We left Stone Mountain State Park around 10:30 am on Tuesday, October 20th for what was supposed to be about a 3-hour drive to Sesquicentennial State Park in Columbia, South Carolina for a 7-night stay. The trip was almost all Interstate driving, but it was the most direct route. Still, due to heavy traffic around Charlotte, it turned out to be about 4 hours instead and we arrived close to 2:30 pm.
Sesquicentennial State Park
Created in 1936, Sesquicentennial State Park was named for Columbia’s sesquicentennial (150th anniversary) celebration that year. One year later 1,445 acres of land were purchased 12 miles outside of the city and the Civilian Conservation Corps, one of the New Deal programs enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was assigned to develop the park.
Today the park features include hiking trails, biking trails, a softball field, splash pad, a lake, fishing, boating, a dog park and the campground.
There are 84 campsites for RVs and tents, 9 of which are full hook-up and the rest providing 20/30/50 amp electric service and water as well as a picnic table and fire ring. There are also restroom facilities with hot showers.
The road to the campground was very rough and rugged and even at the campground itself we had to thread our way through lots of trees to get to our site. Site 74 was wide and spacious BUT extremely unlevel as it was just dirt and tree roots, reminiscent of some we’ve stayed at in Florida state parks. You can see from the photos that it took a lot of levelers (and several attempts backing in and out) to get everything level. I even had to extend the base of the steps so much that it was steep going down from the door to the ground and from the ground up to the first step going in was a real stretch, especially for Cindy.
Wednesday we went out to lunch before grocery shopping and made a stop at a crafts store for Cindy. That night we binge-watched the last four episodes of the latest season of The Diplomat. Thursday was spent relaxing and I finished up the blog post about our stay at Sherando and getting to visit with Ann, our grandkids, and Heather and Richard. It was a good visit.
Congaree National Park
On Friday the 23rd, we left mid-morning to go to Camping World for a few things I was going to need, then drove south about 30 minutes to visit Congaree National Park.
This National Park is 26,692 acres in size and contains the largest intact expanse of old-growth bottomland hardwood forest in the southeastern United States, as well as one of the most bio-diverse ecosystems.
At Congaree you can primitive camp, canoe or kayak the extensive water system, take ranger-guided tours and much more. We went so we could hike/walk the two-mile self-guided boardwalk tour at our own pace.
But first we stopped by the Visitor Center to pick up maps and, of course, look over the gift shop offerings. Since we have the America The Beautiful Pass and never have to pay to enter our national parks, we try to support them further by patronizing their gift shops. While in the Visitor Center we stopped to watch what we thought was a serious video about safety on the park hiking trails and boardwalk. Instead, we found ourselves laughing at a funny performance by several park employees that also drove home the safety message. Bravo to the park staff for presenting important information in a more entertaining fashion!
We spent about 2 hours on the 2-mile boardwalk learning about the plant and animal life in this unique environment, as well as enjoying the views and the time we had to explore from the safe vantage point of the boardwalk. Cindy was the one who suggested we visit Congaree and we were both glad she did. It was a great experience.
In the photos I’ve included a map of the Congaree National Park and I overlaid a more detailed map of the boardwalk in the right corner so you can see how vast the park is compared to the boardwalk area.
iPad Pro versus MacBook Pro
Saturday was spent learning some new computer skills. When I uploaded our blog post about our stay at Sherando on Thursday (above) I was unable to post the video I created to go with it. That was because after I created the video on my iPad Pro, as I usually do, it suddenly crashed halfway through and would not display properly. Instead, it showed a black screen about halfway through even though the audio kept playing. So I posted the blog without the video.
I’ve had a problem with a writing app also not working as fully as it should on my iPad Pro, so my conjecture is that my trusty device is finally getting too old to function properly.
Anyway, I decided to recreate the video using my MacBook Pro. It’s not new, per se, but it’s newer than the iPad Pro. I thought it would be pretty simple, especially since I would be using the same app that I use on the iPad Pro. But it turns out that the program is much different on a Mac OS than it is on iOS, so I had to learn a lot of new commands, processes, etc. to create the video.
As a result I ended up spending almost the entire day (other than what is noted below) getting a handle on how to properly massage the MacOS version so I could get a basic video with edits, audio, transitions, etc. ready to be posted. The good part is, of course, that I have added some new skills and hopefully I will get much better at using them. We’ll see.
But the day wasn’t ALL work and no play. After lunch, Cindy and I took a hike around part of the 30-acre lake and got to see some of the original Sesqui Spillway created by the CCC.
And we learned the park had frog wrestling. Take a look at the photo gallery, lol.
During dinner that night we watched the news and afterward the latest episode of VisionQuest.
Kissing The Asphalt
This is a long passage and may be TL:DR for some folks. No problem, I get it. Short version: I got hurt but I’m fine.
Sunday I had a morning full of errands to take care of. First up was going to a laundromat to do our laundry, followed by stops at two grocery stores and getting Voyager fueled up.
I got to the laundromat around 9:30 am and found it to be very crowded for a Sunday morning. I had finished the washing loads and moved the clothes to a dryer, then was going to go sit in the truck and read while the clothes dried.
