South Carolina Strawberries

South Carolina Strawberries

April 24, 2000

A tall sign along I-85 advertised diesel for $1.31 per gallon.  The last tank of diesel we got in Virginia cost $1.42.  In Delaware, diesel prices were as high as $1.70.  The next sign we saw said, “Welcome to South Carolina.”  As is our custom, we stopped at the South Carolina Visitor’s Center to query the receptionist for quick information about conditions, events, and places of interest to us while traveling through the state.  She asked where we were from, so I explained that we were from Texas.  I volunteered that if we found South Carolina to our liking, we might just move here.  Without hesitation, she replied, “You should.”  Then she suggested that we might wish to deviate from our trip down I-85 toward Atlanta and take Hwy. 11 – the Cherokee Foothills Scenic Highway – through the foothills of the Smoky Mountains.  “You will see lots of pine trees,” she said.  Deciding that a scenic highway would be defined by more than just pine trees, we determined that there would be plenty of time, we needed to slow down from the rapid pace of I-85, and the two-lane, Hwy. l1 would be suitable for navigating with a 35-foot motorhome.

It was a glorious Saturday morning on this day before Easter – blue skies and full sunshine.  No “road rage” here!  Traffic did not pile up behind us as we drove a steady but unhurried pace.   A recent coffee “fix” contributed to the feeling of euphoria that I experienced as we cruised through the rolling, green countryside of small towns and farms.  A hazy outline of the Smokey Mountains appeared in the background and some dogwood blossoms remained on the trees.  Sometimes the ground was carpeted with dogwood blossoms. 

We found a local PBS station on the radio and listened with great pleasure to “Car Talk.”  You know, where the two auto mechanics from somewhere in New England take phone calls from listeners.  One caller explained that he had been severely injured in an auto accident that left him in the hospital for several weeks.  His wife decided to divorce him while he was recovering and now he was trying to put his life back on track.  His question was, “What kind of car should I buy to help me find a kind, gentle woman who likes to camp?  

“You should really get a golden retriever,” was the reply.  “But if you want a younger woman, you should get a Volkswagen.  You will actually have to keep the car door locked as you drive through town or young girls may force themselves into your car when you stop.  But if you want a more mature woman – say maybe 35 to 40 -- you should get a Jeep Cherokee.  This car implies that you are not ostentatious, but a stable though slightly adventurous fellow.  Oh, and don’t forget to get a puppy.  Women love guys that like puppies.”  This advice was given in the same great humor that we have come to expect from these two lively and entertaining automobile mechanics.

A brown sign advertised the Cowpen National Battlefield, so we decided to pull in.  But at the entrance, we “chickened out.”  So often we have been tempted to enter such a park and then realize that the parking lot was designed to handle automobiles and not large motorhomes.  Under such conditions, it is sometimes necessary to uncouple the tow car in order to turn around.  It is not a difficult or time-consuming job but can become tedious if other visitors are blocked by the operation.  The narrow entry road suggested such a parking lot, so we decided to read about this battle of the Revolutionary War in our reference books and not walk those hallowed grounds. 

It soon became obvious that this was peach country.  More and more peach orchards sprouted up along the highway.  Then an odd sort of apparition appeared beside the highway – a large side-hill of strawberries.  Conditioned to seeing and eating California strawberries, we found the South Carolina strawberries a curiosity.  Finding a place to park the motorhome, we stopped to photograph the field.  It was decked out in a plethora of American flags in lines up the hillside through the strawberry field.  As if by a plan, a breeze caused them all to wave at us.  

A large flower garden between the highway and the strawberry field depicted another American flag with red, white and blue pansies.  A workforce of Latino migrant workers worked rapidly to harvest the red berries.  They reminded me of the “wetbacks” who picked my dad’s cotton when I was a kid.  Some of these families came every year from the mountains of Mexico to make enough money to support themselves back in Mexico.  They exhibited amazing feats of strength and endurance in the hot, South Texas sun.  Although not generally large in stature, they were lean and very strong.  While rapidly plucking the lint and seed from the cotton burrs, they could drag a heavy sack of cotton between breeze-blocking rows of cotton in the sometimes stultifying heat.  Then they would haul this heavy sack on their shoulders to the trailer where their harvest was weighed and dumped into the trailer.  Then they would return to pick another sack full, have it weighed and dumped – continuing this hard work throughout the working day.

