This past year of pandemic lockdowns and social distancing has left many of us missing our family and friends. For the safety of our elderly parents, they have often been the most isolated. John and I are very fortunate to still have all 4 of our parents living – some in the same house and others not too far away. Living with John’s parents this past year has been wonderful – we often comment on the fact that we both love our parents and in-laws. We share dinner duties and always sit down together for our evening meal. So far, reports are they they enjoy having us here as well. My mother lives in a small assisted living residence on the other side of town. She was in complete lockdown for quite a while last year – not everyone was happy with that, but no one in the residence got sick. Visits to her were from the sidewalk looking up to her second story window. Then we graduated to scheduled short visits in the garden for the summer, moving indoors for the winter. Now that the nice weather has returned, and residents have been vaccinated, we can have spontaneous visits in the garden – still being careful to wear masks and keep to 6′ apart. My dad lives in NH, and while video calls are nice, we hadn’t seen him in person since late last summer. Once he was 2 weeks post final vaccine, I decided it was time for a visit – and we could bring our bedroom and bathroom with us!

Dad was a great campground host! We had a nice spot under the trees and even had an electrical hookup. His road is really quiet at night, and the only thing that kept me awake one night was a pair of owls chatting overhead.

The weather was great, and we helped do a bit of yard work. Dad has a big milestone birthday coming up this summer (divisible by 9 and 10), but he still keeps very active outdoors. We let him get started on the tilling for his flowerbeds, but then John took over to finish up (fun for both of them). We hear there will be hollyhocks all along the front of the house.

Once the tilling was complete, John and I took a break to sit and admire the work, only to turn around and see dad raking the debris from his stone wall. Back to work! This time we got to drive the John Deere mower with dump trailer – worth all the work! Now he has the cleanest stone walls in town!

When we weren’t working in the yard, dad has lots of toys to play with. This weekend it was cameras. We did take a walk over to Copp’s Pond, but there wasn’t anyone close enough for a picture. There were a lot of mergansers and a few geese way out in the pond. It can be a great spot for bird and turtle sightings, but some days they don’t show up at the same time as you.

Close to home, the bird feeders are a constant source of photo ops. We had 3 kinds of woodpeckers at the same time! Here’s a shot I took with one of the cool cameras, testing out the back button focus feature – great for setting the focus and then waiting for your prey subject to arrive.

Our Scamp is proving to be a great acquisition – easy to hook up, super easy to tow, and getting more and more comfortable as we learn how to live in it. We’ve done a bunch of quick weekend trips, and never feel like it’s a lot of work. Our next planned outing is our first fiberglass camper (egg) rally in May. It will be fun to meet up with other owners and share stories and ideas. It will also be our longest stay in one spot, so we’ll break out all of our outdoor amenities and settle in for a long weekend. Stay tuned…

February 5-7, 2021

Those of you that know us well won’t be surprised to hear that Myrtle Beach is not high on our list of places to visit. However, we have driven through a couple of times when it’s been much like a ghost town. Both times were in the off-season, once at 7am when there was not a person in sight. Another time we decided to eat out before getting to the airport. We drove the whole length of the “strip” before finding a restaurant the was open. We got a window seat overlooking the beach, and had a nice meal. Given the number of establishments, I can’t imagine how crazy it is there during high season.

Looking around for another weekend campground, we ended up heading to the Myrtle Beach State Park Campground. It’s fairly big, but the reservation calendar looked like it was only about half booked. It’s hard to know what your campsite will be like, but we use a few parameters to choose –

• a site on the periphery, so that there is no one behind us
• choosing a site currently showing adjacent sites empty
• on a roadway that looks less traveled and no turns so that headlights shine in
• On a loop that is not the closest to the nearest roadway
• not too to close to the bath house, or trash area

Myrtle Beach is an hour and a half from Oak Island, so we left Friday afternoon to have time to set up and take a walk before it got dark. Driving through a Myrtle Beach on the main highway showed so much more of the tourism that takes place there. If you can put a word before “House of Pancakes” and pop up a sign, it’s there. I lost count of those. Then there are the beach stores – there are 12 Eagles stores along the strip, plus 5 or 6 Pacific stores and many others. If you don’t find a shark tooth on the beach, there are plenty of places to buy some! I think we’ll stick with off season visits.

