Day 14 - Wilmington to Charleston

October 15, 2019

Today we drove the 200 miles from Wilmington, NC to Charleston, SC. Traffic was TERRIBLE! Why anyone would choose to live in this area is beyond my comprehension. Almost all of the first 40 miles was limited access Interstate with a 70 mph speed limit. Over 30 of the last 60 miles was divided four lane with a 60 mph speed limit. Another 15 miles of the last 60 miles was limited access Interstate with 55-60 mph speed limits. In the remaining 115 miles, which was all 2-3 lanes each way, there were 100-150 stop lights, no exaggeration. This was not us trying to find the "scenic" route, it was the route my "trucker GPS" gave us. In the Interstate "loop" around Charleston we were in bumper to bumper, stop and go, traffic for 15 miles.We left the Wilmington campground at 10:30 and arrived here at 4:30. We had lunch in the trailer when we stopped at the Welcome Center as we entered South Carolina.

The good news is that we made it safe with no "panic" stops. Also, rain was in the forecast for the Charleston area. It misted rain enough that I occasionally ran the wipers, but very little. It has been misting rain for the 3 hours we have been here, with the exception of one 5 minute shower.

If you didn't know about the traffic and actually came here with kids there is a lot of arcade type stuff along the highways.

Set up in the campground.

The campground, Lake Aire, is about 14 miles south of the center of Charleston. I just checked Google maps, at 7:50PM on a weeknight, It estimates 28 minutes to drive the 14 miles.

We plan on staying here three nights before moving south Savannah, GA.

A high point - we stopped at the Welcome Center when we crossed into South Carolina. Two ladies there did their absolute best to make sure we were loaded down with information on things to do in Charleston.

God is good, we got here in one piece and without to much whining and moaning on my part 😀. May He bless you and yours.

Day 13 - Wilmington & Carolina Beach

October 14, 2019

Today we went to the beach, but first the photos I promised yesterday. Yesterday when we left the campground we got on I-95 for maybe 30 miles before getting off on state highways. Within the first mile we saw this outfit on a frontage road running along I-95.

What made this interesting was that about 3 hours later, many miles down a state highway, we pulled off into an empty parking lot for lunch. As we were sitting in the trailer eating, watching the traffic go by, this outfit went buy us.

One of many cotton fields we saw as we traveled yesterday.

It rained here from about 11PM until 6AM. Nothing torrential, just a steady rain most of the time. A little thunder but no wind.

Today we drove down to Carolina Beach, about 17 miles south of us, to wade in the ocean. Carolina Beach is a town/beach on a peninsula south of Wilmington. (Traffic here is terrible. Mid-morning on a weekday!. We can't imagine what it must be like during the summer months. This will certainly be my last trip to the East Coast, FAR to many people.

This was a pedestrian street we passed on the 2 block walk from the parking lot to the beach. 75% of the tourist shops are closed for the season.

 This boardwalk ran along the top of the dunes that separate the beach from the town. We saw no evidence of damage from the hurricane.

The was a boardwalk out to the beach, a branch off the one in the above photo. Kathy normally lags behind me when walking, but not on the way out to the oceanfront.

Checking out the waves.

 Note the wet legs of her pants. Some of the waves were quite large. I took some video with my phone but most of the files sizes are to large to post.

 Asked a beachwalker to help us out by taking a photo.

It felt hot at the beach with the bright sun, but the water was cool as it washed over our feet. The high was supposed to be 77. It felt a lot hotter than that, not stifling but uncomfortable warm, even with  the cool breeze from the ocean.

On the way back from the beach we stopped at Jimbo's (Best Breakfast House in Town) for lunch. Kathy had liver and onions. I had eggs with a couple of pieces of pork tenderloin. Both were good.  The 2 pieces of tenderloin must have weighed 10-12 ounces.

Then it was back to the campground for the rest of the day. The traffic is just to bad to bother fighting it.

We decided not to stop at Myrtle Beach, just don't want to fight the city traffic. Tomorrow we plan to travel to Charleston, SC and spend a few nights there before heading on to Savannah, GA.

