Isle of Palms, South Carolina

Murray with Rainie's Parents Martha & Bill

A Living Star Fish

Starfish in the Water

Real Live Clam

Sand Dollar

Today we had a 50 minute drive over to Isle of Palms which is NE of Charleston (see map). I have marked out route in light green so you may need to click on the photo to see it magnified. Rainie's family rented a huge 5 bedroom 4 bathroom house just 2 houses back from the Atlantic Ocean. We couldn't resist wandering down to the water's edge and it was fortunate we did, as we got to see a star fish in its natural environment - I thought they were smooth, but they are almost furry to touch. Next Rainie came up to me holding a live clam she had found - another first for us to see one alive.

Rainie's nephew then found a sand dollar for me. I had heard of them, and in fact we do have them in Australia, but I have never seen one on the beach, or at least, I wasn't sure what I was looking for - I thought it was a formation of packed sand. Hmm, it is actually a marine animal, related to the sea urchin. When found on the beach without it's usual furry/velvety fine spines, it usually means it is dead.

While we were walking along the beach it was a wonderful sight to look back to the line of houses as they were magnificent. You would need a healthy bank account to live in this area. Mind you, I wouldn't want to be living there during a hurricane - right on the coast and in the line of fire. In September 1989 Hurricane Hugo with winds of 140 mph (225 kph) with a storm tidal surge 15-20' above mean sea level. Scary.

As we walked back through the bushes to the house, what looked like a green water snake crossed our path. I was too busy calling Murray to have a look at it to take a photo before it disappeared into the undergrowth! Apparently they don't hesitate to bite, but are not venomous.

Camping Food, Charleston, South Carolina

BBQ Frogs Legs for Dinner
Popcorn Step 1

Popcorn Step 2

Popcorn Step 3

Popcorn Final Step

Although Murray & I had been to Charleston back in 2003, we are really enjoying this visit with Rainie & Tom. This is our 5th day here so far and despite almost daily weather warnings of rain and thunderstorms, we have been blessed with beautiful days. Most nights we have a campfire in the ring between our two RV's, and most days we go out and do a tour in the area. I will cover the tours in a later blog, but for now, I just want to show you a picture of the frogs legs Tom cooked us up for dinner last night. He was right, they do taste like chicken!

Now I don't usually cook or eat popcorn, except for the very rare occasion when I might buy some at the movies, so I was unaware of this nifty popcorn cooking method. You buy the container pictured that Rainie is holding, remove the cardboard directions, then hold the pan over a fire, shaking gently. The heat pops the corn, blows out the container and voila, you have fresh, buttery popcorn. You just peel back the foil and dig in.

Milledgeville, Old Capital of Georgia

Old Georgia State Capitol Building
Secession History made here. Portrait of Jefferson on right

Pretty Georgian Mansion

Original Bed Base with String support

Inside the Brick Restaurant - note huge TV and regular TV further left

Unrenovated Georgian Mansion

Did you know that Atlanta was not always the capital of Georgia, in fact it is the 5th capital? It just so happens that the RV park we decided to stay in, is in the city of Milledgeville, which was the capital of Georgia during the Civil War. In fact, the Old Capital building built in 1807 was the seat of government for the state of Georgia from 1807 - 1868 when Atlanta became the capital. The Secession Convention was held on the second floor of the building in 1861, and I took the photo of that room today, 148 years later!

We took a trolley tour that gave us a view of the various styles of architecture including Gothic, Victorian, Tudor and Federal styles. On a tour of one historic house, the guide showed us the old mattress base which was made of lengths of string that could be tightened as they became slack with use. The saying, sleep tight and don't let the bed bugs bite, originated with this form of bedding as the strings needed to be tight for comfort and the mattress was stuffed with straw which attracted bed bugs. Live & learn.

To find Milledgeville, if you draw a line from Atlanta, Georgia east across to Augusta, South Carolina, then at about the half way point, head south about 40 miles, you would hit the city. For you movie buffs out there, in the movie Pretty Woman, Julia Roberts played the character, Vivian. In the movie, Vivian said she was from Milledgeville. Well, now you know where it is...

For lunch we tried a local popular haunt, The Brick, named for the tasty morsels that come out of their brick oven. There was a huge TV screen, plus numerous other smaller TV screens showing different sport, news and living channels. The staff did not wear any uniform, just shorts or jeans, and the roof was dotted with playing cards. We only had a coke each, but looking at their alcohol menu, I read that they offered beers from nearly all parts of the world - they even had Fosters beer from Australia! Guess it makes the tourists feel at home.

