Warm Weather Arrives!

Finally!  After weeks of waiting in various intensities of impatience, warm weather has arrived in South Carolina!  So, too, has the first camping trip of the season, and I no longer have to sit looking through my winter-dirty windows at the Pack-n-Play counting down the days. I can't say the windows aren't still dirty, but I can at least have the pleasant memories of the trip to Santee to ponder while staring out of them waiting for the May trip to Edisto!

Santee State Park was the second of my list of parks to camp in during the next couple of warm seasons.  We had such a great experience at Edisto back in the Fall that I had pretty much convinced myself this was going to be an equal.   I can say the campground itself was exactly as expected....well maintained sites, clean and adequate bath houses, and our particular site probably had the best view of the lake of any of them.  Another plus, being seniors gets us a 15% discount, and the beach parks are twice as expensive as the others, so three nights at Santee were a whopping $43 and some cents.  You can't even get a flea-bag roach-motel room for one night for that little amount!  What I didn't figure into the experience was kids.....dozens of them....in tents on 3 sides of us, two tents per site!  I guess I thought Spring breaks were over by the third week of April, but folks, they definitely are not!  You can forget any semblance of peace and quiet when you are camped near water, with kids out-screaming each other, bicycle Ninja warriors attacking from every available trail, and then there are the careless campers who don't clean up behind their dogs, ugh!  Now before you jump my case for complaining about the kid noise, I agree they have every right to camp there, too.  I agree that kids enjoy running and screaming and having a great time, and I love to have them enjoying themselves. I love to see families making memories together, just as mine did when my kids were young.  It's just that I am getting old, noise jangles my nerves, and if there were 'adult only' campgrounds I'd be there in a heartbeat.  So, being that we have already reserved three nights again at Edisto for later this month, I'll just take a deep breath, prepare for the onslaught and keep telling myself "the kids will be on the beach all day, the kids will be on the beach all day, and I won't be camped 30 yds from the swimmin' hole again!!!"

Enough with the complaining, Barnwellgal!  Now do some talking about the good!  The weather was magnificent....cool enough for open windows (hence the daytime noise wasn't blocked out) and in spite of a brief fierce storm that blew in Tuesday night, couldn't have been better.  We had our camper situated with the 'patio' facing the water, and as luck would have it that was the direction of the sunrise!  Oh my goodness, what a beautiful sight every morning!  Wednesday the sun was not bright and blinding like normal, but a huge red ball, glowing within but not too brightly to stare.  I thought about my camera too late to catch this other-wordly sight, but it was awesome to say the least.  Every evening the sun set behind us as we sat on our 'patio' and enjoyed a cool beverage while Leo tested every single bare spot of dirt to lay in.  

Home-sweet-home away from home

View from our patio area, couldn't be better

Monday afternoon we got set up and walked a little around the campground, letting Leo get used to the new smells and places to walk.  I had planned ahead for meals, so we had sandwiches from my homemade pimento cheese and my homemade chicken salad for supper, and just relaxed, played cards and enjoyed being away from home.  I am a light sleeper, and not used to a roommate, so between waking every time he turned over in his bed, him snoring from across the room at my head plus Leo snoring at my feet, it was a long, long night.  I really got excited to peek out my window and see that bright sunrise getting started!  (And yes, I do use ear plugs camping, but they get uncomfortable after a while and sometimes just get wiggled out in spite of everything!)

Tuesday morning we decided to drive into town for bait to fish with, and see how long to allow to get back for supper that night.  We got our bait, went back to fish from the shoreline and let Leo come with us and stay anchored to a tree.  I was trying out my new bream buster but there was so much overhanging brush, and shoreline weeds that I kept getting hung up, broke lines, and pretty much got disgusted with the whole experience.  Leo and I left Jimmy with his gear to fish a little longer, and went back to rest and get lunch ready.  I had also brought chili and the fixin's for super nachos (tortilla chips, chili, shredded cheese, sour cream and salsa) so we ate and rested.  Another walk around the campground was called for to walk off this huge lunch.  Tuesday night we drove the few minutes back into Santee itself for supper.  We had made plans with some dear friends who live close by to meet them at the Cracker Barrel, and were enjoying ourselves with Carroll and Sharon Cheek while the storm blew up and blew out. What a great evening it was, listening to their plans for a fabulous trip to Ireland and Scotland that they were leaving on shortly, and catching up on old family histories we weren't familiar with. Back to a quiet, dark campground and another night of stereo snoring, LOL.

Santee Selfie  :-)

Wednesday was another fishing trial.  We decided to drive over to the other part of the campground that was on the cypress view and try our luck from the pier.  There was a man down on one end who said he had caught a couple but threw them back to grow bigger, then caught one keeper.  It was a nice one, and he insisted we take it as he was leaving to go home for lunch and didn't want to clean just one fish.  We thanked him and found out what he meant about letting them grow bigger....the only thing we hauled in over the railing was barely bigger than minnows, and I only broke my line once that day and suspect it was hung on a log.  We left after throwing back one or two ourselves, and gifted our gift fish to a couple who had taken the first man's fishing spot.  We sat outside until the cool air ran us in, and once inside we pigged out on the Beaufort boil we cooked outside on his gas fish cooker and we played several of our hundreds of games of Rummy during the trip.  We sure do enjoy that, and I don't know why I enjoy getting beat 9 out of 10 games!

Sunrise over Santee

Thursday morning I was outside with the camera before the sun broke above the horizon, but it wasn't that amazing red ball again, just brilliant and blinding good ol' Sol.  I got a couple of shots anyway, for keepsakes.  It was time to start breaking down camp and heading back.  All went well with putting things back in place, keeping things secured from moving or bouncing, and we were hooked up and ready.  Jimmy put the truck in gear, pressed the gas and - horror of horrors- the trailer brakes were locked up!!!  He tried 'rocking' the vehicles, back to front, several times, engine roaring, dirt flying from the spinning tires (and all nearby campers gawking!).....all the while us going nowhere, me in a wide eyed panic and him trying to stay cool but I knew inside he was panicking, too.  He decided to unhook the trailer wiring from the truck while we drove to the dump station and cleaned the holding tanks.  Once that was done, we nervously plugged it back together, and it worked like it was supposed to!  Whew!  Two really thankful people were riding in that truck!  I really didn't want to drive back through Orangeburg without brakes or lights on that camper.  The rest of the trip was uneventful, even though we did have a rather lengthy forced rest break at a train track while they juggled cars and engines but at least it wasn't due to a problem of ours.  

Packed and ready to roll - or not to roll :-(

Taking a break on train-time

I said a little prayer of thanksgiving as we backed her up beside my driveway....thankful to be home, thankful for safety on both legs of the trip, and thankful for my quiet little neighborhood to come home to! 

Next adventure is back to Edisto Island State Park for fun in the sun!  See y'all later!!