Driveway Camping at Dads – Steam Whistle Blowing Fun
While camping in my dad’s driveway this month, I have been working on several projects. I have been making some adjustments to our truck attempting to make it more reliable. It is coming along nicely, I think I have aligned the alternator so it doesn’t chew the belt off in a few hundred miles. I also replaced some leaking seals on the injectors and corrected a shifting problem with the transmission.
I have also been replacing a clutch in a Dodge truck for a friend. I still have some welding to do to repair some rust damage on the frame and replace the fuel tank straps. Hopefully, these repairs will get it back on the road for their job site trash hauler for a couple more years.
I have also been helping dad out at Scholl Engine Shop. He restores antique railroad items, gasoline engines, steam whistles, Lionel trains, etc… We plumbed one of his latest whistle projects up to the compressor and had some fun. This is the first whistle I think he has ever owned that required two people to safely carry, it weighs 85 pounds. I love listening to these whistles echo through the mountains, it is something that never gets old (I hope the neighbors feel the same way)… Here is the video:
The 25th Annual MerleFest
This year was the 25th annual MerleFest festival in Wilkesboro, NC. It is a festival dedicated to the memory of Merle Watson, son of Doc Watson, they are both very well known bluegrass musicians. The festival is a lot of fun for kids, it is very family oriented. They offer many activities for kids that are free including: craft tents, face painting, a finger painting wall, climbing wall, playground, etc…
Lilah even had fun contributing to the music at the festival with the kazoo she made a few weeks ago when we toured the Kazoobie kazoo factory in Beaufort, SC. Click Here to see the post about the kazoo factory.
My brother in law has been selling hand turned ink pens in the Heritage Crafts tent for several years now. Millermark Pens are some of the best writing instruments you will find anywhere, he takes time to make sure every pen he makes is as close to perfect as it can be for a hand crafted item.
The girls enjoyed the climbing wall, Laini was excited that she happened to be big enough to climb it. The wall is operated by the National Guard, they did a good job but I was disappointed when I found out the caribeaners they were giving away with “National Guard” screen printed on the side also had a large “Made in China” on them as well… The girls liked getting to sit in the Hummer too…
One of the coolest things at MerleFest is the yearly sand sculpture. This year it was the Beverly Hillbillies on their truck with a nearly empty rocking chair on the top. The rocking chair had a banjo that was dedicated to the life of Earl Scruggs on it. On the back of the truck was a the MerleFest mascot raccoon. It is amazing the detail they can get into these sand sculptures, it was almost finished when we stopped to take pictures.
Moving The Bus With The Pop-Up … UP ! ! !
At Hunting Island State Park in South Carolina, the sites are hard to come by if you want to stay at one site for more than a few days. Many of these sites are reserved a year in advance, but due to cancellations you can usually find something if you are willing to site hop. The first site we found we were lucky enough to get it for 5 days, then we had to move one site over. I decided to do this without lowering the pop-up, so Chas got a little nervous. It worked out great thanks to some good guidance from one of our camping neighbors.
Here is the video Chas took of the adventurous maneuvering. She told me after we were finished with the move that she was glad she got to film and didn’t have to direct me.
Here is a video of the Lilah and Laini helping get the bus ready to move the second time to our final site at the park. They didn’t know I was filming for the first few minutes, they got the idea on their own to get the speed wrench and begin raising the levelers.
Kazoo Factory and Chocolate Tour
While staying at our first Thousand Trails campground in Yemassee, SC, we rode into Beaufort to take a couple of tours. We started at the Chocolate Tree, where we could watch chocolate treats being made behind big glass windows. Lilah was worried that we would be encountering a scene that would be found in Willy Wonka so we had to assure her no experiments would happen to her, and that she would definitely NOT turn into a blueberry. She is standing in front of a tree made of chocolate, it looked yummy.
Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, wine in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming “WOO HOO what a ride!”
When doing a tour of the Kazoobie Kazoo factory we felt like we were participating in the “How’s It Made” TV show.
After learning about the Kazoo’s we were all excited choose our colors and make our own instruments.
Even their mail box is a Kazoo 
Ocean Feast
On our last night camping at the beach we decided to have a feast and experiment with our catches from the Pier. The only fish that were biting on a regular basis were Whiting. They don’t get too big, but they are very good when filleted and fried (what isn’t).
Lydia used my iPhone to record how I removed the wings from the sting ray. If you have a large ray, there is a bunch of good meat on there and it is very easy to prepare. You will have to excuse the video orientation, I am working with Lydia to help her record better videos. She has a tendency to get caught up in the moment, so she forgets what she is supposed to be filming…
I decided I wanted to prepare the shark and sting ray in two different ways. To grill each, I left the skin on, I added very little seasoning and grilled them on a low steady fire. To prepare them for frying, I removed the skin from both the shark and the ray. I dunked them in a batter then straight into the fryer for a few minutes. I preferred the fried over the grilled, next time I will grill over a hotter fire and cook it much quicker. The fried shark was awesome, but the sting ray surprised everyone that tried it. Many people will tell you that rays and skates are not good to eat, our whole family loved it and we will be eating them again for sure…
Happy to Discover Bounty from the Sea
The beautiful Hunting Island State Park Camp Ground was a great place to search for treasures from the Sea everyday! This has been our favorite camping spot since the Scholl Bus departed on its maiden voyage. We were here from April 15-21 and loved every minute.
The campground has large trees and very nice ground cover if you are on the higher numbered sites, which we actually preferred over the beach front sites. The sites on the beach were very tightly packed with no space between you and your neighbors.
The blue crabs were caught on the Hunting Island Pier, fishing from the pier is included with the campground pass with no extra SC fishing license required. The girls had fun catching them, Jody had a minor incident with one crab latching on to his index finger but managed to survive (the crab did not).
This beach is well known for large numbers of sharks teeth. Jody and the girls found 19 teeth in just a few hours on one particular day. He is addicted to the art of teeth hunting now for sure.
The New Fridge and Camping Fun
We decided to get an apartment sized refrigerator at Best Buy while staying at Lake Aire campground just outside of Charleston, SC. We were tired of spending several dollars each day on bags of ice, and the RV fridge we had planned to use would have been too much of a hassle to finish the installation in a safe fashon.
The girls had fun playing with the headphones while at Best Buy, Jody had fun loading the fridge on the roof of “Blondie” (our Mercedes wagon) to haul back to the bus.
You will also see the smallest frogs/toads we have ever seen. There were hundreds of them on a sand bar beside the lake at Lake Aire. The girls had fun catching them and chasing them around the sand bar. The pool is the one at the campground, if you click on the image you can see the bus in the background.
Dutch Oven
I am attempting to use my dutch ovens as much as possible. This is very hard to do when the girls want to be at the beach every second they are awake.
This cooking was done at Lake Aire campground just outside Charleston, SC. We were here from April 4th-15th. This is a very nice campground with owners that care about the experience their campers have while there.
Laini did enjoy helping me get everything set up, she loved coating the new dutch ovens with bacon grease so we could season them.
While working on the dutch ovens, we found one of the most interesting caterpillars. It had some wild spikes, which were accented by barbs on each of the spikes.
Scholl Bus Letters
Here are the close up shots of the lettering on the bus. We wanted to go with something close to the original bus font, but had to change the lettering to really make it a Scholl Bus. I offset the letters a little bit on Scholl to make it stand out a little, and it has been working. Everyone has been saying how it catches their eye and they have to think about why it is not spelled correctly.
The first picture is Gravy Scholl looking out HER window. She is so funny watching everyone go by from her post, she adds a lot to the adventure for sure…
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