Entering South Carolina

Wednesday, July 13 - Happy Birthday Audrey.

I forgot to mention yesterday that we saw a couple of dolphins in the waterways to/from Tybee Island.  Also another interesting tidbit this morning -- I did a search of "Savannah railroad museum" and my blog came up on the search engine because those words in yesterday's blog.  I got a good laugh out of that. 

This morning we got a late start -- I had to do the blog, and so I let Joe sleep in.  We got on the road just before 11:00 a.m., and after touring a little of Savannah again because we missed our turns, we crossed into South Carolina about 11:45.

This is a new state for me, although Joe was here back in his Army days when he was stationed at Ft. Bragg, N.C.




As we drove along, we passed a gas station called "Brenda's," so apparently our pal Brenda has been holding out on us, just like Collins did last year.

It was disgustingly hot here today, 101 as we crossed back over into Georgia and came into Augusta a little before 3:00.  We wanted to see a little of the city, even though we weren't stopping here since they don't let you tour the Masters Golf Course.  We actually saw a little more of Augusta than we intended because, again, we missed a turn.  They identify their streets by name, and the map shows numbers, so we don't always catch the turn before we are passed it.  When we crossed back into S.C., we stopped at the Visitors Center to pick up information on the state parks.  We had a hard time staying comfortable in the RV, and hated to stop anywhere so Joe turned on the generator and air conditioner before we went in.  Joe did slam on the brakes later, though, when we saw gas for $3.349.  For whatever reason, gas is cheaper here than across the river.  Since we got such a late start this morning, we didn't get as far as we thought today and I started looking for a state park about 4:00.  The only one we found one with 50 amp electricity in this area was just 25 miles from Augusta (Hamilton Branch State Recreation Area), so we decided to call it a day.  We rolled 197 miles, but some of those might have been negative miles since we drove around in circles in Savannah and Augusta.  This is another pretty state park, and we got a site on a little bluff right on the Strom Thurmond Lake.

It was so hot when we parked, the lake was pretty calm, and not a leaf was stirring.  I was actually contemplating jumping in because it was so hot.

Within 15 minutes, a storm rolled through, the lake was white-capping, and we thought there might have been a little hail.  The temperature dropped to 84 degrees within an hour.  I was thinking we might drive to a nearby town for dinner so I wouldn't have to heat up the RV, but we seem to be in the middle of nowhere, so once it cooled down, I fixed dinner.  I think an angry squirrel is throwing pine cones on our roof, though, because we keep hearing strange noises.  After dinner, Joe and I took a little stroll down to the water; he actually waded in and said the water was bathtub warm.  The sun was trying to come back through the clouds, and several people were fishing just around the corner -- made us want to get our fishing poles out, but alas, no licenses.