haven't lived on the road for weeks

After leaving Marisa's cousins in North Carolina the truck had a little problem on the way to Graveyard Fields and for the second time we aborted our attempt to hike there. Apparently the truck was angry with us after sitting so long and decided to cry, the water pump sprung a leak. Unsure if we could make it to Albert's Uncle's house in Jedburg, South Carolina, we decided to go for it anyway when he told us he had a mechanic for a neighbor. Once we were there and not worried about a place to stay Albert tore apart the truck with the encouragement of his Uncles and Dad and got the Problem fixed. Had we taken it into the neighbors shop it would have cost a whopping $700 to fix!

At Uncle Stephens place the family time continued, eight of us converged on him and Anglia and filled the house. We checked out downtown Charleston on a carriage ride, walked the slave market, sat around the house and talked a lot. It was good times had by all for nearly a week. Early thanksgiving dinner plus home cooked meals most every other day and candy bowls full to the top added an inch or two to everyone's waistline.

Lucky for us we weren't done with Thanksgiving, all that goodness above happened the week before thanksgiving. We headed a few miles over to Marisa's friends Christina and Steven's place for real Thanksgiving. On that little 25 minute drive the truck reminded us that it is not going to last forever but this time it only requested a break job and tire rotation. There was only four of us for Thanksgiving but that didn't stop us from making a deep fried turkey, a ham plus all the sides and 3 pumpkin pies. Oddly, we don't feel burned out on ham and turkey, I guess months of ramen noodles and oatmeal has burned out our food burnout circuit.

Charleston has a restaurant called Justine's Kitchen and Marisa has been raving about it since she went there a year ago. "The best fried chicken I have ever had" she said, we went there and Albert concurs, that is some damn good chicken! Crisp brown crust and juicy savory meat, this chicken is phenomenal, the sides are good and the dessert is great.

We are also back to our beer sampling ways plus some. Our house and the two neighbors loaded up and drove out to Coast Brewery for some local brews. This is a husband and wife operation based in a warehouse funded by a second mortgage on their house and they are making some good beers, we left with a growler full. Next stop was Firefly Distillery for some sweet tea vodka and more. They also make other infused vodkas, a couple rums, and a sweet tea bourbon that we decided to take a bottle of. Crazy thing, right on the same plantation as the distillery is a vineyard, so we tasted some wine too... We made it out of that place without a bottle of something so no need to worry about us having a "problem." We were only a couple miles from a tea plantation to so we checked it out. It turns out tea grows on hedge with medium sized leaves. It just seems like it would be different for some reason, they trim the top of the hedge, dry those leaves and depending on how long it's dried you get green, oolong or black tea.

Albert and Steven were both due for new running shoes and when black Friday rolled around they were inspired to go for an early afternoon shopping trip to get some Vibram five fingers. These shoes aren't shoes as much as they are gloves for your feet and running barefoot apparently uses completely different muscles than with shoes. The next day a leisurely 1.25 mile jog resulted in nearly debilitating calf soreness that lasted four days. The next few days were spent struggling to get up and down the stairs at the house.


The fun and games are over once again, our hosts must get back to work and we must move on. Unfortunately the weather has gone from warm and sunny to cloudy and cold with rain coming. Fingers are crossed that the truck is satisfied with it's repairs and the weather doesn't treat us too bad because soon we'll be homeless and on the road again.

We're not sure exactly where we're headed yet, it's a toss up between back tracking to Great Smoky National Park or moving on to Georgia. Either way we'll be in the Everglades with Marisa's mom and her BF in two weeks.