Goin' Mobile-A Dance Gypsy's tour of the country

It is raining again. Seems as though Spring is taking a slight vacation after the weather had turned off nice and warm and sunny over the weekend. The rain started in late last night and is suppose to last through the rest of today before it turns off cold this evening and drops down below freezing once again.
But I am getting ahead of myself as there were a couple of days that I wanted to catch up on. Starting on Friday morning we headed out on the road with the ultimate destination being Charleston SC and the start of the Palmetto Bug Stomp contra dance weekend. But before we got on our way, we first had to go to Roanoke for a couple of hours. Rima had some work to do down there before she could get on the road, so it was after noon before we could finally get on the highway south.
It seemed like more hours in the truck than it really was, but we did finally make it into Charleston and checked into the hotel. By the time we got over to the dance venue, the dance had started. Fortunately it had not been going on for long and we were both soon as hot and sweaty as anyone else out there on the dance floor. The Syncopaths were the main band for the weekend and calling duty fell to Cathy Anderson and Keith Eustice. Pretty fun time all in all. Saw lots of people there that I had not seen in some time. There was a whole contingent that came up from Florida, and it was good to see all of them again after several months. We were pretty tired after a couple of hours of dancing though so we headed back to the hotel a little early, grabbed a shower and caught some zzzzz's.
We were both up way earlier than needed, but we were headed out to the beach that morning, and we wanted to get there in time to actually find a place to park. We drove out to the very end of the road on Folly Beach and found a nice parking spot and then walked another half mile or so out to the very northern tip of the beach. There were a few people out there of course, but much fewer than the hoards of people back closer to town. For me one of the highlights was an old lighthouse I hadn't even heard of before. The first Morris Island Lighthouse was built in 1767 and was eventually destroyed in the Civil War. The current lighthouse was built in 1874 and was actually built on the mainland part of the island. Over the years erosion has washed away all of the land around the lighthouse as well as the keepers house and all other buildings so that now the lighthouse stands on a small bit of sand off shore about 200 yards. Photo's of the lighthouse and additional info are posted below.
Rima and I had a good time wandering the beach and taking pictures of the lighthouse. She also had a more personnel reason for going out and walking the beach, and I think it was a nice morning for her to be out there with her own thoughts and feelings. We spent several hours there basking in the sun and looking for sea shells before getting hungry and heading off to find something to eat.
From Folly Beach we went north to North Charleston to a little hole-in-the-wall Vietnamese place where we both ordered noodle bowls (Bun'), for lunch. Tasted good, and filled us up, but we both had some lower intestinal problems later on. Nothing that a few hours of time and complete digestion didn't take care of though. Rima wanted to dance some of the afternoon dances then while I just wanted to go take a nap. So I dropped her off at the dance and then headed for the hotel. Ended up stopping at a local Wally World though, because I wanted to buy some rope for a project I have on my list to do this next week and I didn't want to have to drive all the way into town to buy it if I could get it right then and there. Of course one can never buy just what you need, so there was also a pair of gloves, a high lift jack and the newest novel from Lee Child to go in the basket with my hundred feet of new rope. That was a big mistake on the book though as once back at the hotel, I cracked that open and all thoughts of a nap were long forgotten. Oh well!
Back to pick her up later on and then out for some dinner with a couple of friends of ours that live there in town. We all went out to a cute little Mexican food place they knew of and had a nice little meal with them. They then showed us some of the sights around that part of town before heading back for the start of the evening dance.
A little more fun than the night before, but part of the fun was ruined because of a few of the local committee people who were making a big deal about everyone having to wear their weekend bands on their wrists instead of just pinning it to your name badge like some people like to do. These 'wrist' bands are handed out along with your name badge to show that you have signed up and paid for the whole weekend instead of just paying for a single dance night. It's a common enough occurrence in the dance community and in the past I, and many others, have simply pinned the ribbon to our name badge so as to not have to wear it on my wrist for the next 60 hours or so, including to bed and into the shower. But for some reason they were being real pains about it this time with several people telling me that I needed to put it on my wrist instead. I just told them that I wasn't going too, that I didn't wear anything on my wrists while I danced, and I certainly wasn't going to wear it for the next 2 and a half days, at which point they usually just walked away in a huff. But the whole thing left a rather sour taste in my mouth and I fully think that if they had pushed the issue I would of refused and asked for my money back. But luckily, no one pushed, and I and at least 20-30 other people just kept wearing it on our badge, or in some cases, not at all. Maybe a bit petty on my part, but I have a hard time with 'stupid', and made it pretty clear in the survey that they email to everyone after the dance that it seemed to be an issue with many people including myself. Will wait to see if it becomes a problem next year.... oh wait, next year I'll be in England at a dance during this time. Yeah!.
Anyway; with all of that, and other things going on, both of us decided that the Saturday evening dance wasn't all that great anyway, so we just headed back to the hotel and got a good nights sleep.
We were back at the dance on Sunday however, and that session was the best one as far as I'm concerned. The music seemed to be hotter, the calling better and the dancers ready to dance hard. That being said, I danced about half of the morning session and then called it quits and headed outside to read some more of my book in the shade. It was actually just what I needed it seems. A very compelling book and a warm and sunny day to be outside in. Rima danced most of the session and then we both called it quits and headed out. A quick bit to eat in a local Irish Pub just down the street from the dance venue and then onto the highway for home. It didn't seem to take nearly as long to make it home as it did to drive down, but it is still a 6-7 hour drive no matter how you cut it. We were back home just as the sun was going down so it was still nice out and somewhat warm even if it wasn't quite as nice as it had been in Charleston.
I just goofed off yesterday. Hadn't meant to spend all day reading my book and a couple magazines, but that is pretty much what happened. I did get outside late in the afternoon for a couple of hours, but the only thing I really did was put my new high lift jack together and then use it to jack a couple of old fence posts out of the ground. Certainly a lot easier to do it that way than to try and dig them out one by one.
I did manage to make a nice evening meal for both Rima and I, even though it wasn't clear if she would make it home in time for dinner. But she did and we had a good time eating part of a small pork roast I had made as well as mashed potatoes and gravy and roasted brussel sprouts and carrots with slivered almonds and honey. It tasted very good, although the roast was a bit too salty, all my fault. We ate it all up though and then spent an hour or so watching a couple of Big Bang Theory episodes. It was a nice day.
Still raining outside right now, so it has been pretty much all day. I'm getting ready to head out in a little while to meet up with Rima. We are taking one of her sons and his family out to dinner for his birthday. Should be a fun time as it will be a new restaurant for both of us, plus they will have Rima's granddaughter along with them, Brynn. She's the one I posted photo's of earlier this year blowing bubbles with Rima. But for now though, here are the photos from Folly Beach.

Morris Island Lighthouse and Folly Beach near Charleston, SC April 12, 2014

Your first view of the lighthouse as you come over one of the beach dunes at the north end of Folly Beach. The light no longer works and is in the process of being rehabbed if they can find enough money to do it.

Another view showing just how far out in the bay the lighthouse now sits. At one time that area was part of the mainland, but it all eroded away when they built channel wing walls along the main channel into Charleston harbor.

Rima was busy taking pictures of her own using her phone. It just doesn't seem right that she gets such good shots with her phone while I have to use a real camera to get anything to come out right.