Visiting Ally in Charleston

We know Ally because her parents are Phil and Tracey May from TechnoRV.  They are our partners in the Techno-Geek Learning Rally.  After living on the road in an RV for several years, Ally has been on her own in an apt in Charleston for almost 6 months now.  She is attending a class at the local university while still finishing up her online high school.  When we realized we would be nearby, we planned a visit.
Can you tell she’s accustomed to the space limitations of an RV?  Here she is in her closet office she’s created in her apartment!

Ally's Closet-Office!

After showing us her apartment, we had a nice Sunday Brunch at Poogan’s Porch in downtown Charleston, then she took us on a walking tour of Charleston.  What a gorgeous day!

Ally and Jim walking along the Battery in Charleston

South Carolina Palm Trees

A bench with parking meter?!

Ally and Jim in front of Custom house in Charleston

Battery park

Charleston house, south of Broad

Although she really likes Charleston – and we can see why – she is already talking of places she may want to move to.  Think she inherited some wanderlust!
We’ll keep watching you Ally, and you can bet we’ll visit wherever you are!  Keep up the good work.  Hope we can make it to your graduation next year.

At Home in South Carolina

We always feel like we’re home when we’re staying in a Thousand Trails park.  We have a membership with Thousand Trails, and that means all we need to show is our membership card to get thru the gate and find a site – we don’t need to get out any money.  That doesn’t mean it’s free!  It just means we’ve already paid with our $500/yr membership dues. 

Our membership card includes the fact that Carolina Landings is listed as our ‘Home’ park.  Not sure why that is, since we signed up in Orlando many years ago, but that’s what our card says.  And,since there is good 4G Verizon signal here, we just feel so at home that we’ll take it.

We stayed here at the beginning of our summer tour, and now here we are at the end.  We even got the same site:

We’ve been here for 5 nights now – got a lot of computer work done, and even got in a nice exercise walk each day.  You can go for a simple stroll here and call it exercise because it is so hilly.  We’re huffing and puffing along the way.  Our site is on the top of the hills, so we walk down to the lake, and back up.

Since we’ve been here before, we didn’t need to spend time scoping out the good local restaurants, we knew right where to go for some good Carolina BBQ.  And caught a great sunset at the same time.  I especially like the Brunswick Stew here a the Spotted Pig.

We’re packing up today and heading for the shore.  Gonna visit Ally in Charleston, then on to Hilton Head where we have a couple of seminars scheduled at Computer Clubs.

Driveway Camping

Bill Moore was the manager at Paradise Island RV park for nearly 7 years.  That has been our home park in Fort Lauderdale, Florida ever since we sold our house (5 blocks away) in 2003.  Jim worked in the office at Paradise Island for the last 3 winter seasons – he got to know Bill real well, he even introduced him to kayak diving and they went lobster hunting together a few times.

This summer Bill left Florida and moved his family to be near extended family just east of Atlanta, Georgia.  Guess what?  He has a big driveway now!  So, on our way from Alabama to South Carolina, we stopped for a visit.

We also got to go see Marie compete in a swim meet as a University of Georgia Bulldog in Athens, GA.  What a facility!

That was a real treat!  It made me want to go swimming!  It made me want to get any exercise I think it’s so cool to see parents supporting healthy pursuits for their kid.  And Marie is good!

They seem to be embracing their new identity as Georgia Bulldogs!

Thanks for the driveway campsite and the visit Bill!

GO Bulldogs!

Rocket City

Huntsville, Alabama is where Werner von Braun and his team made rockets to take people and payloads into space.  Pretty cool stuff.

It's been on our list for a while to visit here.  Jim did a little research and found there is an RV park right next door.   Ya gotta love the address on 'Tranquility Base.'

There was lots to see and do.  We started with a presentation about the International Space Station.  We learned how orbit is all about trajectory and speed.  The presentation was intended for groups of kids - which meant that I could understand it!

Jim wanted to fly the SR71 Blackbird - A12.  This thing can go FAST.  The sign said that it flew from Los Angeles to D.C. in one hour!

It was a beautiful sunny day - but we were able to park completely in the shade provided by the Saturn V rocket.

But it wasn't the only rocket on display

We ended the day with an IMAX movie on Space Junk.  There's enough garbage floating in space that we need a new profession called Space Trash Collector!  It really is a problem.  Because of the speed that this debris is traveling, even a one inch paint chip can cause substantial damage when it hits.

The 'stacked' space shuttle was still the most impressive thing there.  You have to look hard in this picture to see Jim in a navy blue shirt directly beneath the tail of the shuttle.

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Sssshhhhhhhhh

It’s so quiet here!

We’re staying at Thousand Trails Cherokee Landing – about 40 miles east of Memphis, TN.  It’s the end of their season and we are the only RV in this whole section of the park. 

You don’t realize how much noise there is in your daily life until you’re in a place without it.  I’ve been drawn to go outside, just to sit in the quiet.  When we go for a walk we walk slower, we don’t’ talk much.  I’m trying to quiet down my mind to match my surroundings. 

The drawback of course, is that there is no good Internet here.  The first couple days – we had to have Internet because our monthly Geeks on Tour newsletter needed to be published.  Verizon signal came and went at our site, we used that when we could catch it, we took computers to a café in town (7miles) where we could use our Droids as hotspots, and I schlepped my computer to the clubhouse and used the oh-so-slow satellite based Internet available thru Thousand Trails.  One way or another, I got the newsletter done, and spent the next day just sitting out in the quiet reading a book.

Reading a book is my most treasured treat.  If possible, that is always the reward I give myself when accomplishing something.  With the Kindle reader on my Droid phone, I don’t have to settle for just any book I have laying around, I can order whatever book my heart desires and have it available for reading in seconds.  This time I ordered Wild by Cheryl Strayed, because it was recommended by a friend in Fort Lauderdale.  How perfect!  The book is about a young woman who hikes the Pacific Crest Trail in an attempt to get her head screwed on straight.  As she writes about the solitude and beauty around her, I can even imagine I’m there as I sit in the middle of this forest in the perfect peace and quiet.  In my younger days, in California, I even hiked small portions of this same trail.  The book is bringing back memories.