11 January 2023, Southern Camping Day 6

 Huntington Beach State Park 

South Carolina

Marc-  Sketchy internet access this evening so I will limit our content.  We visited the local Nature Center that highlights some native species.

Piping Plovers

Seahorse

We spent most of the day visiting our friends Peggy & John Brewster in North Myrtle Beach.  We enjoyed a wonderful lunch at the Greg Norman Australian Grille in Barefoot Landing and then we went to the Ripley Aquarium in Myrtle Beach.  The reef fish brought back memories of our time in the Florida Keys in 2021.

Barefoot Landing Marina from Greg Norman's Restaurant

                            

                                                                             Sea Rays

Sue and Peggy with the penguins.

 

10 January 2023, Southern Camping Day 5

 Huntington Beach State Park 

South Carolina

Flowers and more flowers at Brookgreen Gardens

Marc-  Today we decided to visit Brookgreen Gardens nearby.  Huntington Beach State Park was part of the Estate of Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington that together with Brookgreen Gardens formed some 4000 acres between the Atlantic shore and the Waccamaw River.  The Park is on the Eastern side of Highway 17 that divides the two properties.    We decided to walk about the many paths and trails at Brookgreen and were immediately impressed with the plants that flower or produce berries in January.

Camellia

Holly Tree

We walked over to the zoo on the property that has native animals.  We saw horses, goats, otters and a variety of birds.

Tree climbing goat.

Tree hiding goat.

Wood duck couple.

Merganser couple.

                                                                          Night Heron

Ibis

Our next adventure was back at the Park beach where we hiked all the way to Murrell's Inlet.  We took the inland path on the return and ran into an Octopus Tree.

9 January 2023, Southern Camping Day 4

Huntington Beach State Park 

South Carolina

Huntington Beach - it's for the birds

Marc-  It was an uneventful six hour drive from Virginia to our campground in South Carolina.  The place is just as beautiful as it was last year.  The temperature was 62 degrees when we arrived.  We went back to the same area of the campground as we were in last March (maybe the same campsite) and were greeted by a cardinal (maybe the same one who was here last march).  

Campsite # 125

We both remarked that some trees in South Carolina keep their leaves in January.  The campground has not only pines but live oaks, yaupon holly and palms.

Sue and I found our way to the beach expecting a quick sunset at 4:30 but the sun did not set until 5:26, giving us many photo opportunities.  

Pipping Plover

Mallard ducks on the bay side of the park.

Back to the Atlantic side.

We have been using our Nordic hiking sticks.

Last light tonight.

Last words:  very happy to be here!

8 January 2023, Southern Camping Day 3

Richmond North / Kings Dominion Campground

Doswell, Virginia

Marc-  We drove South before the freezing temperatures could catch up with us.  We are happy to be in Virginia where it will not freeze tonight and we can have running water in the camper.  

We departed Hershey at 09:30 this morning and spent a partly cloudy day driving South.  Sue did the first driving and was stuck behind the wheel all through the Washington, D.C. area highways with their intense traffic.  There was one intense moment when a firefighter swerved a fire engine in front of us suddenly in order to assist a truck with some smoke coming out from under the hood cutting off two lanes of traffic.  Sue handled it well and got us around that soon to be massive backup on Route 95.  We came down Route 95 in order to avoid snow in the Blue Ridge Mountains today.

We arrived at The Richmond North Campground in early afternoon.  Nice spot next to an amusement park (we can hear the roller coasters whooshing around and can hear people screaming).  We also filled up on lower cost diesel fuel here: $ 4.28 per gallon.

7 January 2023 Southern Camping Day 2

Hersheypark Campground

Chocolate Avenue

Hershey, PA

Marc-  We were early risers due to the multiple trains that pass near the campground (three sets of tracks).  We went out to the Cocoa Diner for breakfast.   The next few hours were spent at Hershey's Chocolate World and the Hershey Museum.  Both were excellent venues and we came back with great chocolate and a chocolate education. 

This house is made entirely of chocolate.

We also ventured out to nearby Amish country and saw some horse drawn carriages and beautiful farms.  Clothes are still put out on the clothesline to dry out here.  We stopped to see some shops and a farmer's market.  

We encountered several of these carriages.

Notice how the horse is flying along.

6 January 2023, Southern Camping Day 1

 Hersheypark Campground

Chocolate Avenue

Hershey, PA

Marc-  We left Vergennes at 07:30 this morning and arrived at 15:30 at Hershey.  The campground is fine.  The only other residents here are long term campers in fifth wheel trailers all insulated out for the winter months.  That being said there appeared to be two occupied cabins.  

Travel today was uneventful with mostly light rain and temperatures in the low 40's.  We did have several glimpses of the sun.  Unfortunately the price of Diesel fuel is much higher in PA than in VT.  I last filled up at $ 4.74 per gallon in Middlebury and tonight paid $ 5.45 per gallon in Hershey.  Let's hope that this is not a trend going South.  The trailer is warm and cozy with central heating.  Unfortunately the campground water is turned off.  We washed up with seltzer water.

Lake Champlain Hikes

  29 December 2022

Commodore Drive, Vergennes, Vermont

-We have been doing morning hikes over at Button Bay State Park and the adjoining Basin Harbor Resort this Fall and early Winter.  The 29th was like a Spring day with 50 + degree temperature and sunshine.  There were quite a few people out and about the trails.  We stopped over at the Park Nature Center and found the above map that revealed the location of gastropod fossil beds.  The 4 million year old fossils were easy to find with the map near the lakeshore.

Gastropods were shellfish that lived here when Lake Champlain was a tropical sea.

Interesting ice formations at Button Point.

A red cedar stump cut from a fallen tree during a recent wind storm.

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We will be leaving for our snowbird migration to Florida on January 6 th via truck and camper and will keep the blog going.