All Hallows' E'en

'Ghoulies and Ghosties and Long-Legged Beasties 

and Things That Go Bump in the Night' ...

We're ready.  

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

This 'n That

Bob is a Border Collie, a breed known for their, um, quirks.   She is paranoid about water and over the years has come to associate certain types of structures with water -- whether there is water involved or not.  She is suspicious of anything made of boards and refuses to walk on them. You know, because there might be water.  

After the wooden boat show we walked out to Morgan Point on Winyah Bay.  Like most hikes where we live, it involves crossing a (waterless) boardwalk. 

This is how Bob hikes.

Back on terra firma and all is well in Bob-World. This is a peaceful,secluded little sandy beach and so tempting.  You can't swim here though.  Alligators get first dibs.  

My daughter sent these photos this past weekend.  Mason, a boy with three basketball- playing big brothers, is playing in the YMCA youth program for the first time this year.  Here he is explaining to his dog Annabelle why she can't come along like she did to soccer.  

Looks like he's going to do well -- if the eagle mascot doesn't eat him!  

The Writer has been busy, too -- getting the seeds out of the pumpkin for his favorite snack.  This guy had some giant seeds, too.  And they were delicious roasted.  

We're calling her Wanda.  

Wooden Boat Show

The 29th annual Georgetown Wooden Boat Show is one of my favorite events of the year.

Since I didn't see you there, I'll show you some of the highlights.  

Boats begin to come in about the middle of the week.  By the weekend the marinas and the hotels are overflowing with boats and those who love boats, especially boats with a history.

This boy had one job to do -- watch the boat.  He would not leave his post for a rub or even look at me, no matter what I did or said!  

"Vroom Vroom" is a one- to two-seater (depending on the passenger's physique) with a jet ski engine and "jetsquirt  power" -- propelled by water.  It's pretty, it goes real fast, and The Writer informs me you can buy a jet engine on Amazon, in case you're interested in making one. I'll be watching from shore -- with my ear plugs in!  

Children's regatta in the harbor, Goat Island behind.

Up on the street, Front Street, the Coast Guard and Coastie the robot welcome folks. We have our own Coast Guard station here in Georgetown. They have docks and a building now, but back in the 80‘s they worked from an anchored floating barge.  

There are always lots of paintings, jewelry, and fancy handmade oyster knives for sale at the Boat Show, but this display caught my eye.  All the pieces are made from driftwood with parts of it polished and parts left natural.  Some were quite beautiful and would, ahem!, look very nice in our sunroom.  

I saved my favorite boat this year for last, this sweet little Moth Boat.  I can just imagine it with its sail full of wind, the wind blowing my hair back, the salty spray in my face, gulls wheeling gracefully against the bluest sky   ...     oh, yes, where was I?

Here, you can read the description for yourself.  

Cruisin' - Laurens, SC

Laurens, SC - 1930s filling station, brought back to life in 2002 by a guy, Richard Kuhnel, who wanted a place to honor his cruisin' days of the ’50s and '60s. Come back on the first Friday night of any month to see vintage cars -- and vintage people -- hanging out once again at the old filling station.  

Come inside, put a nickel in the slot of the red and white cooler, and slide out a green frosty bottle of Coke.  While you sit on your front fender and talk cars, remember the guy who came out (or ambled over from the bench) when your car drove over the bell that summed him.  Remember sitting in your car, elbow out the window, saying, "Fill 'er up!"  "Check the oil, ma'am?" he'd ask while scrubbing every last bug off your windshield.

 Imagine, all that for 25 cents a gallon, maybe $4 for a fill-up.

Oh, be still my heart!  Look what's parked next to the station.  A vintage Shasta trailer, a "canned ham" with wings intact, in my favorite Shasta color, "aqua" blue.  

So me, don't you think?

Blue Highways ... Western South Carolina

  In our version of holing up from hurricane Florence, we found opportunities to explore a new area of our state.  In my next few posts I'm going to take you on a journey back in time on the backroads of western South Carolina.  

  The history of the inland part of the state is dominated by mills and their influence on every aspect of life in small towns.  What's left of them -- their giant old smokestacks of crumbling bricks -- still rise up tall over the horizon as you approach each town.

