FLORIDA - SOUTH CAROLINA - NORTH CAROLINA

Friday, March 28 – We left Elite RV Park in Salt Springs, Florida around 8:15 am with a beautiful morning and clear light-blue sky. Little fog pockets along the way evaporated around 9:00 am. Pine trees, scrub oaks, and underbrush fill the landscape and rolling hills make it a very nice drive. The acorns of the scrub oaks supply food for scrub jays and many other animals and scrub oaks are the "backbone" of the Florida scrub. March 20 was the spring equinox where the length of the day and night were equal. Now the days will get longer and we will have more daylight to explore I like that thought. We are staying at an OK park tonight at New Green Acres RV Park in Walterboro SC for $19 using AAA membership discount. This park is known for “The Longest & Widest Pull-Thru Sites East of the Mississippi. We pulled in around 1:30. We had no reservations and all that is available is water/electric/30 amp. However, for one night we can handle it. Our SAT will not work with the pines all over so we can get our reading and computing done listening to our CDs.

FUEL & RV PARK FEES– we thought that the diesel costs out in California last year were extreme, but we are beyond that now and we are finding that our RV site costs are way above what we averaged last year - $14.50 a night. We used our Thousand Trails membership preserves that helped with the costs with 84 days. We are making reservations ahead to travel the northeast, and it will be during their “high season” (summer). We have to make the necessary adjustments where we can to compensate for the additional expenses. We are also using three of the Thousand Trails Preserves. Friday, March 29 - We left New Green Acres RV Park in Walterboro SC at 7:15 am to get an early start traveling toward Forest Lake Preserve (Thousand Trails Membership) in Advance, NC, 30 mi south of Winston Salem, NC.—66 mi east of the Blue Ridge

Pkwy.

We were on the road by 7AM and it started to drizzle rain at Charlotte, NC. Moreover, it rained until we were 8 miles from the park in Advance, nice timing. Arrived at noon, rolling hills most of the way, with beautiful lavender and cherry blossom trees in bloom. Ray was watching our MPG very close; although not much difference between 60-70 MPH (Around 8 MPG), that is not bad pushing 45,000 lbs down the road. Arrived around noon at Forest Lake Preserve. Our site is at the highest point of the park. There are almost 300 large sites, very nice, and quiet. Hard gravel roads, many hills, small lake with Canada Geese, ducks and signs of wild, small pigs around, many cardinals, and loads of robins. About 15 cabins surround the lake, with a large recreation center. We selected a treeless site on top of the hill, hoping our satellite dish could find its path... At least we have four bars on cell phone as we are looking at a 300-ft cell tower outside the preserve. Wow, what a break after no phone service or internet for the month. Our Verizon Air Card is working to full capacity on one computer and the other picks up the parks WIFI. We are “loving life”. The foliage in Advance looks the same as when we left the Smoky Mountains last October. Few trees have leaves, overcast skies and cold. Forecast for the next 7 days is 30-50% rain Hi 45-60 - Low 38-45. Right now 11: AM it is 45. The word for the week is bleak, wet & sunless. Once again, they are saying this is very unusual. I have heard enough of that. Maybe we left a couple of weeks too early. We have now extended our stay another week due to the inclement weather... Many states have towns named "Lexington", but only one claims to be the "Barbecue Capital of the World.” More than 20 restaurants serve up pork shoulder barbecue cooked over hot wood coals - in a town of 20,000 people! One restaurant has been named the best in the world! You never know who is going to sit down beside you - movie stars, governmental leaders, major sport figures and other notables. Keep your camera and autograph book handy! Sunday, March 30 - Rain and overcast skies again today. We drove into the town of Lexington with light drizzle and took some pictures of the Uptown Lexington. The have the largest collection of locally owned businesses in Davidson County with 55 retail establishments. Of course, it was Sunday and everything was shut down for the day.

Lexington - church w/unusual architecture Statue commemorating fallen Confederate soldiers. .

Wednesday, April 2 - Today was beautiful as we drove to Winston-Salem to get Mitzy groomed. We spent the three hours waiting to pick Mitzy up visiting an interesting historical site called Bethabara.

It was the first Moravian settlement in North Carolina founded in 1753. Archeologists have preserved as much as they could find of the old structures, reconstructed others, and have a museum and walking trails. We took time to see a short film about the Moravians journey walking from Pennsylvania to this area of the Carolina back country of nearly 250 years ago. A small group of fifteen German-speaking, Protestant Moravians daringly settled this religious village and trade center in an 18th-century wilderness, full of bears, wolves, Indians and outlaws. Moravians are acknowledged as the first Protestants, pre-dating the Lutherans by 100 years.

This picturesque, wooded 175-acre wildlife preserve has 126 kinds of area birds. The museum features a unique, restored and furnished 1788 church, archaeological ruins, Visitor Center with the introductory video we saw, exhibits and tours with costumed guides, a reconstructed village, a French and Indian War fort and colonial and medical gardens. We explored the nature trails to the mill site, and strolled the boardwalk over the beaver pond but did not spot the otters, mink, foxes, deer and woodchucks that they claim are seen on occasion at the picnic grounds overlooking the village. Below Herman Buttner House, built in 1803

Blessed with a beautiful, crisp, sunshiny day, we found great enjoyment walking the beautiful grounds with the pink, white, and fuchsia blossoms on the trees in every direction. Most trees and shrubs were tagged with their particular name and who donated it to the museum. The mass of written records, journals, inventories and maps, generated by the early Moravian settlers at Bethabara forms one of the most important bodies of research materials for the study of United States colonial history.

Ray in front of “Pavilion” - the only protective barrier for the Moravian’s village Pink Memory Tree called MAGNOLIA ANN Gemeinhaus - 1788 The only German Colonial Church with attached Minister’s living quarters remaining in the United States. Moravian Wachovia tract leader Frederic Marshall designed the building. The 1757 God's Acre is the oldest Moravian graveyard in North Carolina and the site of the first sunrise service, in 1758.

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