Santee Lake
March 8th 2019
Wow — A year ago this evening I was working like a crazy person to actually get a couple of things done before HPE cut of my IT access and officially moved me into the category of retired. It’s been a busy year. Paul Mitalas told me that I’d never imagine how I found time to work once I retired — he was correct and I haven’t had time to tell him.
I am quite sure that if you’d have told me two years ago that I’d find myself sitting in Santee, South Carolina in a gorgeous camping spot overlooking the lake in my own trailer on my second trip called “Search for Spring” ( but really just a search for southern food... ) I would have thought you were nuts. I’d have like the idea, but really?...
Anyway — we started early today in Richmond and had the Trailer ( with working fridge) packed and ready to go before 8:30am and after a nice breakfast in the Americamps RV park and we were on the road just after 9am. Our target was the Charleston area — pretty ambitious after yesterday’s drive at a little over 700km but we weren’t committed.
After a very uneventful drive down I-95 we packed it in on the north shore of Lake Santee — with a non-working fridge, sigh— 610km and about 7 hours in the car. “I can’t drive 55” has a special meaning for a man of my age — you just can’t pass a friggin rest-stop anymore.
Santee has a very special place in my heart. For about a half-dozen years my brother John hosted/organized an annual spring golf trip to Santee. We’d drive like idiots in April before the courses in sourthern Ontario would open down to the middle of South Carolina stay in an absolute bargain hotel with even better value beer, play 36 holes a day, eat a lot of barbecue, spin a lot of BS and play a few cards. A lot of really good memories. We ultimately even created a new poker variation called “Sean, John, and the King of Norway” in honour of the inaugural trip that My Dad and Step-Dad, Johnny and his buddy Sean took to New Orleans that was the inspiration for the Santee trip. Very fortunate to have had trips like this with both my dads. I can’t comment on that trip further without violating more than Facebook and Google’s community standards... I’ll share the rules to the game for anyone who wants separately.
And now, Lorraine and I are here on the shores of Santee Lake — photos of the campsite and our wonderful view of the lake will come tomorrow. This is already one of my favourite trailer campsites anywhere. Nice view, nice fishing pier, nice site, nice restaurant next door and Spring Peepers are calling here! ( Real Spring, my friends — we found it) .
Nice restaurant next door? Well — I was hoping to maybe BBQ some food myself for us tonight but as our fridge hadn’t worked long enough for us to grocery shop and it failed early enough today in our trip to spoil the small amount of food we did have on hand we had to go looking for a restaurant. We we were really lucky that right next door is “The LakeHouse” restaurant. LakeHouse is actually the name that Lorraine and I have for our home in Round Lake — fate? How could we ignore that? Lorraine was so tired she almost couldn’t walk the 100 yards from our campsite to this charming place with a giant Santee Lake Alligator hide hanging from the ceiling but she soldiered on and was shortly bopping along to the live lounge act covering everything from bad disco to Johnny Cash. The food was amazing. Best Collard Greens I have ever had — with a deliciously smoky pork chop and beans on the side ( Yeah the collards were supposed to be a side but they were the star). Lorraine had great scallops with a perfect cook. The place was truly bizarre — they had a live lounge act that was both really good, really kitschy and also unfortunately really really loud. ( We complained and apparently it was the location we had in the back corner which created an acoustic live spot... ). When I was down with the guys we found some great places to eat ( and in getting the fridge fixed me may be stuck trying one or two) but we missed this place; shame. Note that the Alligator in the photo is only one of the top five largest gators taken out of the lake — over 12 feet long.
The drive down was pretty uneventful apart from the damned pee breaks. A trailer had pulled in from Massachusetts overnight that had about a foot of snow and ice on top and that weirded Lorraine out a little — not to mention the danger of having that much ice melt off a trailer on the interstate. But all we saw in the way of Snow was that and a few stray pellets of snow near just past the North Carolina border. Trees in bloom and the understory in full leaf. The temperature actually reached 20c just before we got to Santee so I could very comfortably set up the trailer in my t-shirt without people thinking I’m nuts. Tomorrow I may even wear shorts, who knows!
