Warren ton, VA

Today’s drive through upper NC and up a lot of central Virginia was very pretty.  Lots of rolling hills and well leafed trees.  I say that because in the next couple days we will going back in time as we travel north and see spring in reverse.  We already see farms fields in ever earlier stages of corn growth.  

We are just west of Washington DC, at Fauquier Stables horse farm HH.  It is a boarding stable, event host, give riding lessons.  There are a couple of houses and apartments.  Very nice pond with a small dock for sitting and viewing the geese and ducks that share the place.  So far we have seen 8 geese and 3 ducks that seem to live here.

Now, at 10:15, there is a deer behind the camper snorting at Skye, who is laying beside the camper watching it.

Bunn, NC

 We had a nice morning at camp with Dave and Gale before heading out around 11.  Skye had a swim in the brackish water of Boathouse Creek next to Cedar Point  campground  

Nice easy trip up through NC, even through Kinston!  

So we are now in a beautiful open meadow at the Vollmer Farm in Bunn NC. We were here a few years ago, very restful place.  Unfortunately they closed 15 minutes before we arrived at 2:15. We missed their homemade ice cream! 😢

They open at 7 so we’ll get some breakfast on our way out.  

Skye had another swim in the pond here.  We have a large area to walk around as much as we want.  It was 85° so we don’t want all that much.  We saw a few horses , some chickens and their apparent guard turkey.  I have not seen a guard turkey before, but this turkey hangs out with the chickens and made a warning to us as we approached. 

We went back to the camper to sit in the shade.  I did get to clean my pistols from the match.  I had just packed them in anticipation of a day like this on the way home  

And later today:

Nothing like a good back rub in the grass

Map of the property 

Fixed and made it to NC

 We got a tow this morning and arranged a repair with Hickman’s Auto in Turbeville, SC all through Good Sam Roadside Assistance.  The tow guy was here at 10:30 and we were at the shop at 11.  Turned out to be the lower radiator hose was disconnected from the radiator and drained out.  When I had the hose replaced in Phoenix they didn’t put the hose clamp in the right place so the hose just popped off.  That was 7 weeks and 4000 miles.  I could have fixed that myself t the rest area if I had been able to see it, but I would not have had any coolant to replace what was on the ground.  I was suspicious of the hose, but more of a defect than an oversight.  So all done for the cost of the coolant.  The shop only charged for the coolant, not the 10 minute fix.  It took longer to wait for the coolant to be delivered from the auto parts shop 2 miles away than anything else.  

So we were back on the road again by 12:30 and in camp before 5.  We spent a fine evening with Dave and Gale here at Cedar Point Campground in Swansboro NC.  We will have most of tomorrow morning too.  We got a Harvest Host in Bunn NC for tomorrow night so have a short dive tomorrow.  then about 4 days to home.  Hard to believe 14 weeks are almost gone.

We made it partway

We got off at 9:15, not bad for us.  We wanted to get to the next campground in good time.  We got 1/3 of the way there.  Stopped at a rest area near Florence SC for a pit stop.  Came out and the truck was taking a leak too!  It appears that the radiator has sprung a leak and drained onto the ground.  I couldn’t get a tow today because it’s Sunday so we are here for the night and will start finding a tow and repair in the morning.

Of course we do have the good luck of being in a rest area, well parked and quite safe.

Now THAT’S a horse trailer!

Last day of Rampage

 Second and final day of the SC State shoot.  Good stages, lots of fun. Four stages today and we were finished by noon.  

There was an open shoot-off in the afternoon but Joe and I came back to camp to start packing.  Actually I packed and Joe cleaned guns.  I have to clean too but it can wait a few days, packing cant wait.  We’re headed up to NC tomorrow for a couple nights camping with David & Gale.

Later this afternoon we all went to the local country club for the awards ceremony.  I did have a Clean Match!  And I took second place in Frontiersman.  Preacherman from FL won it, as he has done all 3 times I’ve shot with him.  He runs a reproduction Colt Lightning (pump action) rifle that is beautifully fast and smooth.  

This evening we again spent it at Joe & Pat’s, ET and Dawn came over too.  We had a very nice campfire.  We stayed long enough that this is a short blog tonight!

Tucker T. Fudpucker

Sometimes I photograph someone just so I can share the alias!

Durango

Dakota Joe

Squirrelly Girl

Yankee

Frontiersman winners, Cider Barrel, me, Preacherman

Resurrection  Fern 

She found this and broke it off a tree during our final walk of the night.

First day of the Main Match

 We shot six stages today and will shoot four more tomorrow.  I am clean so far!  The big trick with a clean day is keeping the momentum going on another day. And my times were consistent and all in my normal range. That’s usually a good thing.  

When we got back to camp Joe and I took Skye down to the river for a good swim. She was pretty happy with that.  Came back to the camper and while petting her I stuck myself with a fishhook she had stuck in her coat.  Yes, luckily just in the coat.  But it took me several minutes to get 2 hooks out of the mats in her coat and 5 more out of her collar.  Those in the collar were  all meshed in a ball of fish line that someone had thrown away or lost on the ground. 

Carlene and Pat went toward Charleston and checked out the historic Boone Hall Plantation that is now open to the public.  It was a 4,000 acre plantation going back to the late 1600s.  The last owners made it a public place in perpetuity.  

And they came back with fresh strawberries!

We spent the evening at the campfire and also watched the Artemis’s splashdown.  We watched until the fort two were off Orion.  By then it was getting chilly, the fire was burning down and I was still in shorts & T shirt.

Eastern Tenderfoot timing Dakota Joe

Dusty Lady

Dakota Joe

Lacy Remington

Throw me something!

Entering the plantation 

Slave quarters

Rams Horn Willow

Trumpet Honeysuckle

Nesting Great Egrets

Polo ponies

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