December 3, 2004

Today was a school and relaxation day. Everyone did work – either school work, writing letters, etc. interspersed with games of mini-golf, etc.

One of the campground employees – talked to the boys about spiders – after killing a couple of spiders in the washroom. (Apparently he doesn’t like spiders much). Apparently they have a lot of unusual arachnids here. The campground employee stated that in addition to both the Recluse and Black Widow (both of which have potentially serious bites) – they also have the Southern Carolina Jumping Spider. This spider looks like a scorpion – except without the stinger – and when full grown has a body about the size of a quarter – with legs and pincers extended beyond that. When startled – it jumps – apparently up to six inches vertically and up to about a foot in distance. This spider does not have a serious bite – and is very shy. The employee caught two of them earlier this year and took them in to Clemson to get their identity confirmed. Some members of our family have our eyes open trying to find one – while other members are not looking for any spiders – can you guess who is who.

We played a full game of Canasta tonight – and the boy’s just about beat mom and dad – scary. Maybe it’s time to teach them another game!!!

December 4, 2004

Quiet work day today – and although the weather was cool overnight – it stayed clear and warmed up during the day (at least by our standards – but the locals are all complaining that it is cold). Dad was able to spend half the day working on the laptop at the picnic table so it can’t be that cold.

Dad couldn’t interest anybody in going to a flea market in a town about 30 miles away this morning – maybe tomorrow. I think part of the reason for this is that we were finally in an area where we got some good TV reception and the boys wanted to veg in front of the Saturday morning cartoons. Mom gave them a couple of hours of TV before starting them into the school work.

With Dad staying around he was finally able to get all of the genealogy stuff finished off. This allows him to put away the hard copy material he has with him into the carrier up on top of the RV (double wrapped in plastic). He will still do some internet research on some things when he gets a chance – and has to scan in the photo and certificates when he gets home – but the majority of the work is done for now – or at least until he gets time to do some more intensive research.

Dad even got a chance to watch part of a couple of college football games this afternoon and evening – so all in all it was a nice relaxing day.

December 5, 2004

Looks like Dad’s desire to go to the flea market won out – as that is the plan for today – or maybe the kids just want a break from doing school work. The Flea market is about 35 miles down the road and is advertised as being the biggest attraction in Anderson, S.C. Well, it appears to be true – and a lot more. We spent three hours wandering around the market – both the inside booths and the outside stalls – and still feel that we easily missed a third of it. This is by far the biggest flea market we have ever scene – and is easily three times the size of the one in Calgary.

There is also somewhat of a different attitude about things and the wares that can be sold. You could by rifles, hand guns, cross bows, scorpions, tarantulas, pit bull or retriever puppies, cigarettes, fresh roasted or boiled in the shell peanuts, lingerie, grave markers, etc. In addition there were individual food concessions of just about every description. The inside stalls were housed in a number of long buildings (some interconnected, some not). Down both sides of the building where rollers doors – so that people could back up with their pick up trucks, vans or semi – and unload to the table area inside. The outdoor stalls were concrete stands with metal and wood tables over top, and parking for the vendor directly behind. The outdoor stands were $6 a table a day – and it looks like most people do this instead of having a garage sale.

Members of our extended family should consider themselves extremely lucky as there were many prime “tacky” Christmas gifts for the taking – but Deb felt that the shipping cost would be too high to make it worth it. That plus all that Pat could find were really big and reallllly ugly. (Say thank-you Joan).

The original plan was to go to the Flea Market for an hour and then stop by either the Botanical Gardens or the Hartwell State Park – for a bit of a hike. The Botanical gardens in conjunction with Historic South Carolina were putting on a Christmas open house – with several of the old homes and cabins being decorated in tradition period decoration – and serving mulled wine, hot chocolate, etc. (We figured that we needed something to get us into the Christmas mood – as it is hard to do without snow and the grass still being green). However by the time that the boys got back in the car after walking through the Flea market – they felt that they had done enough walking for one day and were ready to come back to do up some school work and make up some Christmas cards. If all goes well tomorrow we will send a package of their school material back – along with a few home made Christmas Cards and presents.

Driving back from the Flea Market – we became aware of the number of fireworks superstores that there are around Fair Play – which is just on the border with Georgia. The boys speculated that fireworks were probably not allowed to be sold in Georgia and this accounted for the number of stores right along the interstate. These stores are about the size of a large department store – and we saw four different ones in our travels (within about 25 miles). The boys also thought it was interesting that it was the only place that was posted non-smoking signs around the local area.

The boys were disappointed to notice that the obstacles on the mini golf course have been packed up and put away yesterday for the winter – and therefore it is not as exciting to play golf. However it does show you the amount of damage that was done to the course and buildings by the small termites that they have. I keep thinking about all the beautiful wood homes that you can see across the bay – and how much the exterminators must be paid for keeping the termites from having “free lunch”.

