Off to South Africa!

Tomorrow we start the first leg of our trip to South Africa. We leave from Orlando and fly to Dulles Airport for a short visit to my sister.

On Monday evening we fly out of Dulles and head to Johannesburg by way of Senegal. A short wait and then we are carrying on to Durban for a week of visiting family, friends and old haunts.

I am not taking the computer but will have my iPad so I am hoping to post some updates and photos as we go.

Stay tuned......

Hallelujah! It's a Miracle!

Well, I told you about the wine that got spilled (was that my hand?) on my 2 year old MacBook Pro. I finally went into an Apple store and took it to the Genius Bar. The geniuses there told me that all components had been affected by the spill and there was a flat rate of $755 to clean it up and replace the damaged components. I did not leave the computer because, in my usual cautious manner, wanted to think about it. I was pretty upset. We had to have a big repair done on the front end of the car ($1200) and another bunch of money added to that was not going to be possible.

I had kept the computer turned upside down with a paper towel on the keyboard, where most of the wine had gone. I had also opened the back and mopped up as much of the wine as I could.

My first reaction was to do this.

Then I turned it upside down like this with a paper towel under the keyboard

Then I opened the back, removed the battery and the hard drive and dried under them 

A couple of days ago I was packing stuff away and I thought I would just try once more to fire it up again. As soon as I attached the power cord, the orange charge light came on. A miracle! The computer fired up as normal and all is well with the world.

My African Lion desktop.

Great intentions and a glass of wine.

I had great intentions of getting down to update the blog. It is about a month in arrears but my computer had an unexpected glass of wine dumped on it. I know this one will not get fixed as inexpensively as the last time. I have an appointment at the Genius Bar in Orlando on Wednesday. Ka ching, Ka ching!!

It's Fixed!!

My computer has been "broken" for over a week. I was lost....but today I had a brainwave! What if the T connection I was using on my Mac charger was the wrong one? What if I have been using the one from my old MacBook? Maybe.... maybe.... maybe. I dug out the other one I had (the new one), switched them around... et voila!! My computer turned on and I was able to charge it up. So now I can go back and complete my old posts with photographs that were on my external hard drive. Tomorrow is going be a wet day here at Walkabout Camp and RV Park so I catch up as much I can.

A Day trip to Cumberland Island

What a WOW day. The weather was perfect for a trip over to Cumberland Island National Seashore. We left Timmy at home and arranged with the campground owner's two boys to take him out on a potty break in mid afternoon.

We got the 11:45 ferry from St Mary's. $18 each plus $4 each for entry to the National Park. The ferry takes about 45 minutes to get down the St Mary's River and over to the island. The first thing we did was join the warden guided tour of the area from the jetty to the ruin of the Dungeness Mansion. It was very interesting and we learned a lot about the early history of Cumberland Island as well as the later history of the Carnegie family and their role on the island. Cumberland almost became another Hilton Head Island. Thank goodness it didn't. It has been preserved in an almost completely natural state. If you Google dungeness cumberland images you will see many photos of what the mansion looked like. here is the National Park link to the Multimedia page.

The ferry ride out to the island

There was a strong, cool wind blowing.

Bye bye St Mary's

Heading to the cistern (on the right) to meet the ranger.

Lots of deer wandering around the island

Horses too.

These horses are feral. They will kick and bite.

A foal. The horses are counted every year and the count averages between 140 and 180

Approaching the old gates of Dungeness.

Approaching the ruins

The stonework is all Tabby a mixture of oyster shells,  lime, sand and water.

Imagine the carriages and expensive cars carrying rich folk up to the mansion.

Burned down by arsonists

We brought a packed lunch and ate it on the expansive lawns facing the salt marsh.

The echoes of long ago children playing  in the grounds.

Tabby gates

What a grand place to live.

Entrance to the lower part of the building. Kitchens?

What it used to look like.

Lots of wildlife in the salt marshes.

Buzzards

Boardwalk through the Maritime Forest

Maritime Forest

View from the board walk

Armadillo foraging in the brush

Oysters in the salt marsh

Boardwalk over the Salt Marsh

Low tide

On Cumberland Beach

Not many shells caught in the sand ripples.

1 1/4 mile walk from one end of the beach to where we have to go to get the ferry back. 

Beautiful live oaks in the campground

Camp site. $4 a night per person. 

Deer in the campground

Sun shining through the live oaks and the Spanish Moss

Michael waiting for me in the camp ground

An old man, a rocking chair and a sunny porch.  Waiting for the ferry back to St Mary's

Sign at the campground dock

A beautiful end to a lovely day.