Lori’s brother Brad recently informed us that there were VERY few pictures of us on the blog. So we decided to do a better job of getting ourselves in the pics. Secondly, we also decided to post more of us enjoying the adventure. Also including the fur babies, can’t leave them out!

On the way from Charleston to Hardeeville, Barb insisted we go see the Angel Oak. This oak tree was WELL worth the terrible drive down a small dirt road! This oak tree is estimated to be at least 400-500 years old. It stands 66.5 feet tall and measures 28 feet in circumference. It produces shade that covers 17,200 square feet. From tip to tip its longest branch distance is 187 feet. INCREDIBLE !!! These pictures are really nothing; there is a reason this tree is called the most beautiful tree in the world. You can get a sense of its size by looking at the people in the pictures (behind the fence and the oak tree).

We are loving our RV park in Hardeeville, called Lake Jasper RV Resort. We are by the lake which is inhabited by alligators, which is a treat when Winston constantly wants to go in the water! He would make a good dinner, but not on our watch!

We have been swimming these past few days in the outdoor heated pool. It will be 21 today and 27 tomorrow. We are happy to be outdoors enjoying ourselves. This morning this was our view drinking our coffee.

And the sign in the middle below was posted right beside where we enjoyed our coffee this morning……..

But really, who reads and obeys the signs anyway ….. let’s go back to serenity, shall we?

Gullah is an African American ethnic group who predominantly live in the Lowcountry 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 thousands of dollars. Lori almost tripped when she saw the price 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 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 its 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 was the job of the children. All throughout the southern 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 a blackened catfish fillet topped with a shrimp and crawfish cream sauce and served over dirty rice. Plus the Seafood Purloo 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 far enough south for palm trees. Yes we have arrived in Myrtle Beach.

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

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

I wonder: how young do 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, and Quebec. Everyone seemed to be heading in different directions. We are heading south to Savannah, the others 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 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 ferries. The hundreds 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 Wilbur 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 Canada 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 number (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 minds?? 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 marvellous time and were not bothered by the dark, or the major puddles of water walking back to our RV for the night.

While we had already been in Virginia on two different days last week at Alexandria and Arlington Cemetery, we really only felt that we had truly 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, and Jamestown. Jamestown 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 is 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!