Lake Marion

We left Florida amid some torrential rains by the week’s end, heading north for the spring. We only made it to South Carolina. We pulled into Lakeside Marina and RV Resort on beautiful Lake Marion. The campground has no “it” factor. It contains only about a dozen sites along with some newly constucted rental cottages. But the lake lies out our front window, only a bit obscured by a lineal posing of a variety of pontoon and other fishing vessels. Jim, the host and owner, has provided help beyond expectations. A learned man that stories us on the aspects of the area, his hospitality has given us reason to want to stay for awhile. With moving in and doing the usual scouting of the area, the morning walks and bike rides have given way to cruising. Life is much slower here. Not only is anyone not in a hurry, but even normal speed seems a stretch. But I’m understanding why as time passes. There is no where to go, no place to be, as the economy has halted activity here to a crawl. We visited the Alpine for breakfast on two occasions. Enough food to last for much of the day and the total bill didn’t yet reach $15. A visit to Chef’s Choice on Saturday night found the most mouth watering steaks in a long time, cooked on the grill right in front of us, by a throng of black teenagers.  I notice that a lot. Adorned in a cowboy hat, vest, boots, and string tie, all emblazoned with more bling-bling than a corner pimp, Fast Freddie DeeJayed the room while patrons feasted on steak and shrimp. This took me by surprise a bit. I’ve never been serenaded by a DJ at dinner. The Commodores, Earth, Wind, and Fire, along with KC and the Sunshine Band seemed to be the mainstay of Freddies stash of music. However, an occasional fight song of Clemson and the South Carolina Gamecocks was thrown in. While all of the attendees were white, all of the kitchen help here is black. I”m noticing that a lot. It’s unsettling to me. I’ve been watching once again Ken Burns PBS series, “The Civil War”. From where we sit, there doesn’t seem to be a great degree of cultural change since this epic campaign of hostilities.

Robin has a cracked wisdom tooth. Our back home dentist suggested it’s removal. We found an oral surgeon in Summerville. A forty minute ride this morning was to no avail. The dentist informed her that it was still funtioning, assisting in her chewing and wouldn’t remove it. He suggested a root canal, followed three weeks later by a crown. CHA CHING! CHA CHING! That won’t work. We’ll be in the Keystone state by that time. She’ll just have to bear with it and get it done by our regular dentist. The visit didn’t prove altogether fruitless. I found a Walgreens and filled prescriptions, had the oil changed in the car as well as the transmission fluid flushed and replaced. The latter has alleviated our problem of a slight miss in the engine acceleration. Good news there as I’m a bit retarded when it comes to vehicle diagnosis and fixing mechanical problems. In the meantime, we’ve been enjoying the mid 80’s temperatures and spending many hours exploring the lake in search of wildlife in front of the lens to enhance more the most glorious of days. We’re enjoying this part of the Palmetto State right now and have decided to stay for a bit longer than expected.