We left Ninety Six, South Carolina this morning headed south as Nina’s sister and her husband left heading north. I think we’re going in the better direction! We drove straight south on non-Interstate roads past, as Nina says, “… a billion pine trees!” Along with passing the worlds largest wood pulp factory, a very impressive sight from the highway in Jessup, Georgia. The weather is a delightful (at least to us northerners) 60º here in Jacksonville and will be about 5º higher in Ft. Myers when we get there tomorrow afternoon.

We’ll be staying in Ft. Myers for about ten days. We haven’t settled on where we’ll go after that, but it’ll be somewhere here in the Florida area. We’ve got a car reserved, which will be important as the map for the RV park in Ft. Myers looks to be wall-to-wall RV’s. We’ll want to be somewhere else quite often.

Marsha and Billy have a nice home on a cove on the Greenwood Reservoir. Every day except one was clear and sunny while we were there, as evidenced by the previous post. So, one picture of a cloudy day on the reservoir is warranted, for sure. It’d be nice to have a place on a large reservoir like this one, but perhaps a bit further south where the lake would be useable for more of the year.

We had a very nice time in South Carolina. I was able to get some repair work done on the motor home, the laundry got done, we got the next hepatitis B shot in the three-shot series, my shirts were run through a shirt laundry … and we’ve left behind a pair of pants.

I took my shirts and a pair of pants that needed extra attention to the laundry where they had assured me everything would be ready by the next afternoon. While Nina and I (being chauffeured by Nina’s sister) went to Clinton, SC to get the hepatitis B shot, Billy stopped by to pick up the laundry. The shirts were done … actually quite nicely done … but the pants were no where to be found. They eventually found them at a different facility and not finished. So, we’ll pick it up when we come back in January on our way to to the airport and the trip to Mumbai.

Getting the Hepatitis B shot was also an adventure in bureaucracy (as well as being somewhat expensive). State health agencies are one place where immunizations are readily available. I was able to make an appointment for Wednesday afternoon to get the shot at the Laurens County Health Department (Greenwood didn’t have any appointment times available). Nina’s appointment was for 2:45pm and mine was at 3:00pm. The whole process took over ninety minutes. I’ve never seen so much paperwork in my life for something as simple as an immunization. Further, the computer systems were very slow and at one point completely lost all of the information. The woman helping us was clearly frustrated but was also very cordial and pleasant with us. I was very impressed with her composure while working through something that must be a constant problem with the computer system.

With all that, two of the three shots are finished. The last one is due in April after we get to Hawaii. Hopefully it won’t be as complicated as this one was!

Finally, on Tuesday evening we went to the Greenwood Choral Christmas concert. This all-volunteer choir put on a delightful ninety-minute performance that spanned the spectrum from chants to madrigals to modern classical compositions. We came away infused with the Christmas Spirit! Merry Christmas!