A BLOG WITH NO GRITS

Well, hello again to all our family and friends who insist I continue with this darn blog and all of those who wish I'd stop. I know it's past tense but we hope you all had a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to come. As you can see from the picture, we are having an RV Christmas in North Carolina and yes, that is my baby daughter on my left shoulder not my right....(how's that for points?) We left the snow country on Dec 20th and stayed the first week in Carrboro, North Carolina spending Christmas week with Laura and Nancy's sister Debby. Had a nice trip down and a nice week visiting and touring around the area including many pottery galleries. The town of Seagrove is a haven for pottery and a potters' Mecca! I did get to visit JR Cigars for a few hours by myself....without any women...alone....solitude....and it's quiet inside a walk-in humidor the size of a basketball court. (Nice)

We also had time to visit Nancy's Uncle Bob who now resides in Raleigh, NC with his sons. He still wishes he was in Florida on his Hatteras but hey, he's 83 and too much work to be done alone on a yacht.

It was sad to leave Laura behind after we threw Debby on a plane back to the snow country, but we continued on with our travels to

Charleston, South Carolina for a week to lighten things up a bit. Now many of you will think that's me fishing at night but if you notice the dragon in the background you'll see that it's really not me. Besides, there's a fish on that line....

We had the chance to visit James Island where they have an annual festival of lights. It's a 3 mile drive through the park, and all I can say is WOW! You'd have to see it to believe it. It's non-stop lights for 3 miles. Very well done.

While in Charleston for a week we kept quite busy. Charleston's history is massive and Fort Sumter was where the Civil War began. We took a boat ride out to the island, toured the old fort and learned all about the start of the Civil War. Also, about the fighting 54th from the movie Glory and expanded further what memory we have left.

Yes, we did tour a plantation; funny you should ask. What's visting the south if you haven't been to one of the plantations?

The Magnolia Plantation was built in 1676 by the Drayton family and is still owned by the family today. Lots of history again! The first one was hit by lightening and burned down. It was rebuilt and burned down again, this time by Gen. Sherman in the Civil War and then rebuilt again in 1869. All I can tell you is, there are alot of places named Ashley down here!

Well, our 2nd week is now history (ha),

and we've left Charleston for another old town; St Augustine, Florida where I am sitting writing this due to someone's insistance that I do it. But before we left, I had to take this picture of Nancy's new potential tax office business. I could re-dress the guy by her side to look like Uncle Sam and her name is on the building and I could just add tax service under it... I told her we could use the money, but she just replied...frankly my dear, I don't give a D A _.

Too much down south I guess? Maybe she'd do it if my name was Ashley?

Ya'll come back now ya hear?