It was a beautiful morning–sunny, clear skies, and 71 degrees. We got an early start at 9:15. Our drive today would be 255 miles and fairly uneventful through the countryside for all of today. We saw more peanut and cotton fields. This morning on the news, we heard that schools in 2 counties near where the hurricane hit are still closed due to the damage from Florence. They are also trying to get the mosquitoes under control due to all the standing water. We saw standing water along the Interstate in many low-lying areas. We had NO MOSQUITOES on our whole trip, except for here in North Carolina. We saw tons of downed, uprooted, and wind-whipped trees everywhere.
As we headed south, we saw billboard after billboard for South of the Border.
We have seen it before when we traveled along this highway on other trips. It is an attraction–a Mexican-themed resort which includes an amusement park, motel, restaurants, and shops.
Pedro is their mascot on all the billboards. It is listed on the map right after the South Carolina border.
We crossed the border into South Caroline shortly after that.
The Great Pee Dee River was overflowing its banks and the land around it was marked with scars where the high water level was. You can see the brown line on the trees.
This truck passed us with “Mennonite Disaster Services” marked on its sides. We had never heard of such a thing before.
Between Charleston and Savannah, we saw miles and miles of tree debris piled high in the center medians and wondered if this was leftover from the hurricane. There was standing water there too. We decided we’d have to ask at the campground to see if they knew.
At our campground in North Carolina, we noticed quite a few work trucks there from Texas. Bob thought they were storm chasers coming to find work in the clean-up after the hurricane. There were roofers, electricians, and plumbers as seen by the logos on their trucks. There must still be a lot of work to be done. We arrived at our campground, Camp Lake Jasper, at 2:15 after stopping for gas. We had the best gas mileage of our whole trip today–12.3 mpg.
We checked in at the office and Bob asked the lady inside about the trees. She said that the federal government is taking the trees down in the center median and any that are close to the sides of the Interstate because people are running into them and getting killed in highway accidents. Really? There were miles and miles of trees that were removed. Unbelievable!
We set up camp in site #91, and gave Auggie a chance to stretch his legs.
Then Auggie and I took a walk down to Lake Jasper. We noticed the signs warning us about alligators. Bob had to sign a waiver when we checked insaying he acknowledged that there were alligators in the lake. They must have had problems.
The campground has nice facilities–laundry, pool, restrooms, and walking trails.
When we got back, Auggie had to take a nap. He was beat!
A few more campers arrived after we did. Auggie and I sat outside enjoying the afternoon for awhile. It was warmer now–in the mid 80’s. I guess we need to get acclimated to the temperatures we’ll have when we get home. Bob cooked some pork chops on the grill for dinner. Auggie and I took our evening walk as it started to cool off a bit. We watched some TV and turned in early. Our next stop is near Gainesville, FL tomorrow.
