Weekly Update: Oct 31, 2018

The week started with two nights at Dreher Island State Park, somewhere in the middle of South Carolina. I got lucky and my site was close enough to the water I could just slide down a little bit of land to launch my kayak and have a nice afternoon paddle. My campsite was just to the right of where the kayak is pointing.

I was only 20 miles or so from Columbia, the state capital, so I went in on Thursday to have a look around. The Museum of Art is adding space, so it’s a hot mess of noise and construction, but the upside was free admission! And this is a cool collection, organized by theme rather than chronologically, so you can understand the evolution of portraiture or modern art or even furniture. Small collection but some big names: Warhol, Miro, Monet, and Calder were some of the artists represented. I say check it out if you’re in Columbia.

From the sublime to the slightly ridiculous: two blocks away is the world’s largest fire hydrant. Non-functional, thankfully, and fenced in so that dogs don’t get any ideas…

One of the highlights of the day was spending time at the African-American History Monument, tracing the history from Africa to modern day. Look for a separate post on this later…

Friday, I hitched up the Alto and headed further south, into Georgia and a return to Skidaway Island State Park. This time, I did more exploring, including a zombie ghost tour in Savannah with friends (thanks, Neil and Lori, it was definitely a fun evening!) and a visit to a mile-long avenue of live oaks at Wormsloe. More trees to love. (The spooky cover photo this week is from the ghost tour.)

From there, I did a one-night stand at Crooked River State Park (Georgia). It was a nice enough park but I was definitely jonesing to get home and stop moving. This is the little lake right in the campground, where there’s a tiny sign warning you alligators are in there. A lovely reminder of all that is the tropical South.

And then, Monday, I made it to Gainesville, and the end to this 18-month sojourn through the US and Canada (May 2, 2016 – Oct 29, 2018). I’ll go back out in the Spring, but for now I’m planted firmly in the tiny RV park that is my friends’ side yard. This time I even have a canopy!

To celebrate my arrival, we took a stroll down to the newly named Tom Petty Park and then hit up happy hour at the local sushi bar. Ah, civilization rocks!

I have a large backlog of places I want to feature on my blog in the next few months, so I’m not going away. I’ll be taking advantage of the opportunity to reflect and synthesize my experiences into art, as all artists do. So stay tuned…

---

There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home.

Dorothy