Okefenokee 2009 Week 1

Well, it seems like only yesterday when we returned from Antarctica. It has been less than two weeks but we are ready to head south. We will again spend the winter volunteering at Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. This will be our third and probably last winter there. Before we start volunteering we will do some birding and visit friends in south Florida. We want to get to West Palm Beach in time for our friend Millie Rosenberg’s Bat Mitzvah on December 20^th so we planned to move into the motorhome on the Sat., 13^th and leave on the Sun. 14^thwith a an additional packing day on Friday, Dec. 12^th .

However, a few impediments slipped into this plan. On December 12^th, Friday, our first packing day, we awoke in Lowell to learn that northern New England was hit with the worst ice storm of the century. Nearly one million homes were without power (fortunately we weren’t one of them). Hundreds of roads were blocked by fallen trees and downed power lines. Though both MA and NH were declared in state of emergencies with governors’ warnings to stay off the roads, we drove to Hooksett to start moving into the coach, at least a 2 day process.

We love wildlife, but not the field mice who we quickly discovered had visited our motorhome. We found mouse evidence in every cabinet that had plumbing to the outside. Lots to clean up, including leftovers from “mouse thanksgiving dinner” acorn shells, and lots of mouse turds.

Thirty six hours after the storm, Public Service of NH announced that 400,000 of their 530,000 customers were still without power. The Shapiro’s house had no power but Don had installed an emergency generator a few years ago so they had heat, some lights and water (cold only). When we moved into the motorhome we had power (our onboard generator) and heat but no water. When Carl tried to fill the water tanks he discovered water streaming from a cracked pipe that flooded the bedroom. It turns out our coach has plumbing for an optional washing machine (which we don’t have). The pipe we didn’t even know we had, in the back of what is, for us, a closet, froze and split, causing the leak.

In spite of power out, leaks, lack of water and very cold weather, we spent the evening, first with Paul and Claire’s daughter, Tara, and her 5 beautiful children, (oldest is not quite 7), then a pizza night with Paul and Claire, George and Priscilla (Paul’s wonderful brother and his wife), and Don and Sandy. We were originally going to see Christmas lights at Claire and Paul’s. Instead, with power out, we saw beautiful Christmas candles.

Carl repaired the leak and we were finally on our way mid morning. Unfortunately, he discovered the leak last night after flushing the antifreeze out of the system and some parts froze up during the bitter cold night in spite of the furnace running almost continuously. Time will tell if any other damage was done. We have lots of bottled water to use until the coach system is working again. We drove about 400 miles to our favorite first night/last night (depending on which direction we are going) stop, the WalMart in New Castle, DE. It is a handy spot since there are no campgrounds open this far north in mid-December. Once again we shopped at the WalMart as compensation for the overnight parking.

We drove 425 miles today, skirting Baltimore and Washington DC. We arrived in Fayetteville, NC where the temperature was 72 degrees, 63 degrees warmer than Sunday morning in Hooksett!!! We finally got the water system flushed and thankfully found no more leaks and only a few more mouse turds. We have settled into the coach and it now feels like home.

Today was a short 140 mile drive to Huntington Beach State Park which is ten miles south of Myrtle Beach, SC. This park has a beautiful campground, nearly empty this time of year, lots of hiking trails, miles of deserted beach and lots of wintering birds. Oh, and it was 70 degrees!! After a quick lunch we headed out for a hike and stopped at the education center where we saw lots of interesting exhibits relating to the local fauna and flora and many aquaria with local fish and invertebrates. As we talked to the ranger and compared the local temperature with the nine degrees we left in NH, he told us that he lived his entire life in SC and had only seen snow on five occasions! Neither of us could think of anyone who knew how often they had seen snow! We hiked through the scrub forest behind the beach dune, stopping at a couple of ponds to check out the ducks and grebes and moorhens. The trail ended at the beach. To the north was the inlet and Myrtle Beach skyline. To the south were miles of beach with no one in sight. In total we saw about 20 species of birds and we hiked about three miles, some of it in soft sand so it was a good workout compared to riding for two days down I-95. Carl grilled some salmon on the barbeque and we had a quiet dinner talking about the rest of our trip and how much we love this lifestyle.

