Swimming with alligators

I know he's hard to see, but I'm just glad I didn't see him up close and personal, like him having a taste of my legs. Yesterday morning, in our isolated anchorage in South Carolina, I decided to clean Breaking Away's hull and scrape off the barnacles that had grown while the boat sat for a month. I was in the water for about an hour, and got lots of crud off the bottom and from the bow thruster propellers.

Anyway, after my shower we took off, and in about a mile we passed a 6-ft alligator lying on the shore. !!! What?? There were alligators in these waters?? I freaked! My wake caused the beast to crawl out and swim across the river, so we drifted back for a better look. This was the best picture I could get. Regardless, I couldn't believe I was in the water for an hour and gators could have been right there with me. That's the last time I'm in the water! Besides, my hands got good and cut up from all the sharp barnacles, and all my fingers sting.

This goes back to my previous blog entry from Charleston on March 22. Brian drove down that day from Columbia to visit us and we ate at a Thai place. He then stayed the night on the sofa. Earlier in the day Cheryl and Rick and I had a long walking tour in the city. We saw the city hall, the gun powder hut (oldest building in the city), the market, and many other sights on a beautiful day.

The next morning, Brian drove us to good ole Southern Cuisine at the Hominy Grill, recommended by Grace Beahm. We all tried hominy grits along with our meals. Yum!

Later that day, Brian returned to Columbia, and we cruised the boat up the Cooper River to a marina where I had arranged to leave it for a month. We cleaned the boat, did laundry, ate up as much of the food as we could, and packed to leave. The next morning the dockmaster drove us to the airport and we flew home. I was so happy to see Janet after 3 1/2 weeks.

After only six days in Ohio, I flew to So CA to Bruce Perry's where my RV had been stored for a year. This shows how jammed in it was in his driveway. Wall on one side and his boat on the other. We carefully pulled out his boat and then my RV. We cleaned a year's worth of gunk off it, and I finished preparing everything for a 2100-mile trip to my new home in Ohio. Took me only three days, staying at WalMart parking lots in Albuquerque and Little Rock along the way.

I arrived late on Saturday, April 2, which made Sunday a big unpacking day. Here's a picture of me with all my junk in Janet's lower level, which used to be pristine. A week later I got it all put away, and the RV into a storage lot.

For Janet's spring break we went to Branson, MO. So did her brother, his wife, and their daughter Stacie. Janet and I saw 13 shows, including those during our two days at Silver Dollar City. This picture is Janet, Stacie and me during the cave tour at Silver Dollar City. We climbed 600 steps, way down and down some more. It was cool, literally and figuratively!

Two of our shows were to see comedian Yakov Smirnoff. In between the two, he met with fans and we got this picture. Janet had purchased a few years ago his painting he is standing in front of, which commemorates 9/11/2001 and is reproduced there at Ground Zero.

On Easter evening, I flew back to Charleston to resume the trip. George Tonner flew the red eye and arrived early the next morning. Needless to say, he had to catch up on sleep as we headed north, after our huge shopping trip to Wal*Mart. It was a warm sunny day, with the usual strong winds. We made it 45 miles to an anchorage all by ourselves near the Jeremy River. Who'da thunk there'd be gators in dem waters? (Everyone but me?)

Okay, so the next morning was when I cleaned the slime and barnacles off the hull, having to hold on with one arm to a rope from the bow to keep from floating away in the strong current. Then we continued north and we saw the big gator, and I wondered how I'm still among the living.

Later in the morning we arrived at a gem along this waterway, Georgetown. It's the third oldest city in SC, behind Charleston and Beaufort, both stops for Breaking Away in March. The old town is full of old homes dating from the 1700s. However, our walk around the historic district was a long time in the making...

We first anchored in the bay, but before we could dinghy to shore, storm clouds looked like they were rolling in. I decided to call the nearby marina to see if we could tie up at their empty dock for the afternoon (we planned to continue on 15 miles to an anchorage for the night). The guy said yes. We pulled anchor and moved over and docked and got all tied up securely. A deck hand asked who we were. Turns out I had called the wrong marina. So we untied, shoved off, and moved -- again -- to the marina I had called. Then the thunder storm arrived and we waited three hours in the hot boat, which needed to have the windows closed due to the rain on an 80-degree day. If we had departed from the first marina, we'd have been out in the city getting drenched, so we were glad I'd made the mistake that delayed us.

Eventually the rain stopped, but we'd run out our grace period on the free dock. So we decided to stay the night. We then did get to explore the town and have a nice dinner. This picture of George shows how picturesque the streets were on our walk.

Here's just one of many incredible homes in Georgetown.

This morning was rainy at first, but then was nice and we saw more of the town. We departed at 10:30 and continued north through the usual marsh land where rice had been grown on plantations before the Civil War. Eventually, however, the waterway became the Waccamaw River. As you can see, it was tree-lined and very pretty! I hadn't seen the waterway this beautiful since the lower St John's River back in FL. It meandered through natural, unspoiled country for about 30 miles. We saw turtles sunning themselves on logs, and lots of...

...bald eagles!! ...and other birds. We must have seen five bald eagles and a few more of their empty nests. Plus many osprey in their huge nests. No alligators though.

Tonight we are in North Myrtle Beach. We plan to ride the bikes into town and explore tomorrow morning. Then we will cross into North Carolina. This segment will end in Norfolk, VA on May 7. My one-yr anniversary of starting the trip is next Wed, May 4.