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