Francis Marion — A Hero from Georgetown

  Francis Marion, a folk hero of South Carolina, grew up on a farm outside Georgetown where he honed his skills on hunting and fishing expeditions in the swamps and backcountry.  Lots of places in Georgetown are named for him so when we saw a sign pointing down a tree-lined road to his burial place at Belle Isle Plantation near Pineville, we thought we should have a look. 

  After disastrous defeats in American Revolutionary War battles at Charleston and Camden in the summer of 1780, the Continental Army gave up the fight for independence in South Carolina. 

Not Francis Marion however.  

  

He put together a band of 20-70 men who patrolled the area between Charleston and Camden along the Santee and Pee Dee Rivers. Using guerrilla tactics, he freed American prisoners being held by the British, captured British outposts, and lent critical assistance to the struggling regular American troops.  Marion’s Men, as they were called, served without pay and provided their own arms, horses, and food.  

Marion and his men, crossing the PeeDee River

  Marion tormented and demoralized the British army with his uncanny ability to elude capture, including one 26-mile, 7-hour chase through marshes, woods, and swamps  that earned him the title “The Swamp Fox”.

 

There are lots of tales in this neck of the woods about the legendary stealth and cunning of The Swamp Fox, and historians agree that he was a major force in keeping alive the cause of independence in the South. 

 

Marion returned to farming after the war and passed away in 1795 at the age of 63.  He is buried at Belle Isle, his brother’s plantation.  His grave and memorial is now a beautiful state historic site.  

His modern legacy continues as one of the fathers of modern guerrilla warfare in the traditions and tactics of the U.S. Army Rangers and the Green Berets.  

Towns, festivals, colleges, hotels, a memorial park in Washington D.C., counties, a national forest, businesses, a ship, schools, a submarine squadron, a Disney TV series, and children of several generations all carry his name.  

Francis Marion Park, Georgetown

And, the park that is the center of Georgetown, where ceremonies, street dances, concerts, etc. are held on the harbor, is named Francis Marion Park.  

Spring Camping

 We’ve been on the road enjoying a bit of South Carolina spring.  

  The blue circled area is the part of the state we explored.  The red arrow points to all the wild and beautiful National Forest land between us on the coast and the SC lakes.  

  We haven’t found our home on wheels yet, so we stayed in Big Blue, our tent.  The back part is our bedroom.  The front has detachable curtains that open up to show off the view and it becomes the dining room/reading room/kitchen if it rains.  

We cook on our Ohuhu stove which is fueled by twigs.  

It gives off a surprising amount of heat and can boil a pan of water in less than five minutes.

  We keep meals simple  — chicken, broccoli, and rice here.  Everything tastes good seasoned with fresh air, wood smoke, and a bug or two anyway!

If you leave the rain fly off the top of our tent, you can lie in bed and look up at the moon and the stars.

  Our campsite faced Lake Marion for beautiful orange sunrises on the water and behind us was the pine woods where the full moon — the last Super Moon of the year — set each morning.   

  The Sinkhole Nature Trail in the park  took us for a couple miles through the woods around several huge sink holes.  Lots of spring happening here. 

Don’t know what this plant is but I love all the little squiggly tendrils in there.

The dogwoods were just beginning to bloom. 

 They start out a delicate shade of green ...

and open to the whitest white.

Things have changed a lot since I was a kid when camping meant carrying all your water from a central location and using a primitive outhouse.  Now there are very nice restrooms with hot showers, and a water spigot and electric outlet in each campsite.  And wonder of wonders, South Carolina state parks even have WiFi available for campers, this one in a lounge over the beautiful lake!  

I’ll be back in a day or two to show you some of the day trips 

we made and the places we visited.  

Happy spring!  

Around Town

It’s March and we are having a taste of spring.  Still way more rain than sunshine, as you can see by the gray skies.  It’s not raining at the moment so let’s take a little walk around the main street and oldest street of town, Front Street.

  Most of the boats that dock at the Independent Seafood Market are out fishing so the market isn’t open yet.  Do you see who is watching and waiting for it to open?

  Once the boats start coming in there will be cats everywhere.  A parade of cats will come from blocks away, crossing streets and yards to converge at the back door, receiving handouts of fish scraps.  

This smart guy is waiting to be first in line!

Next door are the docks for the Stormy Seas Seafood Company and their public market.

Adjacent to that is a boat repair business and marina where the Kissed Some Frogs is being worked on.  We’ve never seen Kissed Some Frogs before and we liked its fancy logo.  Most boats around here only get plain black letters spelling out their names. 

A couple blocks down Front Street is a new sign on a building that used to be an art gallery.

Isn’t that interesting!  

We have tons of seafood restaurants and gift shops, even a bakery now, but we certainly do not have a cafe featuring cats! I looked up their Facebook page and found they plan to open next month. Their goal is to mingle customers and cats and hopefully people will take home some of the many, many stray cats of Georgetown.  

I wonder if they have an opening for Chief Cat Petter? 

