More pictures

Fort Macon facing east

Parade grounds

Steve, Sandy, Me & Elvis

Our view of Pasquotank River

Shad boat in Albemarle Museum

Waterfront Eleizabeth Center

St. Paul's Parish

Cupola home Edenton

Roanoake Lighthouse

Barbara, our trolley tour guide

Our trolley

Early 1900's home Elizabeth City

Cypress tree with knees in Albermale Sound

Picture June 24 - July 4

No way!

Lazy gator

Tidal Creek Boat trip

Ahh, sleeping grey fox

Rescued eagle

Tryon Palace gates

Christ Church, New Bern

Sanctuary

Pipe organ

Stairs Tryon Palace

English gardens Tryon Palace

Beautiful sunset Cherry Point

Luci telling Gary exactly what she thinks of the ferry ride

Pictures 6-18 June 23 Monck's Corner, SC & Myrtle Beach, SC

Luci swam and swam and swam in this small area

Pond in full bloom at Lake Moultrie

Resident Blue Hero

Beautiful staircase at Drayton Hall

Back stairs used by servants and children

Drayton Hall

One of the many beautiful old churches in historic Charlesto

Gary's Father's Day Pie - coconut cream

Sky Wheel Myrtle Beach

Pier 14 from Sky Wheel

Crowds at Myrtle Beach near Pier 14

Gary just relaxing

Pier 14 lunch

Wheels of Yesteryear museum Mom had a 64 yellow Corvair

Brother had a 58 Chevy

Ribbit the Exhibit at Brookgreen Gardens

Lunch with one of the Ribbits

Cute sculpture, dog looking at a fly

Large sculpture at Brookgreen

another

Red Cardinal in gardents

Children's Garden

Butterfly exhibit

One of the 20 plus Ribbit sculptures

June 18- June 23 Charleston, SC area and Myrtle Beach, SC

It's hard to believe we've been on the road almost 3 months since we left Rockport.  This trip we are taking our time in most locations to get a real feel for the area.  

Sunday, June 18  Happy Father's Day!  I still miss my Dad, he passed away in 1963 when I was 15.  Since it's Gary's special day he chose all of our activities.  Drayton Hall is just down the road from Magnolia Plantation we visited last week.  This place is very different, the families wishes are to leave the house as is, no renovations allowed.  Drayton Hall, built by Charles Drayton in the 1740's, 630 acres on the banks of the Ashley River.  Rice was their main crop, I don't think rice is grown anywhere in the south presently.  The home was only painted 3 times in the interior from 1740 to 1950's, it's been  in the Drayton family  for 7 generations all this time with no modern conveniences such as bathrooms, running water or electricity.   After we left Drayton Hall we drove  to downtown Charleston.  Gary found a nice brew pub for dinner, I had dinner planned but we put that on hold.  We walked around the historic area before heading back to Lake Moultrie.  The only road in an out of the area was scheduled for a railroad crossing repair, the detour would be impossible for a motorhome so we packed up and drove into Monck's Corner Sunday night to spend a lovely evening at Wal-Mart.  

Monday, June 19  After fueling up at the Wal-Mart station we drove 77 miles to Pirateland at Myrtle Beach, SC.  What a zoo, 10 kajillion golf carts whizzing by constantly and people partying everywhere.  The sites were sizeable but it was a tight squeeze maneuvering the coach into the space,  there are over 900 RV and mobile home  spaces in the park.  The good part, we were close to the beach, a quick walk over the dunes and we could walk forever on the beachfront.  We could take Luci to the beach after 5pm and before 9am, she loved that!  A word of advice, don't stay at Pirateland!!!!!  Besides all that, it cost $85 a night.  Live and learn.  Myrtle Beach has a plethora of mini-golf courses.  Of course after getting settled we played 18 holes.  NO comment on who won.

Tuesday, June 20  We wanted to ride the SkyWheel on Myrtle Beach,  it's 175 feet tall with 42 glass enclosed gondola's that are air conditioned.  It didn't feel like you were riding a ferris wheel at all.  We walked down the boardwalk to Pier 14, decided to have lunch there, on the deck.  As we were finishing up it started to rain, by the time we got back to the car it was pouring.  Since it was a wet miserable day we decided to check out Wheels of Yesteryear Museum, not a huge museum but some nice "rides".  No mini golf today.

Wednesday, June 21 On our way to Myrtle Beach Monday we passed by Brookgreen Gardens, with a beautiful metal sculpture of two horses out front.  We had to check it out, only about 20 miles south, we could not believe our eyes.  Brookgreen Gardens is a sculpture garden and wildlife preserve, the  9,100 acre acre garden was founded by Archer Huntington, railroad heir and his wife sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington in the 1930's  They purchased four rice plantations to showcase her sculptures we well as others.  There are over 1,400 sculptures throughout the park, zoo, butterfly house, creek excursion and 3 restaurants.  The $6.50 price of admission was good for 6 days, there is no way you could cover everything in one visit.  We took a sculpture garden tour, free, the docent was exceptional, naming not only the sculpture, the artist, the garden design and the horticulture.   Archer was the mastermind behind the layout of the garden, flowers bloom there from April through September.   We finished up the day visiting the Butterfly House and the Ribbit Exhibit next door, a collection of larger-than-life-size copper frogs doing all kinds of things, playing instruments, dancing, gardening, catching butterflies or just sitting on a lily pad, the exhibit will be there for almost 3 months.  Another must see if you are ever in the area.  We did find the time for a round of golf before getting back to Luci.

