our final volunteer day...

Beautiful morning, 61 when we got up and it only got warmer after that.  we went to finish the horse trail to measure and inventory the signs markers.  we walked about 4.5 miles through the woods, it was pretty warm (80) and humid!  but it was wonderful.  we seen a turtle..

some critters bones..

we also seen some rutted out areas, could be wild hogs!!   also some coyote paw prints in the mud. of course the birds were all singing.  after we finished the trail we went to the visitor center where the American Hiking Society was working on replacing a boardwalk. 

the pond at the visitor center has alligators!  and since it was 80+ they were active...  we seen two of them!  well we were not there to work.. (and they were working really hard) so we headed back to the campground.

the new hosts showed up and we handed off the keys and paperwork!  they are here for two months. 

we are officially on sabbatical from volunteering until this fall.  it will be hard to go back to doing nothing but we will try to find some chores to do...

we are heading to Hilton Head for two days to relax and begin our sabbatical! We will leave the campground on Thurs or Friday, depending on the weather.  hope to be home by March 9th, again depending on the weather.

final Sunday in SC!

The weather is getting so beautiful and we are thinking of leaving!  what the heck...  it was about 75 and sunny today.  a little breeze, but absolutely gorgeous! We had to hang around this morning while people were leaving the campground. we headed down to the river for lunch.  Eric had a smoked salmon BLT that was out of this world..  I had a very good creek shrimp salad along with fries that were pretty good too.  then we thought we should walk it off.  we headed to the Ravenel Bridge..  We have a lot of pictures of this bridge throughout the blog... but here are some more.

looking down...

its about 2.5 miles from end to end, but we just walked to the top and back down again..  it was a bit scary, especially if you looked over the railing..  a long way down. I was glad to get off of the bridge. That was our last "thing" we had to do before leaving the area.  I guess we are ready to go home now.

our final Saturday in SC!

Beautiful morning, we listened to WOJB from Reserve, Wisconsin on the interent. they were broadcasting the Birkebeiner before we went to the Ion Swamp trail to help the Eagle Scout build the bridge in the morning.  The temp in Cable was -10 it was +60 here at race time!

the finished product...

doesn't it look great?  they did a fine job. they had pizza for lunch but we had a date with some shrimp and oysters..

I had oysters, and Eric had the shrimp po' Boy...  we had already eaten about 6 of the shrimp before the picture was taken!!!  in the background are sweet potato fries, the boiled peanuts and wonderful cole slaw.  we also had crab dip and crackers with sweet tea to quench our thrist!  absolutely wonderful.

We walked a bit about Chareston after lunch, of course we happened to pass the "candy" stores, and had to pick up 2 more fudge pralines, and some divinity!  this will probably be our last time to get these mouth watering sweets.. 

we took a quick trip through the Citadel in Charleston.  looks like a very fortified college. On January 9, 1861, Citadel Cadets manning an artillery battery on Morris Island fired the first hostile shots of the Civil War, repulsing the federal steamship Star of the West, carrying supplies and two hundred federal troops dispatched by President Buchanan to reinforce Union Forces garrisoned at Fort Sumter.

Headed back to the campground to find we had a few new campers.  made the rounds, had a fire, listened to blue grass and honky tonk on WOJB!  great way to end the day...

final weekend in SC!

Can't believe that we are almost done!  boy the time sure did fly by.  we went to Mount Pleasant last night for dinner.  as this is our last weekend, we will be doing repeats!  I know that we should find new places but this is our last chance to go to the places we really liked.  Last night we went to Abe's Oyster house for a bucket of steamed Oysters! they were soooo good.

When we got back to the campground last night the hosts were gone!  they had some issues at home. so we called the office this morning, picked up the keys and paperwork and now back to hosting! its a full campground this weekend so not too much work to do. 

