Aylmer Express "MoHo" Extravaganza 2006

Sorry about my delay in getting the next blog entry uploaded. The JoRo MoHo has returned home a little earlier than scheduled due to the fact that Chantal's mother has fallen gravely ill. I have been overwhelmingly busy getting home life back up and running and kids back to school but I will endeavour to get a final chapter finalized so that you are all not left hanging. Stay tuned.

- Jeff

The weather was reasonable today but word on the street was that very high winds and rain were heading our way. I’m serious. A truck actually drove through our campground with a loud speaker informing us of the impending storm. They went on to say that should anyone need to take shelter they should head to the building with the restrooms and showers. Hmmmm. How bad is this coming storm going to be? They said they are expecting 40 to 50 mph (65 to 80 km/h) winds. That is not too bad if you are in a house. If you are in a MoHo, it is a little less enjoyable. But I guess if you are in a tent, the restrooms would start to look like an attractive alternative. Anyway, it was a nice day so we decided to check out all the bike trails at this state park. First we made a stop at the local coffee shop/internet cafe to get some blogging uploaded since the campground did not offer any internet access. Then Chantal and I had to finish up a few things at the MoHo before we could set out so the kids decided to head out on their own for a few minutes while they were waiting for us. When we hooked up with them 10 minutes later we found that they had already made some new friends. Only this time the friends that they had made were a retired couple who were sailing remote control sailboats. When we arrived at the small lake it was the kids who were sailing the remote control sailboats. We had seen a group of people sailing these boats when we drove by the lake this morning. I had just assumed that these boats were just made up to look like sailboats but had a motor on board which was controlled by the remote controller. However I was shocked to find out that these boats only had a sail and a rudder that was remote controlled. All the power was provided by the wind, just like a real sailboat. Amazing! I got a chance to try it out and, low and behold, you could easily control the speed of the boat by simply adjusting the rudder and the angle of the sails. Unbelievable. After thanking them for letting us give that a try, we set out on our bike ride. As we cruised around we found out that not only is it a beautiful, agrestic location, but there were many other activities available, depending on the time of year. They had boat rentals, they had a water park area for kids, they had a train ride around the park, they had a good-sized play structure and park, and we even passed by what looked like a kayak race course laid out on one section of the small river. We also happened across a sand sculpture that had been created for the festival that was superb which you can see from the photo. All in all, a splendid park that we would happily recommend to anyone wanting to camp in the Charleston area. When we returned to the campground we slowly cruised by all the sites to check out what other MoHo-ers we driving. We saw some pretty nice RVs. At one point we passed a gentleman who was getting something out of one of the storage compartments of his Dutch Star by Newmar. Newmar is a company that builds some of the nicest quality, and likely most expensive, motor homes. The difference between me getting things out of our storage compartment and this man’s activities was that, instead of sticking my head and arms into the compartment and removing the stuff at the front to get at the stuff at the back, this man had simply opened the side door and then slide out the huge drawer-like platform thereby exposing all the items in the compartment and making them easily accessible. Sweet. I struck up a conversation with him and the next thing I knew his wife was giving all of us a tour of their MoHo. No THAT is what I’m talking about when it comes to life on the road. It was not only big but also gorgeous inside. They had four big slide-outs making the unit much wider inside than our humble little MoHo. When you see a rig like that you can see why people don’t mind living in their motor home. After that is was back to reality. We grab dinner in our MoHo and then got prepared for an official tour of the Festival of Lights. I thought it might be nice to ride my bike around the road along which all the displays had been erected but then I realized it would be at night so that would not be too safe. Then I thought we could just walk, but I found out that they don’t allow either walkers or bikers on the road. It was a safety thing which makes sense considering everyone driving down this road is looking at all the displays rather than bikes and pedestrians. So we jumped in our car and headed out. It was quite impressive. I cannot imagine how many people must be involved in putting this together but I did hear that it takes about 3 months to get all the lights set up. And the cool thing is that many of the displays are “moving”. They don’t really move but the way the lights are set up and turned on and off gives the illusion of movement, Check out the videos I took to get an idea. After the Festival of Lights it was time for bed for the kids and blogging for me.

