South Carolina

Another long day in the car trying to follow the track of the ICW. 

Glass Venus fly trap public art on Wilmington river walk.

Myrtle Beach appears to be all about fantastically themed miniature golf courses, low priced beach gear shops, innumerable high rise hotels and timeshares BUT it also has the softest beach sand I've walked on in a long time.

Finally...crossing the Talmage Bridge into Savannah Georgia. Literally ! at the start of the bridge you are still in South Carolina.

North Carolina

Harvesting is underway so fluffy little cotton balls dot the roadside.

ICW looking South.

A long day on the road. Photographs taken during quick stops to stretch our legs and get the blood moving again. On to Savannah tomorrow !

Intracoastal Waterway to Kill Devil Hills on the Outer Banks

Early in the morning we looked at the maps, and the computer, and the itinerary and saw that, sadly but realistically, we could not find enough time to visit both the village at Williamsburg and the Great Dismal Swamp ( the gateway to the ICW in our plans). So we chose the ICW. Williamsburg would have to wait. 

Canal in the Great Dismal Swamp.

A "Welcome to North Carolina" sign in the waterway !

Approaching the dock at the Dismal Swamp park office.

Mike of Toronto sailed Rhapsody in Blue to North Carolina by way of the St. Lawrence River to PEI and Nova Scotia, then to Glocester, Newport, and on to Norfolk. He is headed to the Bahamas for a couple of years and then the Caribbean "for as many years as I like."

Nags Head beach on the Atlantic side.

I like this little house built over the water on the sound side of Kill Devil Hills. It just needs a dock to tie Sirène up to.

Our day ended well when I saw that the hotel we booked had a laundry room for guests! Just like when we're sailing, it's lovely to have fresh clean clothes ;)

Annapolis and the United States Naval Academy

We are learning that the schedule we have set for ourselves on this adventure is depriving us of enough time to really get the gist of these locations, to feel the vibe. Rolling into Annapolis we realized that we had overlooked reserving a place to sleep that night! We hurried to the visitors center and the wonderful attendant found us a room, right downtown, in a great hotel ( O'Callaghan), at a great price. Phew! We had time to join a walking tour around the Naval Academy. It's a very impressive place, and the young men and women studying there were equally impressive. Early morning right out the door and into the car to Williamsburg via the a Eastern Shore.

Tecumseh painted in the style of The Giving Tree to encourage passersby to donate to relief efforts in the Phillipines. The other side of the base had a text number for the Red Cross.

Part of our mission on this road trip is to get our bearings in preparation for our trip down the ICW next fall. Annapolis will definitely get more of our time then.

Moving Day in Maryland

We got to Maryland just in time to help Brad and Donna with some of the move to their new house. Today was the big furniture move and we helped but we will be much less sore than they, and their friends Jim and Erik, who did all the really heavy lifting.

View from the backyard.

Happy homeowners :) 

Italian for first dinner in the new house.

Congratulations Brad and Donna. It's a great house and we know you will have many happy years there. xo

Pennsylvania to Maryland

We got back on the road ...first stop the Ephrata Cloister. It was founded in 1732 as a Protestant German religious community. Unfortunately, they were doomed from the start by deciding that all the members, men and women, would remain celibate...a choice made easier by sleeping on narrow wood beds with a 4x4x6 block of wood for a pillow. The last member died in 1813. Before becoming extinct they did erect some really interesting buildings. They had a printing press which they used to print the 1500 page Martyr's Mirror for the Mennonites, a large publication in colonial times. The women were accomplished in calligraphy and illumination.

Love the randomly placed dormers on this roof.

Leaving Ephrata we headed south through Lancaster and surrounding towns. It is beautiful country populated with huge grain farms. Amish territory! I am fascinated by their lifestyle. Keeping it simple and unplugged. 

Laundry day

Convenience store

Amish delivery truck. Children having recess at the one-room schoolhouse on the left.

Beautiful farm, with laundry drying in the breeze.

Pennsylvania

November 13 - 15

Our first visit was at Bill and Betty's house in Pennsylvania. They are wonderful hosts and we always enjoy time spent with them. Fortunately Joan and Mother were able to join us for dinner on Thursday night. It was a wonderful laugh-filled evening.
Bill and Betty's home is a beautiful example of the stone farmhouses of the 1800s.

We took a field trip on Thursday to visit the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works Museum in Doylestown. Henry Chapman Mercer was a proponent of the Arts and Crafts movement. He built three poured- in- place concrete structures in the 1800s; the tile works, his home "Fonthill" and the Mercer Museum. Handmade tiles are still produced at the museum in the process developed by Mercer. I really like the tile works building...tiles everywhere, even the kiln chimneys wear tiles.

Craftsman creating new tiles.