Just Chillin' - Tuesday - April 24, 2012

Woke to some chilling weather this morning. However, I had a dentist appointment early and then took the Tahoe in for an oil change, so cool weather did not affect my morning. Nancy just did what Nancy does. She can always find things to do. It doesn’t take much to entertain her;o))

It was after lunchtime, by the time we were ready to find something in the park to do. They winds were blowing so the beach was out. Yesterday, when we checked in, we saw a notice about the Snowbird monthly rental.

Since we need to be in this area for the holidays, we decided to find a FHU site we liked and go ahead and reserve it from November 25 to December 25. After walking the campground and comparing all the FHU sites, we decided that we wanted to be in the sunshine that time of the year. So our best options was site 95.

While we were checking out sites, a couple saw us photographing different sites. They were in one of the sites we might be interested in. Fred and Joan assured us we did not want that site as it was very uneven.

One thing led to another and before long we were chatting about this and that. This turned out to be one of those “It’s a Small World” encounters. Joan finally said, “Where do I know you from?” Nancy gets that a lot as people know her from Home Depot. But that was not the case. We finally figured it out. They were in the same driving class as us at Lazydays and we were actually in the same Motorhome on the same day for the driving portion. Great folks and hope we meet them again down the road:o))

After we made our reservation at the office, we walked out the salt marsh boardwalk before heading back to the motorhome to fix some dinner. Nature was just waiting for us to arrive!!

This is so much fun just going with the flow…

 

Life is Good!!!



A Smooth Trip to the Beach - Monday - April 23, 2012

After a wonderful weekend with Brian and Chris, it was time to leave Columbia and travel to Huntington Beach SP in Murrells Inlet, SC. Nancy had planned our trip to avoid and evade interstate travel as much as possible. Our trip to Columbia on I-26 was just too stressful ;o(   Today's route, mainly Rt 521, was great and that made the 150 mile trip very relaxing and enjoyable.

Two recumbent trike travelers on Rt. 521

They were loaded down with lots of equipment!!

Past through lots of pretty little towns:o)

Several One-light towns

but NO traffic!!

Pines and Fences

Hate to have to paint this fence ;o(

Vultures keeping South Carolina beautiful!!

While we love the back roads, it is not always easy to find a place to pull over.  However, with patience, we can usually find somewhere to stop and take a stretch break.

Route 521 Rest Stop;o))

Route 521 meets coastal Hwy 17 in Georgetown, SC.  We headed north on Hwy 17 to Murrells Inlet and Huntington Beach State Park. 

Bridge out of Georgetown across the Waccamaw River

Before we got to Huntington SP, we made one more stop to feed "Baby!"  We haven't fueled her since we left Georgia on our trip north from Florida. She was pretty thirsty when we stopped;o) The Journey has a readout you can scroll through to see the gas mileage, as well as tons of other exciting statistics. I was pleasantly surprised to see Baby is in great shape and getting 10.7 mpg....more than we anticipated!!

Before we left this morning, we tripped the GFI outlet by connecting a portable heater in as Nancy was blow drying her hair. No big deal, I knew where to reset this or so I thought. I tried numerous times to rest the GFI and reset the main breakers -- NADA!! Finally, I called our "Easy" button... Gin. She directed me to ANOTHER set of breakers I didn't even know we had and sure enough we found the culprit. Thanks Gin!!  We sure have a lot to learn about our new home.  With time, patience and great friends we will do it:o))

Entering Huntington Beach State Park

Crossing the Salt Marsh Causeway

If we have to call one area home, this would have to be it.  We spent many hours at this wonderful state park when we lived in our Stix and Brix home.  I know you've seen this photo before.  I promise you will see it again many times while we are here!!  Not a bad place to call home;o))

Entering the Campground

All set up on Site 109

We arrived at Huntington Beach Campground where it was a windy 58 degrees;o( Tonight, it's going to go down to the 40's...YUK! We are in for a day or so of long pants and sweatshirt weather. Since tomorrow, I have a dentist appointment and need to get the oil changed in the Tahoe the cool weather will not be an issue. Then we hope it warms up so we can take full advantage of the beach and this beautiful park!!

Nancy here:  I am giving Live Writer a rest.  I posted this directly in blogger.  Once I get things figured out, I want to go back to Live Writer so I do not have to be online to prepare the blog.  But at least I got it posted!!