Although our RV park is 4 miles out of the city, the manager kindly offered to drive us into the downtown area and picked us up when we rang him at the end of our day. On our drive back, he detoured to show us an original palatial Southern mansion that has just been purchased for renovation. The house was the summer home of Governor Johnson from 1812-1880. Most houses have been renovated already, so he said it was rare to find one in this original condition, , and with the original old magnolia trees out the front. Travelling around USA has been such a wonderful experience thanks to the warm and generous people we meet along the way.

Tupelo,Mississippi - Birthplace of Elvis

Natchez Trace Parkway
Us parked in front of Elvis's Home

Elvis's Home

Us in front of Elvis's other home, Graceland in 2003

Statue of Elvis at Age 13

This morning we left our RV park on the edge of Arkansas and crossed the mighty Mississippi River ('Old Man River') and entered the state of Mississippi. It was a beautiful day, and we saw our first field of harvested summer hay. We also saw lots of squished armadilloes on the road, but I guess you don't want to hear about them! We passed through the city of Greenwood known as the cotton capital of the world and finally made our way to the Natchez Trace Parkway. This drive was recommended to us by friends we met in Mountain View, Cindy & Mike from Louisiana. Although it has a rich history, the Parkway is now a one lane each way, scenic drive that extends for 444 miles (715 km), no tolls, no trucks and speed limited at 50 mph. We only drove along 60 miles of it, but enjoyed the pleasant drive and the link to its history. The Natchez Trace Parkway extends from Natchez, Mississippi to just south of Nashville, Tennessee. The Trace began as a bison route, closely followed by being an Indian trail more than 8,000 years ago. Apart from the road surface and a few rest and history markers, the route of the 'trace' is unspoilt and undeveloped retaining its original state.

Our destination for today was Tupelo, Mississipi, the birthplace of Elvis Presley. We pulled up opposite his original home and had a pleasant time wandering in the grounds of the home, church and museum. We learnt that Elvis was born into a poor family, his father and other family members built his first home. On his 11th birthday his mother took him to the hardware store to buy him his present - he wanted either a gun or a bicycle, but his mother thought either one too dangerous. The store keeper pulled out a $7 guitar and suggested he have that instead, and the rest is history. At age 13, the family moved to Memphis and he later bought Graceland, his home for many years. Murray & I toured the home and grounds (where he is buried) on a previous visit.

Fordyce Farewell

Joe Bill's Mother Playing Piano ('doin just fine for 99')
Murray & I with Sandy & Joe Bill

Murray, Joe Bill & John Benton joined in the Choir

Some folks just wave you off when you leave town after a 6 day stay, but not the Meadors. We had planned to leave Fordyce on Sunday morning, but Joe Bill & Sandy wanted us to attend their Baptist Sunday class before we left. As well as that, the Methodist Church where his brother John Benton and wife Betsy are members were celebrating Heritage Sunday. The church had invited Ms Meador, Joe Bill & John Benton's 99 year old mother, to play the piano and accompany the Methodist's organ player, and we were also invited to attend. So not only did we have some time with the Baptist group to share with them a bit about Australia before joining them for some spiritual guidance (led by Joe Bill), but we then walked across the road to the Methodist Church and attended their Sunday service. The preacher extended special greetings to us from the pulpit, and thanked us again at the end and wished us safe travels - he even pronounced our surname perfectly. I felt like we were royalty! After the lovely service, we joined the whole congregation for lunch in a nearby large room before returning to the RV and driving out of town...it was quite sad to say goodbye to our Fordyce friends, but we have no doubt we will be seeing them again in due course. Next stop Mississippi...

"Fordyce on the Cottonbelt" Festival

Joe Bill driving Johnny Cash & June in Festival 1982
Joe Bill driving Nashville singer Erika Jo in Festival 2009
Tammy (stall manager) and fellow stall holder Becky & me
Murray playing the didgeridoo at Fordyce Middle School
Festival Food Stall
Bloomin' Onion

The annual 'Fordyce on the Cottonbelt' festival is one the largest festivals of a small town in the state of Arkansas, and attracts a crowd of 10,000 people. Can you believe it all started with an idea Joe Bill had back in 1980, hoping to inject some life and vitality into his hometown? Not that I discovered this until I did a bit of internet research this evening!

