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Saturday, November 27, 2010

Wanda's Last Winter

Stix n Brix
Clayton, NC

Just a quick post to say we made it back to the house Thursday.  I was expecting a lot of traffic on the road since it was Thanksgiving, but I guess everyone was where they wanted to be.  The roads weren't crowded at all.  I like pulling in to a gas station when no one is there.  The credit card pumps stay on 24/7.  We unloaded the rig and had some good leftover turkey and fixin's.  Friday we winterized the MH.  OK...Gin did it...I helped by holding the toilet flush open while she blew air though the lines with the air-compressor.  We don't use the rv anti-freeze.  It was a cold winter last year, but there was no problem.  We leave a little ceramic space heater on low inside.  I put the tire covers on and gave Wanda a hug.  She'll sleep good knowing that this should be the last time we winterize her.  Oh well, for the next 3 or 4 months, we'll be "all work and no play".

Thanks for dropping by, and enjoy each day of your life's journey by finding beauty in the ordinary.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Relaxing Day

Huntington Beach State Park site #111
Murrell’s Inlet, SC

This was our last full day here so we spent it relaxing around the campsite.  We were recuperating a little from yesterday’s long walk actually.  We did still take a bike ride through the CG to look at all the nice sites here.  They are definitely filling up for the long holiday week end.  This is our site #111.

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It’s pretty private although the fire pit area is opened to the next campsite.  We prefer a site surrounded by plants and trees as long as the satellite dish receiver works.  Generally the sites on the right-hand side of the road have a more private patio area.  These folks are definitely set up for the holiday.  They have friends and family staying at several other sites here like a family reunion.

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I know turkeys are the symbol of Thanksgiving, but I’ve grown accustomed to the beautiful birds of the marsh here.  The egrets and herons, although the mosquitoes have been almost as big and most plentiful.

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We enjoyed the afternoon and evening sitting by the campfire.  Maybe it’s just me, but I can get a little testy on our last day at a beautiful place.  I know I hate leaving here.  I think full-timing will be quite a bit different because I’ll look forward to going to  another nice place.  We’ll be on the road tomorrow along with a lot of people so I’ll wish you all a…


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HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!  
(Chalk drawing provided by kids in the CG)

Thanks for dropping by, and enjoy each day of your life’s journey by finding beauty in the ordinary.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Bike the Neck

Huntington Beach State Park site #111
Murrell’s Inlet, SC

Today we decided to Bike the Neck.  It’s a very nice paved bike path that runs from Murrell’s Inlet, past the CG, and on down to Pawley’s Island.  As we were leaving the CG, I saw this beautiful egret in the tree.  I love the Spanish moss.

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We first rode up to Murrell’s Inlet.  When we went out to eat Friday evening at the Hot Fish Club, Bill and Nancy mentioned that you can launch your kayaks from the park right next door so we had to check it out.

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It’s the Morse Park Landing.  There are a couple of picnic tables and a bench under a tree and a few places to park.  There’s also a memorial to those who were lost at sea.  Murrell’s Inlet honors it’s fishing village heritage.

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After looking out over the marsh a bit, we decided to take the bike path south.  It goes on down to Pawley’s Island, but we didn’t go that far.  We stopped in Litchfield.  We were getting hungry and it was about lunchtime.  This is really a great bike path.  I forgot to check the e-bike odometer before we left, but I think we went a total of about 15 miles.  I pedaled most of it since it’s pretty flat.

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As we crossed the causeway over the lagoon, I spotted two alligators basking in the warm sun 10 feet from the sidewalk.  They were about 8-10 feet long.  Glad the camera has a nice zoom because they are the top of the food chain.

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After lunch and an afternoon nap, we decided to take Smudge for a walk on the shore again.  She enjoyed barking at the birds.  She is over 13 years old but she walked like a puppy today.  We went out at one boardwalk and walked down to the jetty boardwalk to come back on the paved road.  That was about 4 miles of walking.  Smudge walked about 3.5 miles of it.

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We will all sleep late tomorrow.  As a matter of fact, I think we will just hang around the campsite most of the time.  If we got this much exercise on a regular basis, we’d feel younger in the long run.  I just love the birds here.  These were right on the causeway across from the alligators.

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We got back from the long walk just in time for me to step out on the marsh boardwalk for a sunset shot.  Nice way to wrap up another day in Sylville.

