Christmas in Raeford and Trailer Troubles

We finally completed our trek across the country and arrived at Bill's sister and brother-in-laws home in Raeford, North Carolina on 14 Dec.  Time to slow down and enjoy the Christmas season.

Our setup at Raeford

Our first task was to get connected to the utilities which Georgia and Don had graciously prepared for us.  When Bill plugged in the electrical cord to the power we started noticing smoke coming out from under the trailer.  We quickly disconnected from the power source but the damage was already done.  It turns out that RV's are wired for 120vac and Bill had told Don we needed 240VAC.  After rewiring the breaker panel and reconnecting to the power plug things started coming back on correctly.  As it turned out we fried the central vacuum, Microwave and the refrigerator will only work on LP gas mode.  A number of other less critical, smaller items are not working either.  Two most important things we learned are we only need 120VAC and the heater still worked just fine.  Today is 28 Dec. and we are continuing our attempts to get these issues resolved.  Camping World here in Fayetteville has been very difficult to work with, I guess once you tell repair people that your an idiot and hooked up to the wrong power source they just automatically assume you are an idiot about everything.  Hope to have all these issues resolved soon though.

 

On Saturday, 21 Dec. Bill's sister had a cookie decorating party while all of us guy's went to play golf.  Both Stephanie and Bill had a great time.  Stephanie had made her world famous (world famous to Bill at least) Red Beans and Rice with Gluten free cornbread for everyone.  The weather that day was up to 78 degrees so everyone sat out on the back porch and talked and ate. 

 

On Sunday evening we drove about 1 hr from Raeford to a winery which has a Christmas buffet and light show.  They did a great job.  The buffet was comprised of GOOD southern food and music and the light show was second to none.  We had a very good time and bought a bottle of Christmas wine.  

We had a wonderful Christmas even if we did miss everyone back in New Mexico and Texas.  Know that we thought of you all often through out the season.  On Christmas Eve Bill's sister prepared all sorts of finger foods and we had a great time doing what they call 'A Grinch Christmas' which is very similar to our 'White Elephant' exchange.

 

On Christmas day we had a very relaxed time with scheduled meals to be leftover Christmas eve food.  We all went to the movies to see 'A Medea Christmas' which was really good and entertaining. 

 

The day after Christmas we finally got the opportunity to drive around Raeford to see things.  Raeford, established in 1899, is the county seat and only about 5000 people.  It was originally established as a vinegar distillery.  Here a few photos of the area.



Atlantic Bliss

Sunday 8 Dec.
Moving day.  We departed Givhans Ferry State Park at around 10:00am for our 120miles trek to Huntington Beach State Park, SC.  Huntington Beach is about 11 miles south of Myrtle Beach right on the coast.  As is getting more common than we wished for, we were assigned to a back in site in the camp ground.  On some accounts Bill is getting better at backing this land based whale but mostly not so much.  After some real struggles we were parked and setup.

Our little piece of near ocean front

We are scheduled to be here at Huntington until Friday.  Now Myrtle Beach area, as many of you may know, is not a cultural, educational or historical center, it is plain and simple a top rated tourist destination.  The year round population is 29,000 but it is estimated 14 million visit each spring/summer/fall.  Our goal while here is to enjoy the beach, finish getting ready for Christmas and get out before the 14 million show up.

Hotels and condo's along Ocean Highway

 

On the first point, 'enjoying the beach', we started that on Monday morning.  Since Stephanie's hip was hurting, Bill took the dogs for a walk on the beach.  As it turns out, this was one of may trips to the beach for them.  On Tuesday Stephanie was feeling better so we all went to the beach for a short walk.  While the fog was pretty thick the air temperature was very nice.

