Abbey's Road

On Monday we had a long drive so we didn’t do much besides find a campsite and eat dinner. We stayed at Laura Walker State Park near the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Georgia. Tuesday afternoon I took a boat tour in the refuge that started on the Suwanee Canal (of “Way Down Upon the Suwanee River” fame) and went out into the swamp. Our guide, Joey, informed us that technically it is not a swamp. It is a peat bog. It was still cool either way. Joey is a seventh generation “swamper” and a self-proclaimed redneck, though it was obvious he cares pretty deeply about the swamp, or bog if you prefer. His wife, however, is an eighth generation “swamper” and is known to “pull rank” on him every now and then. Poor guy. Seventh generation and he’s still doesn’t have seniority in his own house. He was a helluva guide in any case and spotted most gators long before we did. All in all we saw a dozen or more, several pretty close up including one he snuck the boat right up behind so I could get a good picture from the deck. Don’t worry, the zoom makes it look closer than it really was. I had to be at least 6-8 feet from it when I took the picture. Luckily, I was on the boat! As funny as it may sound, the swamp was beautiful. The water is black, but since it’s not technically a swamp it didn’t stink at all. And the reflections off the water were like looking in a mirror. It’s too bad the cypress trees were leafless, but the moss added a nice touch. We also saw several pair of sandhill cranes. They stand a good 5 or 6 feet tall so we could see them a long ways off. It felt good to be back out in the woods. It’s been great visiting everyone, but it feels good to be back out in nature.
Can you find the gator?

On Wednesday we moved over to Crooked River State Park along the coast near St. Mary’s, GA. St. Mary’s is a quiet little town compared to the rest of the Georgia coast, or so I’m told. It has a nice historic district down by the riverfront and you can take a boat to Cumberland Island National Seashore from there. I didn’t get a chance to check that out unfortunately, but everyone says it’s beautiful and they have wild horses on the island. I was able to set up a kayak tour for Thursday afternoon so I decided to stay another night before heading to Florida. Thursday did not start off too good. In fact, it was downright disastrous. I had something else on my mind when I pulled out of the campsite only to hear a popping noise behind me. Yes, my first RV disaster. I forgot to unhook the water hose and the electric cord. The electric cord just pulled out of the outlet with no damage, but I wasn’t so lucky with the hose. It ripped the “city water” hookup right out of the side of the RV. My heart sank, not to mention I felt really stupid!!! After running through all the worst scenarios in my head I asked the campground host where the closest service center was. It turned out to be in Jacksonville, only 25 miles or so away. To make a long story short, they took me in right away and had it fixed within an hour. And they didn’t even make any comments about how dumb I was. I guess they’ve seen it before. It only cost me $92 – not as costly a mistake as I had thought. Luckily, when we got back I still had plenty of time to take Abbey out for a walk around town before going on my kayak tour. My guide was a young kid and his mother (…still married) decided to come along. He was excited because I was going to be the first paying customer to go on this new route cutting through the marsh that they had recently found. He had only been on it once himself. The night before I felt a cold coming on and my throat was sore. Plus the wind was pretty strong and it was fairly cool in town so I was a little apprehensive about going. But once we got on the water you could hardly feel the wind and the sun was strong enough to make me feel hot. We didn’t see a lot of wildlife but it was cool seeing the marsh from a different perspective – the level of the water. The cut through the marsh was quite narrow and his mom wasn’t thrilled about it being so tight, but we made it without any real problems. We went late in the afternoon so the sun set before we got back. The color of the clouds was spectacular and when we stopped paddling it was so quiet and peaceful. I was pretty tired by the time we got back to the dock, but I was surprised to see we had only been gone 2 hours. It was long enough for me. When we got back to camp I warmed up leftovers for dinner (thanks to the Luckes) and went to bed.