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Thanks for dropping by, and enjoy each day of your life’s journey by finding beauty in the ordinary.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Smudge’s Day

Huntington Beach State Park site #111
Murrell’s Inlet, SC

We had planned to spend the morning on the bikes but Smudge had other plans.  She has separation anxiety and hasn’t eaten much the last couple of days.  She had an upset stomach so we knew we needed to be with her instead.  We decided to take her to the shore since there is a lot of hard sand there.  A poodle doesn’t do good in the soft sand…gritty.  She barked at a bird and stared at it.

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But mostly, she barked at me to pick her up.  We should have named her Velcro because she sticks to me and she looks like velcro.

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She really doesn’t care for the beach like some dogs.  That’s ok because I can’t imagine all that sand and salt water in her fur.  I’m not sure if the tide was coming in or out, but this was a nice tidal pool flowing.

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After we all had a nice stroll on the beach, we went back to camp to enjoy a lunch of delicious left-overs.  Since Smudge was feeling better, Gin and I took a few minutes to ride the bikes around in the CG.  This place stays pretty full.  Some of the Thanksgiving crowd is already arriving.  We now have neighbors on one side of us.  Gin got a nice campfire going while Smudge curled up in my lap.  We cooked some brats and marshmallows for supper.  Don’t worry.  We had our veggies for lunch.

A few folks asked about the roaster so Gin took some shots to show how we have it set up.  Notice the reflection of the bikes in the freshly waxed MH.

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We sit one of those disposable aluminum pans in the roaster pan so that clean up is easier.  For storage, we put the lid in the styrofoam packaging that it came in.  We also kept the box and reinforced it with duct tape and cut out a little spot for the handles.  There is enough room in our basement to put our Baby-Q grill on top of it.  We plan to take it with us when we finally hit the road.

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We’ve enjoyed the wonderful weather here this week.  Maybe it’ll hold up for us so we can enjoy the bikeway.  Thanks for dropping by, and enjoy each day of your life’s journey by finding beauty in the ordinary.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Another Perfect Day

Huntington Beach State Park site #111
Murrell’s Inlet, SC

We slowly welcomed the day and took our e-bikes for a nice little ride around the CG.  There is a nice Education Center at the marsh boardwalk that was opened so we went in for a look around.  There were a few aquariums and terrariums inside.  I didn’t get a good shot of the fish since they were constantly moving but this terrapin was nibbling on a piece of shrimp.

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This young alligator didn’t like the way Gin looked at him but he seemed to practically smile at me.

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We rode further down the paved park road to a parking lot and walked the boardwalk to the beach.  It’s nice that they have several boardwalks here to get over the dunes.  It’s much better for the dunes, and it’s much better for folks that have difficulty walking in the soft sand like Gin.  She enjoys the ocean and she was just trying to soak it all in since it will probably be quite a while before we get back here.

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I can understand why Sherry doesn’t mind running so much when she runs along the shore here.  It’s just beautiful and not many people this time of year.

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We were enjoying our walk back to our e-bikes on the boardwalk when this little fella jumped out at us.  He was a little slow so we just enjoyed looking at each other.

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After our excursion, we sat outside to watch the Panthers lose another game.  I’ve always said that your team is only as good as your back-ups because there will be injuries throughout the season.  While the game was on, Gin got the turkey in the GE Roaster so that we could eat our Thanksgiving meal early.  We give thanks every day so why not.  The roaster cooks a good turkey.  We’ve also cooked a roast in it.  We set it outside on the grill table so that the interior of the MH won’t get so hot and we don’t use LP.  We had cooked a couple of sweet potatoes over the campfire the night before and Gin fixed the cranberry relish before we left the house.  The dressing and spinach was cooked fresh in the MH.  We’ll be eating leftovers for a few days but we enjoy a quick, good meal.

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I wanted to get a shot of the full moon when I took the trash out but it was too cloudy.  I think tomorrow will be another beautiful day.  Maybe we can ride the great paved bikeway they have here that runs beside Hwy 17.  We take one day at a time and enjoy what comes our way.

Thanks for dropping by, and enjoy each day of your life’s journey by finding beauty in the ordinary.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Cameras

Huntington Beach State Park site #111
Murrell’s Inlet, SC

We visited with Sherry and David a few precious minutes this morning before they headed north to their house in Va to take care of some things.  It was wonderful visiting with them.  They are good people.  We’ll see them again in April at the RV-Dreams rally.

