Everything You Want to Know About....?????

baggywrinkle

When you've got a lot of time on your hands and no ideas for a blog post, sometimes it's nice to start brainstorming and see what you come up. With Sparky, it could be the darndest things!....Well, maybe, if you are lucky, and the old brain cells are working. Sparky wanted to start a post that would have other people join in on little tidbits of information you have picked up on the road since you've been traveling...We're not talking about history facts, beautiful state parks, the best place to eat on the road, but interesting little tidbits that make you go "Hmmph! I didn't know that!" I posted something about baggywrinkle...a goofy name for protective gear that goes on mast riggings to keep the steel cables from rubbing and making holes in the sails. Hmph! I didn't know that....

Here's another one...You know those bottle trees that you see in tourist trap towns, or near cutesy boutiques, or out by someone's home? You mean, they are not just collecting old wine bottles for their color and light reflecting qualities and making an art statement? Nope!  Well, maybe yes, and maybe no...Some of the people who have put up bottle trees believe that bottles can trap bad spirits at night, which are then destroyed in the next day's sunlight--a superstition that originated over three thousand years ago in Arabia. (You mean like in "I dream of Jeannie, er, Genie?" asks a smiling Eldo) Yeah, yeah...Haven't heard that one in many years, thank goodness!.....Here's a great link to a guy who has really done his research and throws some photos in as well....http://www.felderrushing.net/HistoryofBottleTrees.htm
Hmmph! I didn't know that!

OK, your turn.....what little tidbits have you learned while out on the road, that made you go...
"Hmmph! I didn't know that!" This should be fun! Stay tuned for tomorrow's post which is a totally different kind of post, but will make you go, "Hmmph! I didn't know that"...or maybe you did. Read and see!

Rain? What's That?

We haven't seen rain in three weeks...hardly even clouds...We had a DOWNPOUR today...Thunder, lightning! LOVED it! It didn't last long, the downpour was over in a few minutes, but the day remained grey with the threat of more intermittent showers. We're here at Lake Greenwood RV Park in little Cross Hill...a TINY town, nothing to do there, so we're gonna have to drive somewhere to go see anything! We are 61 miles from Greenville, 23 miles to GreenWOOD, just your average shopping town, and a little over an hour to Spartanburg.

Shoeless Joe Jackson

So, it was road trip day....Eldy was restless and wanted to take a drive...not the best day for it with all the rain coming down, but it looked like the worst of it had gone over us. Sometimes you just gotta get out of your little box on wheels for awhile. We drove to Greenville, SC, 61 miles from our park...Home of a Clemson University extension, four museums nearby, all things Shoeless Joe Jackson (baseball bad guy or remarkable player, you pick), and Greenville is one of American's Top Ten Towns named by Forbes Magazine in 2011.

It was BEAUTIFUL! One of the coolest towns we've seen....lots and lots of huge shade trees, great shopping district, upscale hotels, designer boutiques, restored 19th century brick buildings,  great glass and steel architecture, and tons of cool one-of-a-kind eating joints. There are sitting areas in the midst of beautiful plantings everywhere, even under a bridge, where there were little bistro tables and chairs to have lunch outdoors at.

Then, there is the beautiful Falls Park that has the Liberty Bridge, a 355 foot suspension bridge held by two 15 degree angled trusses supporting only ONE SIDE of the bridge that hangs over a 60 foot waterfall on the Reedy River. It's like being in a botanical garden as you walk the grounds that are landscaped with native plants and flowers. Then there's the Swamp Rabbit Trail--18 miles plus of a beautiful walking, hiking or biking trail (lots of luck going up and down the hills!)

We walked Main Street for a bit, checked out all the sculptures...some interesting ones there...Some big ones, and some tiny ones, like the "Mice on Main"...a little scavenger hunt for children coming to Greenville, a project thought up by a middle schooler and completed by a local artist. There are nine little mice all up and down Main Street in Greenville for kids to find. The young man's project was based on his favorite childhood book, "Goodnight, Moon," one of Sparky's children's favorites, too.

It was a great way to spend the afternoon, and the rain held off...We were VERY impressed on the beauty of Greenville in our short time here...Great restaurants, clean city, lots of history here, beautiful architecture, we'll be back another day to spend more time and explore this beautiful town.....

