Both Nina and I arrived at her sister-in-law’s place in Ninety-Six, South Carolina on Sunday afternoon. She rode with her sister from Dalton, Georgia while I drove the motor home towing the car. Since they had to stop for a sit-down lunch (I got McDonalds takeout) and had to go to the grocery store, I got here about a half hour earlier than them. It was a nice drive because the Sunday traffic around Atlanta was pretty light.

This morning Nina told me that she “finally felt like she was on vacation.” With the wedding over and the time schedules met, we can now do a little relaxing. Marsha’s house is on a large reservoir and it is very quiet here at night … far different than the campground in Ringgold, Georgia! It was right next to I-75, which is one of the Interstates that traverses the entire United States from the top of Michigan to the bottom of Florida. Every truck in the world is on that road driving past the campground. The road noise was almost unbearable.

About 4:30 this afternoon, we went for a boat ride on the lake. Billy and Marsha have a 22′ pontoon boat and we headed out from the dock around a nearby island where we were immediately stopped by the lake police doing a safety check. Registration, driver’s license, extinguisher, life preservers …. oops, supposed to be one life preserver on board for every occupant. There were three life preservers. Four passengers. Busted.

However, because we were close to the dock and close to the shore and if we immediately returned and got the fourth preserver, they would give Billy a warning rather than a ticket and a fine. We turned around, went back to the dock, and got the life preserver. The lake was now safe.

The lake was smooth as glass. No wind and very few other boats (other than the lake police!). By the time we got back to the dock the sun had set and it was getting rather chilly. We’ve had a delightful day in South Carolina.

I asked again why the town is called “Ninety-Six”. It’s because it’s 96 miles from somewhere. The locals aren’t exactly sure from where, though. During the Revolutionary War a fort was built here and called “Ninety-Six”. The town took the same name. That means we’re 96 miles away from something. That’s far enough be be a quite, peaceful place and we’re glad to be here for a few days.