Our fifth wheel and the truck

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Starting to catch up on the missed weeks!!

Welcome back dear family and friends.

Oh dear! How terrible is that? Nearly two months (sounds better than eight weeks) of travelling, sightseeing and having a wonderful time and I haven't found the time for my blog. Well, once again I was going to have to just provide a thumbnail sketch of the last two months with some of the highlights, otherwise you will be here for a week and still be reading so I have decided to catch you up in a couple of blogs rather than just one. Thank goodness for the pictures on the camera! I can keep all the events in order thanks to the time dates on the photos!

After leaving Georgia we moved to South Carolina to a lovely rv park not too far from Charleston. The azaleas and spring blossoms in SC are just beautiful.

Although the weather wasn't very kind to us in SC we certainly had a wonderful time. We spent a day in Charleston and were amazed at what a gorgeous place it was and the history is so interesting.

We spent a day exploring Charleston and found it to be just lovely. I really admire their preservation efforts with regard to the beautiful old buildings. If I remember correctly - anything over 75 years old has to be preserved. Obviously as a result Charleston is just chock-a-block full of gorgeous old homes and buildings. Mind you, at one stage we drove through an area where all the college students live in old houses and even these looked well cared for and tidy - surprise, surprise!!

We took a bus ride around the city admiring all the gorgeous old buildings and being enthralled by the history the driver offered. We then headed to the dock where we took a ferry ride over to Fort Sumter. For those not familiar with the site, it is an island in Charleston harbour that was the site of the first shots fired in the American Civil War. What an amazing feat of engineering with all the rocks and foundations having to be carted in before any construction could begin. Many modifications have been made to the original structure due in part to it nearly being completely demolished by the Union during the war and to update it during threats in other wars. The fort has a real sense of the drama that took place there and I can imagine how threatening it would have been to ships trying to enter the harbour.

We stayed in South Carolina for a couple of days however as I said the weather was pretty unpleasant with rain and thunderstorms which certainly curtailed our outings. And also, we had decided to trade in the 5th wheeler for a slightly bigger one so we had to think about heading up to Indiana to pick up the new one. So it was hitting the road again to Raccoon Valley, Tennessee for a short stop over before heading north to Indiana.

The new rig is gorgeous!!! It is very similar to the other one in the back half - the living area - however the difference is in the bedroom. We now have wardrobes, drawers (none in the old one!) and loads more storage room as well as having a regular queen size bed - not the rv queen size! Norm is delighted with the extra storage room in the pass-through storage underneath. I told him I would have to go shopping to fill up all the extra storage space in the wardrobe etc! Boy did I come down with a quick jolt!!!

And, among other things that really appealed to me with the rig, the interior isn’t brown. The décor is a gorgeous sage and gold sort of combination which is very elegant! Also it has a bigger fridge so now Norm is allowed to have three bottles of beer in there instead of just two. Haha!

We spent a couple of nights in Indiana - the first one was spent in the yard of the dealer transferring everything from one rig to the other. Unfortunately, (hmmmmm) Norm twisted his knee and wasn’t able to negotiate the stairs so guess who had to get everything out of the old one, down the stairs, up the stairs of the new one and deposit stuff for Norm to put away? Very good timing if you ask me!! Four hours later we had finished the bulk of it and we called it a day - the rest could wait till the morning!

We finished off the transfer the next morning and pulled in to the campground next door. The plan was to make sure everything worked before we headed off. Knowing that we would be back in a couple of weeks if any warranty work needed to be done we were not too worried if something went wrong - as long as it wasn’t something major!

Our friend, Tess was arriving from Australia on the 12th April so we headed back down to pick her up at Raleigh/Durham International Airport. She will be staying with us for nearly three weeks and we plan on being pretty busy for the duration of her holiday.

The drive from Indiana to North Carolina through the mountains of West Virginia was just beautiful. We boon docked one night at a rest stop near Beckley, WV. and awoke to find the mountains shrouded in fog and swirls of fog drifting through the valleys. Mind you the drive out of the mountains was pretty hairy and I declined Norm’s offer to let me drive some of the way. It was extremely thick with fog and visibility in places was down to about 15m (about 50ft). I was extremely relieved to finally get out of it all.

I am going to leave this episode of our travels here so you don’t all get fed up with a great, big, long recount of the last six weeks since I last ‘blogged’. I will start work on the next exciting chapter in the life and loves of two Australian gray (no pun intended - much) nomads in America.

Until next time dear friends and family, we wish you health and happiness and take care of yourselves.

Our thoughts are always with you all. Hugs from us.

2 comments:

  1. About time toooo. Anybody would think you are on holidays. :) Can't wait to hear and see the rest of your travels. xoxoxoxox

    ReplyDelete
  2. Soooo glad to see a new blog post at last. I must say I was having withdrawal symptoms! As usual, great pictures Paula.

    Hugs
    Karen

    ReplyDelete