When I tried to mimic their harvesting skills, I quickly found that my skills were deficient.  Since I was the boss’s son and a lousy cotton picker, I got the softer job of weighing cotton, keeping the tally books for each worker and tromping the cotton into the trailer.  I learned to add quickly and accurately because pickers were quick to find errors in my mathematics.  As the pickers dumped the cotton from their sacks, it was my job to see if they were adding a few clods of soil into their sack to add a few pounds to their harvest.  Although I could seldom find any clods as they dumped, when the cotton was sucked out of the trailer at the gin, we would often find a few clods on the trailer floor.  Somebody cheated!  Workers were paid maybe three cents per pound, so for a 100-lb. sack of cotton they might make $3.00. The faster they worked, the more money they could take back to Mexico to feed the family through the winter.

An ancillary part of my job was to watch for the Border Patrol who sought to find and return illegal immigrants to Mexico.  Upon sighting their green-colored vehicles from my vantage point high on the trailer, I would shout, “Migracion!” as loudly as I could.  The pickers would drop their bags and flush like a covey of quail to a canal bank or other such hiding place.  The patrolmen would dash out into the cotton field, capture a few pickers, but usually leave most to chase at some later date.  These Mexicans had invested greatly in finding transportation to the Texas border, crossing the Rio Grande River and hiking to Edinburg.  To be picked up by the Immigration Service constituted a considerable blow to this investment.  When they first arrived, they were often hungry and very tired.  My mom frequently fed these families by the back door when they knocked and asked for assistance.  I have since wondered if her criteria for deciding whether to feed them was based on the fact that if they were hungry enough to face the pack of snarling dogs that we kept around the house, to come knock on our door, then they must really be hungry enough to deserve a feed.

Now, if you will forgive the digressions to my childhood in the cotton field, back to today.  In the strawberry field, I watched workers harvest with amazing hand speed.  Surely, their pay is based on the amount of berries harvested, not hourly wages – just like the cotton pickers of my childhood.

After taking a few photos of this fascinating scene, we crossed the highway to a shed where a sign read, “Cooley Brothers Peach Farm.”  It was far too early for peaches, but the sales shed was loaded with white plastic, gallon buckets of large, luscious berries.  A sample bucket tempted us to a taste test.  In spite of a minor, but distinct, aroma of Malathion insecticide, we quickly spilled some of the strawberry juice onto our lips as we bit into those delicious fruits.  I silently gave tribute to the genius of artificial selection and some hard-working strawberry breeder.  We gave in to our temptation and parted with a gallon which cost $7.00.  A quick count of gallon buckets in the shed, which were each filled to overflowing with red berries, yielded about 400 for an approximate value of $2,800.  It would take a lot of these buckets to pay for the production, harvest, and sale of this crop, not to mention the cost of all those American flags that decorated that hillside strawberry field. 

In thinking back over the events of this particular morning, and to justify our decision to bypass the Cowpen Battlefield, we pondered the very deep, philosophical question: Were strawberries more fun than battlefields? 

As we entered the hillier and steeper portions of the highway, we passed signs reading, “Revival 10am” and “Ice Cream Churn – old-fashioned flavors” and “Share the road with bicycles.”  We also shared the road with a slow-moving tractor, which blocked the road in front of us.  We waved to the driver when we got a chance to pass.  He smiled and waved back – not with the one-fingered salute we often see on the freeways.

But there is a limit to how much fun we can have in one day and I was tired of driving.  So we decided to cut the scenic tour short and head east to Clemson University.  The Corp of Engineers maintains some outstanding RV parks on Lake Hartwell.  Although these popular park sites are usually completely reserved on Friday, sometimes a few campers check out early on Saturday.  We took a chance and sure enough, a couple of spaces were available.  Using our Golden Age Passport, we obtained a nice, large, flat RV site among the tall trees by Lake Hartwell for only $8/night.  We felt very fortunate to obtain such an excellent site that also had 50 amp electricity and water.  We uncoupled the tow car and toured the nearby Clemson University Campus – remembering that it was the Alma Mater of a couple of my old graduate students and more recently, my nephew, Myles Sterling.  The sign over the Frank Howard Memorial Stadium entry read: Death Valley, SC. Population 81,473 and 1981 National Football Champs.  We spent a couple of hours leisurely wandering across the handsome campus.  I chose to indulge in one of my weird (at least thought to be weird by some) propensity to visit a University Library. 

