Down at the Beach

Hi all!
We've moved down to the beach after spending some time at Camp Mother Ship. We are here

It is located about 20 minutes south of Myrtle Beach, SC, tucked away off of Hiway 17 in a lovely little town called

Can't argue with that! We are here for the weekend meeting up with G's school-day friends to reminisce and say hello. There is a Walmart and other big name stores nearby too, along with good seafood places. We ate at this place for lunch today.

Didn't know what to have, since we were newbies; our waitress, Aubrey, recommended the fish and chips, which was spot on. And of course, you can't go wrong with a Blue Moon to wash it down. We ate outside on the patio, which we thought would be weird since it was raining. But it was enclosed and quite well done. Kudos to The Claw House. We will be back!

Bought a Blu-Ray player and spent the afternoon watching a movie. Hadn't done that since August. Cool! The only thing missing was the surround sound; but the picture is awesome on our TV, so it was a win-win. 

This is our homestead, high and dry as far as leveling goes. It will rain for the next 24 hours, but should be nice for the rest of the weekend. We will be back at Camp Mother Ship for Christmas. There are trails that run to the beach at different campsites; there is no WiFi and very few TV channels, but who cares?! We will check out the causeway and the local wildlife. Thank goodness the gators are hibernating! Ya'll come back! 😉

Pickens, Coyotes, and Waterfalls

We are here at Devil's Fork State Park

and apparently Sasquatch has been playing hide and seek here. So much so that they advertise it.

I asked the Camp Ranger if they've had any sightings. She shrugged her shoulders and said, "You never know." Hmm? We'll see. G might do his yells in the evening. Maybe, maybe not. If he does tree knocks and gets an answer back, I may just be a believer!

We are in another "gated community" (they lock the gates at 6PM and open them at 7AM. There is a code to get in if you are out past that time, you know, running the roads and eating "boyled peanuts."
They don't allow alcoholic beverages in the park, so you best do your drinking elsewhere.

Here's our campsite. We sit on the hill and look down.

Behind us is a trail that leads around the lake area. The name of the lake is Lake Jocassee (pronounced JoeCassie). It's a popular place in the spring and summer; apparently they have tours around the lake too. It's really pretty right now. Because the leaves are off of the trees, we can see the lake from our dining room.

This house at one time was the only house on the lake. Now that this place is so popular, there are many more houses on the lake. Notice the other ones around it now.

On the way to the waterfall, we got this spectacular view of the lake.

 

We had to go into The Big Town (Pickens) and do some business (it's the closest town with a WalMart). They also have Coyote Coffee. We found out that is their version of Starbucks. It's actually very good, and cheaper, too. G and I got a White Chocolate Mocha and a White Raspberry Mocha, grande, for $8. Woo Hoo (howling, just like the sign).

Then we took the waterfall hike. We wanted to take one; but we ran into some hikers who told us about another one. So we got two for the price of one! The first one is Spoonauger Falls. The trail is half a mile total, only about 20 minutes to Spoonauger Proper. The trail to the bottom of the falls is wide and easy. Then you take a switchback and go further up. You have to love stepping over tree roots and limbs, etc. LH, where are you and your boots??

lower falls

Spoonauger Falls proper

The next falls trail was really around the corner from the first one. The trail was easily marked. But again, you gotta love tree roots, etc. These falls are Kings Creek Falls. This trail was more narrow and you had to hold onto some trees and be careful with your footing. G calls it "reading the trail." It was supposed to be half a mile; but according to MapMyWalk, it was actually 3/4 mile. G had to take the pictures for Kings Creek Falls. I was done stepping over trees and limbs and inconspicuous tree roots. Besides, this was in my way, too. Again, LH, where are you and your boots???

In case you can't tell, this is a downed tree with a notch in it. You put your foot in the notch and step over it to get to the next part of the path. No way! I was done at this point. Besides, the path was narrower on the other side to see the falls. I let G take the pictures by then. I took a breather.