I had an incident with my bike yesterday, fell on my camera, broke it, so had to go purchase another one today!  after chores we did go to a mexican place (new to us) for lunch.  Eric had a chicken burrito that was very good, I of course had carnitas, they were very good but not as good as we had in Sanford.  the guacamole was really good!  of course we ate too much!

had to take a break this aftenoon!

last full work week..

well, actually we had yesterday off, so it is only a 3 day week.

Tuesday..  we walked and inventoried about 6.5 miles of the horse trail..

men at work?

we then went to the Ion trail to help unload poles...

this is the trail the eagle scout worked on, on Sat...

looks good...

Wednesday...  we worked on getting the trail ready for the Eagle Scout so he could finsh the trail and make a new bridge. the temps dropped to about 55 today..  cool and windy, but a good day for doing hard physical work.

we dissassembled the old bridge first..

then place the logs from yesterday into position..

its now ready for the project..

we got all the hard work out of the way, took us a bit over 4 hours to complete.  the kids will add the walk way and fix the trail around the bridge on Saturday.

Thursday...kind of a short day, Jawana had a all day training session so we went to the office to cut the wood for the Eagle Scout bridge.

 all loaded and ready to go.

we got back to the campground, then finished painting the day use bathroom.  now its time to relax..

tough work week, we deserve to rest..

Presidents Day

As Federal "employees" we have today off!  great gig if you can get it. well this is our last week!  boy time has gone by soooo fast. we work 3 days this week and next Monday then we are done.  We will be on sabbatical for about 10 months... hoping to get to Texas this year.

we took a hike at the Santee Coastal Reserve about 10 miles from here. beautiful place to walk.

marsh land looking for alligators..

we seen 4 small gators about 2 feet in length then seen the big mama...

we are happy to be going back for a nap....

well I guess I look happier about napping than Eric does...

we met a couple of ladies fishing, well they were actually trapping crabs!  they put a piece of raw chicken on a string and wait for the crabs to attach, then pick them up with a net..  very cool.. 

quiet evening as we have to work tomorrow....

Beautiful North Carolina (day 3)

Another beautiful day in North Carolina, after breakfast we headed for the coast.  We got to Historic Downtown Wilmington just in time for lunch!  Found a great place right on the Cape Fear River.  Right across from the battleship USS North Carolina.

Instead of our usual shrimp and oysters we had fried flounder and soft shell crab.  both were very good, not sure if I would have the crab over oysters again but all the food was good.  we walked down the boardwalk..

and walked around the area.  as it is not "tourist" season the tours were not running..  we then headed to Carolina Beach.  It was pretty quiet and most of the shops were not open.  too bad.. I am sure it is a great place to visit when everything is hopping.

as you arrive into North Carolina they have a few signs with the laws and regulations of the state.  one of them needs updating.  we have not used candles in headlights in 100 years!

all in all it was a wonderful weekend in North Carolina.  too much to see, so we missed a lot but so much fun to see family and friends.

Beautiful North Carolina (day 2)

Woke up to another beautiful day.  sunny and warm.  well not as warm as yesterday but still warm.  After breakfast we headed down (about 25 miles) to see Eric's cousin Candace and husband Brian.

 It was a great ride with a beautiful landscape. Of course Candace made brunch. you can take the girl out of MN but you can not take MN out of the girl.  she made a delightful egg, cheese and spinach dish and a delicious fruit smoothie. We had a wonderful visit that was not quite long enough but hope to see them this summer at the MN State Fair!

Their house sits on a damed lake so the water is down for the winter.

After a Mn goodbye, (you know it takes at least 15-30 minutes in Mn to say goodbye) we headed north to Pittsboro, about 50 miles to see friends Mark and Nina.  on the way we passed the 3M Minning Operation in Pittsboro.

they live in a beautiful development, lots of trees and walking paths.  we took a stroll through the woods and passed the goat pen!

The village also has "belted" cows too, but we did not take a picture!

they have a new addition to the family, a 8 week old Golden Retriever...  too cute... we were playing around the art work in the back yard.

We went into to Chapel Hill to walk a bit before a wonderful dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant.  We had a great day visiting with family and friends in North Carolina.