Well, we are really stoked with our new home, she is great. Very comfy and air-con makes such a difference. We have putting her up and taking her down to a fine art and even the kids know what jobs they have. Leo puts the chucks under the wheels and Spencer hands Daddy the wrench to remove the spare tire so we can put the foundations for the extendable bits up. They wouldn’t let us register her in Virginia because we haven’t got an address, so they let us buy a “trip” for 3 days at a time. We have 3 trips, so 9 days to get down to Florida where they are a bit more relaxed about the address bit and we should be able to register both the camper and the car. Woodhill Creek was nice, a lovely little family camping ground with a pool. We decided to hit the road again after one night though because we are conscious we need to get a move on. After spending 6 nights in or around Washington getting the jeep and camper we are running behind schedule. Next stop was Parker Creek camp ground at Jordan Lake in North Carolina where we paid a princely sum of $25 for a powered site. What a lovely setting, in the midst of trees and only metres from the lake. We have been accepted into the American camping community with pleasure, everyone is very friendly and Leo has met several young boys amongst our neighbours to date. I suppose we also qualify as “trailor trash” given this is the only roof over our heads at the moment.
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| Site at Lake Jordan, North Carolina |
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| Kids ready for bed |
Most Americans tend to think we are English but seem to have heard of NZ when we tell them where we are from. On our second night at Jordan Lake there was a huge thunder storm which literally shook the camper, we survived though and no leaking! You could see the lake through the trees from our site and when we went for a walk one evening we saw lots of turkey buzzards, I don’t want to know what they were after. There were also MASSIVE Daddy Long Leg spiders there, they were a rusty colour and their bodies were as big as my little finger nail. The biggest one I saw was about the size of a small dinner plate.
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| Playground fun |
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| Camper doubles as portable change table |
We needed to get a move on so we bit off quite a chunk of mileage getting down to South Carolina where our next stop was Santee National Wildlife Refuge at Lake Marion. It was a very strange sight driving in there, there are trees growing up out of the water in the middle of the lake. We thought there must have been a flood that covered an island out there or something but when I asked I was told that it was a man-made lake and those trees are Cypress, so they just keep growing. An afternoon thunderstorm rolled in just as we finished setting up camp, you can’t swim in the lake when there is lightning so we waited it out. At one stage there was an actually river running through our site so I’m glad we weren’t in a tent. Eventually it petered out and it was lovely to take a walk straight afterwards and see all the fish eagles in action. We are meeting some interesting people, most can’t believe we are all the way from NZ and the further south we go the harder the American accent is to understand. One woman held a 5 minute conversation with me and I couldn’t understand a thing she said, she also had a toothpick in her mouth the entire time despite the fact she had hardly any teeth so that might have had something to do with it. The kids are absolutely loving the lake swimming, Leo is so confident now and Spencer potters about on the shore and in the shallows.
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| Lake Marion with Cypress trees, South Carolina |
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| Bush walk |
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| Leo in bath |
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| Lake Marion site, lake through trees |
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| Interwaterways between islands |
We headed off early the next morning for Hunting Island which is off another Island called St Helena and on the coast, goodbye to lakes for a while. We are following the Interstate 95 all the way down to Miami now because Suzy tells us that is the fastest route. Hunting Island is truly beautiful, palm trees and big oaks covered in dangling Spanish moss just as you imagine South Carolina to be. On the way into the park we saw a massive diamond back rattlesnake on the road. My toes curl up just thinking about it. I knew they were around but to actually see one out in the open like that. I’ve been through a lot of Africa but when you have two little kids in tow it scares the bejesus out of me. Then as we drove into our site there was a deer standing there looking at us. Beautiful, eventually it moved off as we got out of the car. Lucky me, I got to take the kids to the beach while poor old Just set up the camper, the mosquitos there were ferocious and even bit us through our clothes so getting to the beach was a relief.
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| Hunting Island beach |
The beach itself is gorgeous, white sand, palm trees, pelicans flying over and great swimming. Spencer was not at all phased by the waves and ventured out deep straight away and Leo thought “they are not as big as the ones at Granny’s mummy” so he was fine splashing about. Eventually Justin joined us and we had a lovely afternoon cooling off. You would think that being the Atlantic ocean it would be quite cold but it was very mild. I guess it’s impossible for water to be cold in these temperatures, it’s between 37-40C in the sun. I can tell you right now we would not be surviving without air-con in our camper.
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| Water fun |
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| Bathtime for Spencer |
These Americans sure know how to camp. They roll up in their RV’s with all the mod cons, some have pot plants in their windows and of course their American flag. Some even put signs up at the front of their site “The Smiths: Nick and Shirley” etc. They all bring bikes (the parks are so huge it’s the best way to get around) and are towing their cars behind the RV’s as they drive. We even saw one lot that brought their own portable stone patio. They also bring big fans so they can sit outside in their deckchairs reading with the fans blowing. Very jealous.
I try not to drink too much in the evenings because I hate having to go to the loo but unfortunately nature called at about 2am that morning and off I went with the torch. On my way back I heard a rustling and pointed the torch at a HUGE racoon nonchalantly up on it’s hind legs leaning on a tree. It looked at me, I looked at it and I kept moving…pretty quickly. It was so big, taller than Leo is that’s for sure.
Justin took the kids for a walk the next morning and were very excited to see baby turtles hatching and going to the sea. Ospreys were circling but the park wardens kept them off and helped the turtles into the deep over the waves. Apparently their mother is 130 years old!
We had a great day at the beach and then headed into town to get a few chores done, laundry, post, checking our emails at Mcdonalds; that sort of thing. We swung past a place called Shrimp Shack and just had to go in. Although it looked like a restaurant from the outside it was a takeaway joint and for a staggering $20 we got a kids meal and one plate of 10 shrimps, some rice and chips. Quite disappointed with that but looking forward to getting to Louisiana and doing it for real.
I was giving Leo a bath later in a tub on the picnic table outside the camper when a gorgeous buck stepped out in front of us. It was a breathtaking moment and even Leo knew not to make a sound, we stayed like that for at least a minute before he moved off. Leo thought it was brilliant, “did you see his horns mummy?” I most certainly did.
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| Deer outside camper |
There are evacuation route signs all through the island and we have been told quite a few times we much watch for hurricanes as we head further south. Apparently all you need to do is get at least 150 k’s inland to avoid them. So we will definitely we on the look out.
We head to Georgia and then on to Florida in the next few days.
