The Events of Thursday, January 6, 2011

            The tornado was coming closer. I screamed to my family, “Everyone duck down!” We huddled close to the ground and the tornado past right over us. Phew, what a relief. A burst of hot air blew in my face. I opened my eyes. Caitlin was sleeping with her face close to mine and was breathing right in my face. Dreams can be so ridiculous sometimes. Just then, Daddy returned from his walk and the day stirred into motion. After taking care of our usual morning business, we were on our way to Congaree National Park, South Carolina’s one and only National Park.

            Congaree covers 24,000 acres of bottomland floodplain forest. The forest is a wetland system of the Congaree River and home to champion trees and diverse plant and animal life. The most prominent and well known of these trees are the Bald Cypress Trees. Old-growth bald cypresses can reach more than 27 feet in circumference and 150 feet in height. Another well known feature of the forest is cypress knees. These odd looking characteristics of the bald cypresses help stabilize the trees or to get air to the trees when the trees are surrounded by water. The largest knees found in the park are over seven feet high. We got to experience all of this today.

            The visitor center was our first stop. Within the first minute, we saw how unique the wildlife is in the forest. As we entered, a ranger was walking out, taking with him a small lizard that had somehow made its way into his shirt. After releasing the lizard, he started the orientation movie for us. Looking around the museum also gave us clues on the forest’s history, going all the way back to before any Europeans had arrived, when Native Americans lived and prospered on the Congaree River’s fertile banks. The forest’s size decreased to almost complete annihilation in the 1800s when loggers cut down many of the trees for wood. Thankfully, the rest of the forest was saved, became a National Park, and now it prospers naturally. The previous drizzle of rain outside had slowed into a refreshing mist as we walked out to the RV to have lunch.

            When we later went on a walk along the boardwalk, we noticed that much of the forest is under water. We learned that forest depends on the floods to keep the dense vegetation alive and living in its proper habitat. The boardwalk led us on a 2.4 mile long loop trail. The rain had made everything somewhat soggy, so we had to walk gingerly along the wooden path. The trees soared high above us and if you stopped for a minute, off in the distance you could hear the song of birds, chatter of squirrels, the drip drop of the rain droplets falling from the trees into the large expanses of puddles, and rustling leaves in the soft breeze. Ben had grabbed a guide for the path and along the way there were 21 stops. We learned how the Native Americans and early settlers used the nuts on the American Beech tree for flour and meal and how Dorovan Muck (or mud) made headlines in 1980 for breaking down pollutants into harmless ingredients. Noticing that the moss on the trees stopped at a certain level, we learned that where the moss and the brown color end on each trunk is the water line of previous flooding. In some cases, this meant that the water would have been at least up to our waists. We also learned that one of the trees that we saw was a Loblolly Pine, the only pine found in a wetland area because they can tolerate living in wet conditions better than other pines. Seeing a low-growing evergreen plant, we consulted the brochure and found that it is called Dog-hobble because when there were bear hunts in the mountains, the hunting dogs could not run through the dense shrub, but the bear could lope through easily. The final stop explained how the trees reaching over 130 feet in height formed a canopy taller than any other deciduous forest on Earth.

            After stopping at the visitor center to ask the ranger some questions that had arisen on our walk, we headed back to the RV and out of South Carolina to Savannah, Georgia. On the way, we read, worked on the computer, Abby and I played Mancala on the back bed (very interesting), and listened to music. While Mom was driving, there was a very loud thud above the cab and Mom told us that a little bird had just flown into the camper. Abby was horrified and kept asking if little birds went to heaven. I told her no, God only accepted flamingos, but she didn’t find that very funny. We stopped at a gas station and everyone jumped out to see the bird remains, but none were to be seen. Daddy took the wheel and for a while, all was calm.           Now, my Mom was born in Georgia, when her Dad, my Grandpa, was serving in the Air Force. That’s why she has the name of a Southern belle, Pamela Sue and her twin sister has a Southern belle name too, Patricia Ann. But, her family moved to Delaware when Mom was only 5 months old, so she doesn’t have that amazing Southern drawl. Anyway, we were in this part of Georgia and so we drove onto the Hunter Air Force Base and when he saw our RV, the poor guy at the entrance gate looked as if he was about to get run over by an elephant (and in truth he was). Daddy explained to him that Mom wanted to see where she was born and this guy stammered out that that was a question for some alphabet soup and we had to exit and enter through another gate and check with the something major commander something to get more alphabet soup clearance because this was a military establishment and he didn't know how they would handle our camper and our request. So we got out of there, after getting a picture of the sign and enjoying a nice laugh. As we did a U-turn in front of the guard house we noticed all these guys in uniform staring at us. So Caitlin yelled, “Everybody wave!” and like the crazy girl she is, started to wave at them! Next thing we knew all these stern uniformed guys were waving back. It was hilarious and we all laughed so hard we cried.

            We drove further into Savannah, Georgia and stopped at a Target where we purchased some new toothbrush items, Belgian Chocolate Ice Cream, and sandwich cookies. Daddy asked if we could set up camp in there parking lot, but because the Target was part of a mall, they said we would have to consult mall security. Daddy stayed in the store and the rest of walked back and started to set up dinner. He came back and said that the security was going to escort us to the overflow parking lot. We followed behind the white Subaru with Security written on the side, lights flashing, and everything as he led us all over the mall. Finally he turned into a very dark, very deserted, very isolated lot. He very importantly came up to our window and announced, “This is the overflow parking lot, sir.” We set up camp and had a mustard chicken, sweet potatoes, rice, and rosemary olive oil bread dinner. And of course a Belgian chocolate ice cream dessert. (On the box it said 12 servings per container, but since Mom had no more room in the freezer, we had to finish it in one meal and eat double the serving. What a bummer.) Daddy did math with us, while Mom worked on the computer. The rain began to fall again on the roof, so … it’s raining, it’s pouring, Caitlin is still snoring, I went to bed and yes, I did bonk my head, (someone has to put in a request to the RV companies to have the ceiling raised), and I don’t want to get up tomorrow morning.