With some witty commentary from Walker & Texas Ranger, who I'm quite sure never slept a minute during our 3 day stay, we got everything ready to go and swung up to the dump station. This is where we encountered the finish line for an Xterra Trail Run Race, which was conveniently located at/on the dump station. Here is a rough illustration.
Not sure what sort of planning goes into one of these races, but the 3 people you see above on the right side were sitting on the sewage dump platform, which unlike any other one I've ever seen was perfectly flat, meaning that feces will not naturally drain, it will dry in the mountain sun. Not sure if he was aware of that.
Now if you have every seen the movie RV (which we did last night for the first time), then you are aware of the dangers of emptying the waste tanks in front of a crowd. I am by no means a seasoned pro, so I will admit a bit of stagefright, but this was actually one of the least eventful, most efficient ones we've ever done. It was interesting listening to the commentary from the peanut gallery, like the guy giving his son a completely incorrect play-by-play of what I was doing.
I hope the runners appreciated the stench of 3 days worth of our toilet/wastewater as they were gasping for air finishing their extreme 15k. Well done, Xterra organizers.
From there, it was 4 hours of this.
At least the rain was happening during drive time, and not while we were actually trying to do or see something. And if I am doing my job correctly as driver, this should happen.
It did, so it was a pretty quiet drive into Charleston. As we got close, we started to see the spanish moss on the trees, and definitely felt like we were in the ol' South.
Another thing we noticed the past few days is that it has been unseasonably cold while we've been in the Carolinas. Not 'buy up all the bread & milk' level anarchy (yes, another Breakfast Club reference) cold, but still cold nonetheless. Well, when we rolled into James Island, the cold spell was officially over. Between pressing the power window button and seeing the window fully retract, I looked like this guy.
Our site had a distinctly southern/tropical feel, so we were feeling pretty good despite the dew point being at least 88 degrees (weather nerds, click here).
Then my most dreaded campground nightmare occurred. I was totally unprepared, normally I survey the area and make sure to properly position the Big Truck & our paraphenalia in such a manner that someone has to go way out of their way to get into our inner circle. In this case, we were starving so I had just fired up the grill when I hear from the neighboring campsite "Oh, a Jeep guy AND a mountain biker?! I'm Chuck, how's it going...."
And it just so happened that he was also the campground volunteer host. Now Chuck was a really nice guy, so we talked Jeeps for a while and he knew his stuff. But I don't like people when we are camping, and my Jalepeno Cheddar brats were bursting at the seams, and I could hear all the flavor leaking out into the drain pan. I used 2 or 3 of my best escape moves, but I was still locked in the conversation, and Kim had already retreated inside, knowing that I was dying a little inside with each syllable of meaningless small talk.
My out - we were headed to the on-site waterpark for some late afternoon sunburn, so I politely begged out of the conversation. Lesson learned. Sorry Chuck.
......aaaaand, waterpark.
Since thrashing around in the pool for a few hours can take its toll, Jordan actually wanted to go to bed. Here she is doing her best (live) Kurt Cobain just prior to nigh-nights.
Tomorrow brings a visit to Fort Sumter and a return to the waterpark. I am feeling particularly patriotic about the Fort Sumter tour, so I'll leave you with this.
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