Cheraw State Park

Cheraw State Park in Cheraw, SC.  On beautiful Eureka Lake.  We had a pleasant drive over today with only one traffic slowdown on the interstate for construction (as usual).  Naturally the google map and the GPS disagreed; 150 miles turned into 190.  But a lot of it was on scenic state roads.  Some of SC is flat as can be while other parts have some pretty good hills.

This state park is an old favorite.  I’d have to look back in this blog to see how many times we have been here.  I’m thinking it’s 6.  The campground is small with 16 campsites.  We arrived a bit after 2, parking was a breeze, setup quick, like we had been doing it all winter.

Carlene took Skye for a swim while I was finishing setup so she was all wet and happy.  By supper time she was dry again when we went out for another short walk around camp.  She wanted more water time but settled for meeting some people.  After supper we went on a longer walk down the park road.  We found a very small snake, about 4” long, a Worm Snake.  Never heard of it.  

Tomorrow we’ll go farther down that road.

Seen at a rest area today.

So you think you drive a big rig?

Skye spied this barrel with some flagging blowing in the breeze and was getting a bit defensive. 

Until she got closer

We had a visitor

Packing day

This was packing day for me, repack the camper and the truck for travel mode.  Put away all the cowboy gear, clothes, supplies and place it where it’ll ride home and not be in the way of things we need on the road. I was done with that about 11:00 and went for a long walk with Carlene and Skye.  The woods out behind the big pond have woods roads throughout.  

We met four young guys with air soft rifles playing some shooting games in the woods.  Everyone was having fun on a Sunday morning.  Skye found a dead box turtle.  And went swimming 23 times.  I didn’t actually count but it must be close.

Then a run into Belton for fuel and more groceries.  Tomorrow morning we head to Cheraw State Park in Cheraw SC for 3 nights.  Nice lake there.  It is not far to the store in Cheraw but it’s not a big store.  Only 150 miles.  Currently no plans after that.  Something to think about.  At this point we might be about 10 days from home.  Hard to believe.  Where did the time go?  

Sunrise

I defrosted the freezer

You have CHEESE!

Main Match day 2, final

Now we have a nice cool sunny day.  We started at 8:15 and finished about 11:30.  5 more stages done.  Awards were after the afternoon shift shot their stages.  This match gives each shooter a free lunch from the BBQ vendor, pulled pork with several choices of sauce.  Very good!  We came back to camp after lunch and did some gun cleaning and then went back.  We had to go back, we didn’t get our ice cream at lunch time!  That vendor makes very good ice vanilla cream.  I tried the chocolate yesterday but it didn’t stack up to the vanilla.

So,,, I did maintain my clean match.  That’s 2 matches in a row, I don’t remember doing that before!  I also won the Senior Modern category in Wild Bunch.  That was a big surprise!  And I took Second in Elder Statesman Frontiersman. (An age subcategory, Frontiersman over 70)  That was no surprise.  Preacherman was on my posse at both FL and SC.  Last week in FL he beat me by about 60 seconds.  This week it was by 5 seconds!  

In the early morning we were shooting into the sun.  It was pretty dang smokey for us black powder shooters!

Preacherman from FL

Dogmeat Dad, from MD, shooting Frontier Cartridge Gunfighter

Dogmeat Dad, after shooting his pistols saying “where are the rifle targets??”

Our lunch vendor

It may be bedtime but I’m still feeling a bit playful 

Skye had some good swim time and hiking today 

A couple photos from Carlene’s wandering around the neighborhood

Main Match, day 1

First day of the Main Match.  We shot stages 1-5 in the afternoon shift.  That gave us all morning to get ready in a casual manner.  Tomorrow we shoot the morning shift starting about 8.  That will be a bit more hurried.

They were great stages, only a couple moments of wondering “what was that sequence again?”.  A very good time, lots of fun, moderate intermittent rain!  And of course I forgot my raincoat in the camper.  Luckily I had a raincoat stashed under the back seat and an old umbrella too.  Since we did not have any wind it was all manageable.  But the rain limited my photography.

And I shot clean today.

Sue Render

Holli Docaday

This is the percussion cap igniting

An almost full moon rising and reflecting on the water

Skye brought me a slipper, she hasn’t seen a lot of me in a couple days.

But it was Carlene’s slipper

As it got darker the pond was giving off some fog

Side Event Day, The Bushwhack

The SC State Championship, The Bushwhack, Belton, SC.  Side events started mid morning with a 4 stage Black Powder mini match.  It is a lot of fun to get 15 people together with all of them making big quantities of thick smoke!  There are quite a few old New Englanders who live down here now and come to this match.

In the afternoon we had a Wild Bunch 4 stage mini match.  Good interesting stages in both matches.  I think I recognized one from Land Run last fall in OK.There will probably be a few from last week and this week seen in VT this summer!

Just as soon as we packed all the gear in the truck and got in it started to rain.  And ended when we got back to camp 10 miles later.  That held until 8 when we got a thunderstorm.

This evening Pat made a Shepherd’s Pie for all of us.  Very good too.  Then we just hung around for a while. 

Doc Barium

Scarlett Darlin’

Doc WHO

This is the first time I have seen anyone shoot Wild Bunch using Outlaw style, i.e. shoot from the hip

The brown water is the result of Skye swimming