As the railroad was a major part of the town's lifeblood - the train carrying cotton went from St Louis to Texas, passing through Fordyce, Joe Bill and his chamber of commerce committee decided to call the festival just that...'Fordyce on the Cottonbelt'. They try and attract a guest singer each year, and in 1982, Johnny Cash and his wife June were on the program, and Joe Bill took them (and their son) in the parade on his horse drawn buggy. This year he drove the guest singer, Erika Jo (Nashville) in his red convertible (yes, we had a ride in it too). Each year they design a special T-Shirt for the festival, and the proceeds from the sales fund the festival. I am sure that every man, woman and child in town bought and wore a T-Shirt - I helped Sandy and the other ladies sell them for a few afternoons, and scored myself a nice pink one in the bargain. The festival starts on a Monday, and each day there is something different happening, and usually with a music show each evening. One of the main events is the Fordyce high school reunion dinner which is held on the Friday night. Many past students who live out of town return for the reunion. We attended this years as guests, and were amazed at the school years' represented (400 people attended)- Joe Bill's mother, who says she is 'doing fine for 99', graduated from the school back in 1928. She has attended every reunion since they started 28 years ago, and Joe Bill was the Emcee of the night - did I also mention he was the Chairman of the Festival? It is a wonder he had time to entertain us with all of the civic duties he was responsible for. The main parade was on Saturday and while I saw a bit of it, I was busy holding a bead stall (along with a few aussie souvenirs to add to the interest). That was a lot of fun, and some of the kids from the middle school (we had done a presentation on Australia at their school the day before) came up and bought their friends and parents to meet me.

Speaking of the school presentation, we gave a 30 min presentation to two groups, the first comprising grades 5 & 6 and the second grades 7 & 8. The only room with enough space was the gym, so the kids piled in and sat on the floor. As part of our presentation, we planned to give a didgeridoo demonstration. We had picked up a didgeridoo for Joe Bill & Sandy while we were in Mountain View, with the plan that Joe Bill was going to practise playing it ready for the demo. Well, he didn't do too well on the didgeridoo classes (perhaps I was a lousy teacher), but Murray picked it up quickly and did a great job.

Back to the festival...I just have to tell you aussies about the food we ate. One stall (pictured) sold bloomin' onions (the largest onions we have ever seen). They have a special cutter that keeps the 1lb onion intact, but slices each one to resemble a flower. They dip it in a spicy batter, then deep fry it and serve it with a dipping sauce - it is very tasty, but you need a few friends to help eat it all. It is H-U-G-E. At the same stall they sold Fried Green Tomatoes - remember that movie? I thought it was an odd name for a movie, but obviously no American would have questioned the title! Anyway, I had to try one, and it was good too. That was lunch. For dinner we shared a large polish sausage done up like a hot dog and served with fried sliced onions and capsicums - yum. Yes, I have a few extra rolls of fat that need some serious attention. Now where have I hidden my joggers??

Fordyce, Arkansas - Overview

Intrepid Snake Hunters

Apologies to those who have been checking in each day and finding no new updates...I have had 4 complaints in the last 2 days, so figured it was time to get to work.

It is hard to believe that 2 years ago we had never heard of Fordyce, Arkansas, and now we have made 2 visits in the last 7 months! You may recall we met Joe Bill & Sandy at the Kentucky Horse park 2 years ago, and they invited us to visit them in Fordyce, but we were unable to make it that trip. We did make it there last year and really enjoyed our time with them on their property 'Meadolark Farm'. They must have liked what they heard about Australia because they made their first trip downunder in February this year, as captured on the blog. Well anyway, (as Joe Bill often says, but a lot slower than me), Fordyce has an annual 'Fordyce on the Cottonbelt' festival, and we arranged to be in town for it. We had a very enjoyable 6 days with them, with our RV parked in their front driveway under the tall pine trees. Their property is beautifully nestled among the trees with a large pond in the front. You will get a feel for it when you see some of the videos of our equestrian escapades.

Joe Bill kindly suggested Murray might like to fish the pond, as some large fish are just waiting for the bait. However, Murray remembered that deadly moccasin snakes were in the area last year, so perhaps a check of the pond surrounds to clear it of snakes was in order before any fishing took place. They collected a shotgun and a pair of binoculars and the intrepid snake hunters headed across to the pond. They shot 1 snake the first day, 3 snakes the second day and saw lots of them slithering into the water. Needless to say, Murray didn't get to do any fishing!

