FROM MONTGOMERY, AL TO BAY ST. LOUIS, MS

Sunday, September 28 – We moved on down the road today from Augusta. GA, to Montgomery, AL. We are staying at The Woods RV Park…don't let the name fool you...no woods. We have stayed here several times in the past when traveling from Augusta to the Gulf. This is a Passport America park with gravel streets and sites. There is a small strip of grass between each site. Luckily, the park is not very busy, so the RV's are widely spaced.

Looking right.

Looking left.

If you are in the area and plan on stopping here, be advised NOT to follow your dang GPS. Ours and according to the front desk, MOST GPS, will route you the long way from I-75, 13 miles of stop and go traffic. It is best to exit off I-65 which is only .5 miles down the road. If you do that it is a very convenient location.

We are only in Montgomery for an overnight stay and some very quick sightseeing on Monday. We’ll tell you about our Monday morning sightseeing in our next post.

So, after our tour of Montgomery, AL, we hooked up the 5^th wheel and headed to Bay St. Louis, MS. We are staying at a familiar place, the Silver Slipper Casino campground. It is located across a small street, about 100 feet from the Gulf. The beach is almost deserted. Our own private beach! The casino is about a half-mile down the street.

The campground has concrete pads with a patio and picnic table. The street is also concrete and there is a small strip of grass between the sites. There are two rows of sites with the front row costing an extra $5. We’ve always stayed in site #24, an end of the row with an unobstructed view of the Gulf. 

Looking right.

Out front.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

ALS WALK….AUGUSTA, GA

Saturday, September 27 – We headed down to the Savannah River in downtown Augusta, GA, this morning for the ASL Walk. Again, we are walking in honor of Delores Weaver, Paul's brother John's wife, who died of Lou Gehrig disease in 2009. We are members of team Dream Weaver, one of the largest groups of the 43 teams participating in the walk. We had over 25 walkers in our group.

This was are view as we walked.

We met at the river walk to enjoy the pre-walk festivities and to meet up with other team members. What a wonderful and thoughtful way for these people to spend a Saturday morning. Team Dream Weaver raised over $14,335 for ALS, and the Augusta chapter raised over $121,290 for ALS research.

Two or our members, Holly Weaver and John Arthur Erwin, our niece and nephew registered the walkers.

There was a breakfast buffet, coffee, water, snow cones, popcorn and lots more before we even began the walk.

Ann and Ross, our niece and nephew,  enjoy the pre-walk festivities.

Adam Weaver, our nephew, designed the Augusta ALS T-shirt logo.

John and Karen show off the back of our Dream Weaver shirt.

One of the local high school bands was here to lead the march and celebrate the day.

The walk was not physically challenging, but it was a very emotional experience for those involved. Hearing walkers tell their stories of loved ones suffering from ALS, and the uplifting spirits they maintain is very moving.

Young and old join in the walk.

After the walk, we gathered at John's house for a picnic. What a wonderful time with family and friends. John, Karen, and the boys did an awesome job preparing a cookout for all the Dream Weaver walkers.

Our partial group at the cookout.

We weren't quite done eating. The picnic ended in early afternoon. After visiting with family, the rest of the day dinner was a chili cook-off. Yikes! Another unfortunate opportunity to over-eat! After dinner, we bid our farewells to our “Southern Family” and returned to our 5^th wheel home in preparation of an early Sunday morning departure.

It is getting dark way to soon these days.

Thanks John and Karen for a wonderful, fun and way-too-much-eating time!

We'll head to Montgomery, Alabama, on Sunday for a couple day stay, and then on to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, for several days at the beach. Check back and enjoy the Gulf with us.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

GETTING READY FOR THE ALS WALK…AUGUSTA, GA

Tuesday, September 23 – We moved on down the road this morning, a short distance, to Augusta, GA. Paul's brother, John, lives here, and we will be doing the ALS Walk on Saturday. We are also having a family picnic at his house after the walk. It will be fun to see the “southern family” again. We saw the gang at Kelly's wedding – it's unusual to get together twice in one year.

We are staying at a familiar place for us, Heritage RV Park. We stay here just about every year when we visit John. The streets are sand and the sites are concrete pads with a little grass between each site. We are at site #63, a FHU site. The campground is continuously remodeling and improving sites. The road out front is under construction which will make a nice entry when completed. We are only about a 15 minute drive to John's house. Of course, he's invited us to stay with him, but no need, we brought our house with us... :-) .

