2024-25 Trip to the Southeast, Day 17

Day 17, Tuesday, November 5, 2024 - Aiken State Park, Aiken, SC, Day 3 - 0 Miles, 1,080.9 Miles for the Trip

Hope all those in the US have voted by the end of the day!

Very light rain started around 8:30 last night, off & on throughout the night. 

There was a break around 9:00AM when I made one loop around the campground,then the rain started up again. During the morning it rained light to medium off & on. Still raining at 12:00. 

With the rain I spent the day inside reading. I finished Outside Lanes, and started I Think We've Been Here Before by Suzy Krause. My Kindle is driving me nuts. Any new purchased book won't download until I reboot the Kindle (which doesn't always work), even if the purchase is listed as an instant download. I called Kindle support and they told me that a new purchase can take as much as 24 hours to become available; even when labeled "instant download"? The funny thing is the books instantly download to the Kindle app on my iPhone or iPad. I don't know if it is the Kindle itself or the programing at Amazon, but it is a pain since I prefer reading on the Kindle, and rebooting is anything but instantaneous.

During an after lunch break in the rain I did another loop around the campground. I have a new neighbor moving in, car camping with a pair of easy-ups. Hope the predicted rain holds off while he is here. One of the RVs left - 5 of us, including 2 car campers still in the campground.

Around 2:00 the rain stopped & there was a short bit of sunshine. After that it clouded up, but no rain yet. Since it was still a bit too damp to sit outside, I decided to clean the trailer's back screens & windows. Lots of "fluff" from a previous campground embedded in the window side of the screens. Anyone that has removed the screens in a Hehr frameless window knows how difficult it is to get them back in. The shades & valences in the Escape make it even more interesting. It is much brighter at the dining table!

Yesterday afternoon I thought I heard a hummingbird fly the trailer so I put out my feeder. I must have been imagining it - no one showed up. I pulled the feeder just before dinner since I'm heading to Little Ocmulgee State Park in the morning. I'm using my smallest mat in front of the trailer door and it is covered with wet sand from my shoes. I do my best to scrape it off before going into the trailer, and take my shoes off as soon as I get inside, but there is still sand on the floor between the bed & bathroom. Should feel great heading to the bathroom in the middle of the night. I hope I get it all swept out before hitting the sack.

Dinner was the remainder of the Knorr's Creamy Pesto with added chunks of chicken.

More Tomorrow - 

2024-25 Trip to the Southeast, Day 16

Day 16, Monday, November 4, 2024 - Aiken State Park, Aiken, SC, Day 2 - 0 Miles, 1,080.9 Miles for the Trip

Three times around the campground loop equals a mile walk. Not much is going on. There are 4-5 RVs in the 25 site campground. Most are water & electric, but there are a few full hook up sites, including the empty host site. 

If you are planning a stay here, particularly in a tent, be sure to put things away at night. During my walk I saw many raccoon prints in the sand.

I discovered that while a connection with the WRVO app (my hometown station in Oswego) worked fine on AT&T, as did WXXO in Rochester, NY where I listen to Hearts of Space, an interesting weekly collection of ambient music I enjoy, not so good connecting to KBACH (KBAQ) in Phoenix, AZ. Lots of breaks which doesn't go over well with classical music. Still, it is fast enough for web pages & facebook, and I even managed to FaceTime my daughter in Takoma Park, MD last night. 

After breakfast I sat outside and read. Current book is A. J. Stewart's 18th Miami Jones book, Outside Lanes. They are fast reads, but interesting, even for a non sports person like me. I'm also listening to Edna Buchanan's Act of Betrayal during my driving an morning walks.

I took a break from reading to do lunch ( a turkey sandwich) then it was back outside in the 72°F afternoon for more reading. During my walk I took a photo of the Oliver across the way:

The Oliver

It eventually made it up to 74°F, quite pleasant to sit outside. A few mosquitoes, but not enough to go inside. Around 4:30 I headed in to do my exercises & start dinner.

Dinner was Knorr's Creamy Pesto with added chunks of chicken.

More Tomorrow - 

2024-25 Trip to the Southeast, Day 15

Day 15, Sunday, November 3, 2024 - Aiken State Park, Aiken, SC - 144.6 Miles, 1,080.9 Miles for the Trip

During my morning walk there was only one open site, #18, the small one across from me. Even one of the two cabins was rented. Quite a few left during the morning, but when I got to the dump station, it was empty. 