We tried teaching the boys Mah Jong tonight. Mom and Dad quickly realized home much they had forgotten about playing the game – and it was a whole re-learning process for them as well. We will have to wait and see if it catches on – of if we prefer something that requires a little less thought. Tomorrow we will have the boys focus on school work while we look at getting laundry done and packing up in order to head out on Tuesday morning. We also have to make a quick run into Anderson and go to the bakery to use their WiFi to send this out – and maybe get some good coffee. Kids wanted to wish an early happy birthday to “Uncle Frankie” as well.

December 6, 2004

It rained hard throughout the night – and woke up to puddles of water and streamlets everywhere. Dad worked between rain showers to pack up the outside things that we could in preparation for the travel day tomorrow. Deb and the boys went over to the laundry facilities – to get some clean clothes and do some homework. Once completed – we took a quick run Anderson – to do a small grocery shop – and to check e-mail, and send out the Web page. Dad and the boys even got a few minutes to get a bit of Christmas shopping for mom in.

Back to the campground – and finish the last part of the pack-up and then played a couple of hands of Mah Jong.

December 7, 2004

It rained off and on throughout the night – and was very foggy and wet when we got up this morning. However it quit raining long enough for us to finish packing up and hook up the Suzuki – as today is a travel day. The initial travel along the interstate and into Georgia – was wet and misting – but you wouldn’t know it by the speed people were passing us. The speed limit was 70 MPH – and most people were exceeding that by a good deal.

We then turned off on a secondary highway – to angle across Georgia – and to bypass Atlanta – as we have been warned about all of the construction that was going on in the city. This was a very pretty drive – through some large gated acreages that were obviously owned by people who worked in Atlanta. We then encountered a major accident scene – and a state trooper that was blocking the road. When we asked how to by-pass the accident scene (which was in the middle of town and they were diverting people back to the Interstate) he smiled and gave us these complicated directions. Well, we should have known by the smile on his face … as his “detour” was a series of back and windy road that had posted corners between 15 and 25 MPH. The road would have been great fun on a motorcycle or sports car – but with the RV and Toad it was real interesting. We sort of felt a bit overdressed in some of the areas we had to drive through as the dress code seemed to be overalls (men, women, and children). By the time we got off the detour – we had to stop – as the windy roads brought on our first bit of car sickness for one of the boys.

Once we entered Alabama – we went back onto secondary road – going up and into the edge of the Chattanooga Mountains. Passed through Fort Payne – which has several large “Sock” Outlets – including one that is advertised as being the world’s largest. Just couldn’t convince anyone that this was an attraction worth stopping for – so we continued on. Up and over a couple of small “mountain” passes. The streams in this area were all full and overflowing with water – due to all the rain that they have had. Every low lying area was full of water.

The directions to the campground did not seem to be the most direct route – but we followed them … good thing – the bridge that was identified on the most direct route was condemned – and will be being re-built over the next nine months. The negative thing about this is that this makes the campground farther away from Scottsboro and Chattanooga – as we have to drive around the lake which is about 50 kilometres in length.

Today we ran across something we had not seen before – a dead chicken in the middle of the road. It turns out that we are in the middle of one of the highest chicken producing areas in the states – and we have seen quite a few trucks hauling chickens in for processing. The mental image of this chicken picking the lock on the cage – and feeling that he was final free – only to get hit by the car traveling behind the truck – kept us chuckling for awhile – along with a whole string of new “why did the chicken not cross the road” jokes.

By the time we got to our campground it was bright and sunny out – no sign of the earlier rain clouds – or the predicted storm for this evening. The campground itself is very picturesque – right on Lake Guntersville Lake – with an indoor pool, mini-golf course, marina, etc. They are even offering a Christmas pot luck meal on Saturday – in which they are supplying the meat and all we have to bring is a side dish. However you can see the effects of all the rain – as some of the camp sites are under several inches of water. Naturally we selected a site that was on a bit higher ground. After supper – the kids headed over to the pool and played in it for about an hour and a half – you think that they had missed their fall swim lessons.

We well have to see what the next couple of days bring in terms of weather and make our plans from there. However – the lost luggage depot in Scottsboro is a must – as are Chattanooga and Lynchburg (home of Jack Daniels Distillery). We also have to find a place to take the RV in for a tune-up as when we pulled into Fair Play last week – it backfired and started to idle rough. The trip here was fine at highway speeds – but low idle is getting worse and it is starting to miss going up hill under load. We will see if we can find a place close by to get it tuned up over the next couple of days.

December 8, 2004

Late last night we found out that the overflowing creeks and high water on the lake might be just a little more serious than we thought…. At least three roads near us are flooded (not including the interstate which was closed during the height of the storm. They are running water over the spillway on the dam that makes this lake as fast as they can but did not expect the peak until sometime this morning. And although today is supposed to be nice they expect another storm system late tonight followed by a cold front. That would probably not be too bad only another 1 1/2 inches of rain, but it is possible due to the size of the cold front moving in that it may pull the storm system that just passed back in creating lots more moisture that may freeze on the was down and our likely flurries turning into a downright snow!! It’s hard to think it will get that cold as we were in shirtsleeves today and could have been in shorts yesterday…memories of Calgary’s quick changing weather patterns. We will have to keep a close eye out on the storms – and see if we need to move to higher ground – but at least with us it is a relatively simple operation as compared to some of the other people around here – who have to move into shelters. (I guess that is the one advantage of not having much and being relatively mobile).

