I’m getting better, up at 5:45 , walk the beau, pooped the beau and of I go. This time I want to make it to a far away unknown state park. Hunting Island state park, got there by seven, sun peeking from behind the clouds, out of my left eye I catch a speckle of pink, brakes on and backing up. Lucky me, a small flock of rosette spoonbills. Sneeked up on them and was lucky to get some early morning light on them. Very exciting 🤪.The lowlands are 90% marshlands , narrow rivers moving with the tide, fiddler crabs plating their tunes and oysters trying to keep their head above water.
Early morning light over the marshes.
$5 to get into the park, see the lighthouse first, first mistake, no bug repellent. Ok legs full of bloody sucking spots, itching but on the beach no skeeters. So the waves were magical and couldn’t get enough of shooting them The beach was deserted, wild , natural and spooky . Dead palms are scattered all over the beach, Irma’s path , I found out later ,crossed this area half strength , but devastating enough to not ever want to see full force.
Next set will be in a separate post so I can get more Hits, so smart!!
up at 7 , walked the BEAU, fed him and planned a drive to a seashore state park. Never made it , got stuck in Port Royal and Beaufort , two small towns sunk deep in the marshes of the low country. Shore front mansions have 300 feet long walking docks to get to the water at low tide, high tide hides the oyster beds and grasses. Mud fields and oysters stuck to branches show their face when the tide dips down . I found a nice nature trail in Port Royal with a stern warning : look out for Gators ….Cause “A FED GATOR IS A DEAD GATOR” ??? Im sure I have my love for nature from my mama, she still swoons when she sees a bird, any bird, so this post again has a few birds in it, just for her.
A Red Bird😍
on to Beaufort, pretty little town just north of Savannah and 60 miles south of Charleston. Hugged left right front and back by tidal waters , streets lined by oak and Spanish moss , stately houses guard the shorelines , rocking chairs sit still on the wrapped around porches. You can hear the ice cubes making sound in pitchers of ready to go ice tea with green mint leaves. Ladies in long white frilly dresses take a seat and rock the chairs, dapper dressed gentlemen wipe their brows with a folded hankie. ah, imagination what a great thing. The porches were bare , residents hiding from the heat checking on the portly tourist with the camera from behind their frilly curtains. shu shu, go away leave us in peace. We’re ghosts of a era long gone.
Check them out, the ghosts, they are there behind the windows or in the trees , maybe sniffing the oleander or another barely legal weed. hmmmmm. The mystical south.
Hi mam, here are some more bird pictures, we know you love the birds. See you very soon in Davie again. Stay away from the pond , gators are hunting ! Love You!😏
Blue skies, 80 degrees and less then 100% humidity, sounds like a great day to visit savannah. Crossing the bridge from Hilton head , a right turn to Blufton and rural South Carolina is in front of us in all its southern spender. Magnolia ‘s the size of cauliflowers, Spanish moss on the trees and wires are guiding us to the Charming City on the Georgia coast. We cross the bridge over the Savannah River, park the car and enter the touristy area of the town. Sugary candies, a staple of the south, Pecan’s bathed in delicious, called pralines. Popcorn in a thousand flavors and a delicious chocolate bath to dip your toes in and s……. them
Toe dipper machine!
so what’s nice about savannah, according to one shop-owner, the people are crazy which is a plus, you can drink on the street , not outta glass but out of plastic . There is a well shaded square at about every city block. Old oak with luscious moss draped on them. Fountains galore and the ghost of Kevin Spacey walking the streets. We took a leisurely stroll down Bull street, The main , non touristy , street cutting the city in two equal halves. Beautiful old antebellum houses, gardens of eden and a square park every other block. Here are some photos.
A statue of a Nice General !Nice southern Lady from Behind with Cap!
we stopped by the only open church in Savannah to wash away our sins, we were done quickly.
The ghost of Kevin Spacey.
O yeah , we started our walk with a juicy Bloody Mary, Olives and okra !
so I left you with some wonderful impressions of “made up country”, (even the springs were fake, can you believe it!!??) drove 300 miles on i95 past Savannah hung a right from the highway to a small island called Hilton Head. Nice !,
Our site is on the water facing Pinckney Island state park . Birds and more birds, Hang on, pictures to follow. This RV camp we are at is a bit different, all the spots are privately owned and rented when not in use. They cost about $70,000.00 and you make some income from renting them out when you are not there, imagine having four of these around the country in beautiful locations. go with the seasons and have your house (Lady Cayenne ) in the most beautiful places at the best times of the year. HMMMMMMMM….. who knows . So here are some pics of the Birds!
