Good Times in Virginia

When your neighbors are people like the little fella pictured above... life is good. We had another great day on the plantation. It's large enough we don't even really feel the need to head off exploring anywhere else for the time being. Since there is a working farm, the James River and several old historic housing areas we have just been wandering around for hours in here snapping pics and taking it all in.

Billy has finished a few new paintings... this one is of an old cabin here in Chippokes and a few of the fantastic, huge old trees out in front of it.




They grow wheat here and the field in front of the cabin is about 4 feet high with it right now. I think wheat is the prettiest crop... it's so delicate and fresh in color at this stage.




Last night we met up with some fellow Airstream owners. They were just passing through on their way North but decided to hang out for one night after we met up. We had dinner and shared stories and ideas about traveling and working on the road until almost midnight. Peter and Cheryl (Cheryl, forgive me if this is not the correct spelling of your name!) have been traveling yearly in their Airstream for about 6 years now. They spend part of their year up in the Adirondacks and we hope to meet up with them again in late Summer when we pass through that way. It was a good time and we are glad the Airstream connection allowed us to meet and hang out. Now that the weekend is over with almost everyone has moved on or gone home and we have this place pretty much all to ourselves. Our site is really pretty and I almost wish we could stay for another week before heading to the next spot.



Today we have to drive into town to ship out Billy's recently sold work and I want to stop off on the way home to a nearby farm to pick strawberries. Hopefully they are around on a Monday afternoon to let us pick.

I will leave you with my favorite shot from yesterday's walk. This is an old wonky house near the farm buildings. I caught a little cloud in the sky perfectly in line with the chimney so as to look like a plume of smoke rising out. Always remember you can click on pictures to see a larger version of them which will open up on a new page. Just hit your browser's back button to come back to the blog.

Allow me to Introduce you to GREEEEEN.

Seriously people...I never even knew about green until today. Today...I met GREEN. We had that huge storm roll through here last night and it dumped a load of H2O on us. Apparently this was waaay popular with the local flora. We went on a 4 hour walk today and snapped a mere 204 photos of ...well, greenery. Also...if anyone of you is aware of the missing bees situation... we found them. They are all here in Virginia busily working in the fields. Or in this one field in particular is really a more accurate way to put it. There are 9.6 billion bees out back on the farm here....they are keeping low to the ground and sort of zwiggling around in small circular patterns. What does this mean? Can't say. But believe me when I tell you...the bees have been found. I'll see what I can do tomorrow to dispatch them back to their proper territories. I am sure they meant no harm in leaving off regular duties to zwiggle around frantically here in the old corn field.

Maybe it's all the abundant greenery that is freaking those bees out. It certainly had weird effects on me.


I could barely keep control of my vehicle all day today....as you can see.

Billy will be doing a seriously silly amount of paintings from this farm locale. It is one of the prettiest places we have been. Virginia State Parks get a big fat A+ from us for being especially fabulous. I did laundry today...in clean, functional machines... in a state park. Amazing.

Tomorrow I will post Billy's new work. He just finished his first plantation piece today. It's of one of the little white cabins (they rent them out!) here in Chippokes. Until then...let me hook you up with a little red canoe. I am going to see if we can score a trip down the river in one of these over the next few days.

KaBLAM!!!!

No foolin' people... We are getting a mighty big storm out here tonight! I snapped the above shot out over the James River just before it started pouring and lightening over our campsite. This is the biggest storm we have been in since last Summer in Santa Fe. It's fun in the Airstream as long as the wind does not get too strong. Then it gets a wee bit scary! We have had thunder rattling the whole trailer for a few hours on and off now. I hope it lasts through the night.

Here are a few other pics from the plantation area where we are camping...






I fell in love with that field in the shot above. The delicate grasses are almost luminescent. It created this glowing sea of brilliant green. There's a little white cabin tucked at the far end of the field near the woods... what a great spot to live.

Oh! How am I online?? I am in the deep woods of a state park and thanks to Verizon Wireless Internet services we can now jump online anywhere we can get a signal on our cell phones. We have been thinking of signing up for the service for awhile but wanted to make sure we really needed to do it (2 year contracts suck.) So after driving all over the place today looking for a wifi cafe and finding nothing we decided to go ahead and do it. So far so good...I really can't believe it is working here where we are. It's pretty darned cool. And for those curious about it... the speed is great. It's at least three times faster than a land line. I'll let you know how it ends up working over time.

I'll leave you with one more shot of the thunder heads building up late this afternoon over the river.

Ahhhhhhhh....That's Better.

So sometimes a bad thing can be a good thing, right? After our mishap in NC we have landed in a really beautiful spot in Virginia that we would have never discovered had it not been for the goofy place we abandoned back down the road a piece. We are right on the James River near a widespread cluster (can a cluster be widespread?) of historic towns in picturesque farmland. The park we are camping in is quiet and so fresh with Spring greenery as to really make you feel like all is right with the world. We have spotted Bald Eagles here among many other birds such as Osprey and vast amounts of vultures. I am not a huge fan of the vulture (who is?) but he's got a dirty job that he does well and so I congratulate him on that. Good job ugly! Keep on bein' creepy and cleanin' up that road kill! Somebodies gotta do it.

