My Birthday - November 21st

Saturday was my birthday and we went to dinner at Jack's Place with Lynn, Doris, DeAnna and her friend, Shaun. We had a great dinner and then we went to Lynn & Doris' and they had mylar balloons and a wonderful birthday cake for me. How sweet is that? This cake was incredible...it was chocolate peanut butter and it had 5 layers of chocolate cake with a peanut butter filling between each layer. It was super delicious! Thank you Lynn-E-Pooh and Dorrie-Doo!

Lynn & Bob at Jack's Place

Me & Doris

DeAnna

This me with Shaun. I just love him! He is so sweet and funny. And even though he did "stiff" me on the lap dance he promised me for my birthday gift, I still love him and want to adopt him. :-)

Another Interesting RV

This interesting RV was at our campground a couple of days ago. Once again, we have to ask: Is it a motor home or a travel trailer??? Strange! They were towing a car, too.

Lynn & Doris

On November 7th, Lynn & Doris' daughter-in-law, Leah, and their granddaughter, Keira, came to visit from NC. Keira wanted to visit Lynn after his knee surgery on the 2nd. Their son, Chad, is in Iraq and won't be home until December 19th. So, unfortunately we won't see him on this trip. We really enjoyed visiting with Leah & Keira and Doris made her homemade spaghetti that day for all of us. Yummy!



Keira Lynn - 4 years old



This is "Bob", DeAnna's boxer who has decided that
I need to be attacked, so he's locked in the bedroom
or kitchen when I'm there now. Bad Bob!!!

Happy Halloween!

We went to a party tonight at the Carolina Ranch House with Lynn & Doris to watch DeAnna and her friends dance to "Thriller". They really did a fantastic job. You could sure tell they put a lot of practice and hard work into it. Bob said it was almost like watching a Broadway performance. We had a great time. It was also a pot luck and they had tons of delicious food. Bob won a free dinner at a local seafood restaurant that is supposed to be a very good place to eat.


Shaun & DeAnna with the zombies


Thriller zombies


DeAnna's friend Shaun dancing


DeAnna, Shaun and others


Some of the zombies


Two of costumes


This was a guy from the band...nice legs!

Lynn & Doris cutting a rug

Boone Hall Plantation in Mount Pleasant, SC

Today we also visited Boone Hall Plantation in Mount Pleasant, SC. This plantation dates back to the early 1700's and is still a working plantation today. The plantation was heavily destroyed by Hurricane Hugo in 1989 and they lost 4,000 of their 4,500 pecan trees, along with the 14 wooden slave cabins that were still in existence at that time. There are still 9 brick slave cabins on the property and each one holds a display that tells about a different aspect of slavery. There is a salt water marsh that runs along one side of the property and a fresh water lake on the other side. We did see a couple of 1-year-old alligators in the lake. I also saw some egrets and jumping fish in the salt water marsh. The fish would jump 5-6 feet out of the water, but I could NOT catch one with my camera even though I stayed there for about 45 minutes trying to get a good shot of them. They also had a lady that gave a presentation on the "Gullah Culture", which was the language the slaves developed to communicate with one another. She was very informative and entertaining. It was in the 80's today and extremely humid. It was not at all comfortable to be out walking around the plantation. We could not take any pictures inside the mansion since it is a private residence. I feel if they are charging $17.50 to tour this place, you should be able to take pictures inside the mansion. If it is a private residence, why are they letting people tour it every day? Just one of my pet peeves about different places we have visited. There were many beautiful wildflower fields on the property and the road leading up to the mansion is called the "Avenue of Oaks", which is lined on both sides with huge live oak trees that were planted in 1743 by Major John Boone's son. They are perfectly evenly spaced on each side of the road. This plantation has been shown in movies and on TV. The mini-series "North & South" starring Patrick Swayze was filmed here.

The Boone Hall Plantation Mansion

The 9 brick slave cabins still in existence

A beautiful butterfly in the Butterfly Pavilion

A white egret takes flight in the salt water marsh

The Powder Magazine in Charleston, SC

Today we visited The Powder Magazine in Charleston. This building was built in 1712 and is the oldest building in SC. It was built to make gunpowder and was really well built for the era. If you look inside the front doors you will see one of the arches inside. The outer walls were built very thick and the arches were made with very thin plaster and were filled with sand. If they had an explosion in the building, the arches would serve as a fire-retardant (a very early sprinkler system of sorts). It amazes me that this building is nearly 300 years old.

The Powder Magazine Building

One of the interior arches

The steeple of St. Philips Church near The Powder Magazine.

There are no skyscrapers in Charleston as they have a law

that no building can be built higher than the highest church

steeple. There are many churches in Charleston with high

steeples that can be seen all over the cityscape.

South Carolina

And y'all thought Bob was an Elvis fanatic! This truck is our neighbor at the campground here in SC.

Yesterday we drove up to Florence, SC to visit our friends, Lynn & Doris. We went to dinner with them and then to the auction. Doris kept telling us that the older Lynn gets, the worse he gets. I kept telling her that was not possible, but after being with him for a few hours we quickly realized that is was possible. :-) We had a lot of fun and are looking forward to moving up there next Friday and staying there for a month.