Lions, Tigers and Bears...Oh My!

When we were in Santa Fe, NM several months ago, we saw a couple walking their huge and beautiful Newfoundland dogs down the street. A little while later, we ran into them again, sans dogs, as they were looking for an art gallery. We were looking for a particular chapel so we compared maps. We got to talking with them and gave them our RVGypsies card. Kari and Joe were relocating back to Wilmington, NC from Portland, OR and passing through Santa Fe on the way home. We wished each other safe travels and went on our ways.

Then about a month ago, we got an email from Kari offering to show us around if we got to their part of the country. We always have the best experiences when we can get together with a local so we jumped at the invitation and made plans to visit Wilmington!

Kari emailed us some local events and the Wizard of Oz was playing at the historic Thalian Hall in town. Joss has wanted to take the boys to a play while we were on the road so we bought tickets to the last performance, May 18th. Now I (Robert) have never seen the Wizard of Oz so I was quite surprised to learn many expressions I've heard and repeated over the years, actually came from this story; "Lions, tigers and bears...oh my!" being one of them!

After the performance, we got to meet the Wicked Witch of the West, who was the nicest lady in person! We also met the Tinman, the Scarecrow and the Captain of the Guards. We met Toto and Dorothy too but the picture didn't come out. After the play we went a few blocks downtown for dinner. It was a fun day. Downtown Wilmington is right on the Cape Fear River with lots of restaurants and shops that are fun to wander in and out of. Many of the old homes in the town have also been restored and Joss was in her element on the horse drawn carriage tour, snapping photo after photo (see our photo section once we get through the pics).

We couldn't get a campsite very close to town because it was getting close to Memorial Day weekend and they were all booked. We don't plan too far ahead and these darn holidays are playing havoc with our plans, geez! We ended up in Surf City, NC which is about 40 minutes north of Wilmington. We really wanted to explore the greater Wilmington area (Carolina Beach, Kure Beach, Fort Fisher, Orton Plantation and more) so we racked up the miles and diesel fuel coming and going to our campground.

The day after the play, we came into town and hit up the used bookstore in our never ending search for the Hardy Boys mysteries. As we entered the store, there was a familiar looking man chatting with the shopkeeps. Joss recognized him immediately...The Wizard! The Wizard himself, standing the flesh was a frequent patron of the bookstore. We chatted a bit and got a photo opp. Later in the week, we ran into the Captain of the Guard at the food Co-op also! That is one of the great things about "little" towns, you have these neat experiences that you just don't get in suburbia.

We did a lot in the two weeks we were here but you'll have to check back with our photo section to read about them. This post is all about Lions, Tigers and Bears...oh my !!!!

Joe and Kari with the boys in downtown Wilmington, NC.

Last performance, May 18th. Notice the collared shirts? The Gypsies get dressed up!

Always the clowns, especially in the theater.

The Wonderful Wicked Witch of the West (reconstituted of course!)

The Tinman, and his ax.

The Scarecrow and a standing, Flying Monkey.

Sawyer quizzing the Captain of the Guard.

The Wizard!

Cape Fear River runs alongside Wilmington. This is a view of the open-air market they have weekly downtown. The bridge is south of town.

Gators, Pirates and Dogs galore!

We can't quite figure out what our fascination with alligators is but it never seems to end! We've been staying in Savannah, Georgia since April 29th and over the past weekend, we drove through the Savannah Wildlife Refuge (it's in South Carolina but on the Savannah River...hence the name). We had read online reviews of it by other travelers and frankly, thought they were exaggerating a bit. We were wrong! We spent close to three hours covering the 4 miles in the refuge. We saw over 20 gators from 2 foot long to over 8 feet long. Birds, flowers, turtles, fish, even a manatee.

The road is one way and winds through Live Oak stands, dripping with Spanish Moss.

This little guy was one of two in a secluded pond. We met a local that said the two young gators are always in this pond. We suspect they are staying away from the larger gators, which would make a quick snack of them. Did you know, by the time the baby gators are 2 years old, they leave the comforts of home...or mom will eat them?! Mom knows that the 2 year olds will eat the hatchlings so OUT they go or DOWN they go!

After the Refuge, we headed back to downtown Savannah. We had taken a tour around the town on Friday and wanted to go back Saturday to spend more time there. One of the places I (Robert) definitely wanted to go was The Pirate's House. Back in the day, unwary patrons would have too much to drink and they would be carried out of the tavern, via underground tunnel to the port, where upon they would be thrown onto a ship that was short crew. The fellow would awake, hungover and in the middle of the ocean, heading for foreign ports of call! Sometimes when the ship(s) were desperate for crew, they would drug the patrons in the tavern, rather than wait for them to drink themselves stupid. Glad this place wasn't anywhere near in my college days!

It is now a combination of over 15 rooms, almost all haunted, that includes the oldest house in Georgia. The "Herb House" was erected in 1734 to house the gardener for the "Trustees Garden". The Trustees Garden was established as an experimental garden by Gen'l Oglethorpe when they arrived from England in 1733. It consisted of 10 acres and botanists hoped it would provide ideal conditions for grapes for the wine trade and Mulberry trees for silk production. Both of these crops failed, as did many others. Peaches however did quite nicely as well as cotton.

Joss has declared Savannah as her favorite city of the trip so far. What she likes will become apparent when we get the photos up of this stay but I can tell you it is a very beautiful city. The restored historic buildings, the architecture, the squares, gardens and parks filled with trees and flowers. The river front area has outdoor cafes, walks, benches, restaurants, shopping, ferry rides, boats...everything you'd (or at least us) would expect on a river front.

This past weekend was an annual event "Art on the River Front" and the boys and Joss got their hands dirty with some pottery! One of the vendors had hand-made clay pots for us to paint and they would fire them right there. After painting them up, we went to lunch while the artwork baked. The three pieces the boys and Joss did came out beautiful. Now we just have to figure out how to secure them while we're traveling! We don't have many glass things in the trailer you know.

Oops, I forgot to include some pictures from the Doggie Carnival held in Forsyth Park on Sunday! Well, there were hundreds of dogs; white dogs, black dogs, brown dogs, tan dogs, big dogs, little dogs, hairy dogs, hairless dogs, dressed up digs, naked dogs, dogs, dogs, dogs. What amazed us were all the dogs we saw were getting along! No one was trying to eat anyone else! Amazing. Needless to say we didn't bring Baylee. She was getting better about not going after other dogs but lately she's reverting to her old protective ways! She's great with people and kids but not other dogs!

We're off to Charleston, South Carolina on Thursday to check out another of the South's old towns!