Thursday, June 22, Across the highway from Brookgreen is Atalaya, the former winter home for the Huntingtons, now a state park.  Built near the ocean, Archer also designed the home, all that is left is the 200' by 200' masonry structure.  We went back to Brookgreen, to take the creek excursion and see the native wildlife zoo.  We were lucky just as we finished the zoo the sky opened up and dumped on us.  On our way home the rain eased up, we played a round of mini-golf on very soggy astro turf.  

Friday, June 23,  We were so glad to leave Pirateland and Myrtle Beach, what a zoo!  We left about 11 for what was supposed to be 190 mile trip to Havelock and Cherry Point Marine Air Station.  We made 4 wrong turns, yes even using GPS, we arrived at 4:15, 210 very stressful miles.  What a great park!  We have a view of the Neuse River, large spaces and lots of places to walk and ride our bikes.  We're only about 25 miles from Pamlico Sound.  It's a large base with jets rattling our coach when the cruise over us.   

That's it for this week, will catch up soon.  Enjoy the pic's on the next post.

TTFN

Gary and Pam

Dang, I hit the publish button instead of save!

Like I was saying........

Wednesday, June 7,  We were awakened by loud thunder, after several hours the storm subsided, we were able to disconnect utilities, hook up the car and hot the road.  We left about 10:00, after a stop to get diesel before getting on I-95 for our 110 mile drive to Ft. Stewart near Savannah, arriving about 11:30.  The rain held off until we were all connected and settled in.  Gary drove into Savannah to have his new Nikon camera checked out, he thought the pictures seemed a bit blurry.  I, in the meantime settled in with a good book.  My sister Judy called, she is leaving Friday for Oahu with her husband, two sons and daughter in law to celebrate her 80th birthday on Saturday.  They will be taking a Sunset catamaran cruise with our brother Punch who lives in Honolulu.  After dinner we walked around the pond before the rain started again.  We are "roughing" it, no satellite, sewer and spotty wi-fi.  

Thursday, June 8,  This is our second trip to Savannah, we hurriedly came through here 2 years ago racing down to Tampa so I could catch my flight to Oregon for my class reunion, we'll be here 6 nights this time.   Our first stop of the day was the Wormslow State Historic Site.  Noble Jones arrived in Georgia with English General James Oglethorpe, the first settlers in Georgia in 1736.  He started his plantation on the Isle of Hope on a bluff overlooking a salt marsh.  The masonry arch leads you to the 1 1/2 mile roadway collonade that is lined on both sides with more than 400 live oak trees dripping with Spanish moss.  The remains of the tabby house, which took 6 years to construct, was surrounded by 8 foot high walls to protect the family from Spanish attack.  You can still see the well, cellar, crumbling walls and chimney.  A short walk from the home is an iron fence marking the original family burial site.  Further on is the observation deck over the salt marsh and Jones narrows.  They have an area showing you the colonists life with a small wattle and daub home, black smith and outbuildings.   We grabbed a quick bite at Firehouse Subs before our visit to Bonaventure Cemetery, a former plantation, it has been a cemetery since the mid 1800's with 101 acres overlooking the Wilmington River, It is fulled with beautiful live oak trees, some over 250 years old and of course Spanish moss hanging everywhere.  Many graves have beautiful statues and ornate carvings, sadly the cemetery hasn't been kept up, it could be a real showplace. Gary wanted to see Ft. Pulaski, the last time we were here we passed by it on our way to Tybee Island but ran short of time.  It's a bit of a drive out to the island, at the fee station the ranger told us it was closed.  Remember our first week at St. Mary's we had a tornado warning but the tornado headed up toward Savannah.  Well it took the roof off the visitor center at the Fort.  Guess we'll have to come back someday.  So we called it a day and went home to Luci.  We took a walk around the pond, this time stopping to see a small swamp on the other side, there are a couple of 2-3 foot alligators, one swam close to shore where we were standing and either "hissed" at us or sneezed, I don't know enough about alligators to know if they hiss or sneeze.  We thought it was time to move on.  Later our neighbors, George and Sherry, full timers  from Alaska.  We picked their brain, most likely we are going to go to Alaska next spring before heading to Oregon.