I rode my e-bike around a little bit taking pictures with our new camera.  It’s a Canon PowerShot SX30 IS much like Karen uses for her blog. Wow! It really does have a super zoom feature!  Our other two cameras are also Canon’s.  One is a small powershot that we take when we paddle and the other is an EOS Rebel T1i with a 250mm zoom.  It takes great pictures, but we always seem to have the wrong lens on it.  The new camera is versatile.  I like the fact that you only have one lens so you are always ready.  You do have to hold your breath to get that real tight zoom.  Here’s a few shots to see what you think.  I was still sitting on the e-bike and the end of the boardwalk to the beach for this shot.  No sand in my shoes.  (Remember that all the pictures will enlarge if you click on them.)

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I rode over to one of the observation boardwalks over the marsh for a few more shots.  This flock of birds just looked like specks on the water and I could hardly see what this cormorant was doing on the post.

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I enjoyed watching this pelican from a “close” distance, and this great egret was enjoying the sun on the causeway.

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While I was on the causeway, a gentleman with a tripod, camera, and a huge zoom lens walked by.  Some other folks had told me that a rare Bald Eagle had been perched high in a tree for a while.  I spoke with this guy and he was kind enough to point him out to me.  He had been waiting all morning for him to fly but had to leave.  I’m sure he got some nice shots but this one is quite nice and much easier.

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While the chicken wings were cooking on the grill, we sat back and watched the NC State-UNC football game on the outdoor tv.  State won.  It’s been a tough year for the NFL Panthers so we have to enjoy the ole college team.

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This cute little marsh wren kept boppin’ around and on top of the MH tire.  It was interesting to watch.

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As the game wound down, Gin got a nice fire going while I walked to the visitor’s center boardwalk to see if I could get a decent picture of the sunset.  I love these two Wilson's plovers reflecting on their day.

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As the sun set to the west, the full moon rose in the east.  It was another wonderful Sylville, and Ginville, kind of day.

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Thanks for dropping by, and enjoy each day of your life’s journey by finding beauty in the ordinary.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Surprise Visitors

Huntington Beach State Park site #111
Murrell’s Inlet, SC

We hit the road this morning a little before 8:30 so that we could get to one of our favorite places by 12:30.  It was nice to be on the road again.  We both grew up traveling I95.  One of the landmark icons is South of the Border just as you enter SC from NC.  It has recently been refurbished a bit and has knew paint on all their buildings.  I hear that they have a decent CG for overnight stops somewhere in the complex.  Pedro’s hat is pretty big!

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We were on our way to spend a few days at Huntington Beach and visit with some rv friends, Sherry and David and Nancy and Bill.  Nancy and Bill have a nice house in Murrell’s Inlet that is on the market.  They have been full-timers before but never relaxed from the fast paced “vacation mode”.  They want to try it again at a more comfortable pace.  They moved to 150 cg’s in one year.  That’s too much.  Sherry and David have a Brave just about like ours so we feel a certain closeness to them because they have such good taste.  They have been traveling for a bit but are on their way back to their house in Va to take care of the furnace before the cold winter sets in.  They stayed in the cg a day or so extra so that we could visit.

And visit we did!!  At 2:00, N&B pulled up to our site while I was on the roof moving the vu-cube.  They got out of their SUV and their back doors opened.  I was expecting S&D but was so surprised to see Howard and Linda of RV-Dreams step out!  We all got our hugs in and they went over to surprise S&D while we finished setting up.  H&L are camping at Cheraw State Park which is a couple of hours from here.  N&B had emailed them and encouraged them to visit.  I’m glad they did.  We got the chairs out and sat around our “unfire” fire pit and talked for a few hours.

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Here’s Howard, David, Gin, Sherry, Bill, Linda, and Nancy.  Smudge had to protect me from all these people.  Nancy was kind enough to make reservations at a nice local restaurant,  Hot Fish Camp, so that we could enjoy each others company a little longer.  I wish them all safe travels.  It was a wonderful day!!

