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!