Today’s word:

agrestic \uh-GRES-tik\, adjective:
Pertaining to fields or the country; rural; rustic.

Again, on advice from Bob and Linda, today we were planning to take advantage of a special carriage tour of the Charleston old town combined with a boat tour of the harbour. We got into town, found some parking and then set out on foot to get hooked up with this tour combo. We got tickets and then headed to the dock to start off with a boat tour of the Charleston harbour. We found ourselves enjoying a breezy, sunny, mid-70’s (mid-20s C) day on the water. The boat tour took us past the historic city by the water and on out to old Fort Sumter where the first shots of the civil war were fired. Then it took us back past the USS Yorktown which is an aircraft carrier from the days of WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. This vessel actually has quite an impressive record of battles in which it has been involved, but after having already toured the USS Midway and the USS Alabama, the family put a veto on any thoughts of a tour of this esteemed ship. Our tour finished up with a run under the new bridge in town. You are lucky that I have not decided to upload all the photos I took of this bridge. It is so cool looking to me I couldn’t help myself from taking about a hundred images from all different angles. Then it was back to shore and over to catch a carriage tour through the olde towne, as they like to write it. While we were waiting we ended up finding out a lot about the horses they use to pull the carriages. We also got to pat the horse that was going to pull our carriage. Turns out he really likes Life Savers. It turns out that the reason the owner gives the horse Life Savers is to help freshen the horse's breath. I guess you might call that a win-win situation. The tour was pretty good but the town itself is just awesome. They have done a fantastic job of totally revamping the downtown area. The architecture is beautiful and the authenticity of the renovations is fabulous. Even the gates at the entrance of their houses are gorgeous, in all their daedal splendor. And it seems that the entire city has been focused on catering to tourists, which, in this case, was done in a classy way. Once again you can feel happy in the knowledge that you do not have to look at all the photos I took during this tour either. Charleston is a very unique American city and has a wonderful charm about it. No skyscrapers here. We give it two thumbs up!

Today’s word:

daedal \DEE-duhl\, adjective:
1. Complex or ingenious in form or function; intricate.
2. Skillful; artistic; ingenious.
3. Rich; adorned with many things.

Once again it is time for us to move on. But we are not going too far. Before we left our campground I took a photo of, what I will call, the direction post. It reminded me of that post they had on the set of M*A*S*H which showed the direction and distance to a number of different cities around the world. This one was a little different for a couple of reasons. One, it only seemed to show cities in North America. And two, the directions were not accurate at all. But it was still a fun addition to the campground. We are checking out of Savannah, Georgia and checking into Charleston, South Carolina. We will be taking advantage of a recommendation from Bob and Linda, whom we met in St. Augustine, by staying at a State Park on James Island. On our way I thought that it might be nice to take a quick peek at Hilton Head Island since we were going to be driving close by. I have heard a lot of good things about Hilton Head and our friends in Raleigh have a time share there too. There were a number of things that were pretty obvious as we drove in. First, it is not the best place to be driving a 48-foot MoHo, but that is another story. Second, I believe that all the available beachfront property has been developed leaving nary a single view of the water for us plebeian tourists who are just passing through for a look see. Third there seems to be a lot of money in this area based on the cars that were passing us along with the beautifully kept foliage all along the road into town. And it seems that everybody and their brother has a “resort and golf club” located there … even Disney! However, based on the very nice things I had heard about this place, none of this really surprised me. We determined that Hilton Head is probably a gorgeous place but you have to open your wallet to find out. Once we determined that, it was on to Charleston. We arrived in the dark, again. It seems that the earth’s trip around the sun is really starting to be a pain in the butt for our travel plans. But in this case, it was actually a bonus. You see, the campground where we are staying, James Island County Park, has a Festival of Lights every year and it has just started. It is an unbelievable array of over two MILLION lights and it is something best left to pictures and video to convey. More on this in a couple of days. But suffice it to say that we really enjoyed our drive into the campground. Then it was park, hook up, have dinner, and finish Hotel Rwanda.

