We're Baaaaack!!! (in Michigan)

We continued our exploration of the Savannah, Hilton Head area the week after Easter. On Monday, April 21st, we took a tour of historic downtown Savannah on Gray Line's Oglethorpe Trolley Tours. There are several tour companies that operate in Savannah. I believe Oglethorpe is unique regarding their policy that nobody gets on or off during the 90 minute tour. We appreciated that mode of operation rather than the off/on/off routine during the tour offered by the other tour companies. The tour was more seamless and kept moving. This left more time after the tour to further explore any particular sites that may have peaked your interest. Same as all the other tour companies, Oglethorpe provided shuttle service to any of the 14 or so sites of interest for the rest of the day of your tour. We took advantage of the service once, but found that simply walking to sites we wanted to revisit worked out best for us. We liked the layout of the city which incorporated 22 squares (aka parks) sprinkled throughout the city. Some of the squares were relatively simple while others had statues of historically significant individuals and, in some cases, were burial sites for those individuals. Forsyth Park is a very nice 30 acre park at the southern portion of the historic downtown district. Worth the walk. We stopped during our wanderings at the Six Pence Pub for a beer. This pub was featured in the Julia Roberts/Dennis Quaid movie 'Something To Talk About'. Cool bar to belly up to. On Tuesday we drove out to Tybee Island to check it out. The beach was just alright. We didn't like it as much as some of the Florida gulf beaches we visited. The town near the beach looked somewhat tired. It is a popular area with the college/young adult crowd as it is legal to possess and consume alcohol on the beach (assuming one is 21, of course.) We intentionally avoided the area over the previous weekend as that had been designated an Orange Crush weekend. Orange Crush is an end of the school year bash for Savannah State University students. The date is chosen by various 'sponsors'. Evidently, there were two different factions of 'sponsors' this year and Orange Crush was held on both April12th and 19th this year. Unfortunately for the partiers, the weather was cool and rainy on the 19th. The authorities welcomed the poor weather as it kept the crowds down. On the way back from Tybee Island we stopped to Leopolds in Savannah for some of their legendary ice cream. I felt it lived up to its reputation. I don't remember ever eating better ice cream. It was heavenly! On Wednesday, April 23rd, we drove up to Beaufort, SC. Nice town with a cool waterfront park with chair swings overlooking the water. The Point area of historic homes was nicely kept. Although much smaller than Savannah we thought Beaufort was more nicely kept and preserved than Savannah. On the way back to the campground we drove out to Hilton Head Island. It was our first visit to the area and, after seeing it, we can understand why people like to vacation there. Every property seemed to be well manicured and attractive. We couldn't afford to golf on the island, so I just hit a bucket of balls. At $15, it was the most expensive bucket I've ever hit. Funny thing is, they didn't behave any better. We golfed in Bluffton, SC the next day at Eagle's Pointe. It was a perfect day for golf - lower 70's and mostly sunny. And even though our scores were in our typical triple digits, we thoroughly enjoyed it. Nobody behind us pushing us and a pretty course.

Our Savannah tour trolley

Beautiful Cathedral

Inside St. John The Baptist Cathedral

Site of Forrest Gump's bench. It's been removed to a museum to protect it from vandals.

Oglethorpe was the founder of Savannah who laid out the city with its squares

Oglethorpe statue

Fishy downspouts

Featured in the movie 'Something To Talk About'

Phone booth adjacent to the Six Pence

Bar inside the Six Pence

Using the built-in boot scraper common on exterior stairways in Savannah

Forsyth Park

Fountain in Forsyth Park

Drove through this wildlife refuge one day

"You look tasty. Come a little closer."

Fun little food establishment where we ate on Tybee Island

Thc Crab Shack

Tybee beach pavilion 

Tybee beach pier

The Pointe residential area in Beaufort

Another home in The Pointe

The Pointe

Some of the waterfront down here leaves a little to be desired

Beaufort Harry C. Chambers waterfront park

Nice waterfront view

Enjoying the shade at the waterfront park

Walking to the beach at Coligny Park

Wheelchair accessible beach

Coligny Beach

Typical understated signage on Hilton Head

On Saturday, April 26th, we left Hardeeville and headed to our first annual chassis service at the Freightliner Custom Chassis homebase in Gaffney, SC. Our appointment wasn't until Monday, but we're always up for a free campsite. As it turns out, we were glad we came in on Saturday as by Sunday night there wasn't a vacant spot in the whole place. All 20 sites were full. On Sunday we drove into Spartanburg, SC to attend the service at a very small, but very welcoming Missouri Synod Lutheran church. After that it was a run to Costco and then back to Camp Freightliner. Our service on Monday went without a hitch and the Dutch Star received a clean bill of health.

