Snowbird Season Three Update: The sweetest places - and the sweetest word - on earth!
- Susan O'Hanlon
- Apr 14
- 6 min read
Welcome back to our RV Adventure! We’ve been on the move since our last blog update. For those of you following our travels closely, here’s an update on our map:
Our last blog post left off shortly after our arrival at Fort McAllister State Park in Georgia, so let’s backtrack a bit. Fort McAllister is a gorgeous state park, situated among the pristine salt marsh of the Georgia coastline. Wildlife was abundant at this state park, and none exhibited any fear of humans or our dogs! We had dear visit our campsite every evening, a raccoon in the hood (although we never saw him), and armadillos foraged abundantly. I enjoyed wandering down to the boat dock in the evenings to watch the changing tide, see the sky do its magic, and watch for birds.
During those excursions, I saw an eagle (twice), some egrets and a heron. Oh, and a baby alligator. Mama was off hunting for food nearby, so I didn’t stick around for long!
Wildlife wasn’t the only thing I spent time photographing while at Fort McAllister. I also spent a day among the no see-ums taking product photos for my Etsy shop, and several subsequent indoor days scratching away while creating the listings for my Endless Skies and Small Wonders jewelry collections, both inspired by our RV travels. I’ll be opening my Etsy shop up in the next few days as we get closer to home, and my decision to move away from my functional pots so I can focus on the nature-inspired, colored porcelain work that I’ve been creating for the past few years still feels right in my soul. If you’ve followed my work for any length of time, I’m sure you can see how this transition just keeps snowballing. I feel like I’m finally at that point where I can let go of the functional pot and production work to focus on the work that lights me up inside like fireworks. The closer we get to my home (and my studio), the more my fingers itch to take the next steps with the floating mosaic and poppy bowl projects I started on this trip. (If you missed those posts, just go back to Snowbird Season Three posts and you’ll find them. Click the button below to take you there.
We definitely want to return to Fort McAllister in the future, because there’s still so much there for us to explore! The timing of our visit coincided with the emergence of some really hungry no see-ums, and it seems as if they’re attracted to Steve like mosquitos are attracted to me. Unfortunately, it also seems Steve is rather allergic to their bites, so we didn’t get to explore the park as much as we would have liked. I’ve still got plenty of pictures to share with you, though!
From Fort McAllister, we left Georgia and headed to South Carolina, stopping en route at an Aldi for groceries. I was so excited to be back in the land of Aldi that I wrote a little ditty about it to the tune of Land Down Under by Men at Work while I shopped. It goes like this: “I’m back in the land of Aldi … a cart of full produce, so happy. Yes, I’m back in the land of Aldi … home of staples and cheap groceries ...” (there’s more, but they rhythm and rhymes don’t really work well, and I’m sure you get the gist) 😊
Our first stop in South Carolina was at Hilton Head National RV Resort, an uber-posh RV resort where we camped for one week.
Our favorite thing about the park was a heated pool with a lazy river and tiki bar that served frozen beverages as well as food from the poolside restaurant. We also loved the beautiful walking paths for the dogs and the amazing shower facilities (what a treat!!!). If you’re a resort-style RV’er (or dream of being one), check out our review of the campground for lots of pics and our thoughts on the resort.
We landed at Hilton Head National RV Resort by accident, when we had to find a new camping spot after upsizing to Maggie because she wouldn’t fit into the state park spot had previously reserved for Irving. The resort was phenomenal, and really a great place to entertain Faye, who flew in from Phoenix to stay with us for four nights, and to host Nathan & Cheyenne, who live in nearby Beaufort, SC.
While it was nice to be able to access all the amenities of this campground, Steve and I both prefer the unpretentious surroundings of nature and the simplistic way of living offered at State and National parks. We might treat ourselves again to “the posh place” when entertaining the young ‘uns , but I think we’ll be sticking to our little slices of heaven in a more natural setting for the overwhelming majority of our camping adventures!
It was so great to spend four days with Faye, and we were all thrilled to be able to celebrate Nathan’s 21st birthday with him at one of his favorite restaurants. Thanks to all the room we now have in Maggie, we were able to host an at-camp sleepover for the whole gang. (What fun!) It won’t come as a surprise to many of my readers how much I enjoyed tucking Nathan into bed again, even at 21! And the sweetest thing is that he let me do it and didn’t even cringe, at least on the outside. (My heart is still so full right now, it could literally fly away!)
Nathan and Cheyenne came back to camp for dinner and another short visit after Faye left, and we enjoyed chatting and catching up with both of them. I think “Gram” is one of the most heart-melting words in the English language, and I reveled in hearing it. Nathan is our only grandchild, and was almost like one of my own for the for the first 11 years of his life. He’s much bigger now than when he moved away, and his hugs have also gotten bigger and more enveloping. You can bet that I snagged myself a bunch of extra hugs to hold me over til the next time we can detour through South Carolina on our travels.
Steve and I are so incredibly proud of how he and Cheyenne have grown since they’ve set out on their own together. I know his mom is smiling down over him with pride and joy in seeing how caring, kind, engaged and responsible he is as a young adult!
Despite all the amenities at “the posh place,” we only had what I consider to be pool weather for the first few days. So I was happy to be able to spend the better part of two cooler days creating my new “Campfire” collection of jewelry pieces. I feel like spring has finally caught up with us as we travel east and now north, and it was so lovely to sit at our picnic table and create in moderate temps. My new collection will be packaged and ready for the Chester County Studio Tour (May 17 & 18 for those local to me), and I can’t wait to share them with you! They’ll be listed soon in my Etsy shop for those who can’t come see them in person. I’ve got a few more collections I’m hoping to create before we get home, so let’s all keep our fingers crossed for a continuation of beautiful weather, shall we?
We left Hilton Head National RV Resort on Friday, and returned to an old favorite, Cheraw State Park in Cheraw, SC. It’s a really small park (only 17 sites), situated on one of the most beautiful lakes I’ve encountered on our travels. We have a stunning view of Lake Juniper as it laps at the shore just beyond our site.
Regular blog readers may recall this location from our first Snowbird Season, when I shared spectacular sunset images and watched a cloud being born over the lake - an inspirational moment that brought me to tears and led to the creation of a series of colored porcelain tree ornaments.
We arrived at Cheraw and set up, then took the dogs out for a walk. It rained briefly, and we saw the first rainbow of Snowbird Season Three just as we came to the end of the campground road.
I don’t know if it was the rainbow, or because we’ve been here before and love the park, or because we’re once again surrounded by nature, but arriving at Cheraw State Park immediately felt like coming home. I’ve already taken some spectacular sunset shots over the, and I’ll share one of my favorites here as I sign off.
I’m sure you can see why I love this place, right?! When I’m taking these photos, I think about you, dear reader, and how much you’ve told me you appreciate me sharing these quiet moments in nature with you. This is one of my favorite places on earth, and I am beyond grateful that I had a chance to return here and that I can share the moment with you.
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(I can’t believe it’s almost over!). Until then, thank you so much for reading the blog and coming along for the ride with us! We’ll chat again soon…
Be well,
Steve & Susan
Beautiful. So sweet of Faye to fly in... and happy you were able to spend Nathan's 21st together. (And Nana is lovely too).