The Pendleton Mill was first a cotton gin built by the Sitton family during Reconstruction.  Over the years the gin made one family wealthy and for many years provided a living for the people of the town.  

  An oil mill was added to the site before the turn of the century to make use of the cotton seeds extracted during the ginning process, using what had previously been waste.  After World War II, the mill was refitted to join another innovation in the cotton industry, turning cotton seeds into fertilizer for agriculture.  

Today, the mill site is abandoned.  What was once the life blood of the town, now is an eyesore and a serious problem.

The owner can't afford to pay taxes on it and the city can't afford to confiscate it, demolish it, and take on the responsibility to clean up all the toxic waste accumulated over the years.  The town is in negotiations with the EPA for assistance.  

The Flo-Flood is Upon Us ... Sort Of

The flood probably crested sometime yesterday, at levels greatly reduced from predictions.  Of course, we are grateful.  There is no flooding in our neighborhood at all and even downtown, where predictions ranged from five to fifteen feet of water, it's merely a wash over the road.  (That's not to say there aren't people dealing with several feet of water because in some areas close to the rivers they are.) 

Thursday night we meandered through downtown.  All the businesses along the harbor had been emptied of merchandise, boarded up, wrapped in plastic, sandbagged.

Only Captain Sandbag was left to watch over the Maritime Museum, greet gawkers, and offer rides out of town.

Next door, on the Harborwalk that runs along the waterfront, a lone saxophonist played jazz in the darkness.  It was so eerie and sad.  

The floating bridge has been dismantled and we saw the convoy of Guard trucks from the bridge-building unit heading south last night, home we assume.  This afternoon the shelters in schools will be closed and soon the aqua-dams along the bridges will be removed and closed driving lanes opened.  When that happens we will be heading to the beach to give thanks for the backside view of all things Florence!   

Waiting and Waiting

We don't need AccuWeather to tell us the Flo-Flood will be upon us tonight and tomorrow.  Our Weather Frog was 10 feet up on the window this morning, begging to come in. 😱

We are fortunate as our house is at 12 feet above sea level and the Sampit River and Winyah Bay (where we are) are not expected to flood as much as the PeeDee, Black, and Waccamaw.

This weekend we watched people and vehicles pour into town and begin work on various projects.  Not only the big equipment and wonderful young people of the National Guard, but emergency personnel lent from all over the East, and private folks like those bringing in their own flat boats and air boats, pickup trucks loaded with bottled water, $4000 worth of food from the people of New Orleans, animal rescue groups, and on and on. They come at their own expense just because they know the misery of flooding.  

Like Mr. Rogers said, in an emergency, look for the helpers.  

Since Sunday the Guard has been working to construct a huge floating bridge to take supplies and emergency vehicles across the river when the three big bridges become impassable. Georgetown Hospital has been been evacuated and now the next closest hospital is across two bridges and up the main highway, which will flood.  

A fleet of these heavy trucks arrived, each with a huge metal box on the back, at the Sampit River marina.

The staging area is about a half mile from our house. The truck with its headlights on is backed down the boat ramp into the water. It released one of the big metal boxes into the river and slowly it opened up like an unfolding flower until it was flat on the water and afloat.  Several more boxes were dumped, unfolded, and attached together.  

Voila!  It's a floating road, one that can hold a fully loaded semi truck of sandbags, supplies, or whatever.  It was an amazing thing to see.

Another even bigger project is sandbagging for miles at both ends of the bridges.  These are some of the smaller plastic tubes; farther up the neck they are four or five feet tall with enormous girth. Unfortunately all this work is only a temporary fix to keep the bridges open as long as possible.  No matter what they do, Hwy 17 will eventually flood, cutting Georgetown off.  We went for a drive last night to see what we could see before the deluge begins and there was already water on the road here.  Enormous temporary lights were on and the Guard was working in the dark in the watery area to shore things up.

Unfortunately, a tropical storm will dump more water on the Carolinas at the height of the flood crest Thursday and Friday.  Eight thousand homes and businesses in the county are expected to flood. 

Thank God for the helpers!