Head West not so young Man

[MacLawn]

Man, too bad about ye windshield. I've got a crack on one of me trucks too. Mississippi is terrible for that! I've never been in Mississippi long without windshield cracks. All three of my vehicles have been cracked in less than two years. Be careful, drive slowly when you come here! Not much ye can do though, the rocks just come. Hope ye get yours fixed good!

 

[Larro Darro]

Drew, sorry for your troubles. Hope you can get it all back together soon. But sometimes the troubles lead to new adventures. When I was on the USS Saipan, we got to spend three unplanned weeks in Athens because the stern gate malfunctioned. We had a blast.

You seem to be taking a tour of the locations from my stories. In the 7th in the series, {Boys Haul Ash} in August 1718, my guys are camping 23 miles up the Cape Fear River cutting hardwood trees, burning them and leaching the ashes to fill out a shipment of potash. Of course nothing goes smoothly for them, and some have to go back to Chicod Creek because of trouble. A different kind of trouble comes to the ones still ashing.

Here are the first two paragraphs of Chapter 126:

13 August 1718

The sun had already been gone a couple of hours when the Royal James, lately the Revenge, sailed up the Cape Fear River. But Major Stede Bonnet knew the river well, as did his Quartermaster, Robert Tucker. And they were not going far up the river, just to the Basin. Close behind the Royal James sailed the Fortune and the Francis, the Sloops of Captain Thomas Read and Captain Peter Manwareing, both manned by prize crews.

For all practical purposes, Robert Tucker had command of the three vessels. Weeks ago upon getting the Revenge off the sandbar and leaving North Carolina, Major Bonnet had planned on sailing for St. Thomas and a Privateer's Commission. He had even started out to the south. But when he was told Edward Thatche was at Ocacock Inlet with the Spanish Sloop, he turned the Revenge around and searched the barrier islands for the man who had stolen so much of his loot and supplies. Not to mention his dignity.


I hope you don't encounter any pirates while you are there.

Larro

 

[Dozernut]

Hey Drew, sorry for your troubles, hope you get things straightened out.
Things could be worse, the last RV trip we took we went to Branson, Mo.. It got unusually hot when we pulled in to set up and I got too hot and suffered from heat exhaustion, then it turned into Bronchitis and I was sick with a fever and a bad cough, stuck in the camper for a couple of days. I got to feeling a little better so we went to a burger joint for some quick food. The wife got food poisoning and was sick all night. We decided to limp home and forgo any vacation time. We are thinking of giving it another try this spring (an rv trip not the sickness).

One other thing I want to share with you is: Years ago my aunt went to Florida for the first time, they stopped at Miami beach. She was wading in the ocean when a small shark bit her on the leg and held on. The life guard had to take a screwdriver to pry the sharks mouth open to get it off her leg. The life guard asked her if she wanted the shark, no, she did not, and he said he was going to fix it for supper. She went for stitches at the local ER.

Have fun, enjoy your trip, maybe we will run across you in your travels. Watch out for the sharks and don't get too hot.

 

[daugen]

thanks guys. I stay away from all fish with sharp teeth, and likely the only sharks I will encounter are in the service department...

A different experience here in Wilmington NC. The KOA is busy, this time I have pop up campers around me, lots of kids and families at play, dogs barking,thankfully only a little, but it all quieted down after dinner, as it is supposed to. Actually all I have to do is turn the heat pump fan on and it drowns out any possible noise from outside.

Today is a big day, headed to my friends' home in Leland, across the Cape Fear River on the other side of Wilmington. Lot of history here, as Larro has pointed out. Boy I should take pics for his books and get illustrator credits! My friend Dave is like me, gets up early. I told him I'd be there at 9am, and he said half the day was over. Good farmer genes....

We will head out to the USS North Carolina,not sure if I will take the tour, I did the USS New Jersey and likely they are pretty similar. But I will get good shots. Actually I should pass the ship on the way over to the other side of the city. The main road goes right by it.

I read and Dave told me that a new marina was going up in downtown Wilmington, which they desperately needed, and it should be transformative like Inner Harbour Baltimore. Might go see that too. Lot of fast current on the Cape Fear River, docking in a marina right out in the current path is very interesting. Done it a few times, like parking your car when the road is moving five mph.
If you haven't done it, well it's an eye opener particularly when the pointy end of your boat is rapidly about to spear someone else's expensive baby. Never did that but every boater has almost done it.
On our way down to Florida, we stopped in 23 marinas in 30 days, so we sure got some practice.
And some of them were floating docks on rivers, and the only way to figure it out was just to stop, see how fast the current was taking you, and then adjust for it. It is remarkably more convenient to have brakes in the rv....but certainly not the same experience.

For lunch today we are headed to Wrightsville Beach Marina, where they have a nice restaurant overlooking the docks and the Intracoastal Waterway. Hope to get some good pics there.
My goal is to find a Carolina sport fish with a yellow hull...

You all have a nice Saturday.

 

[Buppies]

Drew if it's as sunny where you are as I am don't forget sun screen. Ocean is beautiful this morning and good luck with windshield. We to enjoy watching boats come in in the evening or even go out in the morning. Be safe

 

[KRBrouwer]

Saw a rig identical to yours yesterday while driving home in Chapel Hill NC. But unless you changed the color of the car to blue it was not you.

Ken Brouwer

 

[daugen]

well Ken I just drove home(to the campground in Wilmington NC) and it was still white.

I took 81 pictures today, will post some tomorrow, too long a day to work on now.

 

[daugen]

Wilmington North Carolina
Picture time. Maybe I should overnight five pounds of Carolina fried chicken and hushpuppies to Mohammed in appreciation for the server space...

it was a wonderfully long day yesterday, too long actually, I didn't get to sit much or lay down which I usually have to do for fifteen minutes in the afternoon because of my arthritis. So by the time I rolled in last night at 9am in the pitch dark trying to find the right road to follow in the campground amidst hundreds of campers, they were everywhere, everywhere... No wonder, seriously nice weather here.

I'm off in an hour to go to Quaker Meeting in Wilmington and meet my friends who live here and attend that Meeting.

going to post a lot of pics and see if the alarm bell goes off. But I did score a serious hit on a tractor pic, check out that big John Deere that must be used for some earth moving work there by the river.

 

[Buppies]

Really appreciate you taking the time to share these pictures. Went to Charleston yesterday to see where son spent one year in grad school. Went by several large marinas and one looked to be having a large party. Breezy and warm tired like you but had a wonderful time and got to eat lunch at TW Graham's food is to die for and finally got to meet owner. He knew a lot of people my parents knew so very enjoyable. Be safe in your travels

 

[daugen]

Charleston is a beautiful town Buppies, stopped there going up and down the Intracoastal with my boat. And Charleston is a city where the marinas are right on the river and is where I smacked my 25 ton boat into the dock with a noise that was heard a ways off. Took me days to scrub the black rubber mark off twenty feet of my hull. Sure came in evenly, just didn't properly adjust, trying to dock with the current vs against it can be very difficult, constantly going into reverse just to stop going forward. So Charleston has a great memory for me, actually all good, I loved that town.

Sounds like you're having a great trip Buppies. Yeah, I was pretty tuckered out last night, slept without waking for 9 hours which is unusual for me. Just charging up the batteries.

I'm trying to get my windshield replaced in Asheville, good town to be stuck in for awhile I think . Won't know until tomorrow, but I'm off and headed that way anyway, with a stop in Asheboro on the way at Zooland.