This one will look great over Rachels desk!
So much for the birds , next was a little exploring of the 26 square mile island. Deidre and Cayman stayed put and I drove to the other side of the island. Now imagine a place that is as close to perfection can be , as clean and well designed as imaginable, You have to be a golfer or a boater or a bore to live there, the place is called Sea Pines. Pay $6.00 to get in so you can shop and dine, maybe use the beach if you clean yourself first and wipe your feet. No kidding though , this is the place the professional golfers go after the Masters to relax and hit a round. All the houses are the same color , they Blend in with the Spanish Moss and old oak trees. Just driving around is a treat. My first visit was a Horsefarm . Beautiful as in the movies, Friendly people and nice place to spend an hour looking around and sipping ice cold lemonade on the front porch rocking chair .
Last post for a while, did enjoy sharing the trip with you guys. Great 4-5 weeks on the road, saw a lot but not too much, no running around like madmen. Taking our time at the different stops, something to say for teleporting though as we put about 6000 miles on the Beast. Thanks Eric for suggesting to put some of my favorites on the last day, hard to do I went through 2765 already selected photos to get 162 for this post, our trip in ten minutes. Enjoy!
This is what happens if you feel you must post everyday during your vacation. IT’S A VACATION Dummy.! you shouldn’t do anything you don’t want or feel you have to do!
But no, fame has gone to your head and now you are a click hog, clicks are the drug now! I challenged my FANS to get to 2500 clicks and now that I’m nearly there I will post what must be the most photographically boring pictures ever, but am I going to cancel todays post, no way, I need my clicks. So after today we’ll have one more post from the road and the last Oculus post from our return home on Friday. Ready to go back to work to our awesome employees and our fabulous hotels!. Cant wait, sorry about today but live with it, its my addiction after all. Your my enablers! Ha!
Sunset over RV Disney landHeavenTransformer buttsNice line up
Selfie
Foot selfie
Stretch
What’s that in my Belly??
CROWN CLUB! Big Rig only!!
And of course , our new trade in Habitat………
NOT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Might see you tomorrow, but after this , probably not. well in any way…. it was a pleasure traveling with you’all.
Great day at yellowjacket Campground , up around 9 , on the pontoon boat at ten , in the freezing crystal clear spring water at 11, nice swim with the schools of Mullets, Billy Bass and the smallest postage stamp size flounder. They must lay their eggs in fresh water . The Suwannee river flows into the gulf of Mexico and has about an 2-3 feet tide . Lots of turtles on logs, majestic cypress tiptoeing at the waters edge and heavy curtains of spanish moss draped over the oak trees. No gators except for a teenager who jumped in before I could shoot his picture. We decided to leave for Tampa tomorrow instead of Thursday, there are more mosquitos here then in all of the world. We are outnumbered, the bugs are so powerful here that upon arrival we saw a Yellow jacket carry a lizard to devour! No kidding, also there was a squirrel attacked by mosquitoes who fell out of the tree, and the lady was covered in tree frogs tonight. Too much violence here we will escape tomorrow!! Back to civilization , Lazy Days here we come. TIME TO TRADE !!!!
Dark clouds risingCypressSleepy TimeRed something turtleClouds rule in FLEntry to fanning Springs gotta gopretty treetiredLoversOur boatFirst swimmer of the dayreflections of..one of 1000 springs in FloridaCypressRootsPathHappy MamaCatch some Caviar!splashClouds over the Suwannee
Florida parks rulecrystal clearNature will take over in Florida , just a matter of timeSuwanneeThe Captain.Teawaterominousrootsplants grow everywhereMy Beauty.Tea water, see you tomorrow.
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 ?
woodstockMorning has brokenmist on the lake, dug by grandpalawn by the lake.
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
Our BeastReady for a nice fire and some white wineto the docksThe Mighty SuwanneeShe a beautyCypressview from the front seatdock
South Carolina is fading, still nagging though. Would love to have some comments on others experiences like this. Thanks in advance.
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!
Our NeighborsA ford benchdon’t know what but it freaked out wife and kids.Not beau though , he has freedomThe three amigosHiSunset in the southcute rightbeautyThe inside of I don’t know what but it freaked out my wife and son!Maybe trinkets to lure the Neckers?The Lady in the Deep SouthIdyllic…Right?
Oculus Drift 