So long 2016

Austie prefers formal attire while playing with his Pops

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We were gone 18 days. Our route took us counterclockwise around the perimeter of South Carolina. We visited 14 state parks, bringing our total parks visited to 31. On the way here we stopped by another Park, Redcliffe plantation. Here are some pics. Davejennyjournal will be going on hiatus for awhile.

Calhoun Falls State Park

We decided to hit one more Park on the way home. This park gets us up to #30. We have 18 more to visit in order to get our T-shirt. I did an exploratory bike ride and then Jenny and I did a hike.

Thanksgiving at Pat's day 4

A trip to a winery and 18 holes of disk golf in Hendersonville. I'm pretty sure we did some other stuff but I can't remember what it was. This pic was taken at the winery.

Thanksgiving 2016

Too much food. We had gobs of food left over from yesterday. Refrigerator space is at a premium. We are here for 2 more nights. Here are a few pics.

Rosewood Chalet

We have stayed in this house for the last 2 thanksgivings. The mob arrived in the afternoon. Bedlam ensued. Seth fed us fajitas.

Pat & Steve's house

The lady's react to seeing Dave with his shirt off.

State Park Binge

Today was devoted to getting some more stamps in our SC state Park book. We got 4. The 3 parks that were the most interesting were Andrew Jackson, Landsfords canal and Chester. I had no idea SC has produced only one president and I had no idea that Chester SP had a tournament quality disk golf course. The statue of the young Andrew Jackson in his Park was sculpted by Anna Huntington. You might remember Jenny and I camped at Huntington Beach SP (Her winter home and studio) just a few days ago. The pic we took at Landsford canal is Jenny standing on a lock constructed in the 1700s that enabled barges to move around an area of shoals on the Catawba river. We hit the road tomorrow. We will be one night at Pat's house and then with the family mob at a rental property for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Sesqui day 2

A cold front blew through last night. We don't have a lot of experience staying in the MP when the temperature is near freezing. We have a little electric space heater that keeps the propane heater from running all the time, but it kicks on pretty often anyway. There is a lot of glass and pretty thin walls that don't help much. In spite of the temp I had an epic 1 1/2 hour bike ride on unmarked trails. I can't resist heading off into the unknown. The GPS helps me stay oriented so that's kind of cheating. This is a pic of our campsite. 

Sesquicentennial State Park

Spell that without Google! Locals call this park "Sesqui". That word means 150 years. Anyway, it's near Columbia, it's actually in Columbia. It's a pretty big Park, nearly 2000 acres. That means bike trails. I got started on them soon after we arrived. On the way here we stopped by 'Woods Bay State Park' to get another stamp in our book. That Park protects an oval shaped depression in the earth called a "Carolina Bay". There are a string of these depressions stretching from Maryland to Georgia. There are differing theories about what the source of these depressions might be, but the favorite is a meteorite that broke apart during reentry. During our brief visit at that Park, we did a hike and I took a few pics.

Little Pee Dee day 3

Not to much excitement today. I just realized I haven't taken one picture. I did invent a new activity. I'm calling it "bushwack biking". The forest is not too dense in this park so you can ride through it, off trail. I would ride on a trail or road until I was a 1/2 mile or so from camp and then use the GPS pointer to steer me through the woods back to the MP. Bushwack biking. It's sort of like snow skiing outside the ropes. Jenny has been working on Sidney's Christmas stocking for months. This is it. She's almost finished.

Road trip

Today we did a monstrous loop (175 miles) to visit 4 SC State Parks so that we could get those precious rubber stamps in our book. As Little George Bush so famously said "Mission Accomplished". We were in the 'Sand Hills' section of the state all day. We have no real experience in this area but we made some discoveries and will likely return. Two of the parks we visited had an equestrian emphasis. Tomorrow we have no plans other than to do our regular stuff.

