Just keep swimming

I am beyond grateful that I decided to give this RV adventure a try, you know..there is no age or time limit on pursing your dreams, or going on a great adventure and getting some awesome experiences! I put my feet in all five great lakes, climbed mountains, rode on a cog train, wandered among the clouds, saw some moose in Maine, saw whales, puffins, a mother black bear with her three cubs...so cute...and I touched a dinosaur bone! I walked the streets of Chicago and New York City, saw the statue of Liberty, and rode on the subway! I strolled the halls of the Smithsonian museums and I learned so many new things. I went underground in beautiful caverns, panned for gold and hiked through spectacular forests! I had no idea there was so much to see and do in this great country of ours! I thought I had made a mistake when we sold our boat and bought Esprit, but now my hope is that everyone makes these kind of mistakes in their lives, because if you are making mistakes that means you are trying new things, learning, living and hopefully you are changing your life for the better! So.. Do not stop, do not fear, do not worry....just keep swimming!

Charleston...South Carolina..and Beyond

Charleston is the oldest and largest city in the US state of South Carolina and it is so beautiful, we had such a wonderful time there. The first day we went to the South Carolina Aquarium, it was not very big, but it is well worth the trip, located right on the Charleston Harbor it is home to more than ten thousand plants and animals. When you go into the aquarium you can go up to the stingray pool, where you can feed and pet the stingrays, while we were playing with the stingrays we met one of the curators and she took us on a back room tour of the aquarium, it was awesome! I also got to dissect a squid..an average squid consists of a head, a mantle, eight arms, and two tentacles. ... I did not know this but squid have three hearts, two hearts which feed each of the gills, and one larger heart that pumps blood to the rest of the body. Their brain is big compared to their body and they have the ability to use a variety of senses, like touch and smell and they have receptors on their body’s that make them sensitive to taste. While squid are color blind, they do have excellent eyesight, they are able to see both in the shallow or deep water and they can see as well in the day or night time. They are extremely interesting creatures! We had a wonderful day at the aquarium! 

We went downtown Charleston and walked around....super old beautiful buildings! We checked out all the cool places Charleston has to offer....Mount Pleasant, Sullivans Island, Isle of Palm, Daniel Island, North Charleston and Summerville! We stayed there for a week and we had a blast! 

When our time was up weleft Charlston, South Caroina and headed to Mountain City Georgia looking for the color in leafs, but alas, it was not so...The weather was so confusing to the trees this year they decided not to change their color and go right to fall...off....We met back up with Dick and Jane, they were already there waiting for us to arrive. Now..we spent last year in the same area so we were familiar with the area!  

We did find some new places like Anna Ruby Falls, we totally missed this place last year, not sure how, but it was awesome! Anna Ruby Falls is a pair of beautiful waterfalls, cascading in tandem through a beautiful slice of North Georgia forest. The twin waterfalls spill from a towering cliff in wispy white tendrils before splashing and pooling over mossy boulders, the double waterfalls are formed as two creeks tumble over a massive, towering cliff below the summit of Tray Mountain. The Curtis Creek waterfall, is the larger of the two, tumbles over 150 feet into the boulder-filled basin below. York Creek, the smaller one, it spills 50 feet, before joining Curtis Creek at the base of the waterfall. The joined creeks form Smith Creek, which eventually flows through Unicoi State Park to Helen Ga. ledgend has it that a local confederate solider John Nichols found the falls and named them after his only daughter "Anna Ruby"

We also found the Consolidated Gold Mine in Dahlonega, GA.. what fun that place was! Founded in 1896, the gold mine focused on removing gold trapped in quartz veins throughout the property, now... there is still gold to be mined here - but the cost of extracting the gold from the mine exceeds the value of the gold. 

Today, a part of the upper level of the mine remains open for tourists, who can tour portions of the mine...the mines richest quartz vein and it was mined here ..it was so deep into the ground, the resulting shaft became known as the Glory Hole. 

Left behind are some original cart rails, electrical lines and even an operational pneumatic drill recovered from the mine, so we headed 200 feet underground and over 100 years back in time to experience life as a turn of the century gold miner!

After going underground in Virginia in Skyline Caverns and in Luray Caverns, we are old pros at this and I did not have any anxiety! I just had fun!  After the tour you can pan for gold.. and of course we did, we both found three flecks of gold and they put it in a a small vial so you can take it home! 

I’m rich now...LOL