Parlez-vous Francais? An Interesting Drive Today

Do you speak French? I use to, studied it for four years in high school, then one in college. I had quite a command of the language at one time in my life, like about 45 years ago. I have forgotten most of it, so it was a little weird when we pulled into a Flying J today to get diesel fuel on our way to Cross Hill, SC, and I heard a string of fluent French coupled with one or two English words. I turned to see where it was coming from, and this lady and her husband in a Navion were pulled up to next to us in the RV lanes, and she looked VERY bewildered. She got out and was standing in front of the pump, waving her charge card to get my attention, trying very hard to ask me for help in broken English, but she wasn't able to give me a clue about what the problem was.

I LOVE a challenge, and I LOVE helping people, sometimes even when they may not want my help. (It's called being a busybody, explains E. WAIT a  minute, let me rephrase that. Sparky has no fear asking anybody anything, or venturing to see what is the problem. Maybe busybody is too strong a word, CURIOUS is more like it.) That's it, I am very curious! So I go over to the pump to see if I can explain how to use it, lacking most of my French to be able to communicate with her, and they, lacking any available tourist English, at least that which applies to running a multi- handled gas pump spewing out all kinds of requests and commands. Together, we figure it out.

I speak VERY slowly, like that's going to help! "Do you have a ZIP code?" I give a typical zip code, they look puzzled, I say the word, "mail" and hope they get it. They don't.  They think I mean numbers on the credit card. We try again..I figure out they are French Canadian, and don't have a zip code that will work? I come up with the French word for "mail"--"postale", they get it! He types in some kind of a number, (guess they DO have zip codes in Quebec!) and the pump says "start fueling"...HOORAY! They grin, I grin, and I throw out a little French I do know, "tres bien", very good. They smile, I smile, I go back to Eldy fueling our rig. I think of a little more French. I go back to the other side and say, with my thumb up, "Ca va?" (Sah, vah?) which loosely translates in this situation, "Everything ok? It worked out ok?" and she says, "Oui." YES!   That was fun! Sparky thinks maybe she'll brush up on her French for future French Canadian encounters, which have been quite a few so far since we've been traveling full time, as there are a LOT of French Canadians here in the south for the winter. They must have been heading home.

The Flying J, exit 77, off I-95 in South Carolina, was one of the nicest and newest Flying J's we've seen. PLENTY of room in the RV lanes, unlike some of the ones we have been in. It was great! Fueled up, headed back down the road....After awhile, decided to get something from the fridge, and something caught my eye on the bedroom floor....

SOMETHING WITH EYES......SOMETHING WITH LITTLE BEADY, BULGING EYES.....SOMETHING WET LOOKING AND SLIMY! I let out a big, "EWWWWWWW! WHAT IS THAT?"  The little critter freezes in place, obviously traumatized by my yell. I grab my camera, I am shaking because even though I am 40 times the size of this little thing... I'm shaking like a leaf, so the photo is blurry....And don't anybody say, "Aw-w-w, it's so cute!" IT'S NOT CUTE! Not to me, anyway....  :-)

I DON'T LIKE ANYTHING SLIMY AND WITH BIG BULGING EYES!  First, I thought it was a gecko. This thing looked surprisingly like the Geico gecko on TV when I first laid eyes on him directly front on. We keep talking how surprising it is to have NOT found one lurking in the coach after spending the last five months in Florida watching them run around. I take the photo, I try to capture it by pouncing on it with a paper cup. Success! Now what?! I put my camera on the cup to keep the critter/gecko/toad in place so he doesn't jump out of the cup. I holler at Eldo. He is driving down the road yelling back, "WHAT'S GOING ON BACK THERE!" "WHAT???"  "I CAN'T HEAR YOU FOR THE FAN!"..."WHAT'S THE MATTER?"