When I was exiting the laundromat a young Hispanic man was coming in and he stopped and held the door open for me. I thanked him and smiled. In a parking spot directly in front of the door a middle-aged black man had backed in his hatchback car earlier to unload his laundry. I had watched him from the front seat of Voyager, which was to the left of his car, when he arrived.
So I needed to step around the young man holding the door and then go to my left to get to Voyager. As I did, I misjudged the curb step down and fell off. What happened next must have looked comedic to bystanders.
My right ankle bent under me and I started falling. I saw the young man’s eyes widen before my mind turned my attention to my predicament. My forward motion of circling him was pulling me to the left while the force of gravity was pulling me down, all at the same time. I could see what was going to happen, but was unable to stop it. With my right foot collapsing under my weight, my right knee slammed into the hard parking lot surface with so much force I thought I must have shattered it. My left knee, not wanting to be left out of the fun, followed suit.
My body was still turning in mid-air, so my right shoulder crashed into the rear of the hatchback car, followed almost immediately by the back of my head doing the same. I’m not a small guy and I imagine that, if he hadn’t been backed in, the driver, who was sitting in his front seat, would have thought another car had rear-ended him.
But the fun wasn’t over.
My head literally bounced off the back of the hatchback and my baseball cap went flying to my right. Gravity was still exerting its force on me so I was slammed face first down into the asphalt. Time seemed to slow as I saw the blacktop getting closer and closer to my face. Of course it was my face getting closer to the blacktop because I was the one moving, not it. The very clear thought, “This is going to hurt” flashed through my mind and then it did.
I felt my nose flatten and a blast of pain. I’ve been punched in the nose before, so I knew what I was feeling. I could also feel a gush of blood filling my nostrils and flowing down my smashed lips. Surprisingly, I didn’t lose consciousness so I pulled my right hand from behind me and immediately started pushing myself up off the parking lot. My left hand was already a bloody mess as I had, instinctively, tried to slow my fall with it and only succeeded in scraping the skin off as it dragged across the rough surface.
As I slowly lifted myself from the ground I kept my face parallel to the asphalt. Lots of things and thoughts were going on at the same time. I could see the feet of the young Hispanic man turning my way. I was still looking at the ground thinking, “Did I break my glasses?” Amazingly, I hadn’t. I saw his hand reach down from above my line of sight to my right to pick up my baseball cap. The door of the car I had bounced off of slammed shut and I saw the feet of the driver approach. I was keeping my head face down and out so I wouldn’t bleed all over my shirt as I pushed off of the ground and stood. The young Hispanic man was holding my hat out to me and I reached and took it saying, “Thank you” while the black man grabbed my arm to steady me and said “Man, are you alright?” I said, “Yeah, I’m fine” as I wobbled on my twisted right ankle and almost fell back against his car. “No man, you’re bleeding pretty bad, we need to get you to a hospital!” I shook my head (oh THAT hurt!) and said, “No, really I’m fine” and finally got myself steadied on my feet and started toward my truck, still keeping my face down and my head stretched out so I didn’t bleed down the front of my clothes. “Are you sure?” he called after me and I said, “Yes, thank you I’m OK.” I headed toward the front passenger door of Voyager and opened it.
I found a tissue of Cindy’s in the door and gently placed it under my nose to stop the bleeding. It was soaked beyond use immediately. Knowing everyone was watching me I straightened up and purposefully walked back into the laundromat. I wanted them to see I was fine. I headed for the restroom, but the door was locked. I went over to the dryer with our damp clothes in it and opened it, reached around inside and found a dish towel. I hoped Cindy would forgive me as I put it on my nose to soak up the blood.
Back in the front seat of Voyager I looked in the mirror to see how bad the damage was. My nose looked like a big, red, messy blob in the middle of my face. I know, I know, I can hear my brother now saying nothing unusual about that, lol. But yeah, road rash on your face is not pretty. The nose itself looked like a lump of raw hamburger meat and blood was still flowing from both nostrils.
I was still amazed that I hadn’t lost consciousness, hadn’t broken my glasses, hadn’t busted my front teeth (though they definitely hurt) and now I’m looking at my face in the rear view mirror and find myself surprised that I don’t have one or both eyes blackened.
I got out of Voyager and walked over to the black man in the car next to me and thanked him again for trying to help and apologized for hitting his car. He said, “No problem, brother, just wanted to make sure you were all right. Are you all right?” “I am”, I replied, “It was nothing more than taking a punch to the nose in a fight.” He laughed and said, “I feel ya!”
I looked around for the young Hispanic male to thank him as well but he was gone. After the laundry was done I finished my errands with no issues other than the pain in my nose, body, and head, though I did get some funny looks from other customers and the cashiers, lol. Oh well.
Even sadder news that Sunday was the passing of Walter Koenig, best known for his role of Ensign Pavel Chekov in the original Star Trek TV series and movies. I also enjoyed him in Babylon 5. R.I.P. Walter Koenig.
I spent Monday recuperating. I had a painful headache all day, my body felt like it had been in a car accident (lol, it kinda was), and my nose still felt like it went 10 rounds with Rocky. Cindy suggested applying hydrogen peroxide and antibacterial cream to the surface to mitigate and possible infection. I followed her advice, but I’m sure that parking lot asphalt was clean and antiseptic, right? Right??
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