LoriBarb

Gullah, is an African American ethnic group who predominantly live in the low country region of the U.S states of Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina, within the coastal plain and the Sea Islands. They are known for their food and the sweet grass baskets they make; which can run you into the 1,000s of dollars. Lori almost tripped when she saw the prices, for a basket! But they are sturdy, sewn not woven, and will/can last a lifetime. So there is that, when you consider the price tag.

Our tour was good, and our guide was an expert in Gullah language and culture. So much so that when he purposely spoke Geechee he was hard to understand. For instance, ‘Uh een crack mu teet’ means “I didn’t open my mouth”. I know totally obvious once you type it out……….

Here are some pictures of Charleston from the tour.

After the tour we just wandered around enjoying our surroundings.

We then went back to the James Island County Park Campground on James Island where we are staying. James Island is famous for several reasons including for its role in the Civil war. The first shot fired during the civil war was from Fort Johnson towards Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. The island was also the location of several battles during the Civil war. The island’s strategic location in Charleston harbour made it crucial for both Union and Confederate forces. Today James Island has grown into a popular suburban bedroom community. The park boasts walking trails, playgrounds and many other recreational utilities. The campground is fabulous and well known for it the Christmas light tour around the park. This is an annual event and they have over 700 light displays and over 2 million lights. Below are just a few pics to give you an idea of what this looks like. It was fantastic and a place Barb would love to return to one day with her family.

In 2016 Charleston was named the #1 Tourist Destination in the U.S, Canada and the World… We do see why, with the rich culture, cuisine and historical architecture. We arrived yesterday and immediately went to McLeod Plantation. Our tour guide was a young student who had a masters in archeology, so her delivery of content was from the aspect of how the landscape and architecture could teach us about the people who once lived on this land. The generations of slaves who lived on this sea island cotton plantation were the Gullah Geechee people.

After the slaves were freed, they were each given 40 acres of land (some of which they had slaved on), and then later forced to return this land to the original plantation and slave owners. This moved these newly ‘freed’ slaves out of the era of physical and emotional abuse in to the arena of economic oppression. Progress?

One of the other stories we heard was of the slave children who had to make bricks for building. When these bricks were made, they needed to dry before they could be used. It was the turning of these bricks, which were 3x the weight of a regular brick because they were wet, that were the job of the children. All throughout the south of the U.S. you can see finger impressions in the bricks from these slave children. It was quite depressing really and a story we had never heard before.

On a high note, the trees on the property were just amazing. These pictures do not do them justice. They were HUGE

Next we decided to go for a late lunch/early dinner. One of the locals recommended Gillie’s Seafood.

Gillie’s story: Chef Sean Mendes wanted his guests to feel like they were dining at Grandma’s house…a place full of love, warmth, wisdom and a good meal for your soul! Their food is all made from scratch. We had Soul Rolls to start. These were deep fried egg rolls filled with collard greens, pulled pork, red rice and pimento cheese, served with a side of Nunya sauce. We then followed with Catfish Charleston which was blackened catfish fillet topped with a shrimp and crawfish cream sauce and served over dirty rice. As well as the Seafood Puloo which was seasoned rice, shrimp, crawfish, oysters, okra, onions and smoked sausage. It was all good ! Here are the pictures:

The restaurant itself was no nonsense and had a whole wall dedicated to the Chef’s grandma.

We have finally arrived south enough for palm trees. Yeah we have arrived in Myrtle beach.

We are staying at a nice RV park right beside Barefoot Landing, which is a fabulous place along canals with shops, restaurants and bars. There is a tree lighting celebration on Sat. Night with fireworks and Santa so we will walk over to check it out.

There is one piece of information that we would like to share about driving in N Carolina before we continue on with the South. It seems there are some interesting rules regarding driving and your phone………

I wonder how young people get married here, and do you need parental consent?

Who would have thought that the lineup OFF of Hatteras and onto the ferry heading to Ocracoke would have more Canadians than Americans. We pulled up to find 7 vehicles in front of us all from Canada. In fact we thought they were all travelling together given everyone was out of their vehicles and talking to one another. So we joined them, only to discover that no one had met before and we had all just driven up to the ferry at the same time. Not sure where everyone had been staying as there are not that many places on the Island to park your RV. We represented, BC, Ontario, Quebec. Everyone seemed to be heading in different directions. We are heading south to Savannah, the rest to Florida/Arizona/Jacksonville NC/Texas. Kind of cool to meet up with others on their own journey.

Arriving on the Island of Ocracoke, the first stop was to see the wild ponies.