I decide I need something bigger to place him in, something with a LID. I don't want to put my hand over the top of the paper cup, in case he jumps up with his slimy little body and touches my hand. .I never knew I was such a wuss!....So I get a margarine container out of the cupboard, and prepare to make the substitution from the paper cup to the margarine tub, which has a nice lid. I lift the cup just a little, and the critter JUMPS right at me. I  SHRIEK! He shrieks...He jumps again to the fridge and STICKS to the fridge with his webby little feet with sticky pads just long enough for me to clap the margarine tub over the little guy. EE-E-K! That's me...Another shriek, can't help myself!....AHA! GOTCHA, LITTLE TOAD/GECKO/REPTILE, whatever you are! I'm pretty sure by this time he's a toad or some kind of little tree toad or frog. He REALLY stuck to the fridge!  Kind of cool, actually! Eldy is freaking out, because I've shrieked at the top of my lungs at least twice....I yell, "IT'S A SLIMY TOAD OR FROG! BUT I'VE CAPTURED HIM!" And I bring him triumphantly to the front of the coach, in the margarine tub, with the lid on. Eldo is still driving...."Are you sure he's in there?" he asks. Well, of COURSE, I'm sure! "Did you shake the tub to see if he bumps around in it?" Well, just a tad, but it feels like nothing is in the tub. Oh, no! Maybe he jumped out when I did the slide the tub thing across the fridge and then clamped the lid over the opening as the tub came off the refrigerator edge.  "Eldy, we've gotta stop somewhere so I can make sure I really got him!"  So we did....We pulled off to the side of the road, I hopped out of the coach, took off the lid, and let the scared little guy go....

Geez, wonder what else has made its way into our rig? Other than the stink bugs that we had awhile back....no mice, thank goodness, at least none that we have noticed....Great! I'll probably have nightmares now about things hopping all over me or over my face, or crawling over my hands. We're battling gnats at the moment...Good grief!  What next?!

We're heading to the little town of Cross Hill, SC, where there's a very nice RV park called Lake Greenwood/Cane Creek. We got a FREE stay for six nights--  Whee-e-e-e-eeeeee!

Bye-Bye Beaufort!

Our last day in the southern low country....it's been so HOT the last couple of days, we haven't felt like doing anything! High eighties, low nineties, ugh!  There are so many things we wish we could still do but just not enough time to do them this visit..Here's a brief list of the things we hope to do the NEXT time we visit South Carolina's "low country".....

historic store just down the street from the Oaks at Point South

1. Charleston--historic tour of the houses, the museum, the Citadel-the military college of South Carolina, and the Hunley submarine
2. Learn more about the Gullah culture and traditions....
3. Visit more of the Sea Islands, the barrier islands outside of S.C. and Georgia, there are over 100!
4. Spend more time at Hunting Island State Park
5. Buy some more peach and cherry cider at the historic store-see right photo
6. Bike at Hilton Head and on the beach!
7. See the Dragon Boat Racing

courtesy of the internet

Dragon Boat racing in Beaufort? Yup! A little history about why it is coming here, and what it is...There is a movie documentary called Awaken the Dragon....It's a 90 minute documentary about how Charleston cancer survivors have adopted the sport of dragon boat racing to symbolize their struggle against cancer, and the effects of the DragonBoat program have had on the survivors, their caregivers and supporters. Two women in the Beaufort area were so moved by the movie, that they started forming a local team for Beaufort, DragonBoat Beaufort.

courtesy of the internet

Twenty paddlers sit two abreast in a colorful 41 foot dragon boat while paddling to the beat of a drummer, which is the "heartbeat" of the dragon. The sport started in 1996, in Vancouver, Canada. The importance of team activity is important for the survival efforts of cancer affected patients, both for their physical and emotional well being and dragon boat racing has proved to be of tremendous benefit to the participants.

The boats cost as much as $16,000, so Beaufort is currently raising funds for purchasing one or two boats. They hope to have a DragonBoat Festival in 2013. We'll be there to help support it if it comes...We hope it does!

We've had a wonderful time here in South Carolina, at the Oaks at Point South but "Hitch Itch" has set in, that urge to pack up and move to head for new adventures, so we're getting ready to leave soon for the northern part of South Carolina. Time to head out for Cross Hill, South Carolina, which is northeast of Greenwood, SC....We have a free six night stay at Lake Greenwood RV Resort that we obtained from the Super Tampa RV show, so that will be great! After that, it's time to go to Freightliner School in Gaffney, and then on to Texas for Sparky's first grandbaby's arrival!  One more day before we leave for Cross Hill.....

