kc
Lake Marion, Santee, SC
Once again, the day dawns early and HOT.  I mean, what else can you say when the sun'snot even up yet, and it's more than 90*?  At 6:30 am, I'm done sleeping, laundry waits, and I'm getting itchy feet.  Well, that's a relative term, now, isn't it??  EVERYthing itches, but what I meant is that I am about ready to get on the road again.  Dick waits till after 7 to head over to the office (they only open at 7!!), but doggoned if the old men from the coffee clutch don't already have both washers in use.  I guess they brought their loads with them as the arrived to open the office up!!  I cannot WAIT until WE are those people!

We decide to forgo the laundry (even tho it's free, here in Mayport) and make a quick breakfast and get going.  Dick had already loaded the truck; only my stuff and hitching remains.  I make short work of my stuff, one more quick pee for Sunny, and we're off, so that we can take advantage of the "cooler" hours for traveling.

I wonder why it is that I had such trouble rolling out of bed, Monday thru Friday, for 22 years, at 5:50 am, and yet, here we are, retired, on no particular timetable, and I cannot sleep past 6???  That's aggavating, to say the least.

We take the new shortcut out of Mayport and head up I-96, incident free.  Even the morning traffic cooperated and we were in Santee and setup by 2 pm.  Don't think we've EVER stopped this early before, but living on retired time has brought a whole new meaning to the word "schedule."  Took doggie for a short walk —it's officially 107* so it really is short, and changed into bathing suits for a dip.  We are staying at one of our network parks, Bigwater,and they have a nice pool and waterpark area, as well as a lazy river with tubes provided, and they are right on the edige of Lake Marion, and have a sandy beach, if one is so inclined.

I was pretty sure that they wouldn't be real happy about all my little critter bites, but there weren't man people there, and those that were didn't seem to care.  Into the lazy river I went!  After a couple of laps (Tim, know we know what you find so relaxing about swimming laps!!), we jumped into the pool to cool of.  Yep, that's right — the lazy river water was WARM.  The pool was only tepid!

True to form, and in keeping with tradition, it appeared that a thunderstorm was approaching, so after an hour or so, we hopped out and headed back to the camper.  Rain would be a welcome relief, and as you know, fully expected (after all, it WAS moving day!!)  I have never, ever, ever moved without it raining.  Well, today was a first.  It rained, but not on us!!  We could see it, we could smell it, but it was just south of where we were staying, and not a drop fell, nor did the temperature.  According to the late news, it was 97* when we retired for the evening.  Perhaps the life-long spell is broken, and we'll have other rain-free moves in our future!