Well, it stopped raining but winter temperatures have returned. I absolutely had to ride some more of the park trails so I got bundled up and rode off. The park
Is split in half by a creek. Bikes are allowed south of the creek and horses are allowed north of the creek. Hikers can go anywhere. There are several abandoned cemeterys in the park. I stopped by one on my ride and Jenny and I took a hike to another one. We took some cemetery pics. We move to tomorrow.
It rained pretty much all night and things didn't change after sun up. Our plan had always been to visit Rose Hill Plantation to get another stamp in our book. That we did. The plantation was owned by the governor of South Carolina when the state seceded from the union. He owned 7000 acres and 170 slaves. The house was built with thick brick walls but everthing that wasn't brick deteriorated after his heirs let it go. In 1949 an architect from Columbia decided to restore it. The pics below were taken before and after the restoration. The property was well known for its rose garden, hence the name of the estate. There are 4, 175 year old, southern magnolia trees in the front yard. One of them is the state record holder. The state has owned the property since the 60's. The rain should stop tonight. We will be here one more day.
This park is just outside of Spartanburg. A 7000 acre former Army base with 17 miles of equestrian trails, 16 miles of mountain bike trails, a 165 acre lake and a gun range. We got here during an unpleasant weather event. Rain. We had to break camp in the rain too. See Jenny's
'Breaking camp in the rain outfit' below. For those of you who are interested, Roy was right. The right rear jack retracted fine when we hit the button but when we got here it didn't go down too well. It was slow and noisy. We will not use it again. One of our goals on this trip is to visit a few more of the 47 South Carolina state parks and get a stamp in our book from each park. We found out yesterday that we will be eligible for 2 t-shirts when we get our last stamp. That's good because I hadn't planned on sharing my shirt with Jenny. I took the last pic during my exploratory bike ride.
When we were setting up here yesterday the right rear leveling jack was real slow to come down and it was making a weird squeal. This morning I took off the cover and stuck my finger in the hydraulic reservoir. It was a pink jello. As I'm sure you are aware, hydraulic fluid is thin and bright red. I got on the phone with the manufacturer of our system, his name is Roy, and he more or less told me we were screwed. There is water mixed with the fluid. Our workaround was to use blocks under the right rear wheels if needed. It was off to Wal-Mart. While there I had an idea. Why not suck out the pink jello and replace it with the good stuff. I called Roy and he was dubious but he didn't say no. So I did it. We will find out how screwed we really are when I push the retract button tomorrow morning. Our afternoon adventure was 18 holes of disc golf played from the blue tees. There are 2 holes over 800 feet. Playing that course has reaffirmed without question that I suck.
We have started our winter trip. We've actually been on the road a few days. Our first stop was Tega Cay to celebrate the Birthdays of Seth (5 Jan) and the twins (7 Jan). While we were parked at the KOA near Tega Cay, we had a low temperature of 10 degrees. Jenny and I spent that night at Seth's house. The MP was not so lucky. I had done some preparation but not quite enough. The water pump froze. I had to take apart the floor under the kitchen sink and run Jenny's hair dryer, pointed at the pump for 15 minutes. The water lines leading to the toilet also froze and I had to do the same thing with those lines. Winter camping has some unforeseen drawbacks. This park has a lake, thats frozen, and a tournament quality disk golf course. We played the short course this afternoon. (9 baskets) we'll tackle the long course tomorrow.