Kings Creek Falls

Picked up some yummy nuts of goodness again today at the local Picket Post Produce at the corner (boyled peanuts). Redneck heaven for G. Ya'll come back! 😉

Waterfalls and What Nots

We spent our last day at Oconee doing a waterfall hike. We went to Station Cove Falls. It was an easy hike (30 min in, 30 min out). It was sloggy, though, because we had constant rain Saturday; but it was very pleasant. Apparently there was a ringed water snake

But G assured us that it was probably sick, as it was late in the season and most snakes hibernate this time of year. It's very rare to see them. Good thing I was far away and the snake was already on its way. Bye bye, snakey!

Further up (about 1/4 mile) was the falls, and boy, are they gorgeous! Shame the blog doesn't let you do video, but it's loud and wonderful. See?

And the sun came out at the right time! There was another fella there who was taking pictures with his new camera, a Nikon 220 or something like that (Mom, I think you can kinda figure it out). Anyway, it was a good hike and a beautiful waterfall. 

On the way back, I found some interesting signs to share with you. 

These are little nuggets of yummy, and they are popular around here. They have to be green when you put them in the pot, boil them all day long on simmer with some salt; but boy, oh boy, are they delicious! The only problem G and I have is how to pronounce it:  I say "Boyled" peanuts. G says "Bald" peanuts. Must be the accent, lol!

 This one stumped me because there are no shamrocks, and there is no lane!

 She hollered REALLY loud!!

No yellow bricks, and no road. Go figure! I was expecting the dwarfs and the Good Witch, 

but I got nothin'!

Want to take a stroll down this one??

You keep coming back to this one

This is where learning makes you "feel good"

 

I think there's a Legend associated with this one 

 And this is no joke; gas is really this cheap here.

Hope you enjoyed our last days with us here at Oconee and Walhalla. Ya'll come back! 😉

A Trip Through Time....

Whenever we are at a new place, we like to check out the local history. We checked out the local Oconee Heritage Museum and the Cherokee of South Carolina Museum. They were literally two buildings away from each other but chock full of information. The county of Oconee consists of several little cities or townships, each with their own individuality. It was really neat to read about the history that made this little county, including how Walhalla (the closest "big city") got its name.

All about Andrew Pickens; Pickens County is named for him. He also married the Aunt of John C. Calhoun, a famous Civil War corroborator.

This is the information about the Germans settling here and why they named the town Walhalla. Sorry for the shadow; the lights were very bright.

And all around the museum, they showcased daily living and textiles. I'll let you enjoy these pictures.

This is a weaving machine. I didn't understand the bobbins and stuff till I saw it in person. I only read about how dangerous it was to replace them (they often used young children); this machine eliminated the use of all that. Cool!

 A country cabin decorated for the holidays

And of course, don't forget the domestic arts. Ladies, I can't imagine using these devices to wash our clothes or dishes. But it beats washing them by hand or beating them against a rock (the clothes, not the dishes)!

And you get 50 points and 12 stars if you can name this contraption (not the white thing next to it):

Ding ding ding! It's a phone booth! Those are the things you used to use to make a phone call when you didn't have a phone in your house, when you didn't have an answering machine, when you didn't have one going with you wherever you go. Yup! When you left your house and someone had to get a hold of you, guess what? They called back!!! Wow! Imagine that! And it had a slot that you put money in it~and sometimes there was an operator on the other line to connect you to your party. Don't believe me? Ask Google on your phone 😊

After we finished there, we went two buildings over to this place:

It was very nice, very small. It only took us about 30 minutes to do the whole tour.  But it was nicely done. 

Of course, the bigger Cherokee museum is in Cherokee, NC, in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We've been there, too. It was pretty spectacular. Two more notes for you and a statue:

It was a great day, learning about our little town. We are here until Monday; then we go down the road (literally 45 minutes) to another state park, and the biggest town is Pickens. Ya'll come back! 😉