Today we visited the town of Smithfield. It's downtown historic district is really cute (small but worth a stop for sure.) We met some really fabulous folks at The Olde World Tea Company who are endeavoring to bring fresh, made from scratch treats to peeps who stop in to their shop for a bite. The serve lite vegetarian fare as well which is not an easy thing to find in Virginia where HAM is KING (peanuts are the runner up...coming in a close second to ham.) They could not have been sweeter to us and even gave me an iced peppermint tea (my favorite) on the house. Thanks! We will head back later this week to have lunch. I was too stuffed on our breakfast from our breakfast at The Surry House to eat anything else today. Now that was some full on old school home cookin'. Their homemade biscuits were mighty tastey.

We had a rainstorm today which kept us from doing much outside but we plan to get out and hike around the area this weekend. I will post new pics later on tonight from the past day or two to give an idea of what this area looks like.

Sometimes You Have To Keep On Drivin'.

It was bound to happen sooner or later. We drove all day yesterday and upon arrival at our new campsite which we booked in advance (and prepaid as well) we were greeted by a scene which would have required BOTH of us shaving our hair into mullets before check in to ensure our safety. I am now completely bewildered by the Good Sam's Club park rating system. I dunno, maybe Good Sam is really into faded turquoise plastic roses "planted" in the front yard by the thousands. Anyway...we drove on into the night and eventually landed at a KOA in New Bern, NC. Also I should mention that lunch yesterday was served by Chef Smitty's at the Myrtle Beach Mall's food court. Grilled "cheese" and fries. Don't ask how or why...just know that is how lunch went down. A sleepless night was then provided by a screaming freight train which apparently screeches relentless circles around the KOA campground all through the wee hours. Cool.

Anyway, we are going to try to shake off all that bad juju today and move on down the line. We will be landing in Surry, VA late this afternoon....and are hoping no unforeseen spirit chapping calamity awaits us there. I am pretty sure the entire region we are about to enter is an internet free zone (they keep the internet discreetly hidden under tea cozies so we think they are still living like early English colonists) so I may disappear for several days.

As soon as we resurface I will post many, many pictures and stories. Until then wish us luck.

Moving Day Tomorrow!

We have returned from our trip down to Savannah. On the last day there we had breakfast at Clary's which has been around since 1903 and was made famous by the movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. After that we strolled around town a bit more and discovered the best boutique shop on Broughton. It's called The Paris Market and it is fabulous. Billy bought each of us a bottle of fancy smellin' stuff (to ward of the smell of campiness I suppose) and we pined after all the other posh things they had to offer. Things that have absolutely nothing to do with our reality like antique chandeliers and glass test tubes full of exotic spices. It's a cool shop.

On the way back we side tracked out to Edisto Island for a few hours to walk the trails there in the State Park which is beautiful. The drive out to Edisto is just magical. It's the best tunnel of trees effect I have seen yet. There are a lot of quaint old farms and roadside fruit/seafood stands too.



It was an exhausting couple of days and now we are packed up to hit the road to head North tomorrow morning. We will be traveling about 300 miles which is actually kind of far for us to go all at once! We will end up in the Croatan National Forest in North Carolina at day's end. Billy is excited that this spot holds the possibility of seeing actual venus fly trap plants growing naturally. Carnivorous plants and cottonmouth snakes will be right outside our airstream's door. It's the stuff dreams are made of people. I am ready for a change of scenery since we have been here outside Charleston for three weeks. I would recommend Oak Plantation Campground to anyone wanting to stay near Charleston and unable to get into James Island. It's quiet and clean but I will say a lot of the sites are pretty crowded. The folks who run the show are very friendly though and that goes a long way with us.

I have to mention, tonight we are macking on fresh local strawberries from McLeod Farms and they may be in the top 5 strawberry experiences of my life. They also grow peaches which can be mail ordered starting the end of June. Anymore it seems a miracle to find produce (especially strawberries) that actually TASTE like something. These are deeee-lish. Way to go farmer McLeod!




Before signing off we have to boast that we feel a wee bit famous in a really small goofy way today. When I checked my email earlier the new issue of Airstream's official email newsletter was there waiting for me. As I scrolled down through the letter I was suddenly faced with a picture of US! What?! I guess they found us on Flickr and decided our pic was worth slappin' on the newsletter to promote people sharing their personal Airstream photos (via Flickr.) We are honored to say the least.

Savannah AGAIN!

Billy and I decided to head back down to Savannah to spend a few days walking around and shooting as many photos as we can. We have friends who love Savannah and have family roots here and we wanted to see some their favorite spots. Michelle and I only spent a few hours here and Billy had not seen the city at all yet so it was well worth the trip. It was a beautiful, perfect day for walking the city.

We started the day out with breakfast at The Firefly Cafe which is a really hoppin' spot for peeps to chow it seems. I think we hit them on an off day because the whole experience was two shades shy of train wreck but having been a waitress for many years I know that every place has these sort of days and they should be forgiven. It was a cute place but they did not have their heads screwed on straight for the busy Sunday morning shuffle.




