Trip to Atlanta and South Carolina

Hi All,
Last weekend Susan and her girlfriends had a "girls weekend" planned. Hurricane Irma adjusted their plans a bit. They were going to spend the weekend at a house in Folly Beach, unfortunately that house was under water. Just as we were leaving Texas the plan changed.  They decided to help one of the friends clean up a bunch of downed limbs from Irma on their property in SC. I was going to be loading stuff from Susan's barn in Atlanta to bring back to Texas while the girls had their weekend. With the change of plans I got invited instead!

The property is in what is known as ACE Basin in South Carolina. ACE Basin is the basin of the Ashepoo, Combahee and Edisto rivers, one of the largest undeveloped estuaries along the Atlantic Coast of the United States according to Wikipedia. This particular property is special because parts of the movie Forrest Gump were filmed there. In fact the pecan grove in front of Forrest's house is where we spent the weekend picking up and burning downed limbs.

Run Forrest, Run!

The "Jenny Tree"

We still had a bunch of stuff we wanted to bring back from Atlanta so we spent Sunday evening and Monday morning loading up the trailer with "stuff". Thanks to Mark for helping us get the wood stove loaded.

Let me tell you a story about a man named Jed...

That's it for now. Take care.
Brian

Chapter 3 - 40 acres and no mule

Hi All,
I had several people ask that we continue with the blog and report on what we're doing with the land. So here's Chapter 3, 40 acres (actually 39.93) and no mule (but we did get a Polaris Ranger).

The 40 acres. Here's an aerial photo of our property, outlined in red.

It kinda looks like a gun pointing down. In the barrel (lower left corner) is where the current house is located. The open pasture to the left is Texas A&M AgriLife Research land. The dark triangle looking thing towards the top of our property is a lake / pond.

No mule, but a Polaris Ranger. We bought this while we were in Cody, Wyoming and used uship to get it back to Texas.

In my last post I mentioned we were trying to figure out whether to renovate the house built in 1930 or bulldoze it down. We still haven't decided what to do. One day we want to keep it, the next we want to burn it to the ground. I have a few pictures but they are all of the outside. The inside is so disgusting we wouldn't want anyone to see it. So far we've pulled most of the carpet out so at least you can walk in without losing your lunch.

Looks pretty rough

Well, it could be cute

Maybe too much work

If we just got the tree limb off the roof...

Who knows what we'll decide to do with it. Our purchase decision was all about the land, the house wasn't even a consideration.

Just how thick are the woods?

The word "impenetrable" comes to mind

There are a few places you can get a peek at the lake

Have you ever heard of a forestry mulcher? What a cool machine! We hired a company to mulch around the property line so we could at least know where the property lines are. These machines literally eat trees. A thirty foot tree becomes mulch in a minute or two. They are amazing to watch. Because the woods are so thick I couldn't get in front of them to show them eating an entire tree but here's a few seconds of one doing some "clean up".

And here's what they leave in their wake.

Once again, Duncan has to get in the picture.

That's it for now. Take care.

Brian

The end. For now.

Hi All,
All good things must come to an end and so it is with our latest adventure. Boy have we had fun and many amazing experiences!

After the eclipse there was really only one more significant stop, to see my cousin Christy and her husband Greg in Lincoln, Nebraska. Lincoln is where all 4 of my grandparents lived, my parents met, and where my brother and I were born.

In Lincoln we drove by both my grandparent's houses and had brunch with Christy and Greg. That was Friday.

There weren't this many stops between Dillon and Gun Barrel City but to get the route correct I had to add in a bunch of places. We overnighted in Rock Springs, Wyoming, Sterling, Colorado, Lincoln, Nebraska and Copan Lake State Recreation Area in Oklahoma

My cousin Christy and I

After brunch we drove through Kansas and stayed our last night on the road in Copan Lake State Recreation Area in Oklahoma. For our last night we were rewarded with a beautiful sunset. What a great way to end our trip.

Saturday morning we got up and drove the last leg to Gun Barrel City. We left Gun Barrel City on Sunday, May 14. We returned on Saturday, August 26. In fifteen weeks we traveled 16,725 miles, the truck's engine ran 330 hours and 58 minutes. One thing we wished we had kept count of, but didn't, was how many times we said "wow". We said it a lot. It was a great trip.

Just before we left in May we bought 40 acres of land (85% wooded) in East Texas. On the land is a house built in 1930. It either needs a) a lot of work or b) to be bulldozed down. Either way, this is our next adventure and it started today. I don't see there being sufficient interest to justify a blog so this is probably the last entry. I hope all who have followed along on the boat and / or the land travel have enjoyed it.

Take care and good night.
Brian and Susan

More Eclipse Pictures

Here are some more pictures from the eclipse on Monday, August 21.  One of our neatest experiences ever!  Thanks to Kent and Heather for sharing.

