got there.  Like a movie that is talked about so much prior to seeing it, there are certain expectations that by the time you actually see it, you are disappointed that it didn't meet them all.  That is how I felt about my visit to Savannah.  Don't get me wrong, it was nice, just not as nice as I expected....As you probably have figured out I like to visit historical places and this definitely fits the bill there...both for the Revolutionary War and the Civil War.  I most like the story about the cannons that were gifted to Savannah by George Washington, that were subsequently buried to hide them during the Civil War to avoid the Union seizing them...yes, I enjoyed that story, but ironically I didn't get a picture of them, so I guess you will have to look at them on the web - Washington's Guns...yeah, I'm really good at this blogging stuff.  I was feeling much more artsy that day :)  Below are some of the photos that I took....

         

               

Sunrise on Hilton Head

   

  

   

Hilton Head compliments of the Marriott

Saturday- Wednesday, October 29 - November 2, 2016
Off to Hilton Head, where we have reservations at a Marriott Vacation Club rental...yes, yes, yes, we took advantage of a great deal for a room (condo really) and we only had to sell our first born...no, no, we just needed to listen to a selling spiel on the vacation club for 90 minutes...

We didn't need to listen to the spiel until Tuesday (11/1) and in all reality it wasn't that bad.  We had an individual agent named Tom, who was from The Netherlands.  He was apparently a body guard for someone at the Dutch embassy in Washington for many years..and he looked army-like.  When I first saw him, I thought that it was going to be a hard sell, but we didn't feel pressed to purchase.  He shared the point program (vs. the buy-a-"time") program and expanded on the various benefits and such...for some people it may be a fit, although more flexible than time shares, the point system is still expensive for the average person...apparently they are working on a buy back system, which would be a good thing for people as twice during this trip we have had discussions about people not being able to get out of the yearly maintenance contracts.  Also, this is the first time I've ever heard that there was a grace period for buyers remorse.

We stayed in a two bedroom, two bath condo(with laundry!) just minutes away from the beach.  The beach with little to no surf, it was like being in a lake.  Here we did the beach thing and made nice connections with the staff.  There was a group of young ladies who were sort of like Julie from the Love Boat, activity directors...they were fun and I'm not saying that because all three of the activities that we did involved free alcohol, although that didn't hurt :)

I'm feeling a bit disjointed as I have been neglecting the blog, in favor of basically doing nothing...sorry about that...so I'm not relaying everything in chronological order...

Arrival was a bit challenging because parking for Alex was not available onsite...here the destruction from Matthew was a bit more visible as there was still a lot of trees down and piles of stuff out on the lawns from people's houses which were flooded...that piece of it was was very reminiscent of the flooding after Irene...I feel a bit bad about not offering to help in some way, knowing what they were going through, but I just didn't seem to have it in me....both Wilson and I have talked about volunteering along our journey but I guess now was not the right time for us...twinges of quilt were definitely felt by me.

Here we entertained friends from Vermont - go figure...Our friend Richard was here doing a tennis camp with Dudley (former owner of Maple Valley in Plainfield - where they made great hummus with parsley).  They stopped by for snacks and a quick visit.  Our friends Geoff & Ellen were also in the area and spent a night with us...so much fun!  They actually were here to visit Pickney Island Wildlife Reserve.  Ellen's grandfather owned the island before deeding it for the reserve...owners of an island, how cool is that!

Wilson, Geoff, Ellen, and me

                                           

Leave Myrtle Beach Campground 9:50 am (11/2)
Rte. 17S► (517E which was a detour to Wilson's old stomping ground from the winter of 2014-2015 - Isle of Palms where we had lunch at Coconut Joe's.  At Coconut Joe's there was a couple from Fairfax, VT sitting right beside us...go figure - Wilson had a Patty Melt in honor of me, so he says...what a "ham"burger)
Back on the road to Hilton Head - 17S►95S►462E►278E
Arrive 4:15ish then another 45 minutes to straighten out lodging for Alex, in room by 5:30 pm
Mileage 217.7

Gas is generally around $2.04/gal on the island...they get you though, because they have "club" pricing which is discounted....we're always on the lookout for good gas prices :)

Myrtle Beach Here We Come!

Tuesday - Saturday, October 25-29
We arrived at Myrtle Beach and set up camp.  My first impressions were not very good, as I was attacked by a great many mosquitoes as soon as I opened the car door.  A number of reasons caused the attack...much standing water after Hurricane Matthew blew by and the fact that I had an open wound (I had fallen on the boardwalk the previous day and had a skinned knee).  I literally killed mosquitoes two by two as they landed near my knee...the scrap is not that pretty to look at and as a whole, it's the swelling and bruising of the knee that is bothering me most, of course that is until I slap my damn knee forgetting about the scrap....it only took me 3-4 times to fix that...

Along with the mosquitoes Myrtle Beach State Park is located in the flight pattern of local airport, which is quite busy.  To begin with this was a bit irritating, but in the end, it was fun to watch the low flying planes as they prepared to land or as they were taking off...pretty big planes too.

Back to the mosquitoes....The Clam, our netted gazebo structure (pops up in a minute!) was a godsend....It really kept out most of the little pests, although somehow a bird got in which baffled Wilson and me.

Our stay here consisted of hanging out at the beach (a short walk because the camp is oceanfront), taking walks, we even rode our bikes around once and of course exploring the local area for places to watch the World Series....We found several different places - from local biker dive to almost chain-like nondescript sports bar to what appeared to be a family-owned, long-standing Italian restaurant...Quite honestly it will be good when the series is over, as it takes a hit on our budget to go out so often.

The park had only been open for less than a week prior to our arrival due to hurricane damage...it appears the biggest issues really were downed trees, they were everywhere.  The Park Service clearly had been working hard to get things back up and running...The most notably problems, as we drove down the pancake house laden strip, were large glass signs that were blown out.

   

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TERRIE!
October 26

                                                   
Leave Pollacksville, NC 12:12 pm
Rte 17S all the way baby!
Arrive Myrtle Beach Camp Ground 4ish maybe???
Miles traveled 211ish
Camp costs - $32/night + taxes + fees - site includes water & electric and beach access, which would have been $5/person each day if we were not camping...you must consider this as a plus!