Dispatch from the Road 2023

 The Tams was a popular Beach Band that played the dance halls and shag clubs in the south back in the 1960’s. They did have a few records that charted, two of the more successful hits were “Be young, be foolish and be happy” and “What kind of fool do you think I am”  They took their name from the wide flat beret style hats they wore onstage. The name dates back to a poem written in 1700’s about a happy go lucky Scottish lad named Tam O’Shanter. The original Tams are long gone but their memory is supposed to be living on in a tribute group. There are actually two tribute groups that tour under the Tams moniker. Both claim some heritage to the originals. The version we saw in the Newberry SC Opera House is fronted by a guy who goes by “Little Red” He is the son of longtime member Charles Pope and the nephew of group co-founder Joe Pope. Picture I took at the show We were looking forward to an evening of rock and roll songs performed in harmony, sharp outfits and coordinated dan...

 Our shakedown trip to Hunting Island last week was a success; all my recent modifications are working perfectly. I may have mentioned previously, I converted over to Lithium battery power in the RV. This project was far more extensive and expensive than I thought it would be. Mostly, this was because this RV was not factory wired for Lithium. Some of my other mods were not technical, like the heat duct we installed in the bathroom and the new support base under the bathtub, but everything needed to be tested. New Battery box Who would have guessed that the lithium battery would not fit in a standard battery box, so I had to make one. I may have over built it a little bit. Next the battery cables were the wrong size, new large diameter wires were run from the battery to the load center. The battery charger had to be swapped out for a lithium compatible one. I had to install a voltage monitor so I could monitor what was happening in the system. Then I found out I could not just plug...

 Wednesday May 10, 2023 We’re still at Hunting Island State Park on the southern coast of South Carolina. I hesitate to post our location; this is one of the last unspoiled beaches available to the common man….or woman…….or theythemitwtf? Paradise  Hunting Island has a campground, a day use beach, several forest hiking trails and a historic lighthouse. There is no beach town type area, no T-Shirt/Beach towel shops, no arcades or anything like that. Maybe that’s why it is not overrun with people. In the surrounding area, you will find a few scattered restaurants. At least half of them are small grills catering to the locals more than tourists. A lot of the scenes from the Forest Gump movie where filmed around here. The Vietnam War scenes were filmed right here in the state park. Tom Hanks from the movie Forest Gump Yesterday we took a break from our beach activities and drove back across the low country islands to Beaufort. I had mapped the locations of all the thrift stores in...

 May 7 2023 The great summer road trip of 2023 has begun. This morning a little after ten AM we departed our home in Myrtle Beach. Our mode of transportation is the same rig we’ve been using for 2 or 3 years now. Our 2016 Ram 1500 pickup rolled over on 100,000 miles as we started the trip, but I expect it to go many more miles with just routine maintenance. Our 2018 travel Trailer is still in pristine condition, I work on it all the time, but only because I want to, it’s given us no real problems. Our destination today was south about 120 miles as the crow flies; I think we drove about 160 miles as we meandered our way around the countryside. We completely avoided Charleston, it’s a nice place to visit but if you’re just passing through, it’s just congested roads and many traffic signals.  We drove Hwy 17 from home to Georgetown, you don’t really have any other options going south on the coast. At Georgetown, we veered off on alt 17 which runs from here in a southwest directio...

  The mysterious orange line? Those of you that are detail oriented may have noticed in the last posting an orange line leading off from our home to the northwest. It had nothing to do with the Florida trip. In the second photo below you will see the early planning stages of our summer 2023 road trip. A plan in its planning stage

  site 308 Friday January 27, 2023 It’s down to the wire in South Florida; our departure from Southern Comfort RV Park is on Wednesday morning. We ran into town today to run a few errands, most importantly to buy stamps and mail a birthday card.   Millie and I discussed going to the Rodeo on Saturday. It is an annual event held at the fairgrounds here in Homestead. We both think some of the events treat animals cruelly and decided we didn’t wish to support this activity with our presence.  For the last outing of our winter sojourn in Homestead we went to Biscayne Bay National Park which is only a few miles to the east of the campground. Biscayne Bay National Park The park hasn’t changed much since last time we were here. The only noticeable thing was it appears the decking on the walk along the water has been replaced recently. It’s a nice walk and is only about ½ mile each way. The whole walk is along the water front or on a narrow jetty that runs out into the bay. ...

  January 26, 2023 Our last blog entry was a week ago and I thought I’d better update it before I forget all we’ve done in the last seven days. Therein lies the problem, we haven’t done anything really blog worthy! How can I make mundane tasks sound exciting?  During an exhilarating 10K road race I called and rescheduled several doctors’ appointments! If you’re not buying that, just leave out the part in italics. Sunday was church day; Millie watched the service from her church in Myrtle Beach which they broadcast live. I was sitting nearby playing FreeCell on the computer; do I get any blessing thru osmosis from being nearby but not actually paying attention? One time consuming and frustrating task I had was trying to get a RV Park reservation on the west coast of Florida. Traditionally, I’ve never had much luck finding space in decent parks over there. This year was the worst; most parks aren’t even answering the phone. We plan on swinging by the west coast on the way home t...

  Krome Ave Friday January 20 2023 Our outing today took us up Krome Ave for about 12 miles. The Ave runs north through an old downtown area, I’m not sure if it is considered Florida City or Homestead. It doesn’t really matter they have grown into the same conurbation.  Our goal today is to travel north to the commercial growing district. Many of the large growers sell wholesale to businesses only, but there are also retail nurseries along the road.  No, that's not the one she wants! We stopped at several in search of mandavilla vine plant. We discovered that they don’t do well in the tropic environment here in southern most Florida. Several people told us we would have to look further north in Florida to find them. No thats not the one! The cactus tent Along the way we did by some annual plants that Millie uses along the walk to our front door. Now all we have to do is keep them alive until planting time in South Carolina. The happy plant lady We met the nicest little ma...