This post should be dated April 27 but could not get a good internet connection at the campground to post to our blog.

This morning we took a ride around James Island.  We are thinking about moving back to the low country in a few years.  We have been gone eight years so far and so much has changed in that time.  When it was time for lunch we drove to Folly Beach for lunch.  We walked around town some and then headed to the Folly pier for lunch at Locklears which is located at the pier.  Here are some pictures of the town and the pier and beach.

Last night we visited our good friends Marlene and Henry.  As I mentioned in my post yesterday they have a beautiful home on a deep water creek here in James Island.  Diane made a covered dish and we also brought some healthy snacks from Earth Fare.  Marlene deep fried some grouper she had recently caught and Henry made a great cheese grits casserole.  Had a great time chatting with them and catching up with each other.  Here are some pictures of their home and dock.

Been awhile since we have posted.  Also had a new learning curve with the updated blogger screens.  Well we have started our 2012 travels with a short trip to the South Carolina Low Country.  We are staying at James Island County Park on James Island ( duh ) near Charleston SC.  We traveled down here on tuesday.  Was very windy and has been windy everyday.  Yesterday I met up with a couple of friends that I use to work with and Diane met a friend that she worked with.  Whenever we come back to the Charleston area we always look up old friends and catch up with whats going on in our lives.  Tonight we are getting together with Marlene and Henry, we both worked with Marlene back in the 90s.  They have a beautiful home on a deep water creek with access to the Cooper River and out to the Atlantic Ocean.

Been having a lot of issues with getting our electronics to connect to the internet here.  No cable, and TV reception is not so good.  Can't get our Verizon "hot spot" to give us a strong signal so are using the campground public wi-fi.  Will try and get some pictures posted before we leave here, if not then when we get back home and can use our hi speed connection.

This is a short trip as noted above.  Our garden is coming in now so we cut our plans shorter this spring.  We have a beach house rented in late June on Edisto Island SC.  Having my brother and his wife with us, our childern and grandaughters also.  Looking forward to a whole week of family fun.

Day 13 Traveling Home

Still catching up on posts.  Monday was our last day in Shepardsville Ky.  We got up early got the RV rigged for travel.  We were on the road before 9am.  The GPS said it was a 6 hour trip home but we always have to add several hours for fuel stops, rest area stops to walk the dogs and having lunch.  It took almost 9 hours to return home.  Normally we would not drive that long but since we were heading home and would not have to worry about setting up the RV we decided to go all the way.  Got home just before 6 pm.  Had plenty of time to unpack the RV fridge, have supper and watch the season premiers of NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles.  We had a great trip.  I won't winterize the RV yet.  We have several months before the first freeze here and we may want to take a short trip before then.  Great thing about being retired and having the RV, we can be very flexable.

My retired motto is: "every night is friday night and every day we wake up its saturday again"

Day 12 Rain, Rain, Rain!

got a little behind in posting.  Our plans for Monday were to have Pat and Archie meet us at our camp site and the four of us would head down to Bardstown Ky to have breakfast and take a walking tour.  When we woke up it was raining cats and dogs.  The forcast was rain all day.  Can't really complain, its the only rained out day we had on the trip.  So after a few phone calls back and forth we decided to meet up at a Cracker Barrel five miles up on the interstate ( exit 121 ) from us at approximately 9am.  At least thats what I thought was the revised plan.  I have to admit, I have some hearing loss, so I may not have heard all that Archie said on the phone.  As it turns out, Diane and I drove up to the restaurant and Pat and Archie drove to our campsite.  When they saw that our CRV was not there they took off for the restaurant.  However, Archie got confused on how the interstate exits were marked.  He thought they counted up going south when actually its the reverse.  So he was headed south and we were north of the exit our campground was on.  After awhile I got worried so gave them a call on their cell.  They were down at mile marker 112 when I got hold of them.  So to make a long story short, I got them headed in the right direction and we met and had a wonderful visit and breakfast together.  Diane had her usual french toast and I had my Old Timers breakfast.  To my surprise, Pat and Archie also love the Old timers too.  When we left Archie had a gift for Diane.  The day before we were commenting on the many jars of green beans that they had put up for the winter.  We had some of their green beans for dinner on Sunday and they were great.  Nothing like fresh, home grown veggies.  So Archie gave Diane a jar for us to take home with us.  The rest of the day was spent inside, catching up on reading.  The only decent channel we got on the antenna was a local CBS station so were able to watch the season premier of Hawaii Five-O.  I'm going to have to look into getting one of those antenna signal boosters that they sell at Camping World. 

Day 11 Visiting with family

We drove up to Crestwood Ky to visit my sister Pat and her husband Archie.  My brother Bob and his wife Linda drove down from Independence Ky by way of Georgetown (pick up daughter Kasey at Georgetown College).  My sister cooked a beautiful meal and afterwards had fresh baked apple pie and ice creame.  Here are a couple of pictures of us sitting around the table chatting about our children and granchildren.  Was a wonderful way to spend a Sunday afternoon.  It has been over five years years since the three of us had gotten together at the same time.

Here is a group pictute.  From left to right, Archie, Pat, me, Diane, Bob and Linda

Here is a picture of the three of us.  I'm the oldest, then sister Pat and brother Bob is the youngest
Whenever the three of us get together we take a picture to commerate the few times the three of us can be together.

Day 10 Jim Beam Distillery Tour and Kentucky Bourbon Festival, Bardstown Ky

We drove down to Clermont Ky and toured the Jim Beam Distillery there.  Was a very interesting tour.  Everything you wanted to know about how the worlds finest bourbon is made.

Inside the master distiller's house, where several generations of Beam's oversaw the family business we watched a seven minute video on the history of Jim Beam bourbon distilling.  Here is a picture of a miniture distillery that was showcased at the 1964 Worlds Fair in New York City.  This replica actually works.

From here we saw an exibit of one of the olodest copper stills in America.  It was capable of making three gallons of "white dog"  (moonshine).  The clear liquid was then stored in 53 gallon oak barrels and the aging process gives the bourbon its color.  Its aged anywhere from 4 to 9 years.

This is a warehouse where the barrels of bourbon is stored while aging.  These buildings are not heated or cooled.  There are nine floors.  Barrels are stacked in rows three high and fourteen deep. Each barrel contains 53 gallons of bourbon.  Thats a lot of bourbon!

Notice the color of the trees.  They are not burnt.  The black is a fungus that grows on trees and roofs of buildings around the distillery.  Its refered to as "angels share" because the angels get to sample fumes given off from the aging bourbon.  This helped the govt men in finding illegal moonshine stills.

After the tour we got to sample some of the small batch bourbons distilled here.  We sampled 129 proof Booker's and 80 proof Red Stag.  Believe me you can really taste the difference.

display of the different Jim Beam bourbons

Its late, tomorrow I'll post some pictures of the Bourbon Festival.  We intended to tour some of Bardstown but the town was so crowded due to the festival that we decided to try and come back on Monday and do that.  So we ate lunch at Mammy's Kitchen and then headed back to the campground.