The Ocala NF is not exactly remote. I guess being in the middle of Florida not too far from Orlando doesn’t allow it to be. Plus, being a weekend in January when the temperatures are still bearable I’m sure brings out all the locals to the campground. I was worried about getting a site on a Friday, but it turned out to be no problem. I was pretty tired after the drive and still fighting off this cold so I just took it easy the rest of the day. Saturday was pretty uneventful. I found a decent hike I could take Abbey on to get her some exercise. There was a little water and it wasn’t too warm so she really did well. I never know if she is going to be apprehensive or not, but today she was leading most of the way. On Sunday I was hoping to get in a short hike for Abbey and then a canoe ride for me later on. It was a lot warmer so we didn’t get real far on the hike. After a while I gave up and turned back. She was just too hot. We got back to camp with just enough time for me to rent a canoe before they closed. We were staying at Alexander Springs, one of several in the Ocala. Apparently Florida has the highest concentration of underground springs anywhere. I remember going to Weeki Watchee Springs when we were kids to see the mermaid show. I probably won’t get to see that this time. I seem to remember reading an article saying that it had gone bankrupt and shut down a while ago, but someone is trying to resurrect it. Kind of made me feel sad since it’s one of the memories I have from my first trip to Florida. I wonder if Monkey Jungle is still around.

There were a number of other people out canoeing and fishing, but it still felt peaceful and quiet. I saw several different kinds of birds, turtles, fish and even an alligator. It was pretty big, but luckily it was on the bank. They don’t seem to bother people much. I was more worried that it would move before I got the canoe close enough, but not too close, to get a good picture. It’s a lot quieter here today since all of the weekenders have left, but something is stirring around in the woods and it’s getting Abbey pretty excited. Hopefully, it’s not a bear. Well, that’s all for tonight. I’ll have to let you know later if it was a bear.
Abbey on the St. Francis Trail

Alexander Springs Wildlife

Posted by Ed at 5:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I left Jim and Carol Monday morning and arrived at Jim and Stephanie Lucke’s in Atlanta in the afternoon. Jim is a fellow ND alumnus, and they have 3 young kids – Katie, Madeline and Danny – who were very excited to see Abbey. Apparently they’ve been asking for a dog for a while, so having one visit was the next best thing. They live in an old Atlanta neighborhood just outside the city limits. The trees are huge and beautiful and it is quite hilly. It’s funny, though, because a lot of people have torn down the small, old houses in order to build new, much bigger ones. Parking the RV was tough on their street which was narrow and hilly, but luckily I didn’t have to sleep in it. The weather was quite warm most days, even for Atlanta, considering it was January. Stephanie must have been excited to have a visitor because she went all out to make me feel at home and to feed me. I definitely gained weight, not to mention she sent me off with more food at the end of the week. She must either think I can’t cook or I’m too thin.

In any case, they were great hosts for the week. If any of you ND guys are thinking of visiting, I can certainly vouch for their hospitality. I was hoping to split time between their house and that of another ND friend and the creator of my blog, Jeb. Unfortunately, it was a real bad week schedule-wise for Jeb so I stayed the whole week at the Lucke’s which turned out fine. Plus their kids were happy to have Abbey the whole week.

On Wednesday it was actually cold and windy but it was perfectly sunny so I drove Abbey out to Kennesaw Mountain Battlefield. It was the site of an important battle in the Union’s campaign to take Atlanta in the Civil War. Aside from that, they had some nice trails and Abbey and I took our first real hike in several months. We walked around 9 or 10 miles and were both exhausted by the end. For some reason my shins were really bothering me so I decided to give Abbey (and me) a break the next day. I went downtown to visit the Martin Luther King National Historic Site. I was pretty impressed with it, especially the visitor’s center which had a history of his life and his involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. Every once in a while I try to throw something historic or educational into my travels so I’m not accused of just having fun all the time.

Jim’s neighbor is the president of the group that owns the Atlanta Hawks and Thrashers so they invited us to go with them to the Hawks game against the Pistons. The Hawks are having another rough year, but since their seats are right on the floor we decided we couldn’t turn it down. It was definitely a different perspective than I’m used to for watching an NBA game – the nosebleed section sure looked a long way up from where we sat. The players sure looked a lot bigger too. Sadly the Hawks got blown out again so our host was not a happy camper. It is his business after all. On Thursday I went to see yet another cousin of mine, David Coalson and his wife Merry, who I hadn’t seen in about 12 years. David is my mom’s sister’s son. He was a bit older than my brothers and sisters and he liked to pick on us when we were growing up. We still liked to see him though ‘cause he was kind of wild and we were a bit in awe of him. I really enjoyed catching up with them, and, not to mention, having some good wine. David remembered a lot more stories from the old days than I did mostly ‘cause I was too young to remember much from those days.