Eldy's Arsenal of Cleaning Supplies

Time out on the journey to our next location..One last job to do before we leave.....Remember those scratches and scuffs we got on the highway I-95 from the semi throwing up a tire tread while driving to South Carolina two weeks ago?

Eldy was thinking he wouldn't be able to buff them out, but he always underestimates his skills. After all, he was a buffer of musical instruments by trade for 42 years! Today, he went to work on them.....First, get out all the supplies. Eldy has enough cleaning supplies like Sparky has enough craft supplies. (WHOA! I wouldn't say that at all! fusses E. But you can never have too many microfiber cloths and specific cleaning agents, right, guys?) Uh, you are probably right, honey...But there's one whole bay devoted to cleaning cloths and goop and polishers, that's for sure. (And HOW MANY cupboards are devoted to craft supplies? asks E.)   Moving right along.....

Here are Eldy's favorite cleaning supplies mostly purchased from the RV shows.....The orange bottle on the right gets black streaks off the sides of the motorhome really really well. We haven't tried it on the awnings. You have to be careful what you use on those depending on the fabric content. Eldy absolutely LOVES the Wash Wax All, and the Polish All, that came in the Wash Wax kit that he purchased at the Tampa RV show. The Polish All is what is buffing out the scratches. Eldy is using a little Turtle Wax blue buffer that he bought for 19.00 bucks. It's not the best buffer, but it's doing the job. When he applies pressure to the buffer, the wheel almost comes to a stop. But he's making it work!

And the hard work starts.......

Lots of elbow grease and an aching back later.....The spots are where he's applied his polishing stuff.

Scratches are disappearing....Yay!

WOWEE! Lookin' GOOD! You can only see me taking a photo, it's so shiny and clear, like a mirror!

Same location for the third shot in the collage up top.....The scratches and scuffs are gone....

And the final view.....WHEW! says E.

Great job, honey...and no, he's not for hire. Are you sure, Eldy?  That would be a good way to make some money on the road, maybe! But Eldy's back is not up to it and we now need a taller ladder!

A Taste of Beaufort 2012

It was hot, hot, hot today...low nineties....but Sparky read about a FOOD festival, A Taste of Beaufort--a chance to sample LOTS of different kinds of foods from Beaufort's restaurants. AWESOME!  Food is just food to Eldo, so he didn't really care to go in the heat. Off Sparky went...where's there's a festival, there's FOOD, (can you tell Sparky is a FOODIE? laughs Eldo,) there are little kids to photograph, and usually music. Eldo doesn't care for really different kinds of food, like Thai, or other delectable delights, so Sparky was excited to see some vendors that offered all kinds of different dishes besides the usual burgers and fries...The event was down at Beaufort's Waterfront Park..one of the prettiest city parks we have seen.

Buy a bunch of tickets for 1.00 a piece, and prepare to sample outstanding dishes from where? Decisions, decisions, decisions.....

Now, Sparky is NOT a seafood eater, but she really likes shrimp. So-o-o-o-o...she had shrimp tacos,

shrimp salad on a bun.....

And shrimp spring rolls with balsamic vinagrette....

Time to people watch! Sparky is drawn to babies, as her first grandchild is coming soon....

And small children, who just have so much joy that they exude when they are out in public.....This little girl was enjoying the music of a very good band that was playing....

Here's a butterfly girl....

And for some reason, hula hoops were big today....with the youngsters....in time to the music!

and the mom's....

Everybody was trying to find a shady spot out of the sun.....

It was a great food festival...Sparky just hopes that she doesn't get food poisoning! It was so hot, the vendors couldn't keep the ice going under the bins of food in many locations. Guess the health department monitors that sort of thing...????? Time to head back home and to the comfort of air conditioning...Tomorrow is our last day in Beaufort, and it's gonna be another really hot day...sigh!

Bountiful Booty at Savannah Tall Ships Challenge 2012!

cannon fire salute from the Alliance schooner

What kind of booty, you ask? We're not talking human anatomy, here.....

We're talkin' ship anatomy! We're talkin' treasure chest booty...

