September 30, 2009 - Sevierville, TN

We got up yesterday morning and drove all the way to Sevierville (Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area). We had stayed at this RV park before, so we knew it would be comfortable for the few days before we head to Nashville.

Happy birthday Garrie - September 30. Happy birthday Rebecca - October 1.

September 30 we headed out to Cade's Cove. The last time we were here we saw bears. Not this time. We did see wild turkeys, deer and bats (hanging in one of the log cabins). I did take pictures, but the bears last year were better.

September 25 through September 29 - Charleston SC

The morning after the ballgame, we got up early to travel to Charleston, SC. Actually, the RV Park was in Johns Island - but everyone would just say Charleston. We got up and got out of there so that we could be at the Citadel for the afternoon parade. Of course, once we got there, a little problem popped up.

I got a call from Holly Springs that the cd that I had left with the Town and Country Garden Club Yearbook which had to be submitted to the state garden club by October 1 had a problem. Of course, the yearbook is on my laptop - but it is a huge file. I had this brainstorm that I could break the big book into smaller components and send it via email. NOT!!!! One page of members (with pictures) equaled one email. So, I decided to head to town, buy two CD's, find the FedEx location, and ship the cd's to Holly Springs so that they could print the yearbook. My intent was to buy the cd's at the Citadel and then watch the parade. After the parade, I would load the file and ship off the overnight letters. Luckily, I got a call after the parade that the correct cd had been located, and I didn't have to do the copying and shipping. Thanks for small miracles since the cd's I bought at the Citadel bookstore were unformatted!!! I didn't know you could buy unformatted cd's anymore.

So, back to the parade. It was a big parade. The Spring semester cadets who had great grades were being honored. The father and mother of one of the honorees was on the stands in front of us - well, the father was. The mother (and her camera) was taking pictures. He must have been really smart, because he was in the group with the highest grade point ratio (they didn't call it averages). Andy and Terry were there, so we sat with them. The school was also honoring a big group of big $ donors at the parade. I don't know how much is big $, but there were a bunch of them. Pictures follow.



Another neat thing happened on Friday. We were driving downtown when we saw our friends Rita and Roland (from Hattiesburg) and their son walking back towards their hotel. Rita was riding in a rickshaw. The guys were walking. We went on down to the battery, and then we went back to their hotel (the Embassy Suites) and joined them for an adult beverage. Then, we all piled in the Jeep and headed over to Shem Creek for dinner. What a cool thing to do. We really enjoyed being with them.

Saturday was just a market and walking day. We didn't buy anything, but we did enjoy walking in Charleston. A really neat thing happened while we were walking along the battery wall. I looked to my right at one of the stairways to get up on the wall (or down off the wall) and there was a lost book propped against the wall. There was a sticker on the front of the book that said "Top 5 Reasons You should pick up this FREE BOOK". It then went on to give some cute reasons. The last was that it is a BookCrossing book. The website bookcrossing.com tracks books as they travel from one person to the next. I don't know where I will leave this copy after I have finished reading it, but I will definitely leave it somewhere.

Sunday we did the harbor tour. Yes, we have done it before. I had not been to Charleston since the new bridge was built, so that was really neat to see it from the water. We did have a great lunch after the tour at Hyman's Seafood Restaurant (and a really good Bloody Mary). I had never eaten at the restaurant before, but I had enjoyed a couple of their hush puppies on Saturday while I was waiting for Jimmy. I kept following the young lady around wishing that I could disguise myself like the guy on the snack bar commercials. She just laughed and gave me another one. If you are every in Charleston, you definitely need to eat there.

Monday, we drove out to Isle of Palms to see the house where Jimmy, Garrie, Joe and George had stayed when they went history touring two years ago. We drove out to the marina and back down to see where they ate when they went to the oyster fest (fund raiser for the volunteer fire department on Sullivan's Island). By then, it was lunch time, so we went to the Poe Tavern and had about the best hamburger I have had in a really long time. Jimmy then decided he wanted to walk across the new bridge. This is apparently a major tourist thing. Of course, you either have to walk both ways or have someone on the other side to pick you up. It took him one hour to walk from Charleston to the entrance to Patriot Point. Quite frankly, I think I could have walked it that direction but for one thing - it is way up high and the wall is not that tall. Being afraid of heights, I would have been a little leery of that walk. I think he was ready for the bottle of water that I had brought him. We did a little more touring via car and then back to the RV.

Columbia, SC September 24, 2009

We traveled to South Carolina this week for the Ole Miss/South Carolina football game. I probably will not say anything about the ballgame. Suffice it to say, Ole Miss did not win.

We did drive to Columbia from Lexington - where the RV was parked - during the day with the express purpose of seeing the capital building. Jimmy related the story of how the building was under construction during the Civil War. The building was hit several (I think it was six times) by Northern cannon. The completed building has the hits marked with stars. I'm including pictures below of our tour of the outside of the capital building.