Trippin' with Susan Straley

 Hello from the Marion, VA public library. This is our last day at Hungry Mother State Park.   It was one of the first CCC projects in 1933.  First they built a dam and the little pond became a lake with lots of fingers reaching into the wrinkles in the hillsides.  I say wrinkles because I can't think of the name.  Is it gulleys, gulches, ravines??? I had campsite nine and Steve had campsite ten.  We thought we would be right next to each other.  Well they have three campgrounds and they all start with campsite one.  I parked LILAC at my site three miles away from Steve's site.  Then packed some bags and went and stayed with him.   I have checked on my place since, but I have never seen the camp host there to let them know what's going on. Brunson where Steve was camping was close to the lake and a few mornings we got up to see the sun rise. It is spring and the early morning is full of bird songs.  I heard and recognized ...

Greetings from Virginia! First... we were in South Carolina. We stayed a few days at Hunting Island State Park campground. While there we drove about 25 miles to the Spanish Moss Trail.  Googlemaps directed us wrong, but we found the trailhead anyway. We biked the Spanish Moss trail through the low country where we could look out over tidal grass lands and estuaries.  The trail is about 11 miles long giving us a 22 mile ride or so. On our way back past this downed tree we met a man who told us he had just walked past that place the day before, when it was windy and rainy.  The tree came crashing down behind him just after he passed! The tree we identified using our phones as a sweet gum tree. We stood quite a while chatting with him.  He was quite interesting.   I asked if he was from the area.  He said he grew up in New York and his parents sent him down to his grandparents every summer to keep him out of trouble.   His grand parents had a l...