We took a quick trip into Scottsboro today – to the Unclaimed Baggage Centre. This was a little more complicated than expected due to the number of detours we had to go on – due to bridge closures and flooding. One of the ladies at the campground gave us a detailed route “shortcut” to follow to get us there. Oh, well it was a pretty drive through the back roads of “BAMA”. The Baggage Centre was somewhat of a disappointment – and although there were some good deals on really quality stuff – (especially clothing) there was nothing there that we really felt we had to have. (Alas, Dad lost out on Christmas ideas for Mom)…

From there we went on to Huntsville – which has a large space research and rocket building facilities. There is a tourist display complete with a week long Space Camp – however you have to pre-register and be accepted before you can attend. Received some information on things that we could do at or around Huntsville (had a brand new tourist information booth where the ladies were extremely helpful) – so we may be back later in the week depending on Weather – etc.

As we were driving back home – we came across a flat land area that was a field and where a small river crossed back and forth under the road in about five locations in a mile and a half. With all the flooding that they have had – the fields and fences are under water and water is rushing through the narrow bridges over the roads and building up on the upstream side of the road. There was so much water that even the beaver were trying to find high ground having been driven out of their lodges. There were three dead beaver on the side of the road – having been hit by cars – in under a mile.

One of the things that we seen an over-abundance of since we have been at this camp ground, have been spiders. There is one passage way through some older building that at night with the minimal lights on it – there are big spiders about every two feet – actively building their webs – and catching flies. Dad and the boys went over and watched them for awhile this evening. Also when we were leaving the campground this morning there were a number of big orb spider webs covered with dew and visible in the sunlight as well as many funnel spider webs that were dew covered on both sides of the road. (My guess is that we will have to give a good check of our awning before we roll it up – and are shaking out our towels every day – after we hang them out to dry – just so we don’t end up with more guests than we want).

December 9, 2005 –

Overnight – another major set of storm systems came in. There was heavy rain starting at about 3:00 AM – and by the time we got up the creek behind our camper was greater than the culvert could handle – and water was starting to back up behind the road. By the time we finished breakfast – the water was overflowing the road (by a couple of inches) and flowing across and back into the creek on the other side. We still have a couple of feet of height between the creek and the back of the motor home, but it is continuing to rise.

News reports indicated that there several major roads that were closed – most of the schools were closed – and there were flash flood warning in most of the region. Even places like Fort Payne – that seemed to be build on higher ground – are in a hollow between the mountains – and are subject to flooding. Deb talked to a number of people in the Campground staff and they said that the area where the campground was build – it is not as subject to flooding as other areas – and therefore we were probably safer here than some of the other campgrounds or areas (The one State Campground that is several miles down the road is mostly under water). One of the staff indicated that she may not be able to get to her home tonight and may be staying in one of the cabins here … so I guess we made the right choice of where to stay.

We went to the main lodge to do school work and wait out the storm – and while inside listened to weather reports – of two major storms passing right beside us – each with rain up to 1-1/2 ” predicted as possible – along with winds of up to 65 – 70 miles per hour. A tornado warning was also issued due to the differences in temperatures of the two storm systems – the warm air from the south and the cold air from the north- were meeting exactly we were (however it passed by without touching down). In the case of both storms our campground was just on the edge of them – one passing several miles to the north and the other to the south – so although we saw a lot of rain – we thankfully did not get the wind.

It was an amusing coincidence that when the kids looked into their lesson plans for today – they were both studying weather. I am sure what they are experiencing is only adding to their understanding of the subject area.

Afternoon came and the rain lightened up – and Dad decided to go in and find a place to do the tune up on the RV. A shop in “Rainsville” (yah really well named) was recommended as it was runny by Danny and he was the “smartest” one around. The half hour trip to Rainsville – proved interesting as the road when up and over a “mountain” pass – and the streams were flowing at full force and in many places water was rushing across the road. Drive around a corner and then there is 3 inches of water going across the road – talk about hydro-planning. By the time Dad came back 2 hours later – the roads were dry and not sign of the water on the road except for some mud in places.

The repair shop seemed reasonable and run by a very gentlemanly mechanic and arrangements were made to take the RV in on Monday. Dad then went to a grocery store to buy a few things and ended up in a conversation with a lady working at the deli. Partly as a result he ended up coming home with about 30 pieces of cooked chicken – that they were clearing out from the lunch rush – for $6.50. (We didn’t even get through half of it at supper). Dad then stopped at a little clearance / second hand shop in Fyffe – to pick up a number of things including a drill – as he was running TV cable back to the bedroom. His conversations there ended up with him coming back with some thing for the kids, a roll of coaxial cable, and a drill – that he just borrowed and needs to return before we leave. All in all it was not a bad day – despite the wet start.