The state park is 312 acres located right at the end of the commercial strip (we walked the beach up to one of the commercial piers). It has a mile of beach and a very nice fishing pier. The campground seemed to be about 2/3 booked, but the sites are well separated and buffered with plenty of trees and vegetation. We did not have neighbors on either side or in front of us, but there were campers a few spots down in both directions. Once again, the weather was threatening rain and chilly, so we fired up our heater as soon as we set up camp. The heater is really small, but it heats up the space quickly and has kept us warm.

The campground has a 14-day limit, but there were families there that looked like they’ve been there much longer. They have huge campers, and the amount of “stuff” outside is crazy – awnings and tents with multiple tables and outdoor rugs, lots of outdoor cooking setup, bikes for the family, kid toys galore, dogs and cats. I’d hate to have to pack all that up every 2 weeks!

There is a nice nature trail in the park, starting near the campground, going through the forest to a pond, then meandering through some swampy areas and coming out at the beach. We spied some ducks in the pond and a great blue heron hanging out in the swamp.

The partridge berries on the floor of the forest brought back memories of hunting for these with my dad when I was a kid. I think we made little terrariums with them.

We didn’t see any yellow-bellied sapsuckers, but we saw plenty of evidence of them! They drill their holes in straight lines, and here the vines growing up along the tree were drilled as well. That can’t be good for the tree!

The serious rain came during our second night. It was a a good storm with loud thunder and bright lightening flashes (although someone in the camper slept through it). The one who did not sleep through it eventually got to sleep, only to wake up in a puddle on her side of the bed. This was our first time out in a heavy rain, and our back window is leaking. Bummer! Breakfast, another walk on the beach and we headed home. We still call it a successful camping weekend – even with the weather and the leak. We continue to learn how to live in a small space, and I think we bring less with us each time. And, most importantly, we continue to have fun!

Just by luck we parked on the high spot in our site – not everyone else did.

Sights throughout the park –

Jan. 29-31, 2021

This weekend we ventured about 2 hours north to Cedar Point Campground. Cedar Point is a National Forest on the coast of NC, near Emerald Isle. No Monday holiday this week, so we headed out Friday afternoon, arriving at about 4:30 – still plenty of daylight to get set up and go for a walk.

Cedar Point is a National Forest campground, but reservations are similar to the state parks. Each has a centralized reservation platform – https://www.recreation.gov for the national forests, national parks and Corps of Engineers campgrounds, https://reserve.southcarolinaparks.com for SC state parks and https://northcarolinastateparks.reserveamerica.com for NC state parks. We were within 3 days of arrival, so we couldn’t make a reservation for a specific site – within 3 days, the sites are first come/first served. I could see that only a few had been reserved, so there should be plenty of choices for us. We drove the loop through the campground, scoping out a site to choose, and checked in with the host. All of these sites have an electric hookup, and there are water stations scattered throughout the campground. There is also a potable water filling station and dump station. No need for us to fill as we are just using bottled water for now.

We do have an annual National Parks pass, but only the senior pass will get you the discounted rate ($17/night instead of $27/night). Just a couple more years… Still a great deal at the full rate.

Dinner was a salad of roasted brussel sprouts, lentils, greens and salmon (all prepared at home this time).

Saturday breakfast was pancakes – freshly made in the camper!

Saturday was nice and sunny. We walked down to the boat ramp where quite a few people had launched that morning. One fisherman said that they catch red drum in the area – we were at the end of the White Oak River, not far from the open ocean waters. There is a very nice nature trail with 2 loops – .6 miles and 1.3 miles. We took the long loop and enjoyed walking through the marsh and forest, with some good bird sightings. There are a few feeders along the way, and the local girl scouts have put up many bird houses. This tufted titmouse was at one of the feeders. The great egret was across the river – a few of them flew over our heads, but we aren’t fast enough with the camera.

