Skidaway State Park, Savannah GA

Another cool but sunny day driving to Savannah GA.  Got up to 49 today on the truck thermometer but forecast for a whopping 32 tonight.  Actually it is the warmest we've been at night in 4 days.
Arrived early today, about 2 PM.  That gave us time to finally go to the store for some shopping.  We have been eating from the food stored in the camper.  It was surprising to find out just how long I have stored some of those canned goods.  A couple have been tossed.

We saw a deer coming out of the campground this morning.  Small doe.

Tomorrow we do a little hiking and spend some time at the beach on Tybee Is.

Carlene gets to drive occasionally

The Savannah River

Spanish Moss here in the park

Huntington Beach S. Carolina

It was a very scenic and casual ride to Huntington Beach State Park in Murrell’s Inlet SC.  Almost no interstate today, 4 lane US Rt 17.  Several nice quiet towns with little Sunday activity until we started seeing the church parking lots full at 10 AM. 

This morning in the park in Creswell I saw a flock of the Tundra Swans fly over.  No whistling noise but they were a honkin’.   We were alone at that park for a second night last night.  I guess the locals don’t like camping in below freezing temps.

Myrtle Beach looked like the tourist and golfer haven it’s made out to be.  And we only saw it from the highway as we went past it. 

While Carlene walked Callahan on the beach after we arrived here I did some camper maintenance; changed a couple light bulbs & fixed the plastic window in the screen door. 

Looks like another cold night, 33 now, going down to 25.  But I see it’s -2 going to -9 in Richmond tonight.  I guess that makes it feel better.  30 degrees warmer is definitely warmer.

Callahan on Huntington Beach

Visiting Kitty hawk and Cape Hatteras

This was our first non-travel day.  We spent the day as tourists visiting Kitty Hawk and Cape Hatteras.  After discovering that the drive over included an hour long detour we found a great start at the visitor center.  One of the hosts was a local guy named Stanley.  He has a family photo that he shows off proudly.  It's the Wright Bros. standing by their airplane on 12/14/03, three days before the successful first flight.  Standing by the plane (second from left, below) are his father and grandfather, and their dog.   Kind f cool.

We spent some time at the Wright Bros. Memorial on the site of the first flight.  The sand dunes have been planted in grass so the place will not be blown away.  The hill from which they launched the gliders has been blown 500 feet from where it was a century ago.  They have rebuilt the two buildings they used, the rail from which the plane took off and set up markers for the four successful flights on 12/17/03.

Then we went for a drive down Cape Hatteras National Seashore to find some beach.  First we stopped at the Bodie Island Lighthouse.  Well it's not very hard to find beach.  It is mile after mile of sand dune with water on each side.  Stop anywhere and go walk on the sandy beach.  But it was COLD!!!  The temperature had dropped to 40 and with a strong wind the chill factor was, well, chilly.

Tundra Swans are wintering here, by the hundreds.  All over the place.   We saw one flock that had an audience, several cars stopped to check them out.  That seemed almost odd because we had seen several flocks that were larger and closer to the road that had no watchers.  Go figure.

The take off rail and end-of-flight markers

Bodie Island Lighthouse

Looks like a good reason to call it "The Outer Banks"

Callahan checking out beach debris with great caution

New bridge  Built in sections  I have not seen this before

Pettigrew State Park, NC

For a rainy day this was  not too bad.  Relatively short 4 hour drive (plus stops) to get here.  High of 75 degrees, actually quite warm in the truck.  Opened some windows because just a T-shirt was still too hot.  Should be around 50 tonight, but that's the end of that.  Won't be that warm again for a while.  NC still has some snow left from that storm last week.  And it'll be cool tomorrow on Cape Hatteras.  We did get out for a short hike in the park.  This is a very simple park, 13 basic campsites, no power, no water, the bathhouse is closed for winter; but priced accordingly at $13/night.  We have everything we need in the camper.

Hanging around in a Sycamore tree

Callahan pondering snow in North Carolina

Chesterfield VA

What a beautiful day!  High of 70 in Richmond.  Virginia, that is.  Wearing a T-shirt all afternoon and still feeling warm.  Pocohantus State Park is quite large with nice paved sites.  We still have not taken a single photo!  It rained a bit but not enough to run the wipers, until we got into the park.  Then it turned to fog.
We left the snow behind in PA.  There were only a few roadside patches, enough for snowballs, in MD. 
Looks like a short day tomorrow, and a fairly remote state park in NC.  Not sure if we'll have cell service to make the blog entry.  Then a day to explore Kitty Hawk & Cape Hatteras.  But the forecast is back below freezing at night.

Stroudsburg PA

We made it out!  Pulling the camper out of the yard was easier than imagined.  But I did put the chains on the rear tires to be sure it was.  Nice easy drive to Stroudsburg PA.  Very pleasant drive along the Delaware River on US 209.  So much nicer than going further south on the NY Thruway and across NJ (or so I imagine-never actually done it).  Arrived at our campground about 3.  Got a good pull through site that is so level I didn't have to do a thing.  Crank down the jacks with the truck still hitched.  Love that kind of site.

Shoreham VT was especially picturesque with snow coated trees and a fog bank about 20’ thick hovering at about 50’ above ground.  We admired it but didn’t get any pictures.  Too bad. 

The next big scene was rather thrilling.  We came onto a car fire that was pretty fresh.  Fire & Police arrived just as we got there.  Now I’ve seen a few car fires but this was the best, the front half fully involved with flames 10’ high.  I was surprised they were allowing traffic to continue to pass it before they got it knocked down a bit.  Again, no souvenir photos.  We are too fresh at this tourist thing.  We’ll have the cameras a little more ready tomorrow.  So you can plan on us not seeing much!

Here is the first entry of the 2018 trip!
It is just about time to head out again.  Probable date for departure is Wed. Jan. 10, 2018.  The weather is looking OK as far as snow is concerned this weekend, but it's supposed to be -5 degrees in PA this Sat. night.  No thanks.  I'll freeze here where I have a wood stove, not in the camper.