Going home, with the fine designer luggage.
Karaoke Night In Beaufort
Your karaoke performance has already
been (favorably) immortalized. I retrieved my email on that night, which
didn't make any gee-I-can't-talk-with-my-Yankee accent comments or have too
much of my weird humor. Also some photos (do you think I was traumatized by
the close passing barges??) I have a great photo of the Kilkenny wooden
cleats, but that probably shouldn't be out in the public domain as we may need
to stay there again! You can use the airport photo --- we were obviously
focused on the important things like getting our GPS fixed & the windshield
taped back into place, rather than worrying about having fancy luggage for the
trip home. Actually, I think it was psychological --- we were subconsciously
convinced we weren't going to make it thru the ICW --- we had no definite plan
to get home. Our kids are surprised we are back -- they also obviously
thought we were gone forever as well.
Day 13, Underway
Hi Y'all,
Although we are supposed to be heading south, Bruce claims we went west just
about all day, directly into the wind. We left the big city behind
(Charleston), and returned to remote marsh and winding "rivers" and
cuts linking them. Almost 70 miles today.
Last night we got a free ticket to the "Festival of Lights" from one of
the dock attendants in Charleston. We trudged down the 1/2 mile long dock in
high winds to the rental truck to venture over to a campground to see this
thing that all the locals had been encouraging us to see. Cleverly, they had
used the electric outlets at the campsites to set up different holiday light
displays sponsored by local businesses. They've been doing it about 18 yrs &
add new displays each yr. By now they have the usual Santas and elves,
but there are also deer that run out to the road (too much like the real thing!)
and jack-in-the-box jumping out of the box, even a horse & rider jumping over
a jump (a series of 3 or 4 light sets on a timer give the impression of
movement, much like a making a crude cartoon animation by flipping cards of
drawings). The best was the dolphin jumping out of the pond, complete with a
lighted splash.
We didn't think that evening's entertainment could be beat until we went
up to the dockside restaurant here in Beaufort for a cheap hamburger.
Included with the 10%discount was karaoke night, country western style (where
was Leroy??), with a bit of Jimmy Buffet thrown in (the long haired fellow
singing the ubiquitous "Margaretville" was the perfect stereotype for the
song --- we also enjoyed the middle-aged guy with the baseball cap, flannel
shirt, and some sort of camouflage hunting jacket getting quite serious over a
western love ballad). Most of the crooners, including gravelly voiced Miss
Betty, about 108, were actually not too bad, especially one gal who should
definitely head straight to the next American Idol search. Dave did a pretty
good rendition of some song about You Never Call Me by My Name which was a
real crowd favorite, everyone singing along and raising their beers,
especially the last line about how I didn't pick up my momma from prison in my
pickup truck because she got hit by a train. It struck us that our day long
wind thru increasingly desolate flat swampy grasslands was not the only
indication that we were a long way from Chris Matthews and all the other
Inside the Beltway pundits. We are deep in America. But not to fear, the
marines are just around the bend in Parris Island.
Besides passing by Parris Island tomorrow, we will traverse Hells Gate
late in the afternoon, timed to get us thru near high tide. Low tide depths
are about 2 feet. Ten miles on will bring us to the only marina anywhere
around, Kilkenny's where Dave assures that the only hope for tomorrow's
entertainment is something out of Deliverance.
Can't wait. Love, Nancy & Cap'n