Little Pee Dee SP

We drove through Myrtle Beach SP in order to get our book stamped. From there we headed here. The GPS routing took us to a closed road that had been washed out due to a dam burst during the hurricane. We had a navigation adventure. The dam that burst formed a lake that was the centerpiece of this park. The lake is now a mud Flat. Our plan for the next few days is to drive to a few parks and get a few more stamps in our book. As a reminder, if we visit all of the SC state parks, (47?) We will get a T-shirt. That is our goal, as illogical as it sounds.

Atalaya and Brookgreen Gardens

Atalaya (ah-tuh-LIE-yuh) was the winter home of an extremely wealthy couple in the early 30s. Their money was inherited. She was a world renowned sculptor and he was an early environmentalist. There are large properties along the east coast that he bought and are now wildlife management areas. Huntington Beach California is named after him. The house is weird. It's called 'the Castle'. Across Hwy 17 is Brookgreen Gardens. Mrs Huntington displayed her sculpture there. We spent 4 hours roaming around the garden. Some of the sculpture was interactive. There was a bird enclosure that was kind of an Alfred Hitchcock experience. We move tomorrow.

Huntington Beach day 2

The weather hasn't been beachy yet so we decided to extend for another day. We will spend 3 nights instead of 2. I did my exploratory ride this morning and ended up on the beach. We drove into town, 'Murrells Inlet', ate a good seafood lunch and went to Publix. Publix is OK but the entertainment value is much greater at Wal-Mart. After that, Jenny and I rode around some. There is a large (architecturally unique!!!) home on the park property that we visited briefly today and will tour tomorrow. I'll get to that on tomorrows post. I know you can't wait.

Huntington Beach State Park

The rain that threatened Austie's party followed us while we drove north. Making camp is unpleasant while it's raining. It was raining when we got here and it didn't let up until "60 minutes" was half over. I guess things couldn't have been to bad. This is not roughing it. I cooked outside under the awning. This pic was taken as I was about to go outside to check on the meal.

Birthday prep

The bouncy house arrives at 1:00. It hasn't rained in 37 days so, of course, there is a 90% chance today. We will be heading north to Huntington Beach State Park after lunch. I hate to miss the wet bouncy house but sometimes you get lucky. This pic is the boys helping with the party favors.

Thanksgiving trip begins

Our first stop was Charleston for Austie's 5th birthday. We thought we had reservations at the KOA we always stay at but when we got there we found out it was a different KOA 30 minutes away. We are parked in Lindsay's driveway. There are 2 benefits to this arrangement. It's free and I can drink with impunity. Austin's b-day was yesterday. His party is tomorrow. We are going to miss the party because we have places to go. We will be visiting some SC States Parks en route to the Thanksgiving blowout at Pat's. This pic is Connor playing "horse nuts" in the driveway. (That's what Jamie calls it)

Halloween 2016

Post Hurricane

I'm a little late with this post. I met Jenny in Tega Cay a day after the storm blew by Beaufort. We weren't allowed to return home because of the downed trees and powerlines. We stayed in a KOA until things were opened back up. Power was on when we returned. We had no damage. All we had to do was unhurricane proof the house and collect the downed limbs sticks and leaves that were covering everything. Lindsay & Jamie rode out the storm with Seth and they returned to Charleston with no problems. Here's a pic of her brood. (Clemson fans all)

Im outta here

I haven't posted anything in awhile because nothing particularly blogworthy has occurred in awhile. There is a cat 4 hurricane headed up the east coast that should arrive here on Saturday morning. Tomorrow is Wednesday. I spent all day today prepping the house and I'm going inland tomorrow. Jenny is in Ohio attending a family gathering so she is out of harms way.

Austin gets started

Conner gets started

The girls return to school

Hunting Is.