Wow — A year ago this evening I was working like a crazy person to actually get a couple of things done before HPE cut of my IT access and officially moved me into the category of retired. It’s been a busy year. Paul Mitalas told me that I’d never imagine how I found time to work once I retired — he was correct and I haven’t had time to tell him.
I am quite sure that if you’d have told me two years ago that I’d find myself sitting in Santee, South Carolina in a gorgeous camping spot overlooking the lake in my own trailer on my second trip called “Search for Spring” ( but really just a search for southern food... ) I would have thought you were nuts. I’d have like the idea, but really?...
Anyway — we started early today in Richmond and had the Trailer ( with working fridge) packed and ready to go before 8:30am and after a nice breakfast in the Americamps RV park and we were on the road just after 9am. Our target was the Charleston area — pretty ambitious after yesterday’s drive at a little over 700km but we weren’t committed.
After a very uneventful drive down I-95 we packed it in on the north shore of Lake Santee — with a non-working fridge, sigh— 610km and about 7 hours in the car. “I can’t drive 55” has a special meaning for a man of my age — you just can’t pass a friggin rest-stop anymore.
Santee has a very special place in my heart. For about a half-dozen years my brother John hosted/organized an annual spring golf trip to Santee. We’d drive like idiots in April before the courses in sourthern Ontario would open down to the middle of South Carolina stay in an absolute bargain hotel with even better value beer, play 36 holes a day, eat a lot of barbecue, spin a lot of BS and play a few cards. A lot of really good memories. We ultimately even created a new poker variation called “Sean, John, and the King of Norway” in honour of the inaugural trip that My Dad and Step-Dad, Johnny and his buddy Sean took to New Orleans that was the inspiration for the Santee trip. Very fortunate to have had trips like this with both my dads. I can’t comment on that trip further without violating more than Facebook and Google’s community standards... I’ll share the rules to the game for anyone who wants separately.
And now, Lorraine and I are here on the shores of Santee Lake — photos of the campsite and our wonderful view of the lake will come tomorrow. This is already one of my favourite trailer campsites anywhere. Nice view, nice fishing pier, nice site, nice restaurant next door and Spring Peepers are calling here! ( Real Spring, my friends — we found it) .
Nice restaurant next door? Well — I was hoping to maybe BBQ some food myself for us tonight but as our fridge hadn’t worked long enough for us to grocery shop and it failed early enough today in our trip to spoil the small amount of food we did have on hand we had to go looking for a restaurant. We we were really lucky that right next door is “The LakeHouse” restaurant. LakeHouse is actually the name that Lorraine and I have for our home in Round Lake — fate? How could we ignore that? Lorraine was so tired she almost couldn’t walk the 100 yards from our campsite to this charming place with a giant Santee Lake Alligator hide hanging from the ceiling but she soldiered on and was shortly bopping along to the live lounge act covering everything from bad disco to Johnny Cash. The food was amazing. Best Collard Greens I have ever had — with a deliciously smoky pork chop and beans on the side ( Yeah the collards were supposed to be a side but they were the star). Lorraine had great scallops with a perfect cook. The place was truly bizarre — they had a live lounge act that was both really good, really kitschy and also unfortunately really really loud. ( We complained and apparently it was the location we had in the back corner which created an acoustic live spot... ). When I was down with the guys we found some great places to eat ( and in getting the fridge fixed me may be stuck trying one or two) but we missed this place; shame. Note that the Alligator in the photo is only one of the top five largest gators taken out of the lake — over 12 feet long.
The drive down was pretty uneventful apart from the damned pee breaks. A trailer had pulled in from Massachusetts overnight that had about a foot of snow and ice on top and that weirded Lorraine out a little — not to mention the danger of having that much ice melt off a trailer on the interstate. But all we saw in the way of Snow was that and a few stray pellets of snow near just past the North Carolina border. Trees in bloom and the understory in full leaf. The temperature actually reached 20c just before we got to Santee so I could very comfortably set up the trailer in my t-shirt without people thinking I’m nuts. Tomorrow I may even wear shorts, who knows!
This is just too short. Your audience craves more. What about the fridge?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteGood memories of Santee
ReplyDeleteGlad you found Spring.
ReplyDelete