A Site to Be Seen–Friday–April 27, 2012

Nancy here:

Well, if you read our last blog, you know I have been having a time getting Live Writer to post to Blogger.  Gail, of Gypsy Turtle, suggested it may be the picture size. So this is a test of the 800x800 max picture size to see if that will correct the ‘403’ forbidden problem!!

I needed a bunch of photos to test this theory.  Since we are at Huntington Beach State Park, I decided to take photos of all the sites that folks have reserved for the Carolina Clan Reunion the first weekend of November.  So if you have reserved a site and let me know, you can see it below.  If you haven’t reserved a site and still want to come to this crazy gathering of friends…still lots of sites available the end of October through the beginning of November!! Between October 29th and November 13th, folks have made reservation for various lengths time.  So check Reserve America and see what is available and come on down, up or over;o))

I am just listing them by site number…you should know what site you reserved;o)) There are two views of each site!!

Site 3

Site 16

Site 17

Site 18

Site 19

Site 21

Site 23

Site 24

Site 26

Site 27

Site 99

Site 102

Well, it did not work at 9:30 pm. Got the ‘403’ forbidden error again;o))

Will try to upload early in the morning to see if that will work with a less crowded network. Sherry, of In the Directions of Our Dreams, suggested that might be the problem.  Sure hope it works!!

I tried at 5:10am this morning to upload this blog from Live Writer to Blogger. I figured most people are still sleeping and the network would be less crowded.  It made no difference…still got the ‘403’ forbidden error again ;o((

So I am doing the copy and past to see it this will upload. Well, I copied the entire blog to a new blog in Live Writer.  It uploaded fine, but I had a small version of the photo in Live Writer.  When I tried to make the photo larger, the quality went down the tubes.

I give up.  I guess I will just do what I can do.  Perhaps my photo blogs are a thing of the past.  Just very frustrated:o((  But still loving this wonderful life we are living:o))))))

Rain, Rain, Rain!! - Sunday - April 22, 2012

We woke early to the sound of rain;o(( Actually, we had about 2 inches of rain overnight. Our morning walk got cancelled. Instead, we drove about 40 miles to check out Dreher Island State Park for future stays. Dreher Island SP is actually 3 islands in the middle of Lake Murry. We identified which sites we liked, but spent very little time there. The rain was coming down in sheets and sideways!! One thing we realized is this is an extended stay campground as the drive there, while not difficult, was a long way on tight roads. This is not an overnight type of campground.

After lunch, we drove to our son’s house to do laundry. When we got to their house, we opened the door and yelled, “Mom & Dad—We’re Home!!” That is exactly what the kids use to do to us when they came home from college to do their laundry masquerading as if they were coming to visit Mom & Dad;o)) Of course, they told us we were grounded for not getting home on time!!!

While the washer and dryer were doing their magic, we played Scattagories and cards. A nice way to spend a rainy afternoon. After the wash and games, we went out for a nice Italian Dinner!! Nancy and I were so happy to spend some quality time with Brian and Chris. We are already looking forward to our next visit with them:o))

What a GREAT weekend!!!

We will be heading to Huntington Beach State Park tomorrow for a little R&R. I guess you could call Huntington our “Home” campground since it is very close to where Nancy’s Mom lives. However, getting a site in the summer could prove to be a challenge. But we will make it work. A couple weeks here and then a few weeks out and about. It is a transition time for all of us!!

Nancy here:

Yesterday was “Earth Day” and Mother Earth really showed here stuff!! After our walk yesterday morning, I went back out with my camera to photograph some of the beautiful things along the walk. Hope you enjoy!!  Happy Earth Day:o))

Mountain Laurel,

very unusal to see in this area!!

Wildflowers

Wood Fungus

Baby Longleaf Pine

Grown-up Longleaf Pine

Nature IS Amazing!!!

Need Your Help!!!

Live Writer is giving me fits:o((   I am about ready to throw in the towel.  Blogging is not much fun like this!!!

When I post draft to blog, I get this message:

and cannot post the draft to blogger. I tried publishing directly from Live Writer and got the same error message.


If I do a “select all”, then copy and paste the entire blog into a new Live Writer post, it will then allow me to post the blog. However, now when you click on the pictures in blogger, they will not enlarge. I tried to search the blogger web sit for the 403 error and could not find any solution.

OK, just tried to do the "select all" and paste...this time I got the 403 error anyway;o((


I am now going to try and redo the entire blog in blogger.  If this gets posted and you have any idea what I am doing wrong....

PLEASE HELP!!