We have had the cats inside with us at (Nia and Seth's) and they have adjusted quite nicely. Today we will head toward Charleston, SC but will stop short of there as we are going to spare our selves a 10 hour driving day. Below are two well adjusted cats.
There is no school in McLean on Wednesday because of the cold. Yesterday there was no school because of the 4" of snow the received on Monday. The school systems are much more liberal here when it comes to school closings...cold and/or a little snow will cause a chain reaction of closures. One county has built in 16 days, unheard of in Maine.
So here we are on Friday the 20th headed from Charleston, SC to Savannah, GA. The weather has continued to be cold although we have had some sunshine along with the wind. Wednesday, as we were driving toward Charleston and trying to figure out where we would stop for the night because we had decided not to go all the way, we kept decidling to go further as our selected destinations would have had us stopping will before 5:00 pm. Finally we did bite the bullet and drove all the way to James Island County Park where we connected with Dee and Paul. Dee had dinner waiting and we were so grateful.
It was cold overnight. So cold that the campground management decided to let the facets drip water to keep the pipes from freezing. The cold we have experienced here was really record-setting for the area! And yes, we do appreciate that we were not camping in the single digits with the temps all our family and friends in Maine have been experiencing...along with more and more snow.
On Thursday the four of us headed into Charleston which has to be one of the most tourist friendly cities we have ever been to. There was even an RV friendly parking garage. Also trolly buses that may be ridden for free that take you around the city all starting and returning to the Visitor Center which is also quite wonderful.
In the Visitor Center we got to watch a woman making sweet grass baskets which are not only amazing works of art, they carry a price worthy of the thought and time used to create them.
We took the trolly bus and then did some walking and throughly enjoyed seeing the huge old homes in the city, Our friends, the Hajnys, told us more about the homes on Thursday night when we connected with them and stayed overnight at their place. Back to the cold temps here, below is a lovely fountain that has frozen up but with the water still flowing accumulates even more ice.
We walked through the marketplace area of the city which was mostly deserted because it was just too cold. We did find one building where the shoppes were enclosed and popped in to see what Paul was doing there. David, Marty, and Dee had spotted a fudge shop...yes...even in Charleston they like fudge and after buying some they needed to connect with Paul who had gone into a small shop named Heaven Scent where we met Ausar Vandross.
In his shop, Ausar, sells raw Shea Butter. That big mound in the left of the photo is just that. When we walked in he gave each of us just a little daub of it on a tiny spoon and said to rub it in. As we all were rubbing this in (about an 1/8th teaspoonful) our hands were transformed from dry into soft. We had never experienced 100% pure raw Shea butter before so this was amazing. Of course, we acquired some for ourselves and we will want to order some for our friends and family. Ausar has a web site and also makes soup (Dee and Marty) got a sample of that as well. He told us that once a year he goes to West Africa and buys a container's worth of the product....the contain is a 20' container so you can just imagine how many tons he imports each year. And it is a Fair Trade business which makes it even better.
Later in the afternoon we left Dee and Paul and headed to the home of Michael and Mary Hajny. Where we got to catch up as well as visit with friends we had first met in Georgia. They too are now retired so each day can decide what they want to do! Below is one of their two cats who joined us in bed on Friday morning.
Some of you reading this will have met Mary and Michael over the years of working or visiting us in Georgia. They look no different than they did well over a decade ago when we first met. After a nice substantial breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage, and biscuits we have hit the road to Savannah where we will stay in Skidaway Island State Park until Tuesday morning. This is being written as we drive along.
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