Don’t forget to set your clocks ahead tonight for Daylight Savings Time if you live in the U.S.  

And here is a little reminder:

The ‘Silver Twinkies’* Come To Town

We had an interesting event this weekend in our town.  Living on the coast as we do, most events are about water and boats, but this one was about some “land yachts,” — an Airstream trailer rally.  

About 35 or 40 of the sausage-shaped shiny silver trailers rolled into town Friday and gathered at the big boat ramp parking lot near our house for the night.

On Saturday morning they made a parade down the Main Street and then set up camp on several of the downtown streets.

On Saturday afternoon most of the rigs were open for visitors to come in and see.  What a friendly bunch of people!  They opened their doors and invited everyone right in to show you every nook and cranny of their homes.  Some had candy and cookies to offer and all had great stories to tell.  

All we visited were “full-timers” and one couple had been on the road continuously for 12 years!  They had a large map displayed, a maze of red lines — all their trips up, down, and around America in those 12 years.  

These Airstreams were mostly 30 footers, way out of the ballpark of the camper we are looking for, but we sure enjoyed seeing them and chatting with the owners about what it is like to sell everything and live in a home on wheels.  

*

Not All Beaches and Camellias Here

Bright and early yesterday, Rosie went into Mouse Pointer Pose in front of the dishwasher. 

 What?

We thought we took care of that last winter by filling every possible opening under there where a mouse could get into house!  Guess not.

Having done her part by pointing out the invader, Rose had a kibble snack and returned to her morning nap.

The Writer got his gloves and proceeded while what should have been simple (reach under dishwasher, grab trap with gloved hand, take outdoors, return to making coffee) turned into a Project.  Capital P.

As his hand approached the trap, the mouse dragged it to the right — and under the floor of the cupboards, out of reach.  

Bummer.  

Poor guy hadn’t even had his first cup of coffee yet.  (The Writer, not the mouse.)

The only thing to do was to carefully take the wood trim strips off at the bottom of the cupboard, then delicately pry the floor board up as far as possible to reach in without disturbing the mouse or the plumbing.  

Fortunately mouse and trap did not continue its sashay to the right because that would have required prying up many more boards!  

Once the mouse was out, a trip to Walmart was in order to get more stuff for further mouse-proof sealing.  By the time everything was said and done, scrubbed with bleach and put back to rights, it was lunchtime! 

Five hours to empty a mousetrap.  

I
Our hero

Oops!

My hero!

For All My Frozen Friends

Do not despair! 

 I offer proof that the Ice Age has not returned and spring WILL come ... 

My yard is full of camellias.

Seven big, round bushes, seven to nine feet tall, six feet and more across,

Some blossoms nearly as big as my hand.

The bees are hungry and the bushes a-buzz with their industry.

I read that spring travels north 13 miles per day, or 1.9 mph.  

Hang in there!  It’s coming your way!

The Oldest ... Everything!

  We have driven past St Augustine, Florida, dozens of times and wished we had time to stop. Last week we made a special trip to see The Oldest Continuously Occupied City In America.  Hm, not only is the city “the oldest,” but so was every other little thing in town!  I’ll show you what I mean but first a little history.

  The area of St. Augustine was claimed for Spain by Ponce de Leon (statue on the right) in 1513.  Fifty-two years later Pedro Menendez de Aviles set sail in 11 ships with 2000 people, including 1000 soldiers, 200 sailors and some 250 wives and children, to establish a proper town.  Due to mass defections along the way, only 800 arrived to do the work!

 

  In 1586, British pirate Sir Francis Drake paid a visit and sacked and burned the town.  After that and several other devastating fires, a fort and new city walls were completed, built from (fireproof) coquina, a rock formed under the sea made of tiny little coquina shells.

Above, a coquina city gate built in 1739. 

Left, coquina rock construction.  The mortar was made using lime from burnt crushed oyster shells and sand.

  Next we have the Oldest House in St. Augustine.  The first house on this site was built around 1650; this one was built of coquina stone construction and cedar beams in 1702, or parts of it were anyway.  There have been quite a few additions and changes over the years.  

Aviles, The Oldest Street in St. Augustine

 Probably the Oldest Cat in St Augustine, on a very old coquina garden wall.

  The afternoon we arrived, the sun was shining and the temperature was 84 degrees.  The next day, our sightseeing day when we had a tour booked, it was pouring rain and the temperature had dropped into the 40s!  You seriously didn’t think a little rain and numb fingers would stop us though, did you? Of course not.  For 2 1/2 hours our tour guide regaled us with stories of The Oldest This, The Oldest That, and The Oldest Every Other Thing.  We held back the giggles until we were walking back to our hotel and saw this sign.

Come on, St Augustine!  The Oldest Mini Golf Course — TOO MUCH!  

Entrance to the Bridge of Lions

 The history was fascinating and St Augustine is beautiful town.  My photos don’t reflect the wonderful architecture because it was a gloomy, rainy day and hard to take pictures.