PS. One of the days highlights was getting pulled over by a cop. Kathy was driving when he pulled us over. He stopped us because we didn't have license plate, at least not one on the back. He never heard of such a dumb idea as Missouri's requiring that license plate on 3/4 ton trucks, and bigger, be put on the front. He was quite nice. He must have called for back-up as he was pulling us over because within a few minutes of stopping us a State Trooper also pulled into the parking lot. I was kind of glad I didn't happen to be carrying, and that I didn't have a pistol in the console as I searched for the truck registration.

This is the best I could do with video. The waves were substantial, not dangerously so. And they were noisy.

God is good. May He bless you and yours.

Day 12 - Petersburg to Wilmington

October 13, 2019

We drove 225 miles today, from near Petersburg, Virginia to Wilmington, North Carolina. We have driven 1,473 miles since leaving home. Traffic was light until we got near Wilmington. It misted rain for a short time. We ran the wipers on slow intermittent for 5-10 minutes.

Nothing exciting to report. We stayed off the Interstates for about two-thirds of the distance. We saw a lot of soybeans and cotton. There is an amazing amount of cotton left in the field, and spread along the edge of the roadways, after a field is harvested. Some soybeans had been harvested, some were still green. Kathy has a picture of one of the unharvested cotton fields on her phone but she is already in bed. I will post it tomorrow. We pulled off in the parking lot of a closed business and ate lunch in the trailer. 

Our campsite at the Wilmington KOA campground is one of the larger campsites I’ve seen in KOA campgrounds.

 Adjacent to our site is a small playground. We passed several nice playgrounds on the way to our site. Lydia & Nolan would have a blast here.

 This is a big, and busy place. The white roads are sand, not snow.

It got up in the mid 80's today. We went to a Mexican fast food place down the street for supper. Kathy had a pulled pork burrito and I had a beef burrito and a taco. She said hers was good, mine was .... edible and filling. It was dark and it the high 70's when we returned, but there was a nice, light breeze. We sat outside for awhile and it was very comfortable.Some rain is forecast for the early morning hours and then it is supposed to clear up.

An interesting scripture was part of the daily devotional I read this morning, "Be filled with the Holy Spirit, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts. And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Ephesians 5:18-19 (not sure what translation Chuck Swindoll is quoting, but it is reasonably close to the ones I looked at.) It would be a much happier world if we Christians went around singing praises because God is on our side. (In my case I'm sure Kathy would tell you that the world would be happier if I sang a solo, so low no one else could hear me. 😀)

God is good. May he bless you and yours.

Day 11 - Still in Petersburg

October 12, 2019

Today was a “rest” day. We went out for lunch and bought groceries while we were out, but other than that didn’t do a lot. I guess I didn’t do a lot. Kathy is cooking up a batch of my Grandma Ruthie’s potato soup, I LOVE it, for my supper. She is going to eat leftover fish from lunch. We filled up with fuel when we arrived here and topped off on our way back to the campground this morning. Fuel at the Exxon station down the street from the campground is $2.659. The sign at one station this morning advertised regular for $2.039. It was $2.129 at the Exxon station.

Before getting groceries we had lunch at Edna’s Country Cooking. It is a little “hole in the wall”, but a very clean “hole in the wall”, in Petersburg. Kathy has a seafood platter and I had whitefish. We both had more than we could eat.

As I was reading a devotional this morning I had the following thoughts. If it weren’t for the Bible telling us, in numerous places, that unbelievers are “blind” it would be strange that so many deny the Christian heritage of our nation. I don’t know how soon a church was built in Jamestown after the first settlers landed there in 1607 but I do know that within just months of another batch of settlers starting the settlement in Henricus, VA, in 1611,  they had built a protestant Christian church. Within the next few years Pocahontas (yes, the same Pocahontas in the John Smith story) accepted Christ as her Lord while living in Henricus.

These people were fighting for their very survival and yet they found time to evangelize. The following thought is from the Experiencing God workbook session I did this morning, “God has a right to interrupt my life. He is Lord. I gave Him the right to help Himself to my life anytime He wants when He became my Lord.”  These settlers lived out that philosophy. They lived, “Trust in the Lord with all you heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5&6.