Ocracoke is a Island approximately 16 miles long. At the other end of the Island is the town of Ocracoke where we had breakfast at a nice cafe. We also purchased an abundance of amazing fresh fish/seafood; shrimp, scallops, red snapper and several types of drum fish at the Ocracoke Seafood Company and stuffed our freezers to the max so we could enjoy these lush meals for weeks to come.

We really liked Ocracoke and definitely could have stayed longer however we had booked our ferry back to the mainland and we were off towards South Carolina.

For those who don’t know about The Outer Banks, it is a sliver of land off South Eastern Virginia, and the East Coast of North Carolina. And by sliver, we mean a narrow 200 miles of barrier islands connected by bridges and ferry’s. The 100’s of shipwrecks along the Outer Banks have given the surrounding seas the nickname “The Graveyard of the Atlantic”.

The Wright Brothers took their first flight on Dec 17, 1903 at Kill Devil Hills. The memorial to Orville and Wilber is located in Kill Devil, not far from Kitty Hawk where we arrived to the Outer Banks over the Wright Memorial Bridge.

We are staying in Hatteras at the Hatteras Sands RV park. We will say, this place is crowded!……….with Canadian Geese. We are the ONLY ones here! We have to say, this was a little unnerving. When we arrived, to NO ONE around, we were a little shocked to say the least. Barb had a phone #, thank God, of the owner she booked with and gave her a call. Well, the lady was quite nice and exclaimed while they were CLOSED for the season, they were allowing us to stay and to just “pick any site we wanted”. So, we did. Our first night was so windy we had a hard time sleeping, thinking we were going to get pushed over into the canal. But, we survived. The next night we decided to venture out and go for dinner. So off we went in the pitch dark! In flip flops and dresses, walking through large pools of water behind the RV park, with God knows what under the surface. Are we out of our mind?? Anyway, we made it through the lakes of water onto a main street and found the restaurant. It was fabulous! It was packed with locals, of course as we are thinking we must be the only visitors in Hatteras, and there was live music. We had a marvelous time, and were not bothered by the dark or the major puddles of water walking back to our RV for the night.

While we were already in Virginia on two different days last week, Alexandria and Arlington Cemetary, we really only felt that we arrived in Virginia when we drove down the highway and saw the actual Welcome sign.

More war history abounds in the tri-cities of Williamsburg, Yorkton & Jamestown, which was the original capital of Virginia County in 1607. In 1699 the capital was relocated to Middle Plantation about 5 miles inland which was renamed Williamsburg in honour of England’s King William III. Famous political leaders emerged from the College of William and Mary, such as Presidents Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe and John Tyler . Today Williamsburg in known as the centre for the preservation and interpretation of American colonial history. Fittingly we stayed at the American Heritage RV Park. We extended our stay to two nights due to wind and rainy weather …a gift from Hurricane Nicole.

Here are pictures of our night tour of Washington. It was an incredible way to see the City. We felt we had the city to ourselves. We also felt very safe wandering around. To be fair, we had hired a private tour guide who drove us to each monument and then met us afterwards to taxi us to the next one. The monuments we saw during the day look nothing like the spectacular views all lit up at night. This was a PERFECT ending to our stay in this great city!

Yesterday we decided to tour Arlington Cemetery, the African American Museum, and the Holocaust Museum. Heavy content for the most part.

Arlington Cemetery is 640 acres and is an “active” cemetery. Yesterday there were 24 funerals taking place. There are funerals daily except on Sundays and National holidays. Eligibility for in-ground burial at Arlington is the most stringent of all U.S national cemeteries. The only people allowed to be buried underground are military who have served at least 20 years and Presidents, if they choose to do so. However, most veterans who have at least 1 day of active service and an honourable discharge are eligible for above-ground inurnment.

The military being buried underground are ALL brought in on a military carriage with 4 soldiers on their horses and 3 other horses with no rider. Some funeral processions also had a military band leading the way. We heard a lot of gun salutes as well, so we believe they are all provided this. It was very moving. We got a couple of pics from further away as you are not allowed to take pictures of the funeral due to privacy. (Makes sense)

We saw the Tomb of the unknown soldier, which has been guarded 24/7, 365 days a year since 1948!! The soldiers guarding the Tomb are from the 3rd infantry regiment, “The Old Guard”. Guarding the Tomb is considered one of the highest honours. Fewer than 20% of all volunteers are accepted for training and of those only a fraction pass training to become full-fledged Tomb Guards.

Separate pics of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Guard. The Guard has a very specific march and tapping of the shoes, which was very cool.