The tide was high…

After our walk, we headed over to Emerald Isle – about 4 miles to the fishing pier on the beach. Emerald Isle is a small barrier island just south of the Outer Banks. The fishing pier was closed, but we enjoyed a nice walk along the beach. The sun was warm and it was really nice when the breeze died down.

In case there was any question…

Out of the 40 sites, 12 were occupied on our first night. Many had campfires, but it was really cold again! This campground does not sell firewood, but allows you to collect anything that has fallen on the ground. One guy had his electric hand saw and was cutting up some long pieces – a note for future trips, bring something to cut firewood. We collected a few pieces the first night, and in the morning I found an armload that had fallen during the night. Inspired, I did some foraging in the woods and came up with a pile worthy of burning. Now it’s time for that fire! There has been a lot of rain lately, so all of the wood was pretty damp. I took a lot of coaxing, but my persistence paid off!

We woke to rain on Sunday morning, so headed home after breakfast. Another successful trip in the books!

Jan. 16-18, 2021

We are taking some short vacations from our vacation. While we have the camper with us, we might as well use it. Our first weekend excursion was to Little Pee Dee State Park in Dillon, SC, about 2 hours away. We arrived around noon on Saturday and took a walk around the small lake. There’s a nice picnic area, kayak rentals and a small dock for fishing. A few families were enjoying the nice day, fishing and metal detecting.

Then we made our way over to the campground and found our site waiting for us. It was chilly, so we fired up the heater, made some tea and relaxed in our cozy nest.

Being a long holiday weekend, there were quite a few campers. But given the cold temps, folks stayed mostly inside and it was very quiet. We took advantage of the extremely clean – and warm – bath house, but once we tucked in for the night, it was nice to have our own bathroom. We haven’t de-winterized the camper, so no running water. We can make do with minimal use of the toilet, and that will be easy to winterize when we head north again.

We’re still figuring out what meals are going to be “camper friendly”. Each trip we learn something that works and something that really doesn’t. Hot tea is a staple, although we wished we had hot cocoa on this trip. Put that on the packing list! On our way out of town, we stopped at the local fish market and picked up a red drum fillet. I wrapped it in foil and we fired up the Coleman oven on the stovetop. It took about 10 minutes to reach 300 degrees and the fish baked nicely. Served over some veg stew that we brought made for a tasty dinner. Another thing to add to the packing list – spices! The oven works, but it’s big for our small stove. We’ll get an outdoor kitchen set up and it will be easier to use there. We’re looking forward to testing out some of our regular baking recipes while camping.

The next day was spent relaxing with books and knitting, taking a walk on the nature trail, spotting birds and napping. A lot of the campers had moved on by Sunday afternoon, and our immediate neighbor had left for the day, so there was no one nearby. The campground has firewood for sale and several campers had fires going in the evening. We were being wimps and stayed toasty inside. As much as I love a good fire, sometimes I like being warm better. Maybe if we had s’mores fixin’s…

It’s so easy to hook up the camper (and unhook back at home) that a 2 hour trip to a campground for the weekend is a piece of cake. Backing into the spot under the house is the hardest part – and we’re getting better at that! Now to plan for the next excursion…

Of course it is! In this current pandemic world, it’s actually nice to have some projects to work on around the house. We aren’t checking out the local sights, or shopping or dining in the local establishments, so we need to keep busy somehow.

A few years ago, we purchased our future retirement home on a NC beach. We aren’t beachfront. We’ll let the 3 rows of houses between us and the water take the brunt of the storms – and there have been some doosies in the last few years – Florence, Dorian, Isaias… We had 3 feet of water under the house after Isaias blew through. Since the house is on piers, that’s not a big problem for us (we just can’t leave a car parked there during a storm). The house is currently an AirBnB and the summer is the high season here. That works great for us, as we’d rather be here now and in the spring and fall.

