Several weeks ago Laura and her sister Amy drove across country to the house they inherited on Samish Island, Washington. They spent some sister time together and were able to do some final steps to close out their parents’ estate. Earlier this week Amy and I traded places. I flew out on Monday and will drive back across with Laura in a couple of weeks. In the meantime we’ll be getting back together with friends and visiting places we came to love during our year out here.
Year: 2019
The ghost town of Ferguson has been on my mind quite a lot lately. I’ve written a couple of articles about it and my blog posts about the town continue to be the most popular. I’m involved with a project dealing with Lake Marion and Ferguson that I’m not at liberty to discuss online, but … Read More “Return to Ferguson” »
The Bamberg Chamber of Commerce has been sponsoring trips on the Edisto River the first Saturday of each month. I joined them back in April for a section from Zig-Zag Landing down to Whetstone Landing. This month they were paddling from Bobcat Landing on the South Edisto down to Brabham Landing. It was a new … Read More “Edisto River from Bobcat Landing to Brabham Landing” »
It’s strange how procrastination operates, especially when blogging. I like to keep things as current as possible, but sometimes I get behind. That’s when a vicious cycle kicks in. I feel like I can’t write about new things until I’ve covered some of the events I’ve missed, then I get to a point where the backlog seems insurmountable. At that point procrastination becomes stagnation.
Friend and fellow kayaker Terry Alexander has been wanting me to come up and paddle his favorite river, the North Toe. A couple of weeks ago while Laura was out of town I finally got a chance to do just that. I spent a great couple of days in the Linville, NC area catching up, … Read More “Dipping a Toe in the North Toe” »
When I bought Big Red last December I did so with one specific venue in mind – Lake Jocassee. Jocassee is remote and some of the coolest locations are a distant paddle. I was thinking that a nearly 18′ boat with a rudder might make those spots more accessible. It’s been almost half a year since I bought the thing, but I decided that it was time to take Big Red out for its first run on the lake.
Last August tickets went on sale for a concert by Paul McCartney at the Bon Secours Wellness Center in Greenville. I tried and tried to get tickets, but they were completely sold out within minutes. I told Laura about my failure. What I DIDN’T tell her was that I was able to go back online … Read More “A Visit with Sir Paul” »
Of late my life has taken own the following pattern, at least as far as my car is concerned – Unload music gear. Load kayak gear, Unload kayak gear. Load music gear. Rinse. Repeat. In the past couple of weeks I’ve kayaked nearly 40 miles and played with six music gigs, NOT counting my regular … Read More “Paddling to Longnose Falls” »
Thursday was Sparkleberry Swamp with the Tri-County Blueway Paddlers. Since this was a Second Saturday, it also meant that it was time for a trek with Lowcountry Unfiltered. We would be doing a trip through yet another cypress swamp, this time along Ebenezer Creek in Georgia. I drove down Friday night so that I wouldn’t … Read More “Cypress Adventures – Part 2, Ebenezer Creek” »
Both my late father and Laura’s father served in the US Navy in WWII. Dad talked a little about doing MP patrols in Paris and being stationed in Guam, but really didn’t talk about the war. Mr. Wright was also reticent to talk about the way. I guess some experiences are just too hard to discuss. Now they are both gone, and those stories with them. However, there is one story from Mr. Wright that was told to Laura, not about WWII, but his later service in the Korean War. It was the story about how his ship, the USS Walke, was torpedoed in the Sea of Japan.