The African American museum was our next stop. It was by far the best museum in Washington in our opinion. There are three floors underground which we were unaware of, and these three floors were incredible. You go down to the last level and work your way slowly up to street level again (no stairs just a gentle slope). These three floors are the history of Slavery, starting at the beginning and ending present day. The above ground floors were dedicated to the accomplishments of Black Americans, like Oprah and the William’s sisters.

There was also a couple of rooms where you could go in individually and record your own story. We were glad they were there, and sad that so many people were sitting waiting to go in. We hope one day we can all live without discrimination and oppression.

And now the Holocaust Museum. When you arrive to go in, you are each encouraged to grab a “card”. Each card is the picture and story of someone who lived through, or died in the Holocaust. Lori’s individual had lived, Barb’s had not.

You then get to elevators, which are metal and ominous like going into a large furnace we suppose. When you get off, the first picture you see is frankly shocking. We could not bring ourselves to take a picture of it, it was so horrific and sad, so we took a picture of the wall that just said Holocaust. The evolution of this time in history and the voices and stories you heard throughout the museum were sobering. It was really well done and would encourage a visit if you are so inclined to learn more.

I will add that there was one more place where we did not take pictures, as we did not go in. It was a room with a waterfall. This room was for individuals who are overcome with grief, emotion and need a place to recover. There are individuals throughout the museum to help such people to this place of peace.

BIG day for us, at the end we were drained, but so glad we experienced all that we saw. Tomorrow we do Washington at night!

Another RV challenge, but a challenge accepted!

Saturday in preparation for our day trip to Alexandria, we encountered a “loft malfunction”. There are two beds in this RV. One King in the back bedroom and one Queen loft bed above the drivers/passenger “cockpit”. This loft operates electronically by pushing either an up or down arrow which raises and lowers the bed. On Saturday when raising the bed for the day, the motor started struggling to the point of grinding to a halt. Then the motor no longer worked, period. Given we had a full day planned we resigned ourselves to fixing when we got home.

Coming home from a day in Alexandria we were too tired to “deal” with the issue, so I slept on the couch. Tomorrow will be a new day!

Sunday we got up had a chat, 3 hours worth, with our great friend Elaine Reid, took the fur babies for a walk and bumped into fellow RVers, R&S from Minnesota, who told us about a night tour of Washington (which is now booked for Tuesday night!). SO with the day starting out with a bang, we decided we were in good shape to tackle the issue!.

What exactly happened? Well it seems that you CANNOT make a loft bed using a flat sheet where the bottom of the bed is on the drivers side of the RV. This is where, we now know, the motor and apparatus is to actually move and hold the bed in place safely while sleeping and driving. We had decided a few nights ago to “switch up” the way Lori was sleeping in the loft. You know, instead of turning the mattress, why not turn oneself? Seems logical doesn’t it?

NO WHERE in the manual does it say, don’t use flat sheets, don’t have the foot of the bed on that side of the RV. WATCH for loose sheets, watch that nothing gets caught in the motor. ETC!

So, what happened is that we changed, for the first time, how we made the bed by switching the foot and the head of the sleeping arrangement. Day 3 which was the Alexandria morning, the flat sheet must have been loose and it along with the fitted (being nicely pulled in with it) got wrapped around the metal rod and in between the straps that maneuver the bed up and down. As this was happening the motor was struggling. We could hear it slowing down, but of course didn’t understand why. And then………it just stopped.

Barb was talking to Jim back home and he said that it sounded like something got caught in the motor which overworked it. Which we discovered was correct when we were trying to remove the sheets for me to sleep on the couch

Now HOW to fix! Before we even get there we do want to point out to all of you, if you were not already aware,, that we ARE BRILLIANT!

We first looked at how bad the carnage was in the mechanisms. We determined that we could not unwrap the sheets ourselves, that we needed the bed to roll down and in turn “unroll” the sheets from the mechanics. Of course that meant , we needed to get the motor working again.

Step 1: check fuse box for fuse specific to the loft bed. Checked and there is one and it was blown.

Step 2: check to make sure we have 2 of the correct fuses, in case we blow another one. Checked and we had 2 extra

Step 3: change fuse. Done

Step 4: test if this worked by quickly hitting the down button on the motor to see if it would turn and it did!

Step 5: with Lori holding the sheets up to allow for no slack, and Barb maneuvering the controls, SLOWLY lower the bed

Step 6: once comfortable that this approach is working, move the bed all the way down and RELEASE THE SHEETS !

END RESULT???? See pics below; the problem, the progress, sheets released and problem solved!