NC/SC

Last week (Monday 11/8 to Sunday11/14) was spent in North Carolina visiting with several friends. We went hiking and thrifting and stayed up way too late! I didn’t have a minute to blog (I was so busy that I still haven’t read a real letter I received while we were there!) The kids all ate (cold) Krispy Kreme donuts. Gary and I just sniffed as we are still sticking to our vegan diet.

Our friend took the kids four wheeling in their jeep and they got stuck in the river necessitating a hike out, a lawnmover ride back in, and a wench to pull them out. I almost got a ride, but as I climbed (way) up into the cab, someone stepped on the fire extinguisher and it appeared that something was on fire, causing our usually calm friend to scream, “EVERYONE OUT!!!” I guess it was a pretty funny sight as three adults and a gaggle of kids came flying out. He was able to use the leaf blower to clean it up, but that was enough excitement for me for one day!

Another thing that the kids couldn’t get enough of was riding the zip line into a pile of leaves. Our North Carolina friends really know how to keep our kids well entertained!

It’s Monday (11/15) and we are spending our second night in South Carolina. We had planned to visit with a friend in Georgia for a few days, but she was unavailable last minute so we decided just to head to Florida. As we went through South Carolina it’s beauty just sort of drew us in. We spent a night at the Walmart in Orangeburg and now we are sleeping in the parking lot of the Mount Pleasant Walmart.

We spent the day enjoying all that Mt. Pleasant has to offer. There is a beautiful new bridge with a wonderful park underneath. We played at the park, walked out on the pier, and had the pleasure of watching a cruise ship depart knowing that our friends were on board. We didn’t (couldn’t) plan that and were so excited to be able to wave to them (even if they couldn’t see us!).

This area feels like someplace that we could all be happy living near, and what is really interesting is that my best friend spent many years living here, and is planning a move back with her family within the next couple of months. I don’t feel like I’m quite ready to settle down anyplace until I at least get myself out to the west coast, but that would be pretty neat to live in the same state as my best friend of 25 years!

Gary called about a house we saw for sale here. It was very nice and near the beach, but 2.4 million (short sale for only 1.3 million!) is just a little more than we’d like to spend.

The trip is going really well. The space is really (really, really) tight, making it hard to navigate inside, but I like being so free. So far we have found free water and dumping, and have not been to a campground once in the two weeks that we have been gone.

Onward…