Hunting Island recap

I have some time to kill for the first time in quite awhile so I figured I'd do a post. I will explain why I have time to kill at the end. Today is Wednesday July 13th. Jenny and I got here 1 week ago. The reason we chose this particular week escapes me. This park is the most visited in the SC system and getting camping reservations is difficult and must be done many months in advance. You can do it up to 13 months in advance. Seth brought his group on Friday. Lindsay brought her group on Saturday. At one point we had 4 adults, 5 kids and a baby plus 3 dogs. The temp was a record setting 100 degrees on  Friday and it has been hovering around that number all week. Of course it was a wet heat so that was much better. I slept in a tent 4 nights because there just wasn't any room in the MP. The dogs slept in AC for crying out loud. In spite of the conditions the cousins and everyone else had a memorable visit to the beach (No one will be forgetting this trip any time soon) When Jamie and Lindsay went home they left the boys with us. The plan is to return them on Friday. Lindsay has a birthday this weekend so we figured we could kill a couple of birds. I am currently the only one still here. Jenny took the boys to Habersham. The MP has struck again. We cannot retract any of the slides. We were all ready to go, retracting the slides is one of the last things to do but we got nothing. They are dead. A big problem was we had to vacate the site we were in. I was able to get a site nearby because someone had just cancelled. I drove with a Park Ranger leading the way with the slides extended. There is nothing available tomorrow. I've got a mechanic coming out this afternoon. I have been on the phone with various people all day and am now just waiting. This is adventure travel at its finest. Jenny has pics of the boys on her phone, I will post those when I get them. You just gotta roll with the punches. (In spite of the bloody nose, broken ribs, cuts, bruises, loose teeth) keep on roll'n.

We are home

We arrived yesterday. We have weeds. We really have weeds. While we were gone there was a big storm that knocked out power for 3 days. As a precaution we decided to throw out the stuff in the freezer. First thing on the agenda is buying a new washing machine. Our old one broke the day before we left last May. Next week we have 2 campsites reserved at Hunting Island St. Park. The grandkids are coming. Should be fun? The MP has a few issues.
They will have to wait. Our trip was 7000 miles long. We were on the road a few days over 2 months. This blog is going to take a rest. If we do anything that's blog worthy I'll post it maybe, or maybe not. Summer epic MP trip is over.

Florida Caverns State Park

This morning we drove across the Atchafalaya basin on the 4th longest bridge in the U.S. (18 miles) The pilings for the bridge were 124 feet long. They had to drive them through 93 feet of muck until they hit a sand layer. They drove them 6 feet into the sand and that left the roadway 25 feet above the swamp. The swamp is the largest in the US. Just past the bridge is the town of Grosse Tete. Today it would probably have been called Voluptuous Bosom. The pic is 'the blue hole' it's a 30 foot deep sink hole in this park. We will be home tomorrow.

Breaux Bridge LA.

Today the 3 day slog home has begun. The fun hasn't stopped however.  When we got here we discovered we had lost a hubcap off of the MP. Interstate 10 in Louisiana is a washboard so I guess we are lucky that's all we lost. The cream on top of our day was that the car's battery went dead during the drive. I decided to chill with a cool drink.

John Begnaud, fashion icon

Mini Aggie Reunion Jun 22-25

John and Jean Begnaud hosted our yearly mini-reunion at their lake house near Llano. We all ate too much and some of us drank too much. Jenny and I head toward home tomorrow. We are 3, maybe 4, days from home.

San Antonio

We are here for maybe 24 hours. We always like to stop here because of the splendid hospitality. We use Larson's water and electricity and then leave without paying. That is not your typical campsite. The La Fonda Mexican restaurant in Alamo Heights was a frequent lunch destination when the Williams family lived in SA back in the 60s. That particular location is no longer a restaurant. Where we ate today isn't in Alamo Heights. Jenny took this pic so that I could harass my poor sisters who I'm sure are insanely jealous that I'm in Texas eating Mexican food.

Junction Texas

Long drive today. Something like 7 hours. Our route took us through the "oil patch". There were tons of trucks, all of them in a hurry. We drove hard today so that we could spend most of tomorrow in San Antonio. We will park in Jenny's dad's driveway. We are in route to Lake LBJ to visit with a couple of my Aggie Buddies starting day after tomorrow. I'll try to post this using the campground wifi. Apparently Verizon hasn't discovered Junction yet. I took this pic as we were leaving Dog Canyon. The park begins at the New Mexico \ Texas border.