Thanks for dropping by, and enjoy each day of your life’s journey by finding beauty in the ordinary.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Flock in Flight

Stix n Brix, NC

We spent the day yesterday visiting with family.  My brother Doug and SiL Carla joined us for a nice barbecue lunch at Mom's.  After chatting a while, we drove over to visit with Gin's parents.  Our folks live only 30 miles apart so it's nice to be able to visit with them on the same day.  What makes it extra interesting is the snowbirds in flight south this time of year.  We were on I95 in NC for about 70 miles so we saws a lot of MH's and big 5er's rolling south.  Of course, we were able to pick out a few rigs that would work nicely for us.  Remember though, that the bigger they are, the more they cost.  Oh well, that'll be us next year.  :)

I'm working the next few days and then we head out on our last trip of the year to Murrell's Inlet, SC.  Gin's parents were in Myrtle Beach a couple of weeks ago and found Larry's to do some work on their MH.  They are going to Jacksonville, Fl next week and plan to stop at Larry's to have their brake recall work done.  Maybe they'll spend the day with us.  We plan to cook a turkey before Thanksgiving Day because we like leftovers and we'll be traveling home on Thursday.  Time to pack some more dishes.  Corelle does smash when it falls out of the cabinet and shatters on the floor into hundreds of little shards of glass.  We had put the plates on a new wire divider and forgot to put the non-slip protection in place.  That has been corrected (we hope). 

My bed beckons.  Some of us (me) need more beauty sleep than others.  Thanks for dropping by, and enjoy each day of your life's journey by finding beauty in the ordinary.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Jack

Stix n Brix, NC

Welcome to all our newest followers; Mike, Gail and Rick, Judy and John.  They each have very nice blogs.  We met Gail and Rick at the RV-Dreams rally this past April.  They had just sold their house then.  They now have a great MH and Rick only has a few more days of work.  Hang in there!

This has been the busy part of my work schedule so I'm sorry for the lapse in posting.  I have a feeling that I may fall back a bit this winter too since the MH will not leave the driveway much.  I called our local Winnebago dealer a few days ago to see if the jack assembly had arrived and was surprised when he said yes.  It had been there a few days.  I thought they would have called me, but I made an appointment for today.  They replaced the whole jack under the driver's seat.  This better work.  It certainly cost enough (as usual).  At least the technician was nice enough to apologize to me this time for smashing a few of our dishes, and he cleaned up the mess.  I wasn't mad because it has happened to me before as I pulled in to a parking lot.  As a matter of fact,  I smashed some more as I left the dealership today.  I think I need to find a place that will replace our shocks at a reasonable price.  The service manager offered to give me a set of dishes that they give to everyone that buys a new rig.  I declined his offer before I got the bill ($900).  We'll be combining our kitchens soon so no worries there.  Tomorrow we'll start packing a few things for our last trip of the season.  I feel like we haven't enjoyed Wanda nearly enough this year.  I guess I'll do some dreaming and planning this winter, not to mention purging the house.

Thanks for dropping by, and enjoy each day of your life's journey by finding beauty in the ordinary.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Spoiled

Stix n Brix
Clayton, NC

A warm welcoming howdy to our newest followers, Kenny and Angela who also have a nice looking blog.  If some of you follow along but have not signed up as a follower, that's ok.  I do that too.  I'm a lurker on a few sites and forums.  :)

We are spoiled.  You can almost smell us we're so rotten.  We have never been the typical weekend warrior when it comes to camping.  I've been lucky enough to have this schedule of working three weeks (long hours) and then off a week every month for the past several years.  When we go camping, we don't feel like we need to cram everything in to just two days.  Since my schedule will be changing this winter,  we won't go camping much next spring or summer.  That got us thinking that we need to go somewhere nice this month before the rig gets winterized.  I'm off the week of Thanksgiving but I thought our favorite spots might be booked.  Gin checked Huntington Beach State Park, and lo and behold, one of our preferred sites was still available.  Murrell's Inlet, here we come!  We're planning to have a couple of campfires and ride the e-bikes some.  Maybe a trip to Camping World and a little geocaching, but mostly relaxing.  Gin made the comment that Wanda's all cleaned up and ready to go...so are we. 

We finished waxing the rig and I would love to wax the roof.  It's not rubber.  It's raining now however so I know it won't get done.  That's really ok because I wasn't looking forward to it anyway.

Thanks for dropping by, and enjoy each day of your life's journey by finding beauty in the ordinary.