HappyTrails

Winter approaches

You would never know that winter is on it's way here in the Charleston, SC area.  The temperatures have been balmy with a bit more humidity than we like.  This has brought out a huge number of biting bugs that is also a lot more than we would like. 

Yesterday we finally made it into old Charleston and did the walking tour of historic buildings.  It really reminded us of the San Francisco and New Orleans tours we've done.  Walking through the waterfront streets and alleys brought us back to the early days of our country.  We entered the churchyard of St.  Michaels and were transported back in time to visit with the fore fathers of our current goverment.  Earlier in the day we toured the Charles Pinckney National Historic site and learned  a bit about this signer of the Constitution. 

Everyday Jack steps out of the rig and in less than 10 minutes announces that he has seen birds that I have missed.  Aargh!  I'm glad he has these opportunities but I better improv my system or my birdlist will be pretty slim.  Yesterday he saw two White Ibis. I do have a good photo to add to the site.  I have a broken part on my computer now so it take longer to transfer over to our other laptop to post.

I've been checking out the Savannah area where we'll be arriving on Friday and we should have some opportunity for birds not yet seen on our travels.  Again, we thank our friends for their encouragement and enthusiasm that has led to a fun new hobby.

New neighborhood, Charleston (or Chuckston, as someone refers to it)

Now living (we're still unemployed, homeless and living in our vehicle) in our new Charleston, SC neighborhood along the Intracoastal Waterway enjoying one of the parks we own.  What I mean is that we have found one of the National Forest campgrounds that the taxpayers in the country pay to make available to everyone.  This park is better than most state parks, except maybe the Oregon State Parks, with water views, huge sites, electric hookups, onsight sewer station and it's all within twenty minutes of Charleston.  Yesterday we went to the Cape Romain Wildlife Refuge less than five miles from our site.  We only added one new bird to our list, American Oystercatcher, which as we see is a very easy identification.   The more nondescript birds take us a lot longer and we're still working on a grey, long legged, skinny shorebird at the same location.

Nothing much on our agenda today except spiffing up the motorhome a bit.  We need to clean off some of the road soil and organize significantly before heading to our winter destination in Florida.  On the way to the local grocery I found a donation center and more of my excess baggage will be delivered there next week.  It's amazing how easy it gets to offload excess items that get in our way as we travel from place to place.

Fall has arrived.  When we were in Cape Charles, VA we enjoyed mid seventies temperatures.  Here in South Carolina we've experienced everything from 80's in the daytime to high 30's during the night.  We're conserving propane at the moment so we're looking forward to the ten degree increase forecasted in the next few days.  It still beats the early rains of the Pacific Northwest, the snow and hail of the Midwest or the cold wind and potential snow of the Northeast. 

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel (the first section of two that are identical) is not for those prone to claustrophobia

As we traveled from Virginia to the Carolinas, we came upon this rest area with the descriptive sign.  The route was a good one except from some road work and very few rest areas.  We took advantage of this one for a quick break and picked up lots of tourist info from the great volunteers working here.