The last time we visited Fordyce it rained for 4 days thanks to Hurricane Gustav, so we were unable to go for a horse or buggy ride as planned. This trip the weather was superb, and I got to ride a Tennessee Walking Horse, and go for a buggy ride pulled by one of their other horses (they have four all up). If you get to watch the videos, listen to the birdsong, and check out the scenery of the farm - you can even see our RV where it is parked out the front of the house. I did get to ride the horse outside of the corral - that was my warm up - we later went out for a ride behind their property. Well folks, I tried for 2 hours to upload one video, but it is 92MB and obviously too large for an upload. Darn...I may try again with faster internet, although it is pretty good here.

More Fordyce blog entries to follow....

Final Days, Mountain View, Arkansas

Red Cardinal on Rear View Mirror (click on photo to enlarge)

1934 Ford V8 Convertible

This one-week visit to Mountain View has been so much nicer than I could have imagined. I knew Murray would enjoy our stay, as he is so interested in music (unlike me) - he loves to hear & watch the various instruments used, how different musicians harmonise and all the nuances in between, but the surprise is how enjoyable I have found it.

First up, the location here in the Ozarks is lovely. We awake to the sound of chirping birdsong, and it continues on and off all day. Very peaceful. Our RV park is on top of a mountain and we look down on valleys and across to other mountains of the Ozarks. Mind you, the mountainous terrain does mean my cardiac system gets quite a work out when we ride our bikes the 1.7 miles in and the same back out of town - up hill and down dale. I guess it helps to burn off the calories we ingest as we are eating outselves silly - yesterday, Friday, our four Louisiana friends picked us up at 9am and we went to the well known Ozark Folk Center. They have a restaurant out front, and for $6.95 they offered a full buffet breakfast. The 3 ladies ordered the $3.99 egg, 2 strips bacon, grilled chopped potatoes, toast (or biscuit (scones to aussies), and a bowl of chopped cooked apple and another of peach to go with the toast or biscuit. Good cholesterol building foods! From there we went next door to the folk center itself, and for the next 3 hours, immersed ourselves in watching demonstrations of crafts of yesteryear. The centre had a path winding around, and dotted along the path were small buildings that housed each craft and a person dressed in the clothes of that craft from days gone by. There were candlemakers, broomakers, coopers, potters, school marms, herbalists, ironsmiths, blacksmiths, woodturners, jewellers, and so the list goes on. As well as all that, there was a chap playing a dulcimer, a group playing country/gospel music (see video at the bottom), and a guy playing an instrument none of us had ever seen before, a hurdy gurdy (see photo in left of top collage).

We returned to our RV to take a breath and get ready to sneak over to the entertainment hut here in the campground, as it was Cindy's birthday and Mike had arranged a large, beautifully iced (like cream) and inscribed sponge cake. We all met there and Cindy was suitably surprised at the turnout. Mike had bought tubs of very popular Blue Belle home-made vanilla icecream made in Texas to go with the cake, and it was delicious. Now you might understand why we gleefully jumped on our bikes an hour later and rode into town - burn, calories, burn.

It was such a glorious day, that the ride into town would have been a real delight, had it not been for the steep inclines! Oh well, such is life. I just got off and pushed the bike uphill - now I know why they call them pushbikes! We got into town around 4pm, used our combination lock to secure the bikes, and wandered around town. Being the festival, there were music groups dotted everywhere you looked. Street stalls were set up in the streets (blocked off to traffic) and people were wandering everywhere. Murray couldn't resist of photo of the old Ford car, and I took several photos to try and capture it all for you. While Murray sat and watched one music group and ended up chatting to a guy who played what looked to me like a huge guitar, I wandered the stalls and was surprised to see a lady selling didgeridoos. They are an Australian Aboriginal instrument, so what was an American woman doing selling these - I was intrigued and went over to chat to her. Apparently her and her partner flew to Australia, met with some aboriginals and respectfully explained they wanted to make didgeridoos and sell them in USA. The aboriginals were thrilled their music and instruments were to be replicated, and taught them how to play them, and how to make them. Although the markings Deborah & Scott put on theirs are their own, and do not look 'aboriginal', but that is probably deliberate. I heard some of the music they make with Scott playing the didgeridoo and Deborah playing the flute, and it is very easy and peaceful to listen to it. If you are interested, they have a website http://www.martinandscott.com/.

Murray had a music show to attend to at 7pm, so around 5.30pm we made our way home (with me walking the bike more than riding it) and had dinner in time for him to be picked up for the show. I spent the time on Adobe photoshop, but didn't make much progress - I think I was plum tuckered out by our Ozark activities.