Later, as I reviewed the day from my pillow – in the thirty seconds before I would be sound asleep -- I concluded that it had not been a day filled with high adventure.  But it had been fun and very satisfying.  For us, happiness is having the freedom to take that unplanned turn in the road to find serendipity – our luck, or good fortune, in finding something as good as a fresh, ripe strawberry by accident.

South Carolina Azalias

 

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South Carolina and Myrtle Beach

Myrtle Beach

November 24, 1999

         

In the Myrtle Beach area, we found a very pleasant surprise. There are ten commercial campgrounds in the area with~over 7000 RV sites - hut we focused on two that provide true, full hookups with water, sewage, electricity, cable TV and overnight phone hookups. These two parks have a combined total of 2189 sites with instant, hot, overnight phone hookups ~ that make them very Internet friendly. Additionally, there are a couple of local AOL numbers so we could access the Internet without incurring long distance charges. The Lakewood Camping Resort has 1200 and the Ocean Lakes Family Campground 989 of these hot phone sites. Unlike some RV parks that advertise overnight phone hookups - but only have a handful that may already be in use -- these parks are well-prepared for us Internet junkies. These two Myrtle Beach RV parks have so many sites with hot phone hookups that the probability of obtaining one upon arrival, without a reservation, are good.  Of course, during the summer, vacation season, a site in these parks may be difficult to obtain and expensive. But when we arrived in early November, there were plenty of these sites available.

         

Are you ready? Here comes another good part. The winter rates are reasonable. Our site costs only about $21 per night for all these services. If you sign up for a month, the rate drops to only about $15 per day. "But," you may ask, "how much extra do. they charge for the phone service?"  The answer is nothing! There is also no extra charge for cable, or electricity for heat or air conditioning use, sewage fee, etc.

         

"Why," we wondered, "are there so many vacancies here?" Sure, most of us RVing types prefer to spend the winter in the semi-tropical warmth of all the southern states from Florida to California, but why not South Carolina? We experienced near-perfect weather during the two weeks we spent there in early November -- one day it was 80 F.  No, the water was not warm enough for swimming in the surf, but the wide, white, sandy, 40-mile-long beach was enjoyed by folks snoozing in the warm sunshine, fishing, shell-collecting, bird-watching, people-watching, walking, biking and jogging.

         

We found a site by a small, freshwater lake maybe 200 yards from the beach. Sites were available adjacent to the beach, but we have experienced salt spray and its corrosiveness on our car and motorhome, so we tend to avoid staying too close to the surf. On one side of our site was a large hickory tree and on the other was a pecan tree - both of which were in the process of shedding their leaves. The squirrels sometimes startled us by dropping nuts on our roof. Behind our site, the Mallard ducks squabbled agreeably in the lake. A Great Egret often terrorized the small fish in the shallows and a couple of Mute Swans added a. stately touch of class to the scene. The large Live Oaks provide habitat for warblers, titmice, chickadees, woodpeckers, doves, nuthatches, blackbirds, bluebirds, finches and grackles. At times, these birds were very abundant. One evening, Black-crowned Night-herons roosted in the trees on the edge of the lake and barked at each other across the lake during evening twilight. They sounded much like small dogs in the trees.

