Another Big Dam Project

Evening Campers! It's me again, Silver Cliche' with you tonight from the shores of Kerr Lake, North Carolina. What? OK, how about "2 miles north of Middleburg, NC"? Still no? I've got it! "6 miles west of Norlina"! No? "15 miles southwest of South Hills, Virginia"? "35 miles northeast of Raleigh"? Finally! It's hard to believe we can be on the border of two of the original 13 states and not be near anywhere that anyone without a NASCAR hat has ever heard of. But there you have it... America!

This trip is shaping up to be way different from the others which we've shared with you. Our past trips have been about seeing America... lots of America...up close... so close you can smell it... sometimes wishing we hadn't got quite that close. This is different. First off, it was never planned as a sightseeing trip. At least not this portion of the trip. We are "in transit". We've got a place to be (Maryland) and a time to be there (tomorrow). We haven't added the time, nor are we quite in the mood to stop in places like Lumberton and Dunn, North Carolina both of which we passed through today. I'm sure many of you have made the pilgrimage to Dunn on your own already since it is recognized as "the dump truck body capital of the world". Go ahead, smart guy... Google it. If you've been to Dunn yourself then anything we would write would just be over Dunn... sorry... I hope you'll forgive me for that. We certainly had no intention of stopping at "South of the Border". We've made that mistake before and would rank it as one of those spots in America where getting too close will leave a smell-memory that's hard to get past. When we saw a billboard advertising their new campground I told Mrs. C' that I'd rather sell the Airstream and sleep under an I-95 overpass. No thank you! Secondly, it's hotter than a teenage romance in the south right now. We saw a little relief today versus yesterday but it's too hot to leave the dogs in the trailer while we go eat with the locals or explore the place where General Grant designed and constructed the first Union Army General Officers' Privy (don't Google that... I made it up). On this trip Kailey the wonder dog will celebrate 130 dog years. She is more willing than able at this point. During a potty break today she literally walked into the side of the truck. We just can't leave her or Romeo the Puggle in the truck or trailer in this heat. So we hang out and drink coffee and read in the morning, then we drive, someone stays in the truck with the dogs while someone else makes lunch to bring to her, then we drive some more. Eventually we apply ourselves to the business of cooling the trailer at the next campsite and relax for the evening. I'm afraid I'll run out of anecdotes to keep that routine interesting starting about... oh... tomorrow.

At least I got a few pics in today. Here is our current camping spot on the shores of Kerr Lake:
 


Here is a link to Google Maps to show you precisely where we are. Remember, set Google maps to "satellite view" to see the terrain then zoom out to see the larger picture: https://www.google.com/maps/@36.5295343,-78.3158123,37m/data=!3m1!1e3

I'd rate this as one of the better campsites we've stayed at. It was a challenge to get into and required snaking the Cliche' around a couple of trees, but the privacy and view are well worth it.For tonight we have a lakefront vacation home.

And here's a panorama of approaching dusk taken from that seawall in the pic above:
 

As for Kerr Lake itself, it's another fine product of the US Army Corps of Engineers. Wikipedia says of the John H. Kerr Dam: "The dam construction started in 1947 and took 2,100+ workers in three shifts, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, more than four years to complete" That a big dam project. It is partially in North Carolina and partially in Virginia. The Virginia portion is the largest reservoir in that state.

So instead of sightseeing along our route across America we are stopping in places like this and enjoying what we see. Tomorrow we take on one of the toughest challenges in trailer driving. We've taken the Cliche' across the Rockies...  a breeze. We've gone to sea on ferry boats... a snap. We've braved heavy rain and flooding along the Gulf... no problem. Tomorrow we take on the dreaded Washington Capital Beltway. The Secretary of Transportation says "The recent improvements in the Capital Beltway make travel around Washington efficient, safe and pleasant". That's reassuring since we all know that cabinet secretaries are people whose word means something. Despite that reassurance, we are preparing for the worst and shooting to traverse the dreaded Tyson's Corner stretch during the 30 minutes between 11:42 AM and 12:12 PM that are currently believed to be free of rush hour traffic. From there, it's across the Potomac into Maryland. Wish us well!

Our visit to Maryland is mostly about helping our daughter with her project list. I may take a few nights off from blogging, but if I do I'll be back once travel begins again.

Later!

SC'

Sultry and Steamy in the Southland

Evenin' Campers! It's Silver Cliche' here with you again. Tonight from Lake Marion, South Carolina and specifically at Santee State Park on the south shore of the lake.

There is something special about traveling through the southland in July. It's as sultry as a Kathleen Turner movie and as steamy as a romance novel. Not the type of romance novel that has the work "Bronte" on the leather spine. The type that's in a rack at the supermarket checkout. You know, the paperback with a picture of a shirtless guy on horseback on it. I'm not sure why those guys either look like Antonio Banderas or Yanni. I take that back... actually, I do know why. If they ever want a model with the Yule Brenner look, I'm ready to step in. Not the "King and I" Yule Brenner with the open vest. The older, pear-shaped Yule.  Anyhow... the south today was that kind of steamy.

We survived our night in the presence of ICBMs without incident. In fact, it was a reminder of some of the rarely seen aspects of America's safety shield. In 1995 our family had the chance to board the USS Nebraska for a tour when she was at Port Canaveral for a test launch of one of her Trident missiles. Our son, youngest daughter and I were shown around the ship from the forward torpedo room to the engine room door (a classified space). It was amazing to see an Ohio class boat from the inside. Nebraska is still in service, although she transferred from being based at Kings Bay, Georgia to Bangor, Washington. With some of the craziness in the world there is comfort in knowing she and her sister ships are always at the ready.