Warm here today. High in the mid 80’s. The furnace was running early morning and the AC has been blasting out cool air for several hours, no shade at our campsite. Sadly I think we may have seen the last of our cool weather.

We changed our travel plans a little. Originally we were headed to the Virginia Beach area but decided that it was probably to congested for us to enjoy it. Tomorrow the plan is to head to Wilmington, NC and spend at least 2 nights there before heading further south along the coast.

God is good. He is good in the good times, and He is good in the bad times. Even though the bad times will be tough for us God is still good. May He bless you and yours.

Day 10 - Petersburgh, VA

October 11, 2019

Weather was great again today. The furnace was set on 64 degrees and rain a few times in the early morning hours. Jeans and a long sleeve shirt felt good in the morning, a tee shirt and shorts were great the rest of the day.

Kathy started the morning doing another load of laundry at the campground laundromat this morning, she did two loads after we arrived yesterday. After that we headed to Richmond. 

ALL of the parking lots around the American Civil War Museum were closed for a Folk Festival, and we could find no on street parking. I finally stopped a guy in a golf cart, told him we were from Missouri and wanted to go to the museum. I asked him if he knew of a place we could park. He had us turn around and follow him up this NARROW, cobblestone lane to a place where could park on just off the lane.

Looking back down the lane.

We both went through the Tredegar Iron Works museum and while Kathy sat on a bench I went through the American Civil War Museum. I was disappointed. There was some interesting verbiage about how the Tredegar Iron Works produced half the cannons used by the Confederacy and how the Confederacy was so short on manpower that the Iron Works employed more than 300 young girls to make percussion caps, friction primers, fuses and small arms cartridges. 9-12 year old girls averaged 1,200 cartridges per day. It was estimated that they make 72 million cartridges during the war, almost half the number produced throughout the Confederacy during the war.

The American Civil War Museum appears to have been “sanitized” by the Yankee businessmen responsible for the War of Northern Aggression. No mention was made of how the vast majority of income received by the federal government prior to the war came from tariffs on products imported into the South. The Museum would have you believe the war was all about slavery, which is a total lie. It was about changing our nation from one where States had power to one where virtually all power was in the federal government, sort of going back to the days before the Revolutionary War. It was also about Northern states refusal to abide by the Constitution and a federal government that did nothing about it. (Similar to the recent Congress’s outright refusal to enforce immigration laws passed by Congress. And even worse their refusal to even revise the laws they won’t enforce.)

One good thing came out of this, it piqued my curiousity and when we are someplace with a decent Internet connection I will be doing some research on the causes of the War of Northern Agression (Yankees call it the Civil War, there was nothing Civil about the deaths of 650,000 soldiers.)

This weekends Folk Festival looks like a HUGE event. We won’t be going back into Richmond tomorrow. Traffic was terrible today.

Kathy had happen to see something about a Henricus Historical Park, in Chester, VA, in some of the literature we have. On our way into Richmond we saw a sign about it an exit. On our way back out we decided to check it out. It was AWESOME! I took far to many photos to post them, but I will post a few. For some reason we have found almost no public information about it.

On May 14, 1607 Virginia Company settlers landed on Jamestown Island to establish an English colony, about 60 miles from the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. They were sent here to find riches, to make a profit for investors in the Virginia Company. In terms of a business venture it was not a success. They were attacked by Indians within days of their arrival. The site was boggy and prone to disease. Most importantly they found now gold or anything else of value to send back to the investors.

In 1611 the investors sent 300 mercenaries to set up a town further upriver. They settled at a point 20-30 miles (I think) up the James River from Jamestown. In four months, even though they were regularly attacked by Indians, they built a fortified settlement with frame houses, a church, storehouses, watchtowers, etc. Once again however, they initially found nothing of value to send back to England that would make a profit for investors. No one seems to know where the seeds came from but John Rolfe started growing a new strain, non-native, of tobacco. It was a hit with the English because it was far cheaper than the tobacco they could buy from the Spaniards. The investors started getting a return on their investment.