The light rain in the morning dampened our enthusiasm for an early start. When we finally got moving, we toured Atalaya, the remains of the former winter home of Archer and Anne Huntington. Built in the early 30’s this substantial single story home is designed in the Moorish style from southern Spain. It is all weathered brick and peeling paint now but it was still interesting to see the different rooms and read about how they were used. The Huntington’s were people after our own heart. Each winter they traveled from Connecticut in a custom built travel trailer. It seems Mr. Huntington was 6’7” tall, weighed 300 pounds and did not fit in hotel beds, hence the custom trailer. The path that was once their driveway was dripping with birds and we spent quite a few minutes in one spot spinning around to follow the birds. After lunch and some shopping we hiked up the beach to the jetty. Along the way we spotted ring-billed gulls, forsters terns, sanderlings and ruddy turnstones. On the jetty we were unsuccessful in our search for purple sandpipers but the tide was still pretty high. Further along the jetty we spotted a bunch of shrimp apparently dropped by a fisherman. Two ruddy turnstones were gorging themselves and fighting off the gulls. It was quite a sight. As we hiked back down the beach the fog returned and we spent most of the return trip walking in a foggy cocoon, barely able to see either the water or the dunes. We wondered briefly if we might walk past the beach access ramp in the fog but we decided to follow our outbound footprints. Back at the coach we enjoyed another barbequed dinner and our first campfire of the season.

Carl was up at sunrise to shoot bird photographs. Fortunately, sunrise was at 7:30 so he didn’t lose any sleep. He was out for an hour and got a couple of good shots. We then packed up and continued south with an undefined destination in the St Augustine area. While we headed south Sandy called a campground to find out if they had WiFi. They did and so we headed to Stagecoach RV. The first 100 miles was slow as we drove along back roads to get back to I-95. Most were two lane roads and at one point Carl was sure we were behind a driver who was only one speeding ticket short of a license suspension. He drove five miles below the speed limit whether it was 55 or 25. Once on the highway it was clear sailing to St Augustine. Once settled on to the site we caught up on email, did a couple of loads of laundry and generally had a relaxing evening.

Today we drove the last 250 miles south on I-95. Mostly boring straight road and always looking into the sun. On to John Prince County Park, a lovely campground where we have a site right on a beautiful lake. At first, though we could not back into the site. The tow-bar was locked up and would not release so we could not disconnect the car. Finally, Carl decided to disconnect the tow-bar from the motorhome receiver. Although 35,000 miles of road grime and rust made it difficult, we finally got disconnected and backed into the site. Once disconnected from the coach, the tow-bar could be removed from the car. We’ll deal with the tow-bar later. We went to dinner with Al & Eileen Kates and Cal and Rhoda Freidenberg. It was wonderful catching up with them but we chatted so long we missed the restaurant early bird specials.

Millie Rosenberg became a fountain pen today. (It’s a very old joke so it’s OK if you don’t get it). After two years of study, Millie was called to the torah along with 14 other adult women, as a Bat Mitzvah. Millie and all of the women conducted virtually all of the service, including the traditional readings from the torah and haftorah. Millie’s portion included delivering the d’var Haftorah, an explanation and interpretation of the weekly portion. She was wonderful and it was a joy to be there to see her. Of course we were hardly alone. Temple Torah typically has 400 people for Shabbat services and today the congregation was swelled by friends and relatives of the 15 women. As they say in show biz, they packed the house. After services we attended a delightful luncheon sponsored by Millie’s son Larry, daughter Suzanne and her husband Aram. In addition to Millie’s family, there was a segment of the Southern NH Jewish Community from the 80’s transported to Florida. Back at the campground we went for a walk around the park and enjoyed sightings of coot, moorhen, limpkin, parrot, red shouldered hawk and much more. In the evening we went back to Millie’s to spend more time with her and her family, including her adorable grandson Benjamin. All in all a wonderful day!