The trip from St. Mary's to Santee was uneventful, if not cool and refreshing. The thermometer in the truck read 90 when we hit the road at 10:30. It moved up steadily until topping out at 99. We have yet to see 100 as measured by the truck on this trip, but there were 100+ temps reported from near our route including in Columbia, South Carolina where they topped 100 for the fourth day in a row with a forecast for four more to tie a record. It's hot here.

Any of you who have traveled I-95 from the north to south or back know Lake Marion. It's the largest lake in the state of South Carolina and I-95 passes directly across it about half way between the North Carolina and Georgia borders. Like so many lakes we visit this is a man made. A bit older than many, this was a New Deal project. Strangely, you can see stands of trees in the middle of the lake. The lake level looks normal as judged by the docks, beaches and such along the shore. We've seen flooding around the country and this place doesn't show current signs. If we had not been hit with severe storms at my usual time to wander around and take pictures I could show you the floating forest that sits about a half mile from the shore where we are camped. Maybe the morning will offer better opportunity.

So tomorrow we continue north. The next stop is a state park in North Carolina near the Virginia border on Kerr Lake. That's about 4 hours drive and will position us to reach Maryland on Friday.

Stay tuned.

Later!

SC'

Sleepin' with the Boomers!

Evenin' Campers! It's me, Silver Cliche' again and back on the road with you tonight from Crooked River State Park in St. Mary's, Georgia.

Normally, I send out this e-mail a few days before we hit the road and let you all know to be on the lookout for posts to start nightly at our usual home on blogspot (http://silvercliche.blogspot.com) and pictures at our site on Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/131457232@N02/ ). Those sites are active and if you missed any posts or pics from our trip to Arizona and Utah in April-June you can find them there. However, this email isn't an alert, it's my first post from the road on our latest adventure. Why? That's easy... after 7 weeks on the road ending in early June we had a whirlwind time in Florida including catching up with maintenance on houses and vehicles, getting reacquainted with our volunteer ventures at the VNA/Hospice and the Red Cross and most significantly a visit from our daughter and her three great kids from Maryland. That meant that for two weeks we had all five "grands" in Vero Beach. The oldest two guys even used the Airstream as their club house and bunk house. We celebrated the 7th birthday of our one and only granddaughter the night before the crew returned to Maryland. Here's a shot that's worth 5 grand to me from that night:

Anyway, after that we had three days to prep the house and trailer and keep our schedule to depart today. That's normally a week or more of work so guess who didn't have time to send the customary "get ready" email. Who knows, this approach might actually work better.

This trip is a lot different from the last one. There are no canyons on the itinerary, no Navajo sandstone features, no Native American ruins and no snow. Instead we are moving at a quick pace to get to Maryland. While there we will get more grand kid time and help our daughter with some decorating projects. After that, another first, we're bringing a grand kid on the road with us. No, not any of the three Marylanders on the left side of the pic above. I'm flying back to Florida, meeting the guy on the far right at the airport and flying back with him to Baltimore. He will join us for the trip home to Florida.

The first stop of the trip is tonight at St. Mary's, Georgia. "Where's that?" you ask? Well, if you were in Florida and heading north on I-95 and you said "I want to be out of Florida... get me to the first State Park I can reach" you'd be here at Crooked River State Park. The Florida state line is just a few miles south of us. However, between here and there is a national asset many of you have never heard of. The US Naval Submarine Base at King's Bay, Georgia. It's just a few miles downstream from where we are camped on Fancy Bluff Creek. Here's a view of the Creek immediately behind our campsite which is in a stand of mature Georgia pine trees:

The mission of Kings Bay is simple. This is where the strategic ballistic missile submarines of the Atlantic fleet call home. In today's Navy these are Ohio class subs which are 600+ feet long with a crew of 100 and something and head out from here to perform their "deterrent patrols" in whatever patch of ocean they choose. Each carries enough nuclear firepower to send a strong message by return mail to anyone who chooses to send the US their calling card. Of course, this mission means there are plenty of the world's most powerful weapons just down the road. It also means that any government who subscribes to the "MAD" doctrine (Mutually Assured Destruction) in which any nuclear attack would be met with an even stronger nuclear response has weapons targeted at this place. If through some amazing combination of a nuclear accident and poor timing on our part there was a nuclear release tonight you could certainly say "At least they didn't have time to suffer".

The beauty of this place as shown in the pic above is not diminished in any way by the presence of this vital and deadly mission just a few miles away.

After our stop in Maryland we will make a side trip to Pennsylvania to visit my parents. Stopping to visit family and friends has become a favorite activity for us on these trips. This one is overdue since "the folks" have followed us along on each trip. Plus, we are the guests who bring their own guest house... what could be easier?

When our northern business is done we will start to trip back to the Southland. With an active 10 year old on board we are carrying extra amusements this trip. In addition to the x-box we've got puzzles, games, reading material for the younger reader and two bicycles. Although those are mine and his, they are really for Mrs. C' who I suspect will say at least once "My bike isn't here, but why don't you boys go for a ride and I'll stay here at the trailer".

So, that's it. I'll post this one on Blogspot and the river sunset pic on Flicker. Starting tomorrow I'll just post the day's activities and not send an e-mail every day. I hope you'll follow along with us!

Later!

SC'