Friday night Jim, Stephanie and I went out for Tapas and margaritas while the kids went to Concourse Kid's night, whatever that is. On Saturday, before they were supposed to come over to the Luckes’, Jeb’s wife Kathy got sick. After the margaritas the previous night and the Cashels canceling on us, we took it easy on Saturday. Thankfully, Kathy recovered in time so they could come over along with their daughters Kelly and Claire on Sunday. The kids all had a great time playing together as if they were old friends, and the adults all enjoyed catching up. Believe it or not, the Luckes have been in Atlanta for a year and a half but they still hadn’t gotten together with the Cashels. So I was a good excuse for them to finally get together, and it was real nice for me to see them all. Tomorrow I’m off to the Okefenokee Swamp and the Georgia coast. I’m hoping to do some canoeing or kayaking, though I haven’t mentioned it to Abbey yet.

The 3 ND Guys
Cashins, Luckes and Me
The Kids
More of the Kids

Posted by Ed at 4:46 PM | Permalink

My brother Jim and his wife Carol own a B&B in Conway, SC about 20 minutes inland from Myrtle Beach called the Cypress Inn. It’s been a AAA 4 Diamond Property for 8 years in a row. Abbey and I have been staying in the luxury suite in the parking lot. We get to sleep in the RV cause Carol is allergic to dogs. Besides I’d be too nervous that Abbey was going to have an accident in the room or something. Plus, I actually kind of miss sleeping in the RV so I don’t mind. Their place is right on the Waccamaw River (yea, I never heard of it before either). I have only been here one other time - about 6 years ago - and Conway is actually nicer than I remember. There are a bunch of huge old live oak trees which remind me of the ones we had in Texas, though these are much bigger and ours didn’t have Spanish moss hanging on them.

On the way down here I just had to stop at South of the Border. For those of you who haven’t traveled I-95 near the SC/NC border, it is one of the tackiest tourist traps around.
They’ve been selling fireworks and other assorted junk there at least since I was 5 years old (1967 if you can believe that), but probably much longer. I only stayed long enough to get a picture of old Pedro though.

Jim and Carol had a big group meeting at the Inn for a few days so Abbey and I took off down the coast for a short trip. We stayed at a small campground on the Intracoastal waterway in Francis Marion NF.
I think the campground is normally used mainly by boaters, fishermen and shrimpers, but it was kind of quiet being in the off season. The first day I tried to drag Abbey on a hike, but we only got a mile or so before it got too muddy. They don’t call this the Low Country for nothing. It is very swampy and marshy – great for birding, if you’re into that, or canoeing. I was wishing I had a canoe, but I’m not sure how Abbey would handle that. Someday I’ll have to try it. The next morning Abbey woke me up around 5. I think the oyster shells and shrimp carcasses she got into the day before didn’t agree with her. So I had a leisurely morning cleaning and repairing things while her stomach recuperated. In the afternoon we drove down to Charleston. I had always heard that it is a quaint and charming old town but had never seen it. We headed for the historic district and then to the waterfront at Battery Park. I managed to find a spot big enough to parallel park the RV in. I was pretty proud of my parking job. Charleston has some beautiful old homes dating back to the 17 and 1800’s.
It’s a great town for walking so that’s what we did. They have a nice downtown market, though we didn’t make it that far on foot. We had another quiet night at the campground before we drove back to Conway.

Jim had lined up something “interesting” for me to do on Friday. He had been putting off cleaning out the drainpipes beneath the kitchen sink, and when he heard that I helped my father unblock their kitchen sink he figured I was perfect for the job. And I figured what the heck. I had to repay them for all of their hospitality somehow. It was a dirty, stinky job but it wasn’t too bad. Plus we blew out the line all the way to the main drain so they should be set for a while. On Saturday, I got Jim to repay the favor by helping me with some problems on the RV. We figured one out, but the other still stumped us. My furnace has been rattling for months now, but I can’t figure out where the rattle is coming from. It drives me crazy at times, but I need someone else to look at it because it only makes a noise when the RV is moving at a high speed. I guess I’ll just have to keep the radio blasting while I’m driving for now.