We then headed off to see what we could find to shoot around town... buildings, people etc. We stopped off on River Street (where we scored some free salt water taffy), passed by Paula Deen's The Lady and Sons to check out their menu, stepped inside the enormous St. Johns church and wandered through the Colonial Park Cemetery to read the epitaphs on old tombstones. There was one guy named George who died around 1860 whose headstone boasted he had lived to the ripe old age of 142. Dang George! Way to go man! Apparently George was one in a billion...or he was a really convincing liar. Either way I like him.




My favorite thing about the cities we have visited here in Georgia and South Carolina has been the architecture. You could spend days and take thousands of pictures just wandering the neighborhood streets. The people are colorful and friendly as well. The combined effect is really a treat.





We ended the day by gorging ourselves on green curry and drunken noodles from Saigon on Broughton Street. We are now settled into our kitschy hotel room at The Thunderbird Inn. Yes, we left the Airstream for a night of luxurious hotel living. Tomorrow we will head out to Tybee Island to see what we can see out there and possibly hold down a patch of sand on the beach for awhile.

The Big One.

Yesterday was Michelle's last day here with us before heading back up to MA. We spent the day walking at Caw Caw Park which is just a few miles down the road from our campsite. It's a really beautiful spot and I think Billy saw about a hundred spots he wants to paint. We took tons of photos so I am sure that even if he can't get back there to work on site he can still get something painted from that location. The most amazing thing about Caw Caw is the birds. It is teeming with them and there are seemingly dozens and dozens of species. It creates a pretty exciting background "soundtrack" for your walk. There are also quite a few alligators to be seen in the rice fields. There is a cypress swamp and a hardwood forest as well so it really is a gem of a place to visit. If you really look in the photo posted here you will see a decent sized gator in the water on the lower portion of the pic. He was in semi-stealth mode.



I was able to swim 9 inches away from this gator's face (disguised as a floating log of course) in order to bring THIS photo to you. I risk it all for the purposes of blog photography.


The cypress swamp is my favorite thing so far about the great outdoors in the South. It is so otherworldly. It's hard to really capture a true sense of place in a picture... but here are a few to give you a feel.





After the swamp tour we headed out onto John's Island to see if we could find a really old tree. And I mean REALLY OLD tree. It's called The Angel Oak and it is said to be 1400 years old or so. And... when you see it, it reaches right out and smacks your brains right out of your beanie little head. There is really no way to convey the intense smacking out of the brains that occurs. Although...for once I do think that even just these small photos will kick your brains around just a little bit, right here on the computer screen. I will post one with no peeps in view and then another with peeps just for the sake of perspective.




We really could not even fit the whole tree into the camera lens, even when set on wide angle view. Please note that in the above picture we have A. One smallish boy doing calisthentics near the tree under the casually watchful eye of his personal photographer B. Several people and a large muppet like dog who seem to be somewhat unaware of the tree like they are all "Whatever, I see trees like this in my own back yard so who cares." and C. One person (who happens to bear a strong, uncanny resemblance to me) involved in a deep level of communion with the tree. I find it to be a really fascinating pic. Hope you enjoy as well.

Savannah

Well, Chelle and I drove down to Savannah today as planned. It was an ultra quick visit, sort of a whirlwind actually. If we had not had the gps we would still be wandering around in some neighborhood down there saying "I *think* this looks familiar.... did we go down that road before?" It's easy to get lost in Savannah. Our walking around was hindered by a mack daddy of a blister on my pinkie toe. Actually my innermost will to live was hindered by said pinkie toe blister before it was all over with. I now have 14 bandaids on the festering wound and will be having the whole left foot amputated on Tuesday due to the extensive tissue damage I suffered. Other than that everything was quite nice. We ate lunch at a little Thai place and then explored the various neighborhoods in the comfort of the car and off our feet. Savannah has some rock star action on the most average of it's hood's streets. By "average" I mean middle class, smallish houses from the 50's or so. Example....



Not too shabby eh? There are parks every few blocks featuring the same enormous, mind blowing trees as well. It's tree-licious. Here is another example. This next pic is of a dentist office. The tree is all "Hey baby" and just steps away inside someone is getting a root canal. This has to have some profound effect on the overall vibe of the dental experience. I know I would endure the pain with a bit more grit than normal if I could gaze out the window at that phenomenon.

At Times It Was Dangerous.

Tonight can be summed up in a very few words. Scrabble. And... Walk to gas station. Or I should say gas stationS. We went to three. On foot. Why? No good reason. It was something dumb to do. But as the title of the post explains... at times it was dangerous. We crossed a busy highway intersection in the dark. Always a smart move to make. Anyway...I think you will get the overall feeling for the whole night here in this short photo essay of sorts. Note the high math on the Scrabble score sheet.




You will have to click on the above pic strip to see it bigger....

I think we are heading to Savannah tomorrow while Billy stays home to paint. Thanks for tuning in. We appreciate your support in these odd posting times.