Angel Bus

     A few posts ago I posted a picture of what I thought was an immature blue heron.  He was a brighter blue and half the size of the great blue heron.  If you saw the comment, Ann Dunn pointed out that is was not a small blue heron but actually a different species called the "Little Blue Heron".  Well, guess what?  Yesterday morning there was indeed an immature great blue heron perched on the very top of our magnolia tree.  I know that's what it was because I sent the pictures to Ann.

          Ironically, while I was taking the pictures, the original little blue heron was sitting on the top of the bird house much to the consternation of the pair of eastern bluebirds who are in the process of redecorating the interior of said bird house.  
     Tomorrow evening I'll take the bus up to Gaffney for its annual "M2" maintenance series.  Did you know that the crankcase holds 26(!) quarts of oil?
    Today I had been scheduled to run a mission for Angel Bus www.angel-bus.org.  This is a wonderful outfit that takes advantage of the resources and generosity of motor home owners to transport patients to/from medical appointments.  Often times the patient needs the services of specialists not available locally, and the patient's health and public transportation do not permit normal travel.  A motor home with its bed, refrigerator for medications, AC for medical accessories, and room for additional care givers can provide an ideal solution.  I had volunteered once before, but other drivers were available.  I had been looking forward to my first mission today to transport a cancer patient from Lexington, SC to Hilton Head, SC and back.  This mission did not require a motorhome, so I was going to use the Jeep.  I was in the process of printing out some maps when Jim Smith, the president of Angel Bus called to say that the patient had been admitted to a hospital and the mission was cancelled.  I mention this organization because I know there are some motorhomers who read this blog that might not know about the organization.  Use the link, above, for more information.

Edisto Beach

     Today was a pretty spring day with nothing on the calendar, so Durelle suggested we drive down to Edisto Beach to have lunch and walk the beach.   So we did.  Let me ask.  If you were to go for a short, non-interstate cruise on a cloudless day, would you choose an old Corvette with the top off or a Jeep?  Well she didn't...oh well.  The first picture is taken on route 174 into Edisto.  Note the live oaks festooned with Spanish moss and their proximity to the road surface.

     Here's another shot of the Spanish moss and one of a typical expanse of low country salt marsh.

     This was spring break, but, still, the beach was not crowded.  There were several dozen folks, but I saw no one go beyond knee deep in the water.  I guess the water is still cool.  All of the beach properties are on stilts.  We have been there when the highway was covered with drifting sand from a storm.  There is a State Park there where we camped with the Bounder ten to twelve years ago.  We spent a Thanksgiving there.
     Here are a couple of shots taken along the beach which show that the beach properties are really right on the beach.

     I missed a nice shot of a cruising pelican so the requisite bird picture is a rather pedestrian sandpiper tip-toeing through the surf.

     We had lunch at the Pavillion.  We both had Po'Boys; she had shrimp while I had oysters.  Edisto is only slightly more than an hour away, so it made for a very pleasant getaway drive even without the Corvette.

Shakedown Cruise

      Monday we drove five miles to the RV Park at the Charleston Naval Weapons Station, a part of Joint Base Charleston.  It is an open, quiet RV park that used to be a housing trailer park for enlisted housing. Once they built some adequate enlisted housing, the place was turned into a FamCamp.  It was a win-win.  As you know, we have had a lot of work done on the rig this winter, so we wanted to the opportunity to get everything checked out before we took off for five months.  

         We did some serious spring cleaning.  I pulled out every slideout storage tray and removed everything.  Then I went through each tray and vacuumed it, and I vacuumed under each tray.  Old stuff went to the dumpster and the remaining stuff was cleaned and resorted.  Durelle did corresponding things inside.  The weather was perfect.  Sitting outside in the evening could not be nicer.  The next shot shows the sunset.

     Next door is a young couple with an apparently homemade trailer that was built to replicate a caboose.  It looks nice.

No News Is Good News

     Last evening this scene prompted Durelle to say,"Come see the sun setting behind the thunderstorm."   This morning there were eagle(s), deer, and an alligator on our pond in the back yard.  First the eagles.

     As you can imagine, we never get tired of watching these wonderful birds.  One of them was down on the far bank eating something...a fish, I assume...when an alligator made a run at the eagle, who promptly departed the premises.

     This is the unsuccessful eagle hunter.  While I'm glad he missed, it would have provided one of my most dramatic pictures.  Can you imagine?
     All's well in SC.  We leave Monday for our five mile trip to the campground for our shakedown cruise.