Today is Saturday and the main day of the Ozark Folk Festival with the town parade. It was an overcast day, with the odd sprinkle of rain, but not cold. We walked into town and met up with our Louisiana friends who bought me home hours later - Murray walked back about 2 hrs after we got back. The weather didn't seem to deter too many people until just after lunch. Speaking of lunch, Murray bought a smoked turkey leg, and I had a sweet corn on the cob, dipped in butter. We wandered through a fudge/candy store, and a coffee shop cum artist gallery where we listened to a man play wonderful tunes on a dulcimer and listened in to a few more music groups before calling it a day. Tonight will be another music show, then some more on Sunday. We will drive out Monday and head for Fordyce, south of Little Rock where we look forward to catching up with Joe Bill & Sandy once again. All in all, a very enjoyable stay.

If you like folk music, check out the video below:

Mountain View, Arkansas, Day One

Seen both Dogwood & Red Cardinals this Week

Flowering Dogwoods en Route

Is this a Wolf??

Taylor's Sons of the Ozarks in Action

Today we drove south from the state of Missouri and entered into Arkansas. It was an overcast, slightly drizzly day, and quite nippy outside. The whole drive was dotted with flowering dogwood trees which are so pretty at this time of year. The Dogwood flower is the state flower of Virginia and North Carolina, and the state tree of Missouri. If I ever lived in the US, I think I would be drawn to Virginia, as the state flower, the dogwood, and the state bird (red cardinal) are my favourites. (If the Blue Jay was a state bird, I might have to think twice).

Getting back to Arkansas... there we were, innocently winding our way through the Ozark mountains leading south into our destination town of Mountain View where we had booked into stay for a week. I was merrily clicking away photos of dogwood trees when I noticed an animal crossing the road ahead. Not a deer, but a wolf. Well, we thought it was a wolf anyway. I'd be happy to hear from someone out there to confirm or deny it. The animal looked very healthy, and on closer examination of the photo, it is wearing a collar. Not sure if it is tagged for research, or is a domesticated wolf. Post Edit: I have it on good authority from two sources that what we saw was a Siberian Husky. I read they are breeding them with wolves as they are the same 'family'.

The reason we decided to stay here for a week is to enjoy the Ozark folk music festival that is held here each spring and autumn. The region is famous for it's pickin' music (including folk, bluegrass, country & fiddle) and olde worlde crafts. People come from all around the USA and other countries to experience this bastion of homegrown folk music.

After we parked our RV in the campground and got settled, Murray went for a wander around the park and on the way he met a nice chap, Mike, from Baton Rouge in Louisiana. He and his wife Cindy drive up with their Airstream trailer every year to enjoy the festival. They met up with another couple from Louisiana, Ben & Diane. The four of them were going out for a pizza before heading on to spend the evening at Taylor's Sons of the Ozarks Music Theatre, and they very kindly invited us to join them.

Taylor's is a family business- they cut the lumber to build the theatre and constructed it themselves on their own property. They have 4 shows a week with the dad and two sons playing guitars, banjos, violins, dobros and mandolin. As soon as the music starts, couples immediately stand up and move to the front and start doing folk/square dancing - mainly a two-step. There were some really great dancers out there. Interestingly the men left their hats on to dance. No dancing was allowed during singing of gospel songs, and each member of the band removed their hats during the gospel song. You will notice by the photo that most band members wear a hat of some sort. During the break, most of the band members came up and said hello which was nice, and afterwards we met the host (& lead) musician John's wife and his mother. It was a really friendly crowd - when folks heard we were from Australia, many came up and had a chat in the break. One lovely lady, Wilma (her husband got up and sang two numbers and was a wonderful singer), told us how they had lived in Memphis for many years, and she was there in Elvis's day, and was actually a staff member at the hospital that he was taken to on his death. All in all we had the most welcoming first day in this lovely city of just over 3000 people.

OSIS+

Anyone with fine, flyaway hair will appreciate the properties of the Schwarzkopf hair product above. The OSIS+ mattifying powder that my sister found in a shop for hair products in Australia is the best I have tried. Most products to help give body or lift to fine hair are sprays, gels or oils that from my experience have actually ended up clumping my hair, whereas this product is effective yet undetectable, and better still, it remains effective until you wash you hair a day or two later. Highly recommended!

The OSIS+ comes in a 50 ml plastic bottle which is perfect for RVers like myself, or any traveler trying to keep luggage weight down. Mind you, it costs almost $30 Australian dollars (about $22 USD), but as you only need a light sprinkle, it should last for ages. Worth every cent. It is not readily available, but check out your local hairdresser or hair product outlet. If no luck there, google it and you should find a provider in your country, or at least it should be available via an internet order.