Places Visited:
Alabama: Calera

South Carolina: Clemson

Sunday October 14, 2001
Mike's sisters yard, Calera, Alabama

Last night we watched the Auburn Tigers play the Florida Gators.
Auburn sent previously #1 Florida home wondering what happened.

We went to church with my Sister's family this morning. This church
is the "most alive" church we have visited. Attendance was good, the
music was outstanding and the preacher delivered a thought-provoking
message. Membership increased by three couples this morning. That is
more than we have seen in the total of our 7-month trip.

Monday October 15, 2001
Mike's sisters yard, Calera, Alabama

Our plan was to leave for Clemson today but we ended up staying at my
sister's. Our new plan is to leave in the morning.

We slept late and relaxed all day. I did some minor maintenance and
cleaning around the motorhome while Joyce did some laundry taking
advantage of her sister in-law's ironing board.

Tuesday October 16, 2001
Wal-Mart Super center, Lawrenceville, Georgia

We finally left my sister and her family to recoup from our visit.
After nearly a week we are going to give them some time to themselves.
Pulling away from the Taj Mahal we said our good buys to all the pets
and headed down the long driveway to that dreaded RR crossing. With
all windows down and a super "STOP, LOOK and LISTEN" I gunned it
across those tracks. After getting across those tracks driving
through downtown Atlanta on I-20, I-75 & I-85 was a piece of cake.

Alabama had diesel for $1.19 but Georgia had it for $1.12. It is SO
GOOD to get diesel for $1.12.

We have good friends that live in Lawrenceville, a suburb of Atlanta.
We enjoyed dinner and conversation with these friends, until it was
time to let them get some rest before work tomorrow.

On the way back to our motorhome we stop and fill up the Saturn with
$.98 gas. Did you read that correctly? That was gas for less than a
DOLLAR. Amazing!

Wednesday October 17, 2001
Crooked Creek RV-Park - West Union, South Carolina (actually it is
Seneca, SC.)

Winter arrived in Georgia last night. It got COLD during the night
but warmed up quickly this morning. We moved to Crooked Creek RV-Park
in Seneca, South Carolina near Clemson. Crooked Creek is a new
RV-Park on the banks of crystal clear Lake Keowee. It is a nearly a
perfect RV-Park. No expense was spared on bathrooms, recreation room
and laundry. For those that utilize Park restrooms and showers these
are the cats meow! Each restroom is a "personal" room. Husband and
wife can lock the door and have privacy in a large room with shower
and an 8' counter with sink. The park has 98 sites and must have
around 20 of these individual shower/restrooms. Each of the
showers/restrooms is equipped with central heat and air.

Crooked Creek RV-Park has the best internet connection yet. They have
phone connections at each site. We were able to download e-mail
within minutes of arriving. It is SO nice to be able to send and
receive e-mail from our kitchen table. J

Pontoon boats are slowly cruising up and down Lake Keowee outside our
front window.

What a beautiful day. The sun is shining and birds are singing. We
sit outside soaking in the beautiful lake lined with hardwood forest
clothed in an array of fall colors. Several kingfishers are chatting
and diving in the nearby lake. Does it get any better?

Thursday October 18, 2001
Crooked Creek RV-Park - West Union, South Carolina (actually it is
Seneca, SC.)

This is another beautiful day. As we wake fog is clinging to Lake
Keowee. As the sun rose further in the sky it burned off but not
before we got to enjoy those serene moments.

We went to the Clemson campus and strolled around. Joyce went to
Knickerbockers in town Clemson to shop for some ORANGE clothing.
Knickerbockers is the traditional shopping place for Clemson
paraphernalia.

Television is 24-hour anthrax coverage. If only this administration
could realize that citizens are interested in the WAR! If the defense
department would provide some information and pictures the news media
would run that instead of the 24-hour anthrax coverage. The more they
report it the bigger the anthrax scare gets and with the defense
department withholding information the news media just continues. If
you are working you can catch up on EVERYTHING you missed all day on
TV in 15-minutes. Can you tell that I am SICK of 24-hour ANTHRAX?

Friday October 19, 2001
Crooked Creek RV-Park - West Union, South Carolina (actually it is
Seneca, SC.)

We wake to another beautiful day. CNN continues to cover Anthrax with
every breath. The House of Representatives sank to a new low
yesterday. As a nation we can be thankful this group is NOT it the
military. Can you imagine a military made up of these guys? Is that
scary or what? Someone needs to send Dennis Haster a fresh box of
depends. It will be hard to take him seriously ever again.

Wolf Blitzer with CNN said that he did not think the media was airing
too much on anthrax. He thinks the media is educating the public.
Earth to Wolf, Earth to Wolf, even those of us that are old and slow
do not have to be spoon fed the same information every 30-minutes
24/7.

On a more positive note the view out our picture window is simply
gorgeous. The reflection on the lake changes constantly as the sun
eases across the sky. Each day brings increasingly more brilliant
fall foliage.

Joyce's sister's family arrived at our motorhome around 5:00 where we
broke out the grill and cooked burgers. The girls did a good job with
trimmings and side dishes. After eating we all went to TIGERAMA
(Clemson's special pep-rally) and their spectacular fireworks.

Jeff and Kathryn (our son & daughter-in-law) arrived around 1:00 am
after driving from Pensacola, Florida after work today.

Saturday October 20, 2001
Crooked Creek RV-Park - West Union, South Carolina (actually it is
Seneca, SC.)

Jeff and Kathryn did not arrive until LATE last night but we were up
before 7:00 so that everyone could get their turn in the bathroom
before we met everyone for our tailgating party prior the football
game at noon. The noon kickoff is hard on everyone trying to get
everything in. Jeff and Kathryn coordinate with their friends and
Joyce's sister's family in order for us to all meet and head to a
central place where we eat prior to the game. I say where we went to
the game but only one team showed up and that team was not Clemson.
The game was a total sell-out and tickets on the street were harder
than normal to get. Our group did not get tickets together. Joyce
and I got good tickets in the student section in front of the
cheerleaders. There was a lot of noise and action in the first half.
The score was so lopsided by the half that shortly into the third
quarter the stands began to empty.

After the game our group returned to the RV-Park with us where we
cooked hamburgers in a continuation of the tailgate party.

FSU was on TV playing Virginia. FSU returned to the old FSU team I am
used to watching. Watching this game it appears that the young
players are growing up after receiving several spankings.

Mike & Joyce Hendrix