January: Getting a little cold in the South now

I'm glad to be back at the campground with Mike after the holidays and the cruise. We are still in SC until the first part of February. Planning to leave the low country Feb 1st and spend a week in the midlands making a few more connections with family in that area. It's been very warm and nice here but the wind came in with a vengeance yesterday and it's cooling down enough to bring out the long pants and jacket. I hope the turtle I saw yesterday got himself dug in enough to stay warm! 

Happy New Year!

Here's to 2026! Hoping you all have a blessed New Year! 
I went on a Jeremiah cruise with my sister Linda, to the eastern Caribbean from Dec 27- Jan 3. We celebrated  2026 on board Holland America 's Koningsdam and enjoyed lovely ports while digging deeper into our faith with messages and music from David Jeremiah and his family and team. It was a wonderful time. I'm thankful to my brother in law Larry and husband Mike who sacrificed and kept home fires burning  to allow us this beautiful time! 

Wonderful Christmas

Here's hoping you had a marvelous Christmas! We sure did. Despite missing our Western family, we thoroughly enjoyed spending the holidays with our Eastern family! We love being Memaw and Pepaw to our 4 young adult grandkids and being with them and their wonderful parents was a blessing this week. 

So much fun!

Last weekend we had the opportunity to attend my cousin's family reunion. I hadn't seen them in several years and met new generations for the first time. It was a great time too!

I wish I had taken more pic but I was too busy catching up with everyone.

This morning was an early start. Mike drove me to Charlotte NC to catch my flight to Ft Lauderdale where I'm meeting my sister to go on an Eastern Caribbean cruise. What a week! I catch you up after I get some more photos and catch my breath.

 

Enjoying Short Stay Joint Recreation Area

We've had mostly nice weather here at Moncks Corner SC. Yesterday was cold and we woke to frozen pipes. We had backup water in the RV's insulated and heated tanks and we're thankful we could start the day making a pot of coffee! 

Mike fishes every day in the lake or the ponds around us. He has caught a few little bream, bluegill and bass, but they're all too small and he returns them to the water to grow up.  

This weekend there was a Christmas boat parade at sunset so we sat on the lakeside and enjoyed the view. My photos didn't come out too well but you get the idea

We drove down to Charleston yesterday to go to Costco and got our shopping done. We decided to come straight back to camp after shopping because the traffic was terrible. We've spent lots of time in Charleston in the past and done the tourist things before, so we didn't feel like it was necessary to fight the traffic to see anything else. 

Settling in for a bit

We're in South Carolina now, at the Short Stay Recreation area for military at Moncks corner SC.  If you don't know, SC is my home state and where Mike and I met, married, and started our family. We're looking forward to seeing several family and friends over the next couple of months, including our daughter and her family, my brother and his family, many cousins and other relatives as well as old friends. Just chilling for a while with more plans to travel Christmas week and return here for several weeks. 

Lake Moultrie, where our campground is located,  is part of the Santee Cooper project created in the 1930s for hydro-electric power. The lakes were made from the Santee river. It's counterpart, Lake Marion is slightly northwest of Moultrie and the water from both continues on into the Cooper river which meets the Atlantic Ocean in Charleston SC. The fishing is world famous here. I'm not a fisherman but Mike's been enjoying it. 

Our last 3 days have been a deluge of rain. It's drying out a little today and hopefully we'll get sunshine soon! 

The campground has put some Christmas decorations around the place and it's nice to have them. I don't miss the decorations at home, especially with not having to climb ladders and figure out extension cords! 

Ww Ranch Harvest Host

 Our stay near Jacksonville Fla was based on driving time between Eglin AFB FL and Short Stay Navy rec area, SC.  What we found was WW Ranch, a Motorcross training facility on a working ranch owned by a really fine gentleman named Junior. He was an awesome host who graciously served us as we took up space on his property. We were set up next to his Motorcross training facility where you g folks come to learn how to ride with the finest! 

The ranch is huge and has all sorts of livestock and natural beauty. Junior allowed us to take the RZR around the trails and view the place. So lovely! 

We did have to make a trip into Jacksonville on Sunday because bour propane on the RV was low  We headed to a U-Haul to learn there wasn't anyone there qualified to pump the propane. We proceeded to contact and inquire 4 more propane dealers to learn that non could serve us that day, either they were closed for inventory, out of propane, or didn't sell propane. Needless to say driving a 31' motorhome around Jacksonville Fla and not locating a propane seller was frustrating at least! We ended up purchasing an "exchange" tank at a gas station so we could have heat, stove and hot water that night!  It was all worth it though because the ranch and Junior made it all worthwhile!

Heading across the Deep South: New Orleans to Florida

We stayed in New Orleans, LA for a few days. Mostly kicking back and enjoying the warm weather. Mike washed the RV and took lots of dust and dirt off to make it shiny again. Of course, that night it rained! Even so, it looked much cleaner and it was good to get the grime and dirt off! 

 We visited the French Quarter and walked a few miles around New Orleans. We really enjoyed our Bienet and cafe au lait breakfast!

We ducked in and out of a few gift shops and marveled at the beautiful architecture and landscape of the city.

Cool town, but we had enough after one day of sightseeing! It was a lot of walking for two old folks 😉

We traveled from New Orleans via I-10 mostly passing through Mississippi (where we stopped at our first Buccee's, that's an experience!). I didn't get a picture of the place but Buccee's are giant truck/stop/travel center/ gas station places that offer really good food and all sorts of souvenirs, necessities and anything else you might want on a road trip stop!

We ended up at Eglin AFB at the campground for families of military and vets called Postal Point. We stayed 4 nights there . The first 3 days were warm and sunny but Thanksgiving Thursday has turned pretty chilly! I got in some nice walks with Maggie and bike rides while enjoying the beachside. Will head on to the Jacksonville area next.