We’re taking this extended stay to get lots of little projects done. In the 3 weeks we’ve been here, we’ve –

• Replaced the HVAC system (it was working “ok”, but given the age we didn’t want to get the call on the hottest day of the year that the A/C is broken)
• Bought a new refigerator
• Replaced all tv’s with Roku tv’s (cable adds $120/month to the internet bill)
• Restocked with new bed linens, blankets and bath towels
• Replaced most light bulbs with LED bulbs
• Changed air filters
• Replaced all smoke detectors
• Replaced fire extinguishers
• Fixed torn window screens
• Fixed the porch screen door so that it swings and closes properly
• Bought a new outdoor couch for the screened porch

One tiny thing that we did is something we comment on almost daily. Our kitchen cabinets are the “sleak” design with no knobs. For some of the doors, it’s not clear what side opens. As those rubber bumpers age, they turn more to glue, and you can break a nail trying to open a cabinet – usually because you’re trying to open the wrong side. I went around the kitchen with a $3 pack of new bumpers and now the doors swing open with ease!

Anyone who knows us knows that we cook – and bake – a lot! This kitchen has counters of 6″ tiles. How are you supposed to roll out a pie crust on that? We’ve been using the glass-topped dining room table for those kind of things, but that’s not ideal. Before we came down, I found someone selling a nice marble pastry board and that’s been a great addition to the kitchen. Unfortunately, we can’t leave nice things out for the guests (someone will use it as a cutting board), so that will be packed away when we leave.

Our “To Do” list is pretty short now, which feels good. We leave a goody basket for guests, so I’ll make sure those supplies are stocked for the upcoming season. The vacuum cleaner is on it’s last legs, so that will probably get replaced.

We have big plans for when we move here full time. For now, the vacation rentals have been working well for us and we really enjoy spending time here whenever we are able to come down. It’s the best AirBnB that we’ve stayed in! Let us know if you need a beach vacation!

While 2020 was a crazy year all around, we were fortunate to remain healthy and maintain employment as desired (retirement for me has been much quieter than anticipated, but there have been many masks to sew and no shortage of yarn for knitting!). Since the wildfires in the west put a kibosh on our road trip to CA last fall, we thought we’d make another attempt in the new year. Unfortunately, the virus is still too rampant to make that long trip. It’s now been over a year since we’ve seen Matt and Meghna, and even the 4 months since seeing Katherine feels like a long time – fingers crossed that we’ll start to see improvements and the possibility for a safe trip west.

Our compromise was to make a shorter trip to our beach house in NC. We picked up the scamp from storage on a cold January morning. Hooking up took a bit longer than usual, because we had removed the battery and propane tank for storage. After re-installing those, removing the winter cover, and attaching the new license plate – barely feeling our fingers at the end – we were on the road in an hour.

We have done the drive to NC in a straight shot a few times, but pulling the camper adds time to the trip. Luckily, we are traveling with our self-contained house, so we just need to find a spot to park and sleep for the night. We were thinking about trying out the free overnight parking at Walmart (or one of the other large chains that offer this), but the temps weren’t improving as we drove south. A little google searching led us to Pocahontas State Park near Richmond, VA. That would give us a place to spend the night with an electrical hookup – but we didn’t have a heater! A few miles before our exit, we pulled into a Walmart and grabbed a little ceramic heater for $29.

We arrived at the campground after dark, but the check-in board at the entrance had our name with instructions on choosing a site and campground rules. There were quite a few campers, but plenty of open sites to choose from. Sites are well separated and we didn’t have any close neighbors. Once parked and leveled, we plugged in and fired up the heater. Within a few minutes, the chill was gone and we were warming up nicely. Dinner was homemade soup (what didn’t spill all over the fridge and leak onto the floor – lesson learned to secure everything in the fridge for travel!). The heater kept us toasty warm all night, and we woke up to a 28 degree morning! Hot tea, more muffins, a walk around the campground, and we were back on the road.

By that afternoon, we had the scamp tucked in under the house and we were on the beach! Not exactly “warm” weather, but it’s nice to be down here for a while.