      

OK, so there is beach access, phone hookups, and wildlife in clean, well-maintained parks. But what else is there to do in the area that would make it attractive? A couple of years ago, we drove through this area on Hwy. 17 and were turned off by all the touristy businesses -- lots of miniature golf courses, regular golf courses, water slides, fast food restaurants, boat rentals, motels, rental' apartments, and T-shirt stores. There are at least 80 golf courses in the area.  Obviously, this is a very busy, congested place during the summer vacation period. But this time, we noticed that there are also lots of nice restaurants to choose from, the beach is wide and clean, and the folks we met were very friendly. If you like live entertainment, there are about seven theaters in the area that present shows like the River Dance, Ballet, Gatlin Brothers, Cats, Fiddler on the Roof, Broadway Favorites, Bluegrass, Comedy, Dixie Stampede, Carolina Osprey and more. There are also a couple of dinner theaters. But if you are really into a little culture, Brookgreen Gardens can provide a banquet for your senses.

         

We found Brookgreen Gardens so enjoyable that we returned five times. For only $8.50, you get a pass good for one week. It turned out to be one of the major highlights of our two-week stay.  Exhibiting over 550 pieces of American Sculpture and 2,000 species of native plants on the 9,000 acres on the site of four old, colonial, rice plantations, the gardens are a delightful place to wander around and relax.  In an area of South Carolina where colonial slaves once cleared giant cypress trees from the swamp to build tidal-flooded rice fields, Anna Hyatt and Archer Huntington built a park and gardens that focused on their two great loves - sculpture and nature.  Anna was a very accomplished sculptress and had become fairly wealthy before she met Archer, who inherited great wealth that his father. She decided that these gardens would be a great place to display her sculptures and those of other artists.

         

Here, in a place where slave's lives were short from work in malaria-infested swamps and where the clearing of giant cypress trees had contributed to the extinction of the Carolina Parakeet, which nested in cypress trees, Anna and Archer decided to allow no hunting and to conserve the wildlife. To ensure that their creation survived, they established a non-profit organization to run the gardens after they died. Construction began in the 1930's and the Depression in the 1940's proved to be an excellent time to purchase sculptures for their garden. During the Depression, artists needed a source of income and the Huntingtons needed lots of quality and relatively inexpensive works of art. Their timing could not have been better. One of their decisions was to include no abstract art but to focus on figurative, realistic, sculptures.

         

To this old country boy, who grew up with only a small modicum of couth, I can, at best, only moderately tolerate abstract art. However, I found Anna's figurative sculptures fascinating.  These sculptures exhibit considerable flight of imagination in a way that is appealing in spite of my ingrained distrust of the metaphysical and preference for reality.  Of the 550 pieces of sculptures, 85 pieces were done by Anne.  But of course, Anna played a large role in the selection of works done by other artists. It seems obvious that Anna had a distinct preference for human and animal forms - often together in single works. To my untrained eye, some of these pieces approach the excellence of detail found in works by Michelangelo. I wondered about the interface between art and science in these works.  At what point do the details needed for producing a realistic animal approach the exactness needed by science?

         

The gardens have much to offer the visitor. There are guided garden strolls, sculpture focus tours, a lowcountry wildlife trail, creek excursions on a 48-foot pontoon boat, guided horseback rides, carriage rides, kayaking tours, an introductory movie and a free shuttle. When you realize that you have become so engrossed in the art that you have forgotten to eat, the Terrace Café features a menu of Low Country specialties such as Chicken Bog (rice and chicken) or Chicken Gumbo and the Old Kitchen serves Carolina Peach Tea, pastries and such.

         

Of the tours, my personal favorite was the sculpture focus tour. We met Ron Gatewood, our guide, who used a motorized wheelchair, driven in reverse most of the time so that he could face us, as he entertained us with many interesting tidbits of history and facts about the gardens, sculptures, artists and the Huntingtons. It was one of those near-perfect fall days with full sunshine and comfortable temperatures. I found myself grinning a lot. I was particularly impressed all the animal sculptures - some fanciful and some very realistic. Greek mythology was well represented by elegant sculptures of Diana as a youth and adult. A larger than life sculpture of Don Quixote - broken lance and all - was of particular interest.

         

Across highway 17, lies Huntington State Park where Anna and Archer built their home (Atalaya) close to the beach. This park has the reputation among birders as being one of the top birding spots on the East Coast. Part of the attraction for birds is the large, fresh-water lake built by the Huntingtons. Several large alligators can often be seen from the road that runs on top of the dam. On the north side of this dam is the marsh area, where a long, board walkway takes you out into the marsh to better see the wildlife, vegetation and other elements of a marsh. At low tides, the oyster beds are a favorite hunting place for large numbers of shorebirds. Bald Eagles, Osprey, Northern Harriers and Merlins hunt in the marsh.

