Hiking, Edisto Beach, Southern BBQ

Hi - Dianne here. On Thursday, Roger and I took the dogs for a hike in Edisto Island State Park. It's sure different from Turkey Run! Palm trees, pine trees, and marsh grasses. It's very pretty in its own way. (Still looking forward to Turkey Run next summer). The only wildlife we saw were some gray squirrels, which got the boys' attention, and some marsh birds that I added to my birding life list.

All our hiking on beach and trails worked up an early appetite, so we traveled to check out the BBQ place Roger mentioned the other day. Wow, what a spread! I'll let him elaborate on it below.

We have been really lucky here, weather-wise. The local newscasters keep saying it's about ten degrees above the normal temp of 61. It's actually been in the mid- to upper 70s each day. It was so nice Friday, that after our morning beach exercise-walk, we packed up our beach chairs and walked back over to spend about three relaxing hours watching the waves crash on the beach, reading (Roger), and reading and Sudoku (me). The dogs even enjoyed laying on the grass mats at our feet and made no attempt to leave. We need to enjoy it now, because it's supposed to become more seasonal next week, with a

high in the 50s.

We've heard that sand fleas can be a problem here, but evidently not in December, because we've not been bothered by insects at all, even mosquitos. I can believe they'd be a big problem part of the year. This afternoon Roger plans to watch the Purdue basketball game on CBS, and while he's doing that, I think I'll take a beach chair, my bird book, and binoculars to the beach and try to add some more birds to my list.

Tomorrow we pack up and head for Skidaway Island, outside Savannah, GA for two weeks. We'll have to find a replacement for our beach walks. I was mortified to learn that in the motorhome I only manage to get a couple hundred steps a day, as opposed to about 5,000 just walking around in my three-story house in Pendleton! There will have to be some major compensating for that.

Roger here... The Barbeque place was great. (Gary Z. - worthy of driving through five states for dinner.) We had been reading about it and saw that it had been rated as one of the top ten barbeque places in the country. Because it was in a little room attached to a gas station, miles from nowhere, it was even more fun. It was definitely a mom and pop place. For $9.25 you got a barbeque buffet that not only had delicious pork barbeque, but also 29 other "southern" foods. At the table there were five different barbeque sauce choices. My favorite was the Carolina Red. All the other customers were local. Quite an experience.

Magnolia Plantation, Charleston, SC

Hi all - Dianne here again. Yesterday we zipped up the dogs in their crate, and Roger and I drove over to Magnolia Plantation, outside Charleston. Turns out, we could have taken the dogs with us (we were just touring the gardens), but it was too far to go back for them. What an interesting, beautiful place! We were there in probably its worst season for the gardens, but they were lovely anyway. The camellias were just starting to bloom. Parts of the garden date back to the late 1600s! I definitely recommend touring this plantation's grounds if you're anywhere in the area. It's $15 each per adult just to tour the gardens. We spent three hours walking around the grounds, so the admission price was well worth it. We didn't pay extra to tour the house. We didn't care much about seeing it, because the house had been burned to the ground by Sherman's Army during the civil war; this one wasn't the original plantation house.

Last night we attempted another campfire. There is such thick fog off the ocean every morning, that everything gets soaked overnight, so we've been dealing with wet firewood. As you can see from one of the photos, our normal setup is three chairs around the fire pit: One for Roger, one for me, and one for Jasper! He requires a chair, not a cushion, because after all, he's NOT a dog. (Just ask him) Chaplin prefers to lay on his dog bed next to us.

I hesitated to include the full length photo of me at Magnolia Gardens, because part of my goal this winter is to lose 10 pounds, all of which show up in the photo. We've been walking down the beach every morning for exercise. I'm wearing my pedometer, and it's about a mile and a half each way. It takes us about an hour to walk down to the tide river and back. Walking the dogs in the sand gives some good aerobic steps, according to my pedometer. If I do lose some pounds, I'll update it; if not, I won't mention it again!!!!!

Every day on the beach is different. Yesterday on our walk, we passed by a 3-foot shark that had been washed way up on the beach by the tidal waves. It was dead, of course, but was creepy anyway.

