The trees started putting on their fall colors slowly but surely changing from the light and dark emerald greens to the golds, browns and reds of autumn. It was natures way of telling us “Head South People!” but we hesitated – just a little bit – to fulfill our commitment at Greenbrier State Park. So Mother Nature, not wanting to be ignored, sent us “Stinkbugs” - yes Stinkbugs, thousands and thousands of them – creeping, crawling and flying onto and into any warm, damp, dark spot they could find, wriggling their way into any opening, orifice or crack they could -- (you do realize I’m talking about our 5th wheel, don’t you?)
All we heard about this infestation from the other camp hosts and Chris, our supervisor, was “This isn’t bad! It’ll get much worse!” So we hunkered down and hoped for the occasional Praying Mantis to come and relieve the burden somewhat. I didn’t see many of them and they sure didn’t put a dent in the population, but we did end up with a few very bloated Praying Mantis’s with very bad breath! It was a bit of a surprise when we found out how many bugs were in the area, besides the Stinkbugs and Praying Mantis, there were spiders galore, (Linda practiced her spider dance quite often!) Walking Sticks, the normal mosquitos, flies, and lots of bees.
Linda and Butch, one of the other camp hosts, decided to take a hike on the portion of the Appalachian Trail to another state park down the road a few miles called the Washington Monument. The trail leading out of the park and up to the Appalachian Trail was called the Bartman Trail which was nasty, being very steep and unforgiving. Once they made it up to the AT the going got much easier and they enjoyed the hike talking, watching the various animals and checking out the scenery.
Along the way Linda introduced Butch to geocaching and they did find a few.
At the end of Linda and Butch’s hike was the monument. Butch’s wife, Darlene, and I had driven up to the park to meet them and give them a ride home. This was the first monument completed in memorial of George Washington. There are four of them which we had not known about. The big one in Washington DC, one in Baltimore, one in Richmond, and this one near Boonsboro, MD. This one was built in 1827. One of its claims to fame is that it was used as a watch tower during the civil war. It suffered quite a bit of damage during the civil war and was repaired and altered numerous times, then rebuilt to its original design by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp) during 1934-1936. Those CCC guys were everywhere!
We stopped by Gathland State Park and did a quick tour and found a rather unusual monument called the War Correspondents Memorial – for the Civil War - we didn’t know there was such a thing! The park is the site of George Alfred Townsend’s Gapland Estate. He was a rather prominent political journalist and author during the civil war and one of the first war correspondents. Here he built a memorial to himself and the other 157 war correspondents of the civil war.
I guess if you have the money!
Linda went to Eldersburg, MD to watch our granddaughter, Jocelyn,(who is an accomplished saxophone player) at a band competition. Our son, Adam, and Linda watched as the band played in the gym as it was raining outside. So the bands had to forgo the marching and just played within the gym as the flag people flagged and a costumed and very animated conductor entertained the crowd. Jocelyn played a solo and according to Grandma – “It was exceptional.”
During a regional competition this month, Jocelyn's band came in first place!
As we were wandering around the area we were shown a rather unique campground called appropriately “Tree House Campground”. This was set up with many little camping cabins built either around or in the trees, rustic but fun! I’m not sure we would care to stay in one though – we can leave that to the younger crowd.
I had the opportunity to go for a ride with Adam one day. It was the first time ever for him to do any mountain biking so I took him out on the trails in Greenbrier State Park. We ended up doing quite a few miles on some pretty interesting trails with lots of rocks – loose and otherwise, steep up hills and being in a heavily treed area, lots of big roots (and some downed trees to get over). He did very well and didn’t leave any bloody spots out on the trails – he had a huge smile (I did too!) on his face after a couple of the down hills but I do believe he prefers his Harley’s. I did enjoy this ride - but not because of the trail – it was all about the company!
Our main reason for being in the area -- Enuff said!
So the time went by again as it always does and we loaded up, said our goodbyes, pointed our noses south and hit the road.
As we headed south we made a stop near Salem, Virginia and Linda visited Dixie Caverns. It was a rather slow day at the attraction so she got a private tour and probably saw more than the normal tourist got to see. (She was the only one on the tour!)
Our next stop was a pleasant surprise and a place where we would love to spend much more time. It is an Air Force recreation area and campground in South Carolina called Wateree Recreation Area and is part of Shaw AFB near Columbia. The RV park and facilities are some of the best we have experienced (a bit unsettling getting to though – rough and narrow roads). Here we tried something that we had never done before – Kayaking! Being beginners they would not let us use real Kayaks, so we got a couple of Hobie paddle/peddle kayaks (they said that amateurs could probably handle these – they are more stable) and off we went. It was an absolute blast! We paddled/peddled around a couple of the islands and even did a bit of geocaching on them (the islands, that is). Our legs and arms were tired once we were done though.
On the next leg of our migration south, we stopped in the southeast corner of South Carolina just north of Savanna, Georgia. We knew we were getting into the old south as Spanish moss started appearing on the trees and the flat coastal marsh lands were replacing the hills.
We were able to visit with some of our friends from BC Canada - Phil & Linda - while we were there. Visiting over a couple of beers or wine, took in a very nice bike ride near Fort Pulaski, and walked the beaches of Tybee Island. We also introduced Phil & Linda to southern barbeque and hush puppies at a cute little place called the Pink Pig. We will be seeing them again the end of Nov as they are also heading further south.
Our next stop was in Woodbine, Georgia just north of the Florida border. We didn’t stay long but we did go out and visit Ft. Clinch and hiked and geocached some of the paths in the area. Once we were there I wished I had brought my bike – they had some nice trails in the park that I could have ridden – another opportunity lost!
As we were geocaching along the trails we ended up in some rather swampy areas that had warning signs for the gators. When Linda went after this cache I had to ask her how she felt being Gator bait. As we head down to the Everglades I’m sure she will have plenty of opportunities to perfect her Gator avoidance techniques while geocaching. I upped her life insurance after this one.
Oreo - our 17 pound Tom Cat, who has lived and traveled with us for quite a few years, decided he likes being part of the Blog and will continue to provide a few purr-fect bits of wisdom and observations for all the blog readers out there as well as a few comments about the antics of his pride members and life on the road.
I am not a happy cat! This thing my pride calls humidity is nasty! It makes my beautiful fur coat mat and stick to me --- Bleah, Bleah, Bleah!!! And another thing that I found out was my favorite food (chicken) is a really big bad attitude stinky bird that wants to chase me and peck me. The campground we were at (called Walkabout Camp & RV Park) was full of them, they were all over the place and they were out to get me! I have assured my pride that I will eat all the chicken that they will give me to help rid the world of these nasty birds (they just have to kill them first!).
With all of that and our fall migration currently in progress we look forward to more visits with friends/family and new adventures for us along the way. We leave you with a sunset from Wateree Reservoir in South Carolina, definitely a place we will try to visit again.
Home is where we park it!
Lee & Linda