We're talkin' cannon fire salutes as the schooners salute each other coming into the harbor, like the salute give to the U.S.S. Barque Eagle, on its entrance to the harbor. Unfortunately, the sails are down, all of the tall ships came in Thursday before we got to go see them...The Coast Guard ship was HUGE! The main trunk is 147 feet high. It was a MAGNIFICENT ship!

We're talkin' schooners, mizzen masts, rigging, knots, baggywrinkle and all kinds of stuff. Hunh? Baggywrinkle? What's that, you ask? It's the stuff that looks like Spanish moss hanging from the riggings of the schooners. It's not Spanish moss, it's not air plants, it's protective stuff made from worn out rope to prevent chafing of the steel rope cables against the sails so the cables don't wear holes in them. How about that!? The stuff you learn when you travel!

The schooners here were: The Alliance, The Appledore V, the movie ship, The Bounty, the Dewaruci, the Coast Guard Eagle, the French ships Etoile and La Belle Poule, the Lynx, the Peacemaker, the Picton Castle, the Pride of Baltimore II, the Roseway, Sir Martin II, and Theodore Too.

We're talkin' buccanneers and pirates! This guy was a dead ringer for Johnny Depp with his Jack Sparrow imitation (the Pirates of the Caribbean movies). He swaggered up to a lady in the ferry boat line, grabbed her and said, "You don't wanna be taking this boat, milady..it's gonna sink!" And we laughed...

THREE steering wheels on the Coast Guard schooner!

Everything you want to know about schooners was down at the Savannah Tall Ships Festival this weekend. We parked at the Savannah Trade and Convention Center for five dollars, avoiding lots of congestion and traffic on the OTHER side of the river. Tickets were twenty dollars a person, you could see five schooners on the trade convention center side, then take a free ferry ride to the other side of the river to see the rest of the nine schooners moored there--fourteen ships in all....If you wanted to go out on one for an hour and 15 minutes excursion, it was fifty dollars a person. We declined to do that..although it was a VERY hot day, right around 90 degrees. Some people were having trouble with the heat, and some were not....

Where's Eldo? About to get on the Theodore Too, a large scale imitation tugboat based on the fictional tugboat from the TV show, Theodore Tugboat....Can you find him?

There wasn't much as a breeze on the Savannah River. But we still got to see some awesome ships with some sails up going out on the river.....The Roseway....

The Indonesian ship, the Dewaruci...It was a real beauty.....

with a VERY slim and trim crew and captain.

The Dewaruci had some of the most beautiful, ornate woodwork of any of the schooners....

Your tour ticket got you on board all 14 schooners if you had the time and the patience and the walking legs in the heat. Ask any questions of the captains and the crew, check out all the details of the ships right down to the riggings and the sails...

Learn all kinds of interesting things on the ships from signs posted all around...Like this one...Sailors ate with their elbows on the table  to hold in their food to keep the food on the table in pitching seas. Eating with your elbows on the table was a big no-no in society at the time for two reasons:

1. Sailors were the lowest of the low class, uneducated, and once a sailor, always a sailor. You were never going to rise above your lot in life if you were a sailor. Nobody wanted to look like a sailor!

2. Two thirds of the Royal Navy were made up of sailors who had been forced into service. When a ship was short of crew, the crew members roamed the dockide taverns looking for guys who specifically ate with their elbows on the table because they had obviously been to sea.  They would make better crew members than someone who had never been to sea. They didn't ask them if they wanted to sign up, they would beat them till they were unconscious, throw them into prison on the ship, and then let them out when they were too far from land for them to escape!

It was a fabulous festival and just an amazing thing to see, so many tall ships in the harbor...We were very fortunate to be here and to get to see them....We capped off our visit today with a trip to an old tavern on the wharf, called Kevin Barry's. It gets mixed reviews, but it's an Irish pub with live entertainment every evening. We had a late lunch there and it was very good on this occasion....rather dark inside, but an upstairs air conditioned porch which was welcome after many hours in the heat today....Eldy had a delicious corned beef sandwich with a cup of Irish stew, and Sparky had a club sandwich with the most delicious sweet potato fries....Time to go home and have a nap!