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.

Charleston, SC

We spent today in Charleston. I had never been there, although Bob had been there 3 times with our Boy Scout troop when Jon & Jason were in scouts. They stayed on the Yorktown Aircraft Carrier at Patriot's Point in Charleston Harbor. We toured the harbor on a boat and it was an absolutely gorgeous day. It was 80 degrees and by far the nicest weather we have had since we left Michigan. We saw dozens of houses on the harborfront that could be candidates for our "Winter Home", but I couldn't even decide which one to post on here because I took pictures of sooooooo many beautiful homes. The cruise boat advertised that they see dolphins all the time. Well, I seem to scare dolphins away. We did see ONE dolphin (see picture below) and that was the extent of it. We even drove over to Folly Island Beach where they say there are ALWAYS dolphins. Didn't see one! I did collect some shells for the grandkids on the beach, though. We also drove over to Sullivan's Island to see if we could get close to the lighthouse. We got right next to it, so I was very happy about that. There was another lighthouse on Morris Island, but we couldn't figure out how to get near it and it was starting to get dark by then. Charleston is a very historical and beautiful city and I'm sure we'll be going back there before we leave this area.


If you click to enlarge this picture, you'll see the dolphin


This was a sign at an attorney's office that I thought was hilarious


The Yorktown Aircraft Carrier

Part of one of the bridges that crosses Charleston Harbor

The Sullivan Island (aka Charleston) Lighthouse. It is a triangular structure.

Washington, DC

We got up at 4:30 this morning, after going to bed at 2:00, to catch the 5:15 bus here in the campground to go into the city and tour the White House at 7:30. We rode the bus to the Metro (subway) station, got on the subway and then transferred to another subway route and then walked to the White House. We were told it would be about a 3 block walk, but I swear I counted 6 intersections that we crossed. :-( The tour was pretty good. We actually met one of Obama's personal valets in an elevator. He was dressed in a tux and eating grits with butter on them out of a styrofoam bowl. :-) It was a member of the Secret Service that conducted the tour. We completed the tour and then Bob took the subways and bus back to the campground to get my camera bag. We couldn't take cameras, purses, backpacks, etc. into the White House and there was no lockers or anywhere to put it and I sure couldn't be in Washington and not take any pictures. I waited for him downtown because he thought it would take him about an hour. It took over 3 hours. I walked around so much while he was gone, I might as well have gone with him. When he finally got back we had some lunch at a great little place called Salad Too Grill. After that we walked to the White House (I had my camera now), the Washington Monument, the relatively new World War II Memorial, etc. I'm not exaggerating when I say I walked at least 10 miles today. I wish I would have worn a pedometer! The World War II Memorial is really nice with many aspects to it, but it deeply saddens me that this memorial was not built until 2004 and so many WWII veterans are either dead or unable to travel to see it. I took pictures of every feature there for my Dad. It's a wonderful tribute to the heroes of World War II, but as I said, many, many years too late. We did not see everything today that we wanted to, so we will try to get back tomorrow if the rain they are predicting isn't too bad. When we arrived in College Park yesterday it was a beautiful 72 degrees. This morning I dressed for 72 degrees and froze! I don't even know what the temp was here today, but it was cold and then this afternoon it was cold AND rainy. :-(

I must say that we are extremely impressed with Washington. We are absolutely shocked at how friendly and courteous everyone has been. A great example of this is that when we were trying to get back to the subway this afternoon it started raining, not real hard, but raining nonetheless. A lady that was sitting in traffic in her Mercedes convertible honked the horn, put her passenger window down and yelled to ask if an umbrella would help us. She GAVE us an umbrella!!! Bob offered to pay her for it, but she wouldn't hear of it. I can't remember ever being in a large city, or a small one for that matter, when anyone was that kind. People on the bus and subway will give you their seat without batting an eye. When Bob went to get the camera bag and I was walking around alone, I never once felt threatened or concerned. Bob feels the same way. We will definitely put Washington on our list of places we will return to. You could spend a month here and not see everything.

The Washington Monument

Beautiful fall colors

The White House

Part of the World War II Memorial

with the Lincoln Memorial in the background

The "Pacific" side of the WWII Memorial

One of many quotes at the WWII Memorial

The brand new Boy Scout Monument. I didn't really understand the man in this. I really feel he should have been in a Scout uniform instead of being so scantilly clad. ???

Michigan to Washington, DC - October 12th & 13th

We left Michigan on Monday and travelled to the northeast corner of Ohio. We spent the night at a service plaza on the turnpike. They actually have campsites there with hook-ups and for $15.00/night and the convenience of not driving 10 miles off the highway, it was perfect for our needs. On Tuesday, we headed further east into Pennsylvania and then south to College Park, MD. Everything seemed to be going great until we were checked in at the Cherry Hill RV Park in College Park and I realized that my purse was not in the truck. We tore the truck apart and could not find it. The last time I remember getting out of the truck was at the service plaza on the PA turnpike at Somerset. I called the number of the place were we had lunch and they confirmed that my purse was there. The problem was that Somerset was over 3 hours from College Park. So, off we went to get my purse. We left CP, MD at about 5:00 and got back around 12:30 a.m. That wouldn't have been quite so bad except that we had to be at the White House at 7:15 this morning for our tour. That meant we got 2 1/2 hours sleep before we left for the tour. Anyway, the great news was that my purse was there and EVERYTHING (money, credit cards, checks, etc.) was still in it. Whew!!!

Ohio Colors

Pennsylvania Colors with the sun shining on one spot on the mountain

This could be part of the reason that I forgot my purse. We came out of the service plaza and the Weinermobile had just parked next to us. There were 2 young women in it.

The Weinermobile

Connor & Jillian - October 3, 2009

Connor connects

Jillie ready to catch

Connor, Jillian, Grandpa & Daddy

This was our last day with Connor & Jillian before leaving for the winter. We thought we would see them again last Wednesday evening, but their mother made sure that did not happen. Jason, Connor & Jillian were playing baseball when we got there, so (of course) Grandpa joined in and they were soon playing football. After that we took them to the movies to see "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs". It was a cute movie. After the movie, we went back to Jason's and he made dinner for everyone. Guess what he made...yep, meatballs! :-)