Days 5-7 - Hilton Head Island, SC

Hilton Head Harbor RV Resort 1/23/2015 - 1/25/2015
43 Jenkins Road
Hilton Head Island, SC 29926

I left a brief but beautiful sunrise in North Carolina Thursday morning at 8:15 am (sunrise was 7:18 am).  The drive south was uneventful and from Holly Ridge, NC, it was just shy of 6 hours.  Rain began about 10 am and the drizzle continues.  Traffic was light but with my music the time went quickly.  I stopped once in Florence, SC to tank up.  Diesel was $2.84/gal. and Winnie is still maintaining 15 miles to the gallon which pleases me to no end.

The brief sunrise this morning, before getting on the road in NC.
Once it rose into that cloud cover, I didn't see it for the rest of the day.

Friday Arrival:

I was given a golf cart to visit the sites I'd like and, if 
unoccupied, was mine for the weekend.
My choice was site #114, circled above, a corner site.

  

All sites are on concrete pads; wide and long.  They're
well maintained, landscaped, clean, and pleasing to the eye.

Winnie backed into the
site very easily and hooked
up in no time.

An empty site across the street from me

Some of the big boys.......

Big Fifth Wheels

Saturday:

I enjoyed the relaxing, steady pitter-patter of rain on the roof last night; even had an occasional gust of wind rock me to sleep.  As I write this section of the blog at 8:45 am Saturday, it's clearing nicely but still breezy with the temperature at 52°.  Time for breakfast.

Out of curiosity, I checked to see who "visits" my blog.  Found:

Entry	Pageviews
United States	1658
France	114
Turkey	39
Poland	20
Romania	15
Germany	9
Russia	5
United Kingdom	2
Italy	2
Austria	1

Only the two from Italy can be explained (maybe).  The rest?  Hello, how are you?  (How?  Why?)

Saturday evening topped off my stay here at Hilton Head Island.  Friends, Roger & Wendy, who live in Sun City, Bluffton, SC, picked me up and treated me to a great Italian dinner at  Mulberry Street Trattoria just off the island.  We three are retirees from the Hen Hud school district.  Wendy (English) worked with me in the middle school and Roger (physics) in the high school.  We go w-a-y back.  I've always made it a point to pass through Bluffton for a visit to catch up on their great life style, updated news about sons, Ben and Zach, and of course, granddaughter Samantha, Ben's daughter out in San Diego, CA.  We had an early dinner as they're leaving early

Wendy & Roger

tomorrow (I didn't ask how early) morning to join 130 or so others from their community; they'll travel in three buses to piers in Ft. Lauderdale. (I wonder if they know it's close to a seven hour ride). Their trip will last eleven days and hit at least five of those familiar islands you know about in the Caribbean.  Wendy and I had Pasta Giuseppe: Angel hair pasta with sauteed spinach, tomatoes, roasted red peppers, and pistachio nuts; all tossed with garlic and virgin olive oil.  I planned to eat half as I usually do and bring the other half home for tomorrow's lunch.  That didn't happen (again).  As you can tell by the description, it'll be easy to duplicate this dish back in my home away from home.  The luncheon menu, if you followed the link above, indicates that they also use pignoli or pine nuts.  I can see daughter, Marybeth, whipping this dish up in less than 10 minutes.  She's great at putting a meal on the table in no time.

And so, with another layover, another campground visited and added to my list of adventures, I will get ready to pack.  This RV resort will be highly recommended to any and all future visitors who are RVers.  Even though it's "off-season", the location, maintenance, rest rooms, office staff rate an excellent by this novice RVer.

A little bump in my road has occurred when I tried to run my generator.  Propane tank is full and switch turned on, but after many revs, it just doesn't kick in.  Thank goodness I don't need it as a power source when I'm in camp.  I run it periodically for maintenance purposes.  Fortunately, Monday, on my way south, just off I-95 there's a Cummins-Onan service center in Savannah, GA, where I'll stop for a checkup.  It'll put me behind in my anticipated arrival in Port Orange, but.....so what?  The beauty of it all is I have no deadlines to meet.  The unit is still under warranty and rather than tinker with it myself, I'll let the pros look at it.  After ten hours run-time, an oil change is needed.  Air filter and spark plug will be checked as well.  

See you in Port Orange, FL Monday evening.  To my NY readers: stay safe and warm and look at the upcoming blizzard as God's gift of a day to stay home.  Send me photos of what I'm missing so I can post them on my blog.  These were taken by my cousin Janice in Katonah for her FB page from your last storm that left 7".  This one is predicted to be 10-14":