Roger has strung some Christmas lights on the bushes at our camp site, and we have our little LED-lit tree in the front window. I'll include a photo, but not sure how well it will show up. We'll set them up again when we drive to Skidaway Island next Monday. After New Year's at Skidaway, we'll pack them away in the deep recesses of the motor home until next Christmas.

Roger here... It has taken a while to adjust to the time frame of retirement. For awhile, I continued to wake up at 5:00 a.m. every morning. I tried (usually unsuccessfully) to get up and have some coffee without waking up Dianne. As the days have passed, I have eventually gotten to the point of not waking until the sun rises. However, this morning the harsh realities of our old life surfaced when the cell phone rang at 5:15 a.m. and then again a few minutes later. When I answered the phone, I was greeted to the familiar sound of my friend Jim White, school transportation director, who had sent an automated Honeywell message to the HSE constituency announcing a two-hour delay for the start of school, due to ice in the neighborhoods. I need to figure out how to disengage from automatically receiving those messages for as much as I miss hearing Jim's voice, 5:15 a.m. is now for me very early in the morning :)

Edisto Island, South Carolina

Dianne here.   Wow, we have a beautiful campsite here!   We're in site #26 at Edisto Island State Park.   We are close to the Atlantic Ocean on one side, and a salt marsh on the other, with views of both from the motorhome!   The salt marsh looks totally different at low tide from high tide.  I'll include a photo of each.   Since it is the "off season" here, it is not at all crowded.  In fact, the times we've walked the beach, we've had it all to ourselves.   Dogs are allowed on the beach during the off season, so the "boys" are really enjoying their daily walks.   It is even safe to let Jasper off the leash on the beach (not Chaplin, though, of course!).

The weather changes a lot from day to day.  It's been rainy, windy, cold, warm, etc.  It sounds like the rest of the week for our stay here, we'll have beautiful, warm, '70s weather.  I can handle that!   The waves crash onto the beach here, so we have the constant background noise of the ocean.   It's been warm enough to leave our bedroom window open enough to hear the ocean at night.

The other night, there was a beautiful full moon, the largest and closest moon of the year.  Roger had taken the dogs on their nightly walk on the beach, and came running back to the motorhome to get me so I could see it.  I'm including a couple of photos of the moon and the sunset that night.   I could not get a proper photo of the full moon after dark; the one posted here just gives a hint of how beautiful it was.   

It's a shame I hate oysters, because we could harvest all we want right on the beach if we chose to.  

I'm adding photos, but again, I still haven't figured out how to make them post in order.   Hope you can match them up!   

Also, for those of you adding comments, I have it set up to moderate them before posting, "just in case."   (Anyone can read this blog if they come across it on the internet; I want to keep it family-friendly for Kaia).   That's why they don't show up immediately after you post them.  They e-mail them to us first, and then we publish them to the blog.   Sorry for any confusion about that.  

Roger is going to add his comments today, so keep reading!

Roger here....  After the cold trip down, the weather here has been much better.  I am sitting outside in shorts and a t-shirt at the campsite - listening to the ocean.  We had a campfire last night, and probably will again tonight.  Since we have been here, I have been reading, taking long walks on the beach, and doing a daily chore (at least one a day).  Today I cleaned the dead bugs off the front of the motorhome - very fulfilling.  None of the dead bugs complained or threatened to sue me or file some kind of formal complaint, so life is good.

Yesterday we got rations from the Piggly Wigley just across the street from the state park.  For me it was like going back to the 1950's - narrow aisles, basic food, friendly down to earth people... I loved it.

I was frustrated yesterday with the NFL coverage.  Our TV reception is great, but the only way to keep track of the Colts game was to watch the ticker during the Jets game.  It looked a little too close for comfort.  Am I wrong? .  The coverage problem will be solved when we get our satellite installed when we get to Ft. Lauderdale next month.  CBS did a promo about the Purdue/Davidson game, but I did not catch when it will be on.  If anyone knows, send me an email so that I can be sure to watch it.  Before we leave this area we are planning to visit a plantation outside of Charleston and maybe eating at a dive that is supposed to have the best barbecue in the country - just a mile away.  Otherwise, I am just planning to continue walking on the beach and vegging on the hammock.

To all the HSE people who sent emails...THANKS!  It is great to hear from you.