Today’s word:


plebeian \plih-BEE-uhn\, adjective:
1. Of or pertaining to the Roman plebs, or common people.
2. Of or pertaining to the common people.
3. Vulgar; common; crude or coarse in nature or manner.
4. One of the plebs, or common people of ancient Rome; opposed to patrician.
5. One of the common people or lower classes.
6. A coarse, crude, or vulgar person.

The weather was decidedly cooler today. I woke up early so that I could head over to the office where the WiFi signal is strong enough for me to upload some blog entries. The office was not yet open but they had a swing and an outlet so that you could take advantage of the extraneous Internet access a little more comfortably, even when the office is closed. The only problem seemed to be that it was only about 50 degrees (10 C) this morning. For those reading this in Canada, I am trying to say it was cold! Hey, we have just spent the last five months sweating our butts off so 50 degrees is pretty much freezing to us, ok? Anyway, I thought it rather cruel irony that the owners went so far as to provide a thermostatically controlled fan outside as well. Being from Canada, and seeing as I was sitting there shivering, I naturally thought this was a device to warm you up. Nope. There were no heating coils on this bad boy. It was actually designed to kick into action for the sole purpose of removing any available warm air from the immediate area. Not exactly what I had in mind this morning. On the bright side, at least the WiFi signal was great. The bad news was that after about 90 minutes, my hands were so cold I was having trouble typing. The lengths I go to in order to keep my blogees happy. Anyway, everyone else got up not too long afterward and made their way over to the office to check their email. Then it was brunch and jump in the Matrix to make our way into the historic district of downtown Savannah. This is a beautiful town. They have fabulous old, but well kept, buildings and homes throughout. And this historic district is sprinkled with little treed squares, which are really more like mini parks. The streets are routed around these squares making the whole are rather quaint and a little more people-focused rather than car-focused when compared to other cities. It is a perfect place to take a walking tour, which is what we did. We ended up chatting with a number of the locals along the way who were out walking their dogs. The kids miss their dog so, whenever we encounter one of our four-legged friends, we usually ask their owner if we can give them some pats. That helps the kids get their doggy fix and it has allowed us to meet may more people than we normally would. On this particular day we ended up patting what has to be the softest and most comfortable dog I have ever patted. It was a Chi Hound, at least I think that is what they said it was although I cannot find anything like it under that name when I search the net. What a beautiful, cuddly, well-behaved dog. You definitely want to check this breed out if you are thinking of getting a pouch. Step one, unfortunately, is to figure out what the name is! And I must say, the locals are so laidback and friendly. We got all kinds of background on the city and recommendations on what to check out while we are there. Some of the highlights of our tour would include, the actual site where they filmed the “bench scenes” for Forest Gump, the City Market, the church where the music director wrote Jingle Bells, and, of course, Johnson Square. Why Johnson Square? A perfect place for a photo-op, as you can see. We finished our tour with a stroll along River Street which is, appropriately enough, right by the river. But as the sun sank toward the horizon we made our way back to the MoHo to continue what we started … watching Hotel Rwanda.

Today’s word:

extraneous \ek-STRAY-nee-uhs\, adjective:
1. Coming from or existing on the outside.
2. Introduced from an outside source.
3. Not essential or intrinsic; foreign.
4. Not pertinent to the matter at hand; irrelevant.

Our grand plan unfolded just as we had hoped. We bugged out of Walmart relatively early. We then arrived at the campground by 10:30. We were pleased to find out that they had a vacant site available which meant that we could park and get hooked up right away thereby leaving the rest of the day to do Savannah-based stuff. After some discussion, as well as a look at the weather forecast for today and tomorrow, we decided to head into town a pop into the visitor’s center to get some advice. After hearing about the different things available to do in the area we figured that, given the nice 85 degree weather today, we should take in Tybee Island and cruise the beach. On our way there we enjoyed some typical marshy Savannah scenery as we headed out toward the ocean. We arrived at Tybee to find a quaint little beach town with all the typical surf shops. Not unlike Pismo Beach, where we stayed in California, in many ways. One sign that seemed to set the tone for this place read:

“You can’t drink all day … unless you start in the morning! ”