Gulls on the beach

On the second point, 'finish getting ready for Christmas', we pulled ourselves away from the beach to go and finish our Christmas shopping.  Going back to the previous comment of 'top rated tourist destination', Myrtle Beach has 2 outlet malls, 2 regular malls and local shops line all the major streets.  One of the off shoots of this is that during the 'off-season'. like right now, there is no one in the stores.  We were able to get in and out with no crowds.  A pretty pleasant experience as far as shopping goes.  On the other side of that coin is that since there are no real number of tourists here right now, most of the locally owned restaurants are closed until spring.  We wanted to go to a seafood buffet, which there are a plethora of here, but every one of them was closed.  Our only choices were the mainstays of Red Lobster, Landry's and the sort.  What a let down. 

Interesting building along our way, Wonder Works, built to look like it flipped upside down

 

  Wednesday we wanted to take the dogs for a longer stay on the beach, so we took our chairs and headed back out.  It was really a nice day and we all had a great time just enjoying the waves and watching the dogs.

It looks stormy but it was a beautiful day

I can still hear those waves breaking 

 

Cara Mia after a day of playing at the beach

 

When we got back to the trailer, Stephanie didn't want the dogs inside until they had a bath.  We cranked up the outside shower and went to work.  While they didn't really appreciate the bath, we did.

 

On Thursday, Stephanie started wrapping presents so we could get them mailed out.  When she finished we went to the post office and took care of the shipping and then enjoyed the rest of our day.  Towards evening we wanted to take one last stroll on the beach.  It was high tide and the beach area was fairly small so it was real difficult keeping the dogs out of the water.  The temperature had dropped down in the 40's so there were going to be no outside baths. 

Path leaving campground going to the beach

Looking back toward the camp ground

 

Cold breezy day, still beautiful

 

Gull posing for Stephanie

 Tomorrow, Friday, we leave for North Carolina where we will spend Christmas at Bill's Sister and Brother-in-laws house.  They have graciously prepared a site with hook ups for us on their property.

In and Around Charleston, SC

Events of 3-8 Dec.

We departed Savannah, Ga. with a commitment to return.  We were there just long enough to wet our appetite.  We were going to Givhans Ferry State Park about 33 mile from Charleston, SC.  The drive was only about 110miles so we took our time.  Givhans Ferry is the location on the Edisto River where, as the name implies, Mr. Givhans established a ferry to cross the river.  The area is quite remote, for eastern standards.  We were limited on wifi to 3G service so we weren't able to post a blog very easily. 
  The park itself was established in the 1930's and built by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp).  The camping cabins are very nice and have received upgrades throughout the years.  The camping area has added water and electricity but little to no improvements to the roads.  All and all it was pretty but lots of sand to contend with.

One of the CCC camping cabins

Stephanie relaxing at our campsite

As we have said before, one of the things which has most impressed us on our travels across the south is the amount and size of rivers.  They are everywhere and they are big, at least in the eyes of a couple of desert dwellers.

Edisto River near campsite

Cypress tree roots

On Wednesday, we went for a ride into Charleston.  We wanted to just drive around and see the old city and get some seafood.  Now it was not our intent to compare Charleston to Savannah but we liked Savannah so much I guess it was inevitable.  Charleston feels like a much more normal city with lots on new and old mixed together and as such we didn't get that warm comfy feeling from it like Savannah.  Savannah felt like your favorite sweatshirt and Charleston felt like that 2nd date with a girl you don't really know yet.

  We drove through the old town (Meeting St. and Market St.) area and found ourselves face to face with a Carnival Cruise ship at the pier. 

Carnival Fantasy

We saw a restaurant right next to the ship and decided to try it out.  It was a very nice day out so we opted to sit on the patio for our lunch. 

Fleet Landing Restaurant

View from our table at restaurant

Dolphin just in front of cruise ship

The sights and sounds were excellent but the food was just mediocre.  Stephanie had Blackened Red Fish and Bill had Blackened Triggerfish sandwich.

US Customs House completed 1879

After our day in Charleston, we couldn't help but feel we had missed something.  We had always heard Charleston was such a wonderful place and we just didn't see it.  On our drive back to our campsite we agreed we would need to go back and give it another try.

 

On Thursday, we just hung out at the trailer and enjoyed the peace and quite of the area. 

 On Friday Stephanie wanted to take a drive to a small town named Grover.  Pretty cool.