Hodge Podge

  It has been a long time between posts.  But, we are about to get on the road again.  It appears that all the trauma of the burglary damage is behind us.  It took a couple of more iterations to get the TV back in operation.  Today I brought the rig to the Camping World in North Charleston.  We now have the TV back in normal operation.  As most of you readers know, we don't go anywhere without the sports channel and DirecTV coverage.  I do have some pictures, but as the title implies,they are not connected by any coherent theme.

This picture is of Drayton Hall.  It was taken while the Dunns were here.  That's Durelle on the portico.  I used this shot in the previous post.

        This one is a view toward the Ashley River taken from the entrance to the house.
Since then we have finally gotten the TV system debugged.  It took a while.  The burglars not only took the TV, they took the card out of the satellite receiver.  We have reservations at the Naval Weapons Station (5 miles away) for a three night stay next week. The purpose is to make sure that we have all of the bugs out of the system before we take off for the summer.  We have a new TV, a new drier, and a number of changes.  I think everything is squared away, but it is worthwhile checking things out to be sure.
     We have taken  a few backyard pictures that are worth noting.

      This is one of the pleasant sunset pictures.

     This is a shot of my beer mug from my college days with a bunch of fresh oysters at an oyster roast at the next door neighbors. 

          The last picture is of a heron in the back yard.  I am told on good authority (thanks, Ann) that the apparent injury on the shoulder is simply a changing of plumage as he enters into the mating season.  Why would he be so obvious?

The Dunns do Charleston

     This weekend we were pleased to host Bernie and Ann Dunn as they motored north to Cape Cod in time to vote in the Massachusetts Republican primary.  It was a great visit even though it was shortened by a day because they had to have some brake lines replaced before they could leave Florida.  They arrived Friday and we met them on route 17 and led them in to Charleston AFB (Joint Base Charleston) to the FamCamp.  It has been newly refurbished and has vaulted Charleston from being one of the worst FamCamps to one of the best.  They got set up and we went home to get the camera and then took them to the Citadel for the Friday afternoon Retreat Parade.

     It was a perfect day for a parade.  Both Bernie and I have done our share of parading, and we enjoyed watching the Citadel cadets doing theirs.  Below are a couple of shots from the parade.

     After the parade we went to the Hominy Grill for an early supper.  It is a classic, out of the way, Charleston eating spot that has been serving traditional southern recipes for a long time. Saturday was a bit rainy, so the traditional carriage rides did not seem to be the best option.  We chose, instead, to visit Drayton Hall.  It started life as a typical, pre-revolutionary rice plantation; but, at some point, evolved into a phosphate (fertilizer) mine.  It carries the distinction of being preserved, not restored.  There is no electricity or plumbing.  The brick s---house is a seven-holer (family meetings?).  The building must have been a marvel in its time.  When the rest of the countryside supported log cabins, this place sported 27 foot ceilings in the foyer and sculptured plaster ceilings in the entertaining rooms.  The cypress wainscoting looks as good as it did two centuries ago.  It was a bit special when Bernie was able to assist the tour guide in the intricacies of plaster ceilings because his father had made a living creating them.

        After the tour of Drayton Hall, we adjourned to Ibis Glade where we had a nice supper.  I put a pork tenderloin on the grill, and we had a pleasant evening.  We drove the Dunns back to their campsite in a fairly heavy rain and bid them adieu.  We'll see them again in August in Maine.

Oyster Roast

     The bus is still in the shop with a slide (passenger side, rear) that does not quite come all the way out.  It may be that we'll have to make a stop in Red Bay, AL on our way to Vegas.  The Dunn's arrive Thursday for three days, and we are looking forward to showing them around Charleston.  I'm sure that their visit will generate some pictures and some blog material.  Meanwhile, our next door neighbors invited us to an oyster roast this afternoon.  He had a couple of bushel and a big steamer, so he covered a wrought iron table with newspaper and we enjoyed the fun.

          The beer mug is used for scale in the picture.  It dates from my college days, so it has seen more than a few beers.  Can you translate the company motto?  Oyster roasts are somewhat similar to the Maine lobster boils that have graced these pages before.  All you need is a big pot for steaming, some cocktail sauce, a left glove and an oyster knife.  These oysters are not the single, select oysters you would find on the half shell at an oyster bar.  They come an clusters of three to ten oysters attached to each other and varying in size from a half inch to as much as six inches.  As with eating celery, you probably burn more calories than you consume...if you don't count the beer.
     The weather has been fine, and I'll close with a backyard snapshot of last evening's sunset.