Vacation Planning in Progress

It feels like Spring here at EarthNSky. Today, it was 80 degrees. High temperatures should be back in the 50's by the end of the week, but it was sure nice today. The peaches, plums,and pears are blooming, but there is no sign of flowering with the dogwoods or redbuds. Looking into the woods, I don't see any hint of green, no buds yet. The trees know that Winter still has a bit of trickery left in her.
Skyguy and I rode our bikes for the first time in 2009 over the weekend. I am so out of shape that I could only ride 2.7 miles. Realize that this is hilly terrain. We'll work up to riding more as the weeks go by. We hope to be able to take 40 mile excursions by the fall. We plan to take the bikes to the coast when we go on vacation in May. We haven't had a real vacation in years, so we plan to go down to the South Carolina Lowcountry for a week and visit both Savannah and Charleston. Bike riding down there where it is flat should be easy. We'll camp at a KOA and just ride the bikes and explore the area. We've both wanted to go to Patriot's Point for a while now, and I found out that you can take a tour of the Hunley, the Civil War submarine that is being carefully studied and preserved in a special lab on the old Navy base. I was born on the Charleston Navy Base. Since our son is a submariner, and we both come from Navy families, these historical things interest us. I also want to explore the natural world, and I am hoping to be able to take a short backwater cruise into the marshes-maybe see a dolphin or two. We need to get away. I've made reservations, but if Mr. Bully Collector continues to be a pain, we may have to cancel. I'm pretty frugal when it comes to traveling. In 2001 I drove with the kids across the country for over a month and explored the National Parks along the way. Food, gas, and lodging cost right at $2000. My budget for this vacation is far less. Luckily, the things that interest us, like Forts and museums, are generally inexpensive or free. I enjoy fishing, hiking, canoeing and biking, all of which we have the equipment for and costs nothing. Luckily, we don't do the golf, spa, and shopping vacation. That's just not me. I suppose we will spend most of the budget on food. I want good, fresh seafood. We will eat brunch at the campground, but for dinner, I want shrimp and scallops and crab! I do want to spend some time at one of the old rice plantations near Charleston. I feel drawn to it for some reason. Yeah, I've wanted to grow rice for some time now, but it is more than that. I sometimes think I lived on one of these plantations in a former life. I do believe in reincarnation. It explains so many of life's mysteries. Perhaps I will blog about that in a separate post. I hope to learn more about life before modern conveniences like electricity and indoor plumbing and tractors.