Abundance

Abundance means having an ample supply of something or more than you need. This year we have had an abundance of rain. Some folks, like my son and son-in-law whose livelihood in the construction business  depends on having dirt dry enough to move around and stay where you put it, might say we have had an over abundance. It has not been many years since we had drought here. Everything was so sad looking. The greens in the landscape were dusty looking and muted. Things drooped and some things died. Our beloved Red Maple just shriveled up and lost all its leaves one week when we were away. It came back the next spring but about a third of it had died. No amount of pruning and pampering could bring it back to anything resembling a healthy tree.
We finally took it down this year, partially to put it out of its misery and partially because it was in the path of a leaning hickory that was threatening the house.
The dividend of the abundance of rain is the happy plants and trees. We have had blooms more abundant that we ever remember and even see things we do not remember. Our lenten roses are spreading all over the yard it seems. A wild yellow rose has grown about 12 feet high and it covered in happy flowers.

Another beneficiary of the rain is the vegetable garden. We said we were giving up because we do not have enough sun for vegetables, but I just had to try. So I have resorted to container gardens on the driveway in front of the garage door. So far it is going well. I have tomatoes, peppers, beans, peas, dill, cilantro, basil, parsley and onions. As of today, the peas have blossoms.

York, South Carolina

Early South Carolina was divided into two areas, the northern Back Country (later called the Up Country) and the Low Country. The government was controlled by the aristocratic rice planters in the Charleston area who gave no representation or local court systems to the Up Country. This resulted in a lawless frontier from 1740 until roughly 1800, when counties and local courts were established.
The city of York developed out of a busy crossroads and was first called Yorkville. It became a major cotton center and was known as "The Charleston of the Up-Country." Its population doubled in the 1850's and at that time it was home to a prestigious prep school for boys and a large prep school for girls. Many of the coastal English planter families established summer homes there. It was a mixture of cultures that led to a mixture of architectural styles in the homes, churches and commercial buildings. In 1976 the city center was nominated as a Historic District to the National Register. This resulted in the grant of one of the largest Historic Districts in South Carolina at the time, encompassing over 180 structures on 340 acres.
I apologize for not including photographs, but I was walking and reading a guide book and trying to avoid tripping and falling on the uneven walk. However, photos are available online at the National Register of Historic Places. There are many interesting structures with equally interesting histories. Many people pivotal to the development of South Carolina and our nation lived in York.
One interesting story is of the circus that chose York as its winter headquarters from 1929 through1945. During this time, Santa rode on the back of an elephant in the annual Christmas parade. Many of the circus performers chose to live in York after retirement. Some local folks were inspired to create a circus of their own that performed just in South Carolina. The larger circus helped them by loaning equipment and animals.
Although many of the downtown buildings are vacant, York remains viable today thanks to a manufacturing base and its proximity to Charlotte. York County is among the fastest growing counties in South Carolina.
Little known fact: they grow peaches here. I would have thought it was too far north.

The Battle of Kings Mountain

If you are at all interested in knowing more about why we are not subjects of the Queen, I highly recommend a trip to Kings Mountain Battle Field just off I-85, exit # 2 in North Carolina.
The park has a very well done museum telling the story of the battle as well as about the settlers who were in the area at the time with illustrations and sound. The gift shop has many books about this battle and the revolution in general. Several of them looked interesting including a reprint of an officer's journal of the day. There is a nice one and half mile paved trail with interpretive markers which skirts the front of the mountain and then goes along the top where there are two large towering markers, one paid for by the state and a Federal one which looks like the Washington Monument. 
The British came in at Charleston and were fighting their way northward winning battle after battle.They had had very few actual British soldiers, relying  mostly on picking up Loyalist fighters as they went along. They came to Kings Mountain and took up a position along the ridge top. American militia from Tennessee, Virginia, and both Carolinas surrounded the mountain and just waited. Finally the British got bored and started to advance down the steep slope. The British style of combat was to march in a straight line into battle shooting as they went. The Americans were mountain people, squirrel hunters and they fought "Indian style," which means hiding behind trees and picking them off one by one while uttering war whoops. Neither side had uniforms. The British put greenery in their hats and the Americans put something white in theirs to distinguish but visibility was bad due to all the black powder hovering in the damp air.The British commander covered his "Red Coat" with a plaid shirt but it did not save him as he lost his life and is buried on the mountain.  There was a high probability of friendly fire. Long story short, the Americans prevailed. Thomas Jefferson called it the turning point of the war. The thing that was new to me was this was like the Civil War, neighbor against neighbor.
About halfway through our trek around the mountain a man walking his dog passed and spoke to us while we were reading a marker. Gene noticed his Navy Seal cap and thanked him for his service. We continued to walk along together and he ended up telling us so much more of the story than is on the markers. More about the individual families in the fight, many of whose descendants still live in the area.
This battle was so famous in its day that it was commemorated five times with great crowds gathering at the site. President Hoover came and spoke at one of these occasions and there were between 75-80 thousand people there. They had a photo of the event. And I had no knowledge of it whatsoever!

