Author: roneverdij

Yesterday I wrote about the Campground owner in South Carolina who stopped by our camper in his car and talked a bit about the history of the Camp. Today we were listening to NPR and the topic most heard was about the Charlottesville riots ,where white supremacy and neo nazi groups killed a woman and hurt 19 others. Horrible stories and in light of this, the talk with our Camp owner needs a bit more fleshing out. It was on my mind all day  and making fun of the conversation yesterday was a shock reaction to the unbelievable things we heard him saying. I must have been pretty sheltered and growing up in the 60’s and 70’s in Holland obviously hasn’t  given me any exposure to blatant racism.. Now this man was a perfect gentleman, understood customer service , was funny and entertaining and very very friendly.  But.. as Deidre so eloquently said today, he, like so many people in the sweet south , had a horrible blind spot. The open talk about race and his feeling of being better then , (literally his words , spoken as if the most normal thing in the world), “blackies or Neggers,” was scary to say the least. This feeling of being better or supreme was completely natural and obvious to him. There was just not a grain of doubt in his way of speaking about them “neggers” that they were less human then white folk. His black helper was trusted and let in the house without knocking , proof to him that there were good men of color as well checked by the lip. Very hard to listen to. How will his grandchildren , playing in the lake and fishing from their porch, grow up and see the world . How can this thinking inside the head of an 70 year old man still exist in 2017. How many more generations ?

Next morning, early 7:30 Departure uneventful 369 miles to our favorite riverside campground, Yellow Jacket! beautiful spot right on the river, tomorrow we have a boat and exploring time.  Barbecued steak, potatoes and mushrooms tonight. Life is good

South Carolina is fading, still nagging though. Would love to have some comments on others experiences like this. Thanks in advance.

Good Night.

Yesterday feels like weeks ago , we said goodbye with heavy hearts, we all felt a bit sad to leave , we had a great time with the family, hope this tradition can continue for many years to come. after oohs and aaahs by the members of the clan when they saw the Lady folds and became little, we left at noon, I decided after an hour to skip passing the big cities, New York, Philly,Baltimore and DC, and take a longer route west of the cities. I guess it was a good choice as we had perfect weather, no traffic and smooth sailing. We found a campground in Pennsylvania ,arrived after sunset and had a scary five minutes parking the beast. Made her big again, had a few bites and straight to bed, up at 5:30 am the next morning and out by 6:15 am for a long day of driving. Plans were to hit Georgia or close, which we did, We found an empty campground on a small lake just past Columbia,……… SOUTH CAROLINA ! We put thirty dollars in singles and quarters in a slot and that was the price for our own 350 acres. The owner stopped by in his Toyota and enlightened us a bit with the history of the place, it seems to have been an early Woodstock as this placed rock and rolled in the 70’s. There are also three adorable donkeys behind our camper who take care of the grass and in the morning there is going to be a Necker to do the lawn in-front of the lake an our other side. We are curious to see the necker in the morning as he has something special with his lip. Maybe another picture opportunity tomorrow AM. Lots of cotton fields and all kinds of interesting crops around. He told us there used to be car parking Neckers as well. must be the language , cause I had noooo ideaaaa what he was saying . Nice man, about 70 years old and Vietnam vet, lived his whole life on the farm in SOUTH CAROLINA !

Tomorrow am we leave early and fast……. after photographing the grass eating Necker of course !

Tomorrow 300 miles to Yellow Jacket on the Suwannee River, gorgeous.!

The Deep South , You gotta hear it to believe it!

Mema and I took a morning trip back in time. Breakfast first, finally my first slice of bacon, this guys are seriously harding the pig. Smoothie with mango and carrot, and 1 hour trip to Isle La Motte, seems so close we could touch it from Marine village , but about an hour by car , we saw Canada, still there!, and a really big man sitting on a porch with an old rusted 50’s Chevy.

This island has huge fossils fields which are super old, even from before Mema and Papa were born, go figure!. We walked the wonderfully preserved area for an hour, thought we got lost but ended up at a wonderful Spa were we had a green algae treatment, not cheap but worth it! Then off to one of six old Quarries where they got a bunch of stone to build their statehouse in earlier days . Very enjoyable day with some history, biology, science and 400 Million year old shells. My fault , I did go out with a teacher, should have known I would learn something.

The afternoon was for “Cooking with Kelly”, she bribed a bunch of minors to do the hard work and supervised, she has talent! Then we lined up the kids and shot their backs, with the camera, pilled them up in a great big pile and send fireworks to the sky.

Great day

And to finish the day , here are the superstars of this week.

Another great early morning, out by 6:30, nice quick drive to the famous falls, 30 meters higher then Niagara, but slightly smaller. Still very impressive how it is developed, let nature be and work around it. Thats what it feels like, Cable cart to get to the top, or walk the 400 steps along the steep rock face, or both!. So many great looks at the falls, don’t know when to stop shooting. I wont bore you guys with 40 different waterfall pics but you got to sit thru 30 though! Compromise compromise! after that a visit to the old market and the traveling art exposition. deidre had a nice day at the traveling office,

( really, we have internet, computers, workstations and a printer)! she called me at 1 and we decided to Barbecue some fresh veggies and sausages from the farmers market. Great meal , 2 packages with summer corn and one with Potatoes, Carrots and Garlic. Also free range chicken and farm made sausages ! delicious and nutritious … so here is todays harvest, enjoy and comment on what you like and don’t like.

Enjoy , before you will be overwhelmed with family pictures at the lakeside reunion!

It’s Blueberry time in the North, Maine, New Brunswick, OEI and Quebec, blueberries are everywhere. As always when you are having a good time you love all the things you would normally never look twice at. We stuffed our “full size fridge” with blueberries for the family and our stomachs with Blueberry pie and fish berries Jam and something else that has less sugar, forgot the name. Here are a few market impressions.