 

Family Church??

 

On Saturday, we went back to Charleston.  We did a little more research and found an area we wanted to try and find.  We set the address into the GPS and started driving.  We made our final approach into Charleston across a bridge on to Broad St. 

This the gold we were looking for

OK, we're ready to move in

WOW

Unfortunately we don't know what building this is

After driving around and seeing all the old homes we could find we drove back down to Market St. to try and do some more Christmas shopping. 

Horse drawn carriage near Market St.

 

After shopping we drove back to the trailer so we could get things ready to go on to Myrtle Beach, SC area tomorrow.  The drive will only be about 120 miles so we will take our time and enjoy the backroads.








Savannah

1-3 Dec.
What a beautiful place this is!  We have been here a week now and unfortunately we are leaving today for a campground near Charleston, SC.  If you gota go, not a bad place to go to.

On Sunday, 1 Dec. we decided to try and see more of Savannah hoping the sites would be a little less crowded.  We started by going to the visitors center and talking to the experts on what to see and do in Savannah.  They were very helpful but in the end we decided we wanted to see River Street and tour the Andrew Low house.  We took our chances and drove down to River street hoping to find a place to park instead of taking the trolley. 
  River Street, as the name implies, is right on the Savannah River.  It was the main part of daily living in old Savannah and now has become a main tourist area.  This area of the city dates back to 1779.  Hope the pictures reflect how very cool this area is.

Up river end of River Street

The big tan building is a modern hotel.  It looks like this was the 1st step in a revitalization effort before they came to their senses and stopped.  The area is full of original old structures except for this hotel.

Side street off of River Street

After our drive down River Street we wanted to go to a restaurant which some of our fellow campers had suggested we try.  It was called Mrs. Wilkes Boarding House and was about a mile from River Street.  When we got there we found out it was only open Monday-Friday.   The trip was still well worth the time though because it was in an area of beautiful homes.

Mrs. Wilkes is located in this building

We went back to the River Street area and found a parking garage and decided to walk part of River Street and find a restaurant that way.  The area, as you would guess, is full of restaurants, shops and old buildings.

As the façade states, the Savannah Cotton Exchange

River boat on Savannah River

We asked around while we were walking and shopping and were told to try Huey's restaurant, which we did.  Stephanie had Blackened Talapia and Bill had Read Beans and Rice with Andoule Sausage.  Kind of sounds like a repeat performance of our meal in New Orleans.  Both were exceptional.  Bill thought the Red Beans were almost as good as what Stephanie makes on occasion.  

Front of Huey's restaurant

 

We 'needed' to make one more stop on River Street before we went on our Low House tour and that was at the Savannah Candy Co.  We had been told over and over how good it was. 

I forgot to get a picture so here is a stock photo

The suggestions were right, the Pralines were to die for.  We bought a few for the trailer and quickily became clear they might never see the trailer.  Thought about going back to get more but decided we didn't need anymore.

I know, this is just rude.

 

It was time to go on our house tour so with major reluctance we left River Street for a short drive over to the Low House.

Old side street leaving River Street

Stephanie making her way back up to old Savannh from River Street

Andrew Low was a cotton factor, which we found out means 'middleman'.  He was from Scotland and came to Savannah to work with his Uncle.  His job was to get the Cotton bales from the docks in Savannah to England for processing.   They made a very large sum of money.  Andrew wanted to build a home which reflected his wealth so that is how the house came to be. 

Family Room

This being a southern home, it had paintings of  St. General Lee (as he is called here in the south) who was a personal friend of the Low's and Jeff Davis, Jeb Stuart and many other sons of the Confederacy.  Andrew Low was arrested by the North during the civil war but ended up being released because he maintained his English Citizenship and Washington did not want to offend England.  The really amazing thing about this is that the Low story is just one of many here in Savannah.

 

We have really enjoyed our stay here and hope to come back again to see more of the history of this beautiful city.  For now we will move on.  We will be in the Charleston area for only 4 days so we will be doing some site seeing there.