The forecast for viewing

Kent, Heather and Heather's dad David

Ready and waiting for the big event

The sun through a filter

Those are some stylin' glasses

Some pin holes in the bottom of a paper cup and you can see the progression

I'm not sure how Kent did this, but it's cool!

100%

A portion of the 360 degree sunset

The sun making its reappearance

Take care.
Brian

Headed to the barn

Eclipse

Wow!

I vaguely remember an eclipse back in the 70's, maybe 1979. In Dallas it wasn't a total eclipse, but it was still pretty cool. I looked at the partially blocked sun through a couple of pieces of developed microfiche film. Anyone remember microfiche? It was probably not the safest way to view.

This year we were lucky enough to be with friends who have experience with, infatuation and knowledge of solar eclipses. We were much better prepared than I was back in the 70's. We also had the good fortune to park next to members of the Las Vegas Astronomical Society with a telescope and filters for viewing the sun full on. Before the eclipse started we were able to look at the sun and see three different sun spots through their telescope. All cool, but nothing compared to the main event!

At first, as the moon moved across the face of the sun, there was nothing to see other than through glasses specifically for looking at the sun. I tried holding the glasses over the lens of my iPhone but even with a quarter of the sun blocked the pictures still showed a bright blob. I did get one decent picture during the two minutes where the sun was completely obscured by the moon. But pictures don't do the experience justice. Nor will my words, but I'll try to describe what it was like for those that didn't have the good fortune to witness the total eclipse of the sun.

We were west of Rexburg, Idaho, in a parking lot set up on BLM land specifically for viewing the eclipse. According to our friends, Kent and Heather, we were about 100 yards from the centerline of the eclipse- meaning we were going to see a 100% eclipse.  We were in the "band of totality."  The eclipse there was to begin at 11:32 and last just over two minutes. 10-15 minutes before the eclipse enough of the sun was blocked that the sunlight changed. It's not like dusk or dawn, the light had a gray tint to it. The closer we got to totality, the more eerie it felt because of the strange light. I kept rubbing my eyes, trying to clear them. Once the moon completely blocked the sun, no special glasses were needed, you could look straight at the sun. I don't know how to describe the feeling other than complete wonderment at what you were seeing. People were yelling and applauding. It was absolutely amazing.  The corona, which is normally never visible because of the brightness of the sun, is on full display. During the two minutes the sun was blocked by the moon, you could see both Venus and Jupiter shining bright in the midday sky. The temperature dropped 11 degrees, from 71 to 60. Kent and Heather had warned us about the temperature drop so we were prepared. Also during the two minutes, there was a 360 degree sunset. Every direction you looked the horizon was glowing red. Two minutes seemed like two seconds. It was over way too soon. The first few seconds as the moon slowly uncovered the sun, I continued to look. The sun's light was pure white as it peeked out from behind the moon. Fabulous.

We're hooked. We have to see another one. And so the planning has already begun. Kent has sent us a map with the path of the next eclipse in the US, April 8, 2024.  Of course the weather will be a factor but here are some cities / towns in Texas where you'll be very close to the centerline and treated to four plus minutes of totality.
Rio Frio
Vanderpool
Ingram
Lampasas
Topsey
Gatesville
Valley Mills
Hillsboro
Ennis
Kaufman
Sulphur Springs
Bogata

As I said, I only got this one decent picture but I hope to get some of the ones Kent got to add to this. I wanted to spend my time experiencing this incredible phenomenon rather than messing about with my camera!

Take care and hope to see you in Texas in 2024!
Brian

Yellowstone to Dillon, Montana

Hi All,

Here's the map that shows what this post covers. Yes, there was some backtracking.

As I mentioned before, while in Yellowstone we took a drive down through Grand Teton National Park. The Teton Range is only 40 miles long but there are some really impressive peaks there.

After our day in the Tetons and a bit more time in Yellowstone, on August 15th we moved on to Cody, Wyoming, staying at Buffalo Bill State Park for three nights. We really liked Cody. We met some of the nicest people there. Here are a couple of pictures I took from our campground.

From Cody we drove back through Yellowstone, Grand Teton and Jackson, Wyoming to Palisades, Idaho. We stayed there one night before moving on to our final destination, Dillon, Montana where we met our friends Kent, Heather and Heather's dad David. We used a campground outside Dillon in order to stage for our eclipse viewing. We all got to Dillon on Saturday so Sunday we took some time to go to Bannack State Park and tour the ghost town there. There are some real neat buildings and we learned a lot about gold mining.

Gold ore cars

The 1931 Model AA truck we rode in up to the gold ore processing site

Sunday afternoon Kent and I played golf at a 10 hole (no, that's not a typo) golf course in Dillon. We had a blast but I discovered that laying off  for 2 years hasn't improved my game.

Monday was all about the eclipse. I'll leave that for the next post.  Suffice it to say it was one of the most incredible experiences in my life. Do yourself a favor and start planning now to be in Texas on April 8, 2024.

Take care,
Brian