On Sunday I actually managed to make it to the beach.
It was a bit too cold for a dip in the ocean, so we only took a short walk before we ate dinner at one of their favorite Italian restaurants in Myrtle Beach. All in all I had a good week in Conway and SC. I got a good appreciation for what it takes to work a B&B. I don’t think I’d want to be tied down so much like they are. But I wouldn’t mind doing some inn-sitting for a few days or a week sometime, especially if the inn is in a nice location;)
The Proprietors

Posted by Ed at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

New Year’s Day was a bit strange this year without college football games to watch. We had to settle for watching them on Jan. 2nd (and 3rd and 4th) instead. Much to the delight of my cousin and the Cones family, Notre Dame got pretty well trounced by the Ohio State Buckeyes. We didn’t deserve to win, but all I can say is, “Wait ‘til next year.” I watched the whole game, but it was too nerve-wracking for my dad. He watched a few minutes here and there, but finally had to go to bed before he got completely unnerved.

My brother John “had” to go to the Sugar Bowl (something to do with Verizon sponsoring the WV Mountaineers) so I had to scrap plans to go and visit him and his family. Instead, I took another trip down to the DC area. On Tuesday I drove down to Ann and Joe’s again. This time the house was in much better shape so they asked me to stay over. Joe and I stayed up to watch the Penn State vs. Florida State game which seemed to go on forever. We both fell asleep a few times and with the second half being a defensive struggle I’m guessing we weren’t the only ones. We did manage to wake up for the last 20 seconds of regulation and the 2 overtimes.

On Wednesday morning I met up with Mike Schiavi and we drove down to the Pentagon where John Quinn, or should I say Lt. Col. Quinn, had invited us for a tour. We got to see where the plane hit on 9/11 though you could never tell. It’s all rebuilt already. The Pentagon is a pretty cool building though John said he couldn’t show us much of the cool stuff due to it being highly classified – a likely story! This being The Pentagon, I finally have a valid excuse for not taking any pictures, as opposed to the rest of the past few months and the lack of pictures. Wednesday night Mike and I went over to one of his friends’ house to watch the big game – USC vs. Texas. Since I lived in Austin for 6 years where UT is located, and since I hadn’t forgotten ND’s loss to USC earlier this year I was rooting for the Longhorns all the way. I have to admit that when they were down by 12 with 6 minutes left I was starting to have some serious doubts. But Vince Young came through and I hope I can be forgiven for my lack of faith. It was the second great game I saw this year, and this time the right team won in the end.

My celebration didn’t last long ‘cause I drove down to Cary, NC to see the Cones’ family. Their youngest son, Logan, had volunteered to let me sleep in his room and later that night when I went to bed I found out why. His room is a veritable shrine to the Ohio State Buckeyes including an army of bobbleheads on the nightstand and a big wooden “O” on the ceiling. It’s a wonder I didn’t have any nightmares while I was there. Logan was also kind enough to leave me the newspaper clipping proclaiming “Buckeyes throttle the Irish” hidden under my towel. I think he’s definitely learned well from his dad. It had been nearly 10 years since I had seen all of them – Rob, Jane, Jaron, Kelsey and Logan – so it was great to get reacquainted. Friday night the boys and I went to see the Carolina Hurricanes play. It was my second NHL game in the last few months and the home team won again. I must be good luck I guess. I was also good luck for Kelsey as her basketball team trounced their opponent by something like 28-7. I wasn’t quite so lucky for Jaron’s team, which was OK with me. I was beginning to worry that they would want me to go to all of their games. Saturday night another couple from our early IBM Kingston days, Dave and Linda Laubscher, came over and we all went out for dinner. Linda is still as funny, and talkative, as ever. Seeing them brought back some good old memories. Sunday morning I took off again, this time for Conway, SC and my brother Jim and his wife Carol. More on that next time.