Looking right.

Looking left.

Augusta is only a little over an hour drive from our last stop in Columbia, SC. We fooled around until about 10 o'clock to pull-up the jacks and head west. That may be one of the latest starts we've gotten off to in the 6 years of traveling.

Enjoying a little vino and great visit. Karen, John, Marsha, Paul

Besides being with family, Marsha is thrilled to visit this area. She can stock up on her pine needles. We gathered over 5,000 last fall, and she is totally out. We headed to Carroll’s house. Carroll was John’s secretary back in the day. We worked about an hour and then enough. We will go out and gather more on Friday…minus Karen and John. They have had enough of nature….lol.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day.

SOUTH CAROLINA STATE HOUSE

Monday, September 22, continued – After walking several hours around campus, we walked the three or so blocks to the SC State House.

There are numerous monuments and markers on the grounds. Here are just a few:

The most well known one is the George Washington Monument. During the occupation of Columbia by Sherman’s army in 1865, soldiers brickbatted this statue and broke off the lower part of the walking cane.

One unique feature is on the exterior of the building. There are brass stars showing the location of cannonball “hits” from when the building was stormed during General Sherman's march across the South. Bronze stars mark the six locations where the State House was hit by artillery fired on February 19, 1865, from the south side of the Congaree River

Can you find four of the bronze stars?

African American Monument designed with twelve panels symbolizing the history and contribution of African Americans to South Carolina. We thought this was so well done.

We were lucky to arrive just as a small tour was beginning. As a matter of fact, we joined the one other couple (a man and wife from Russia) making it a nearly private tour.

 

We enjoyed seeing the Senate and House of Representatives as well as the rotunda and other sections of this beautifully restored capitol.

The Senate

The House

We found these signs very interesting. Tells a lot about the history of Columbia.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

CONGAREE NATIONAL PARK

Sunday, September 21 –  It doesn't feel like fall, here in Columbia, SC, but that's why we ventured South. Today's temperatures are expected to hover in the 80’s. Nice!

We are off this morning for a hike in Congaree National Park. The 26,000 acre National Park protects the largest remaining tract of old-growth bottomland hardwood forest remaining in the United States. The park contains some of the tallest trees in Eastern North America with one of the highest canopies in the world, broad bio-diversity and old-growth forest.

 

The trail map is pretty confusing. We had some trouble finding the trail we wanted to hike. As a matter of fact, we hiked the Bluff Trail (1.7 miles) first by mistake. Eventually we found the trail we were searching for, the Oakridge Trail (6.6 miles). But our confusion wasn't finished yet. Three quarters of the way around the Oakridge Trail be decided to jump over on the Weston Lake Look Trail, but got confused and headed down the River Trail (10 miles). YIKES!!!

The boardwalk leads to all trails.

 

Water tupelos dominate the landscape. They only grow where water is plentiful. The moss is an indicator of the water level from the pervious floods.

The canopy above.

We needed to watch where we were walking. The tree root system along the trail can trip a person up pretty badly.

 

Luckily, after about a mile, Marsha figured out our error, we turned around and headed back to the Oakridge Trail. By now, we were getting tired and decided to just retrace our route back to the Visitor's Center. Our calculations showed we had hiked almost 9 miles – more than we planned.

Paul really enjoys carving cypress knees. This forest is full of them, but it is against the law to remove anything from a forest.

Once again, we had the Park to ourselves. We really didn't see a soul until we were nearly back to the Visitor's Center. We enjoyed our hike, even though it was a bit confusing. We got a good workout, although we both admitted the scenery got a little repetitive after awhile.

Beauty of the morning.
 

The Visitor’s Center is closed on Sunday and Monday’s. Marsha looked on the website but couldn’t find any mention of this plant. Anyone know its name?

After returning to our truck, we headed the 30 minutes back to the campground. The temperatures were creeping into the upper 80’s by this time, so we were happy to get home. We spent the afternoon relaxing and Marsha, the never tiring tour guide, planned out activities for tomorrow.

With over 25 miles of hiking trails and 2.4 miles of boardwalk, there are many ways to explore the Congaree Wilderness.

Before you head out on your hike, be sure to check the mosquito meter…lol

We are currently in Augusta, GA. We will continue to catch you up on our Columbia, SC, adventure.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!