South to Georgia

After we left this morning we did a big shopping at a Food Lion (seems to be the main food chain around here), and by the time we got finished fussing around it was afternoon!  But we just got on I-77 and went straight south for two or three hours and ended up in Columbia, South Carolina, where we camped at Sesquicentennial State Park (N34 05 19.6, W80 54 44.7).  This park seems to be right in the city, but it is a big park.  Having come south all afternoon has made a difference in temperature, as we were able to sit outside in the evening without feeling cold at all.  Strange things seem to be going on in the campsite next door.  There was an older lady and younger man (her son?), who looked sort of middle eastern, and they had set up a tent.  He kept going away in their car and coming back.  During the night, at 2am I saw headlights come in and the car door slam.  So I got up and had a look, and he was unloading stuff out of the trunk of the car (I couldn't see what it was because it was too dark.)  They then proceeded to light a campfire - a large one; the flames were 2 or 3 feet high, and they were putting this stuff he had gotten out of the trunk of the car onto the fire.  They then sat around the fire until at least 4am (I had fallen asleep for good by that time).  I imagined all sorts of things they might have been burning up in the fire, but in fact, they were probably just burning campfire wood!

13 November, Sunday

We got up in plenty of time to make it to church, because the church was only a half hour away.  We went to the Free Presbyterian Church, which is the same church we attend in Victoria.  It seems to have become a tradition in this blog to show a picture of the church we attended, so here it is:

This is the first church we attended where the congregation size seemed to match the church building size pretty well!

After church we had lunch parked by a strip mall, and came across this store.  This picture is specifically for the benefit of Eric - a Marble Slab with palm trees!

(You'll probably have to click on the picture to get a larger size to see the sign)

After lunch, we headed on across I-20 into Georgia.  It was supposed to be not too great a drive to Doreen's brother Jerry (and Emily's) place south of Atlanta.  But, we ended up in a big traffic jam because of an accident on the freeway.  It was my fault - we could have avoided this traffic, because our GPS told us to, and I didn't realize it.  We had pulled off in a rest stop, and while we were there, the GPS changed it's mind as to our route, and told us to get off at the next exit.  I thought it was just making a mistake, so kept going on the freeway, but within a mile we were in this traffic, which was stop and go for about an hour and a half.  Our GPS shows traffic slowdowns near major cities.  It has an fm receiver in it, which receives these signals, and if the traffic is jammed up, it will then change your routing - but in my stupidity, I didn't realize this was happening.

Anyway, we finally did arrive at Jerry and Emily's place, just an hour or so late, but time to have a nice pot of stew Jerry had prepared for supper.  It was warm enough today, that I had a short sleeved shirt, and shorts on.