Cleaning the bugs off at Camp Freightliner

Impromptu meeting at Camp Freightliner

Tuesday morning we left Camp Freightliner and headed for Smith Mountain Lake, VA. During our time in The Villages area this past January/February we had the pleasure of  meeting a great couple, Paul Burke and Lori O'Connell. As mentioned in one of my previous posts they are fellow Newmar owners with a 2012 Ventana. Paul follows iRV2 and after some brief conversation back in January it turned out he was aware of my presence amongst the Newmar Hoots. We enjoyed spending time with and getting to know Paul and Lori in Florida. Before going our separate ways in Florida they invited us to stop at their home on Smith Mountain Lake if we were ever in the area. We decided that as we meandered north we could certainly put Smith Mountain Lake on the route. While checking with Lori on local campground possibilities she suggested we consider simply parking in their yard since they had plenty of room and then stay in one of their guest bedrooms as long as we liked. That sounded like a good plan and I promised Lori we wouldn't stay any more than three weeks. Well, it turned out to be a wonderful plan. Paul and Lori moved their coach off of their asphalt pad onto their grass and let us have the pad. Their house is very nice with an impressive driveway that's 3 tenths of a mile long, but what makes theirs a fantastic home is the location. They are on a very desirable portion of Smith Mountain Lake sheltered by a point. Being from Michigan and used to the fact that docks, hoists, boats, etc. all have to come out of the water every winter, I was thoroughly impressed with their permanent boathouse. To them and their surrounding neighbors, it's no big deal as it's rather common down there, but I thought it was very cool. Now, back to that long driveway. I forgot to mention that the driveway wasn't exactly flat. In fact, it drops significantly right at the entrance. Oh, and it's more than a 90 degree turn, more like 130 degrees. Oh, and the front left tire has to hug the left side of the driveway to make sure the right rear stays on the driveway through the turn. The pictures don't convey the feeling of sitting behind the wheel. I'll tell you it was the scariest minute of driving I've done in this motorhome or our old one, and there is no way I would have done it without their experienced guidance. I'm sure Paul and Lori are laughing at my description since they (yes, Lori included) do it routinely without the benefit of spotters. At one point in the descending turn I heard tires slipping and squealing slightly, and convinced myself that the tires were loosing their grip and I would soon be careening down this driveway totally out of control. After all it had been raining and the driveway was wet. I then realized it was simply the tag tires coming around the sharp turn and skidding on the asphalt even though the tag air was dumped.  I know, what a wimp! I deserve it. We ended up spending five nights in their home. They showed us around their lake by land and water. We were treated to dinner in their home and at their country club. Paul even had me as his guest at their club's annual member/guest tournament. Although he was the perfect host and didn't say so, he must have been exhausted after having to carry me all that day. Lori and Lisa went for a little pampering and got pedicures while Paul and I golfed. Our last night there we went by boat to a party with about 30 of their friends. Although everyone brought food resulting in a delicious assortment, the highlight was the main course: flip-flop chicken. The host is famous for his flip-flop chicken and that Saturday night did not diminish his reputation. It was great! I would be remiss if I didn't mention that during our stay we played marbles. Lori and Lisa won 2 out of 3. So Paul and I suggested we change it up, and play euchre. Things were going OK until I described the art of stealing the deal in euchre. They said they had not heard of such a thing. I 'bragged' about the time our friend Coleman and I had stolen the deal 7 times in a row against his wife Ann and Lisa before they caught on due to our unstoppable snickering/laughter. You guessed it, Lori stole MY deal on the last hand and, in the process, beat Paul and I. Talk about egg on your face! We had such a wonderful time at Paul and Lori's, and can only wish we could ever repay them for their hospitality and generosity. 

Smith Mountain Lake greeting committee

THE DRIVEWAY! OH MY!

Made it! Phew!

Paul & Lori's home

From the water side

The boathouse I'm so jealous of

Paul & Lori's Club

Dinner at The Club

The Newmar Bro's

Regis

Regis being cute as usual

A little repair work after recent torrential rains

Nice boat reminds us of our old Four Winns Candia only nicer 

The captain and his first mate

The Smith Mountain Lake babes and Regis

Perfect way to end the day!

Got the right name it had to be good!

Showing off the fancy toes after the pedicures

At Jake's

Is that Ahnold or the Michelin Man at the helm?

Dan - The Flip Flop Chicken Meister

Most of the crew at the Flip Flop Chicken party

Almost done! Yum!!

I think I can, I think I can.

Made it!

We said goodbye to Paul and Lori on Sunday, May 4th. We spent that night in Logan, OH. Another peaceful night courtesy Walmart. 

21 ton motorhome + Jeep meets 21 ton bridge????

Section of road north of Paul & Lori's called The Narrows

We arrived at Camp Dearborn in Milford, Michigan about 2:30 on Monday and set up camp.  Within a couple hours we were headed out to East Lansing to visit our daughter and son-in-law, Kristy and Matt, so we could see her baby bump in person. We consider it another blessing in our lives to be able see our baby having a baby. We helped them with a little landscaping that evening and the morning of the next day before heading back to Milford. Tuesday evening Lisa went out to dinner with her sister Nancy and some of Nancy's friends. I washed the BBB Tuesday and Wednesday as it was filthy after coming through rain on Monday. Wednesday evening we visited my mom, sister, nephew and niece at my sister's house. Thursday we each had successful doctor appointments and then went in the evening to visit Lisa's sister Nancy and her husband Al at their house. It's been good to start catching up with family. Looking forward to picking up our daughter Kelly and her boyfriend Chris from the airport tonight. She and Chris are visiting from Australia for a couple weeks so she can stand up in her girlfriend Olga's wedding. 

Our site at Camp Dearborn 

It's going to be a busy month, but we'll enjoy every minute!