There is a LOT more to the story, Pocahontas becomes a Christian and marries John Rolfe, after 8 years of peace the Indians massacre about a fourth of the inhabitants, etc.

A Powhatan indian family dwelling.. 

 The exterior is sheets of woven reeds, something similar to cattails.

 Inside.

Inside the fort, which originally encompassed about 7 acres.

 I think this was the first church.

 Craftsmanship looked amazing to me.

 Mortise and tenon and pegged joints all over the place.

Blacksmith shop.

 Tobacco barn.

 The first hospital in the New World.

More awesome framing.

A cable stayed bridge on I295, over the James River. Because I missed a turn when we came through Richmond yesterday we got to drive over it, as part of our 18 mile detour. We had to slip out the back gate of the village to get these last two photos.

The James River. The bridge is in the left background. Note the guys in the boat fishing.

I'm not sure what tomorrow holds for us but I do know that God is good, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28. May He bless you and yours.

Day 9 - Lexington, VA to Petersburg, VA

October 10, 2019

Today we traveled from Lexington, VA to Petersburg, VA; about 200 miles. Total miles traveled so far 1,153.

We are South Forty Resort & Campground, about 30 miles south of Richmond. Traffic was the heaviest we have encountered. No stop and go traffic, but a lot of bumper to bumper once we hit Richmond. We went through about 3PM, I can’t imagine what it must be like during rush hour.

At the South Forty. The pool is closed for the season but it looks wonderful. Since the nights are down into the 50's and the highs for the past several days have only been in the mid 70's I expect the water would be brisk

 Our campsite. Nothing fancy, but everything we need.

 The campground is fairly large. There are some nice wooded sites in other areas.

The plan is to stay here 3 nights. That will give us 2 days to explore the area.

Had a life lesson today. We have had some issues this trip. We needed to have some welding done the first stop. Another day we lost a wheel bearing dust cap and had a difficult time finding a replacement. This morning I checked the oil in the truck and there was oil up several inches above the full mark. I checked it twice more and got the same result. (Yesterday we put some real stress on the old Duramax, lots of climbs up and then engine braking on the descents.) A mechanic suggested starting it, letting it warm up, shutting it off, waiting 5 minutes and checking it again. When I started it the oil pressure was around 70, it normally runs 60 when cold. After letting it run for maybe 5 minutes I shut it off, waited 5 minutes and checked the oil again. It looked a little over full, but nothing like when I previously checked. We drove about 100 miles and stopped at a rest area for lunch. The oil level was fine.

Now for the life lesson. Kathy & I are doing a study with some friends at Centertown Baptist Church. The workbook is titled, “Experiencing God.” The point is that we all need to strive to have a personal, intimate relationship with God. Just praying the sinner’s prayer and filling a church pew on Sunday morning is not going to make us the people God wants us to be. The points the authors set out are: 1. God is always at work; 2. He wants a personal relationship with each of us; 3. He gives us an invitation to join Him in his work; 4. He “speaks” to us to reveal how He wants us to participate in His work; 5. When we hear Him speak to us (probably not an audible voice, more likely He will speak to us through what we have read, or are reading, in the Bible), we will have a “crisis of faith”. Is that God really speaking to me?; 6. Once we hear Him we have to decide whether or not to participate in His work. This will require changes in our lives because we will need to re-arrange our priorities; 7. We obey God’s call and He works through us.

So where is my life lesson? I think God was just getting me to ask myself, “Do my recent reactions to these minor trials show that I believe God is in control?” Perhaps also, “Am I ready to make necessary modification in my lifestyle to participate in His work?” Whatever happens, good or bad, I must remember that God loves me and that He is in control. I need to look for His purpose. I hope this made at least a little sense to you.

God is good. May He bless you and yours.