The traffic on I 77 was very heavy going north, but our side wasn't too bad. I eventually hit I 20, US 1 & US 78. The signage at the park is minimal. There is a sign that points to the campground from the main road, but no more campground signs. I managed to do an extra 25 miles criss crossing the park until I decided that the campground "might" be on Picnic Road which is a 10 mile or so one way loop road. Sure enough, I first found the office (it was closed) and a family that knew the campground was further down the road. The roads in the campground are sand as is the campsite. I'm in site 11, a water & electric site with picnic table & fire ring. Level enough side to side but I had to drop the tongue 2". $30.00 per night plus $10.80 in state & local taxes.

Site 11

The park is about 20 miles from the nearest shopping so I suspect I'll end up eating out of the refrigerator & freezer. While both Verizon & AT&T show 1 bar of service, neither are going to win any internet speed records. Verizon showed 7.3Mbps down and 0Mbps up. The ping at 125ms & jitter at 192ms looked better than AT&T's, but using it for websites, FaceTime or internet radio was useless. AT&T first showed a 776ms ping & 212ms jitter and 22.3Mbps down & .4Mbps up. 5 minutes later it was 62ms ping & 12ms jitter with 26.7Mbps down & 4.1Mbps up. In any case, while I couldn't Facetime the Guidos, a phone call was OK & viewing web pages as well as internet radio and uploading today's site photo was usable. 

An Oliver pulled in across the road from me. Another retired college educator (computer science). Not sure why, but folks in education seem to like fiberglass trailers.

After setting up I drove back to the office and picked up my site & mirror tags. Along the way I could see why the park was closed for quite awhile after the hurricanes. Many trees down & cut just clear of the road, as well as a number that were topped.

Back at the trailer I read outside for a bit, then headed in to do my afternoon exercises & make dinner. With the loss of daylight savings time I won't be spending time sitting outside after dinner - it gets dark an hour sooner.

Dinner was a cheese brat & chips.

More Tomorrow - 

2024-25 Trip to the Southeast, Day 14

Day 14, Saturday, November 2, 2024 - Chester State Park, Chester, SC, Day 6 - 0 Miles, 936.3 Miles for the Trip

After dinner last night I was reading on the computer when a spider ran across the screen.  I attempted to squash it, but it got away.  Now I don't like any kind of "bug" in my trailer, but I really don't like spiders.  Probably comes from my much younger days when I had to carry firewood into the family house when I was in grade school.  There were large spiders in the woodpile, and if you didn't manage to knock them off the pieces of wood as you stacked it in your arms, you found them while carrying in a full load. 

Anyhow, I spent the next 10 minutes looking for the spider with no success.  At least it is in the opposite end of the trailer from my bed.

It was warm enough for my morning walk to be done in a "T" shirt @ 64°F. There were only two empty sites at 9:00AM. A few pulled out during the morning, but the place is still pretty full. One of the empty sites is the small either van or tent site (18) but for some reason a guy came in & set up his tent in the large pull through site next to me. He may have made an on line reservation without knowing it was one of the larger sites in the campground.

After breakfast, more sitting & reading; current book is Asta's Book by Ruth Rendell. Not my usual fare, but interesting. I'm listening to Infection by Scott Sigler. Evidently, he made podcasts of the 3 book series first, and reads the audio books himself. Not the best reader I've listened to, and a very drawn out story. Not sure I'll finish it. Later - I didn't finish it. I rarely give up on a book, although it does happen more often with audio books. In any case, I started listening to Edna Buchanan's 3rd Britt Montero book Act of Betrayal.

After lunch I headed for the showers again. For some reason the water was not as soft as it was last time. No idea why. 

Back at the site I put away the grill & 5 pound propane tank and pulled the plastic mat. I had to sweep the leaves off it before folding it away. The bag I keep it in is falling apart. Need to find a new one. The Guidos found one at a Camping World; if I see one I'll stop.

Dinner was an Amy's Cheese Enchilada bowl.

More Tomorrow - 

2024-25 Trip to the Southeast, Day 13

Day 13, Friday, November 1, 2024 - Chester State Park, Chester, SC, Day 5 - 0 Miles, 936.3 Miles for the Trip

Another warm night; the electric heater never came on. The morning walk was nice, didn't even need a jacket. Lots of campers left this morning. By noon, the park was only half full.

Another day spent sitting outside reading. Not much sun, but warm enough at 74°F. While sitting outside more than 5 trailers arrived. Looks like lots of campers over the weekend. There are still a couple of sites open, one large full hookup pull through, 3 normal sized, and one very small site, all of which are water & electric.

Dinner was a Bubba burger & pickled beets.

More Tomorrow -