We tried to park the Matrix only to find that there are parking meters everywhere and they are in force 24 hours a day, 7 days a week … and we have no quarters. As you might imagine, the businesses in the area get asked for quarters all the time so now they will only give you a dollar’s worth. So we went from store to store trying to get enough for our needs. Once that was behind us we hit the beach for a little picnic. Well, Morgan and I did. A-P and Chantal didn’t want to get any sand in their food so they ate in the car. Ok, if that is what you would prefer … After lunch we all went for a stroll down the lovely, wide, packed-sand beach. We came across a fellow who was doing what you might call “beach surfing”. Or perhaps, “para-skateboarding”. I don’t know, but it did look about as cool as it looked difficult. The guy appeared to be pretty good as we did not once see him fall or have his sail come crashing down onto the beach. I am assuming that those two events would be the main indicators of a novice, but what do I know. And from the looks of things, you’d have to be in pretty good shape to be doing it since we saw him being lifted completely into the air on a number of occasions. After five or ten minutes, I started getting tired just watching him. It was cool enough that I was compelled to take a video so check my videos to see what this is all about. You can also find a video I took of a pelican diving into the ocean to catch a fish. We then decided to head back to the MoHo for an early evening as we were all tired after our rather noisy night at Walmart. Those Brunswick boys like to party it seems. Tonight we were all looking forward to some quiet slumber. We wanted the kids in bed early so, to mollify the kids, we offered to let them watch part of a movie before bed. Guess what movie they picked? Hotel Rwanda. I’m not so sure that this movie makes for a great bedtime story but it certainly is educational. Fortunately no nightmares followed.

Today’s word:

mollify \MOL-uh-fy\, transitive verb:
1. To pacify; to soothe or calm in temper or disposition.
2. To reduce in intensity; to temper.
3. To soften; to reduce the rigidity of.

So today is the day we must leave the happiest place on earth. How does one extricate themselves from Disney? Let’s just say, it should be done gently in order to avoid serious mental trauma. Given that the family had become inveterate shoppers while we were here, picking up a few last minute Disney paraphernalia before pulling out seemed like a prudent first step. As we were packing up to make our exit I managed to capture a unique spectacle on film … well, on memory card. While we were closing up all the compartments on the MoHo we saw a street cleaner go by. Can you believe that? At a campground! I can honestly say that during the entire five months that we have been camping around North America, this is the first street cleaner sighting so far. Unbelievable. Anyway, we finally hit the highway. As we made our way through Orlando, Daytona Beach, and Jacksonville, we started making phone calls to set up accommodation for tonight in Savannah, Georgia. It turns out that the campground that we thought we would prefer only had two spots left but they didn’t provide WiFi at the MoHo, so we told them we’d check some other options and call back if necessary. Then we decide to go to the visitor center when we get to the Georgia border to see what all our options are since our books only showed a few campgrounds in the Savannah area. Due to a MoHo lunch stop and grocery shopping expedition (during which John “located” us in Daytona Beach with his Sprint Locator Service) we don’t make it to the Georgia border until late in the day. At the visitor’s center we found out that the place we called the this morning that did not have WiFi at the campsites is likely our best bet. So we called them back only to find that they were completely full tonight! Isn’t that just great. But they did have openings tomorrow and the next day so we booked those days and started contemplating our options for tonight. That meant that for tonight we would have to consider some subaltern options for accommodation. After some debate we finally decided to continue driving towards Savannah and simply stay at a Walmart for tonight. Our trusty GPS told us that Brunswick, GA had a Walmart, so that became our new destination. The GPS guided us right in to a nice new SuperCenter Walmart which already had a few like-minded MoHo-ers set up for the night. One of them was even from Toronto. We pulled in, grabbed a spot and made camp for the night.

Today’s words:

inveterate \in-VET-uhr-it\, adjective:
1. Firmly established by long persistence; deep-rooted; of long standing.
2. Fixed in habit by long persistence; confirmed; habitual.

subaltern \suhb-OL-tuhrn; SUHB-uhl-tuhrn\, adjective:
1. Ranked or ranged below; subordinate; inferior.
2. (Logic) Asserting only a part of what is asserted in a related proposition.
3. A person holding a subordinate position.