Reality Shift

Typical setup: 3 vehicles, trailer and golf cart.

Our anniversary is April 4 and for several years we have tried to take a camping trip around that date. For two years we spent it on the road with the Flagship which turns it into a REAL celebration as that group likes to party. Once it was Los Angeles and once somewhere in south Florida.
For this year's trip I had read in a magazine about York, SC which has 180 structures on the National Register of Historic Places. I found Kings Mountain State Park about 12 miles away, which had a Federal Park adjacent to it commemorating the Battle of Kings Mountain in the Revolutionary War. The Federal Park is in North Carolina and the state park is in South Carolina. It bothered me  that there were no online photos of the campground, only of a living history farm and the lake. I called the park and a very enthusiastic Ranger waxed eloquent about the wooded sites and even recommended several that were best for privacy. He also told me that due to Spring Break in NC, it was likely to be well booked.
It was also Easter Sunday as we headed up I-85 and were surprised at the volume of traffic that morning. We stopped at a truck stop for brunch and found the wait staff to be....well...different. They were all a little on the rough side and if  you weren't seated up near the counter, they really ignored you. We were right up there where the action was. There were two men in the booth across from us, you could say rough around the edges, but they were rough all through the middle too. Their waitress appeared to not have a lot to do, especially if you are ignoring some customers, and seemed to be trying to flirt with them. I guess it was flirting. Some of the lamest comments I have ever heard uttered came out of her mouth. The fish weren't biting, but that did not seem to discourage her. Then a woman came out of the kitchen, and came over to us and introduced herself as Beverly, our cook. She then asked if we enjoyed the food. Never had that happen before.
In good time we arrived at our destination, finding the park and campground quite crowded. Our first observation was that the entrance road was very narrow. We did not think two campers could pass on them. We arrived at the trading post for check in where there is really parking for only one long rig and a park ranger car was blocking part of it. Upon entering, we found the place to be a construction zone. There were three park employees in there and only room for about two other people to hover around the door. But everyone was pleasant and we were on our way.
A new first for us was to find the campground roads were unpaved. And the view down the road was like a third world ghetto. There were campers and people everywhere crammed upon one another like I have never seen. There were a lot of vehicles in most spots, many campers and vehicles almost encroaching on the road which had a lot of curves. We finally curved around to our site and found it to be private and only one other site near us occupied, a tent across the road whose occupant told us he had been there four weeks. What??

Making the rounds

Our spot was so out of level that the camper leaned one way and the truck the other. We had to raise one side of the truck to get enough strain off the hitch for it to let go. Nevertheless, in short time, we were settled in.
Then we started to notice the golf carts. Fully a third of the sites included a golf cart and the entertainment of the day seemed to be to load it up with a passel of kids and ride around and around the loop. Given the dirt road, they stirred up a cloud of dust each time. Another thing we noticed later is that a lot of working people seem to be here with work trailers and they all head out to work in the mornings, including our neighbors in the tent.
Late Sunday night another fifth wheel about the size of ours pulled in next to us. It had a truck pulling the camper which left early Monday with the father in it. Also a large van and a utility trailer. On Monday we became amazed as child after child appeared from within. It reminded me of those very small clown cars in the circus where they just keep getting out. We decided five, then late in the day, two teenagers appeared bringing the final count to 7 children ranging in age from about 15 down to 2. And Mama was very pregnant. Oh, and did I mention a Doberman like dog?  I cannot for the life of me figure out how 9 human beings are sleeping in that camper. License tags from North Dakota.
The bath houses looked clean and adequate so we had high hopes which were quickly dashed. The lights are on a short timer, the sensor is at the door, so you are not far into the shower when they turn off. Okay for us as it was daytime, but I don't know about after dark. Then there is the water which varies in intensity and temperature. It is going along fine, then ebbs and comes back either all cold or all hot. This makes for a lively shower as you jump out of the way when it slacks off. After one try, I decided to shower in the camper.
Then there was the weather, it rained the second and third nights turning everything to mud. The sites were once gravel but it has long ago been driven down into the dirt. Unfortunately we are also without an awning to create a dry zone near our door, as ours is under repair.