2nd day at Dog Canyon

Not much going on today. All the hiking out of here is pretty serious. There are no loop hikes that wouldn't have taken all day so we did a 2 hour out and back. When we left, the winds were pretty light but they suddenly increased when we were as far from the MP as we were going to get. Winds on a hike aren't generally much of a problem but I had left the awning out. That IS a problem. That is one of the cardinal rules of RVing. Never walk away with the awning out. It was screwed up a little. I fiddled with it for awhile and we finally got it retracted but I'm still not sure what was wrong or how I fixed it. That's what happens when you fix something by fiddling with it. There are 3 pics below. The first one shows why the fire burned so well, the second one shows what the aftermath looks like. (Burned is on the right, not burned is on the left) the last pic shows the crowded conditions at the Dog Canyon campground. We move tomorrow.

The other side of nowhere

We are in Dog Canyon campground. One of only 2 in the Guadalupe Mountains NP. The main campground is out of the way, this one is way, way, out of the way. A 60 mile dead end road. The fire that closed the backcountry is evident all around the campground. The fire fighters made a concerted effort to save the facilities. Most of the trees were saved as the fire burned close to the ground. Grass and other low plants were incinerated but I just got back from climbing the hill behind the MP and it looks like everything is coming back. The fire might have been a good thing. The NPS has wifi. I'll see if it will work for me.

Albuquerque NM

We are at a commercial campground a few miles west of the city on route 66. I wonder if the millennial generation even knows the significance of route 66. Probably not. We have stayed here, we think, 6 times. It's easy, it's convenient, and there is a "Camping World" store real close. We normally go to The Guadalupe  Mountains from here. We are going to do that tomorrow, however, we are going to go to the other side of the park. The (Dog Canyon) campground. Jenny and I have backpacked there  (her first backpack trip) but we have never driven to it. An interesting side note is that there has been a large fire in The Guadalupe  Mountains and the backcountry has been closed for quite a while. In fact, it's first day of being open is tomorrow. I consider this serendipity so we are going to stay there 2 nights. It's another boondock and I would be absolutely amazed if we have any connectivity. The Dog Canyon ranger station has a phone. There are only 4 RV sites so the ranger can probably find us if need be. I will send a SPOT in lieu of a blog post. In this pic just imagine me sitting in that chair drinking bourbon.

Meteor Crater AZ. (Near Winslow)

Our stop here was one of those spur of the moment things. It fit in with the theme of this trip. That being: 1. Visiting places we haven't been and 2. Visiting places I have seen from the air. We have driven past here many times, it's on I 40, but never stopped, and CLT to PHX almost always took us over the crater. I can still recite the PA announcement. Something we didn't know is that the crater is on private property. It's on a 300,000 acre cattle ranch. There is so little grass that it takes 250 acres\cow. The impact that caused the hole occurred 50,000 years ago. It was a hunk of iron traveling 30,000 MPH. There was a movie, a short guided walking tour on the rim, a museum and a gift shop. Of all the places we have ever been, this is one of them. Hopefully, New Mexico tomorrow.

Antelope Canyon

We are still in Kanab. There was nothing available in Page so we did a day trip from here to Antelope Canyon which is near Page AZ. The MP needed an oil change so we left it at a garage to be serviced as we left this morning. We were early for our Canyon tour so we stopped by Lake Powell to see if things have changed any. It is currently 103 feet low. It's pretty sad. Lake Mead  (downstream of Powell) is in worse shape, so Powell will surely drop all summer. Antelope Canyon is a world famous destination. It's a very narrow slot canyon, maybe 100 feet deep, that slithers its way beneath the Navajo Indian reservation for a couple of miles. At one point the bottom was as wide as my shoe.  I'm fairly certain everyone has seen photos taken from inside the canyon. Jenny and I took too many. The pics in this post are unmodified, taken with our phones. Tomorrow we're in New Mexico.