         

A one-mile-plus walk north along the beach brings you to the jetties, where other types of shorebirds such as the Purple Sandpiper were seen. Gannets and Brown Pelicans dive for fish offshore.

         

After about November 1st, a yearly pass can be purchased for only $15. It served us well during our multiple entries. There is also an excellent RV Campground in the park.

After a couple of weeks in the area, we left -- but reluctantly. Migrating birds find the Myrtle Beach area a nice place to rest and feed before continuing their trip south. It served the same purpose for us, but with added attractions: we caught up on our email, updated our Webpage, searched the Internet and phoned the kids - all in the comfort of our own motorhome. We will return!

 

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Trucking the World

 

Trucking the World

 

This story was written by my late-friend Roger (Tosh) Williams,   He was a very serious traveler and adventurer.  See what you think.

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Dear Boys and Girls, 

I would like to introduce you to what I think will be a great adventure for us all and a chance to learn about countries around the world, first hand. My name is Roger Williams. I'm a retired Airline Pilot and U.S. Marine Corps Aviator. I was born on a ranch in Texas on October 3, 1936, and graduated from High School in Austin, Texas and then spent one year at the University of Texas. 

My dream from the fourth grade on was to become a Marine Pilot. That dream was realized after many years of hard work in April 1962. While in the Marine Corps, I flew off aircraft carriers during the Viet Nam War. 

I have always enjoyed traveling and I think this will be the ultimate trip as I drive my truck (Bubba) across every continent around the globe. 

On the first leg of my journey. I departed from Southern California, on January 14,1994 and drove through Mexico and all of Central America. I then shipped my truck from Panama to Northern Chile. From there I drove the full length of Chile and crossed into Argentina and proceeded to Tierra del Fuego. Upon completing my goal of reaching Tierra del Fuego by mid-April 1994. I then proceeded north through Argentina to Brazil and shipped my truck from Santos, Brazil to Brisbane, Australia. 

In August 1994, I began the second leg of my travels through the fascinating continent of Australia. Beginning at Brisbane I drove south through New South Wales to Port Augusta. Then I traveled north through Alice Springs, to Katherine; down the coast of Western Australia) to the southernmost tip, across the Nullabor Plain, ending in Sydney. 

At the end of February 1995, my trip through Japan began in Nagoya. I drove around the islands of Kyushu and Honshu with a final stop at Niigata to begin my trip to Russia. 

What an incredible journey I had through Russia. I began the trip at Vladivostok on July 2, 1995. In Khabarosk I put Bubba on the train to Ulan Ude. When the trip three-day trip was over seven days later I was very glad to be driving again. I met many wonderful people, visited some unique schools and computer camps, saw some incredible sights in a country struggling hard to make the changes from a Communist society to Capitalism. I also spent some time in Ukraine and Romania. 

Before the winter snows came I left for Italy. Neither Bubba nor I am prepared to travel in snow and ice. I traveled through France, Spain, England, Ireland, and Scotland in the Spring. I have completed my travels in Africa and will be spending time traveling through the United States visiting schools who have been following my travels around the world. 

Throughout my travels, I visited local schools and helped the children communicate with kids back in the United States and other places. 

As you can see it is a grand adventure and I hope you can join me through activities being coordinated by the Global SchoolNet Foundation. 

You see, a challenge is an integral part of the human experience. Without it, life becomes very dull. We all have to challenge ourselves if we expect to grow and help make a better world for people to live in. Through participating in this adventure I would hope you will be able to form lifelong friendships with other students around the world. 

With better global human understanding, the possibility of violent conflicts diminish. I am hoping all of us can contribute to a lasting World Peace.  

 

I will be sending you summaries of my travels and when possible, digitized photos, using a special device called ComputerEyes that hooks up to my laptop computer. I look forward to answering your questions and will do so the best that I can. If my answers sometime seem short and to the point that is just the way I am - so just bear with me! 

 

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