Not related to blog entry but just too good not to include.

All and all things are really not so bad, just a shift from our normal reality. We did was we came to do, but we would not come back here. And I really wonder why that Hyndai Sonata like mine has just made its fourth circuit of the loop?

The Taj

It is hard for me to believe that I wrote about our trip last April without mentioning the most important change in our camping....a new (to us) camper. We had planned for a truck and fifth wheel camper in 2015, but fate choose otherwise. Driving down a country road in spring 2014 to gather some firewood from a friend when we saw a nice looking fifth wheel for sale in some one's yard and stopped to take a look. Long story short, it was the camper of my dreams. It had a slide out which made the main living space about 12 by 12, a nice cushy sofa that looked new, a rear kitchen with a nice large fridge and the stove had an oven, an actual table and four chairs instead of a dinette. And best of all, a real queen bed so you did not have to break down the bedroom each time you move as with the old one. There were cabinets everywhere. The decor was aqua, instead of dark greens and greys and the counter tops were neutral. Great shape for its 17 years. The seller had put it up for sale in November, terrible time to sell and by now was disgusted. We made a low offer based on what could go wrong in the near future and he took it. We had to leave it where it was for a week or so as we then had to rush out and buy a pickup truck and install a fifth wheel hitch.  After selling the old camper we were out only $2500 for what to me looks like the Taj Mahal.
We have had to do some repairs: new brakes, a new valve for water heater, repair a leak under the kitchen sink and most of all a new awning which is still in the works. Nothing that would be unexpected.

We took it out several times last fall. Twice to Mistletoe State Park near Augusta and another time to the same lake but a Federal park. We also went to Lloyd Shoals on Lake Oconee and entertained friends for a cook out there. The last trip of the season was to Eufala where we were also right on the lake.
We are enjoying the extra space, and the extra storage.

Augusta

This was written in April 2014 but not finished. I have a new promise to myself to do a better job on this blog going forward and not just when we travel.

The headquarters of the Augusta Canal Authority is housed in the old Enterprise Mill. They have a nice museum which is interactive enough to amuse the children (a passel of home schoolers were on tour) but informative enough to satisfy adults. There was also a ten minute film telling more about the history of the canal. It was started in 1845 but proved not to provide enough water power to run many factories and so was expanded in 1875. It was later abandoned but brought back to life through a movement of the citizens in the late 90's and now provides recreation in an urban setting.
To our great delight, we found ourselves to be the only passengers on our boat tour. These boats, built just for this purpose are the largest electric boats in the US. The captain is Coast Guard certified. At one point our 13ft. wide craft went through a 15ft gate designed to control water flow. We passed under the very ornate Butt's bridge dedicated to a man who had been on President Taft;s staff and who perished on the Titanic. Survivors told stories of his bravery and dedication to saving lives and Taft had the federal government fund this memorial. Our guide told us we might like to go see the head gates of the canal where the water is channeled from the river into the canal which was several miles north.
We enjoyed a nice lunch at Fat Man's restaurant right there on the grounds. They serve sandwiches, salads and full meals. They were friendly and the food was good. We then checked out the river walk area where a brick wall shows the levels of the varying floods over the years. The beautiful cotton exchange building is now a bank with the gorgeous original wood doors and entryway. The far wall of the lobby is a museum of sorts featuring the old blackboard with commodity prices on it that was found intact behind a wall during renovation.
We drove around looking at old houses for awhile and then headed north to the head gates where there is a nice park, picnic pavilion and jogging trails. You can see the old gates, now on dry land and the current ones with water rushing through. People had put locks on the gates across the walkways, many with dates and some with names and sentiments written on them. The dam was beyond the gates with rapids below. These rapids were one reason for the canal because a lot of cotton was grown north of here and it was a lot easier to get it down to the mills in Augusta with the canal.