Friday, June 9, We took Luci to Doggie Day Care in Richmond Hill, the closest town to Ft. Stewart.   We were off to Rose Hill Mansion in Bluffton SC, just a few miles over the Georgia/NC border.  Silly us, we thought we could just drive up and tour it.  It's in a gated community and you have to have reservations.  Nuts!  We took a chance and called to see if we could get in to the only tour of the day at 2:00,  wahoo we could.  So we had time to kill, decided to take a drive out to Hilton Head Island to check it out, bad idea, we were stuck on the bridge in a slow moving parking lot.  Luckily there was a break in the bridges and we managed a u turn, I think we would still be there.  We drove into historic Bluffton, found a cute place for lunch, Fat Patty's, Gary's dream came true - 30 beers on tap.  We took a quick look around the little town established in the 1800's before going back to Rose Hill. Construction on Rose Hill started before the Civil War, never completely finished then was almost destroyed by fire, in 1996  the White Family bought the shell of a house and beautifully brought it back to life.  Our docent was quite knowledgeable about the architecture and antiques in the  house.  The most impressive , a 5 foot Ming Dynasty Vase sits in one of the parlors, visitors can stand right next to it.  Arghh, can you imagine bumping into it accidentally?  The White's live in the home and run an antique (must be very successful) business from the second floor of the home. that is why there is only one tour a day.  Mrs. White collects artifacts from the property that she displays in shadow boxes.  An amazing home, it once stood on 2,000 acres with rice and sea cotton their major crops.  The surrounding acres have been turned into a high end housing development plus an equestrian center, leaving 12 1/2 acres.  After the tour, beverages and snacks (that they sell in the gift shop) are served.You then are free to wonder around the home for a closer look.  The owners quite often are around to answer questions after the tour but  not on the day we were there.

Saturday, June 10  Happy 80th birthday Sis, hope you're having a great time in Hawaii.  We stumbled upon the Henry Ford Winter Home Museum in Richmond Hill, we walked into the little museum building expecting to go from there to his home.  The home does not offer tours but we sure learned a lot about Henry Ford and his wife Clara.  Our stop at Richmond Hill Museum turned into a 2 hour visit, Hub showed us a video, stopping to add additional narrative then took us through the museum explaining the exhibits.  Richmond Hill at the time was called Ways Station and was one of the poorest towns in the entire state.  He bought 85,000 acres of land, drained swamps to grow rice, built schools for both white and black, hospitals, a saw mill, trade school and put people back to work.  He took over an old plantation and built Clara's dream home from the bricks.  We had no idea he was such a philanthropist.  

Sunday, June 11, Gary went to Ft. McCallister on the bank of the Ogeechee River, a Confederate earthwork fortification that withstood bombardment from the Union Navy in 1863, the shells are still in the dirt, but finally did fall when Sherman made his march to the sea.  Fort Jackson was constructed on the Savannah River in 1808, soldiers guarded Savannah in the War of 1812 and Civil War.  The last American soldiers to be stationed at Fort Jackson were members of the 55 Massachusetts, an African-American unit of the Federal Army.  The war department abandoned the fort in 1905 and the state of Georgia reopened it in 1965 as a maritime Museum which closed in 1975, now it's a Heritage Museum.  

Tuesday, June 13,  We left Holbrook Farm about 11 for the 150 mile drive to Short Stay Lake Moultrie about 40 miles outside of Charleston.  Lake Moultrie is a Navy Recreation area on a reservoir.  We arrived about 2, no sewer or satellite reception again.  It's a really nice campground with a beach, marina, boat rentals, also cabins and condos. Not as buggy as  Holbrook farm thank goodness.  

Wednesday, June 14  Poor Luci had to stay home while we toured Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, built in 1755, the house originally served as a guest wing , then became the Middleton family residence when the main portion of the house burned during the Civil War.  It contains the family furnishings.  The gardens were so-so, they need a little love.  It's amazing to see a home built in 1755 still standing.  

Friday, June 16,  Happy birthday Stacy, I can't believe you're 50 already! Enjoy your day.  Gary went to Patriots Point Naval & Maritime museum across Charleston Harbor from downtown.  The USS Yorktown, the sister ship to the Lexington (Corpus Christi) was nicknamed the Fighting Lady.  Commissioned in 1943 she played a significant role in the defeat of Japan.  She also served in the Vietnam war and in 1968 recovered the Apollo 8 astronauts, the first men to orbit the moon. was decommissioned in 1970 and towed to Charleston in1972.  Also located on Patriot Point the destroyer USS Laffey, commissioned in 1944 was hit by 22 Japanese Kamikazi's and 3 bombs struck her and still remained afloat.  Decommissioned in 1975, arrived in 1981, also in 1981 the submarine USS Clagagore, commissioned just weeks before the end of WWII.  Luci and I spent a laid back day.  We had diner at Moncks Corner on the canal, you can arrive by car or boat. Delish! 
We visited with a local couple, they suggested we drive out to Mepkin Abbey.

Saturday, June 17,  It was a fairly short drive out to what was originally Mepkin Plantation now Mepkin Abbey,  previously owned by Henry and Clare Booth Luce.  We took a guided tour of the grounds and Abbey, which included the 12 o'clock prayers with the monks in the Chapel.  The grounds are beautifully kept up, beautiful old live oaks 200 plus years old dripping with Spanish Moss.  

That's it for now, I'll catch up soon.  Enjoy the pics.

TTFN

Gary and Pam