Posted by Ed at 8:30 PM | Permalink

Since we’ve started a new year, I’m going to try and get back to writing in my blog a little more regularly than I have been the last few months. Hopefully, this will also help get my brother, who doesn’t seem to have enough to do in life, off my back.

While staying at my parents in December I managed to take a few side trips to NYC and DC. In early December I drove down to northern Virginia to meet up with Ann (Butler) and Joe Potak. Ann is a good friend of mine from ND that I seem to track down every few years or so. The three of us had dinner and then hooked up with Chip Block, my college roommate, and his wife Bonnie. Bonnie and Joe went home early to watch their respective kids so poor Ann got stuck listening to Chip and I have a lively discussion about religion, in a bar no less. I guess that’s a sign we’re getting old. Since Ann & Joe had just moved into their house 3 days earlier I stayed with Chip and Bonnie for 2 nights. On Saturday I did my part for the community (despite the fact that I don’t live there) and helped Chip ring the bell for the Salvation Army at the local mall. On Sunday I decided to see what Chip’s Presbyterian church service was all about. It was quite interesting, and lively too, but don’t worry mom. I don’t think I’ll be converting anytime soon. So much for the wild college days. I topped off the weekend by meeting my cousin, Joanie Dailey, in DC for brunch before heading back home.

Chris (my friend from grade school who you might remember from my Yellowstone trip) and I took the train up to NYC the weekend before Christmas. He went to see his sister and I went to see a high school friend, Alison Sawdey. Alison was a bit under the weather (read “she was out late at a party the night before”) so we took it easy and did some window shopping down in Soho and Greenwich Village. We did go into the Prada store, which I found to be a unique experience. First of all, there’s no sign on the place at all so you have to “know” it’s there. I guess it adds to the mystique of Prada. I knew I was in the wrong store when there were no prices on the merchandise. I was relieved for Alison when they didn’t have the coat she liked in her size. I figured she could take an extra vacation this year with the money she saved! After we had about all the shopping we could handle, we met up with Chris and his sister, Mary Ellen, and found a great little dive bar – the Back Fence. OK, I’m probably being a bit generous when I say a “great” dive bar, but it sure had an interesting character. We found out, after going up to the bar ourselves, that our waitress was Brigid, who looked like the woman from “Throw Momma from the Train.” Only she had a quite a mouth on her. I can’t repeat most of what she said here, but we did find out she leads poetry readings every Sunday at 3PM. So the next time you’re in NYC you might want to look the place up and check her out. I’m dying to find out what her poetry is like. Unfortunately, she wouldn’t give us a sample reading. Later we found out that it’s Mike Schiavi’s brother’s favorite place. Apparently they have good music on Friday and Saturday nights, but who needs music when you’ve got Brigid to entertain you.

While in Wilmington I managed to catch up with some old high school friends – Dave Yemc, Mike Schiavi, Chris Sereduke, Rich Przywara and John Quinn. We were all amazed at how little we’ve changed over the years. Besides a few grey hairs (OK, more than a few) and a few pounds here or there, we all pretty much look the same, or at least we all thought so. Coming back home for the holidays the last few years has allowed me to reconnect with some of my old friends that I hadn’t seen all that much in the last 10 or 15 years, so I’m grateful for that.

I spent the final night of 2005 at my cousin Joanie’s in DC. She had a small group of us for an early dinner and then had a larger party later on. One of the dinner guests was an 81-year old French woman – I’ve always been a sucker for a foreign accent. She’s actually been in the US for about 60 years, and she’s worked as an actuary for the IRS for the last 30. Believe it or not she is still working. She was real interesting to talk to and she brought a mean rum cake with some Haitian rum to boot so I was sad to see her leave early in the evening. The interesting thing for me was that most of the guests were single. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a party that wasn’t mostly married couples or families. Not that I haven’t enjoyed seeing my married friends, but it was fun to meet some new people who were my age and single. They just have a different perspective. I also learned an interesting fact (at least my cousin and her friends claim it’s true) about DC – there are about 7 single women to every single male in the city. Maybe I should reconsider settling down out west.

Well, I hope you had fun over the holidays and I wish you a great and healthy New Year!

Posted by Ed at 9:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)