Day 8 - Beckley WV to Lexington VA

October 9, 2019

No rain this morning when we hooked up and left Beckley. We did have something of a scare. I always try to remember to check the trailer brakes as I’m pulling out of a campground. It was especially important in Beckley because of the step downhill grade, and 90 degree turn, exiting the campground. NO TRAILER BRAKES! I crept down the hill and pulled off in an empty parking area before entering the street. The trailer taillights and brake lights worked properly. I unplugged and replugged the 7 pin connection several times. Didn’t seem to make a difference. After several trips back and forth in the parking lot the brakes seemed so work some of the time. We headed down the street and by the time we got a couple of blocks they seemed to be working fine. The only thing we could think of was that somehow the multiple days of rain had gotten them wet. Thank you Jesus that the problem went away.

We drove from Beckley to White Sulfur Springs and stopped to tour the Greenbrier Bunker. When I made reservations yesterday the earliest time we could get was 2PM today. We arrived early and looked around the Greenbrier a little. It is WAY to uppercrust for this redneck.The facility is beautiful, and so are the grounds. I bought a ham & turkey “wrap” and a cup of coffee. They cost me $16.75, $5 more than my GOOD, earlybird, Texas Roadhouse, 6 oz sirloin and baked potato. This wasn’t in a restaurant, the wrap came out of cooler in a gift shop. The lady in front of me bought a bottle of Coke. She paid in cash. I didn’t see how much she gave the cashier but when she got a few coins in change she just stared at them, like she was waiting for more change.

We watched the 1:30 tour depart, there were over 20 people in it. There were 26 in our 2:00 tour.

The tour was 90 minutes long. It was quite interesting. Some of the high points. The 100,000+ square foot bunker was built in secret in the early 60’s. It was built as a radiation shelter to house Congress, not their family, for 45 days. The capacity was 1,100 people. 100 Senators, 435 Representatives and one staffer for each. It is a concrete box with 3-5’ thick walls and roof. The roof is covered by 15-20 feet of earth and then a 6 story wing of the Greenbrier Hotel. It was built in conjunction with the 6 story addition to the Greenbrier. People were told that the addition would contain several underground conference/exhibition areas. There were conference/exhibition areas that were used by the public, but if the need arose the public would have been evacuated from the areas as Congressmen came in and 4 or 5 concealed blast doors would have been closed and locked. One interesting point was that when this was built airplanes were the system used to deliver nuclear weapons. It would take 8-9 hours from the time a plane left Russia before it could have been in position to bomb the DC area. Within 5 hours most members of Congress could have been transported to the bunker. All members of Congress had a designated place to go should a national emergency arise. They knew they would be taken somewhere, but they didn’t know where. Tanks in the bunker contained 75,000 gallons of fresh water, and there was a water purification system. 42,000 gallons of diesel fuel was stored to run one of the 3 -750kw generators (2 were backups). The equivalent of 45 days of MRE’s for over 1,100 people were kept in storage. 4 days worth of fresh food was always kept on hand, for 30 years. It was routinely rotated up to the main Greenbrier kitchens so that none was wasted. When I have a decent WiFi connection I need to do some more reading about the facility.

The Greenbrier is owned by CSX. President Eisenhower and the head of the railroad cut a secret deal, but that is another story. In order to make use of all the space CSX started a division named CSX IP, LLC. It specializes in storing highly sensitive data (trade secret type stuff) for companies. We couldn't take cell phones, electronic devices, bags, etc. with us. The tour guide used a card to unlock numerous doors along our travel path. He regularly did a head count to make sure we were still all with him.

After the tour we continued on to Lexington, VA. The scenery is AWESOME! I64 has some real hills in it between White Sulfur Springs and Lexington. Not just up and down hills, but up, up, up and down, down, down hills. We came down one stretch that was over 5 miles of continuous 7% grade. We way a lot of very slow semi's traveling westbound. 

Tonight we are staying at a TA truckstop campground. It isn’t fancy but has everything we need and it’s a deal for $31.50/night.

Parked at the campground.

 Looking down on the truck stop. It is surprising at how little noise we hear. We can hear a few semi's running, but the sound isn't loud enough to bother us.

Weather was great today. Partly cloudy, I don't think the high hit 70, and tonights low is forecast to be 49. Tomorrow we head east again. We have driven 904 miles.

God is good. May He bless you and yours.