June 19, 2004 - Charleston KOA, Charleston, South Carolina
Jesus...what
gives with all this heat? When we were down here on a biz/editing trip
it was April and 78 degrees out. The outside temperature gauge was reading
in the 90's the whole way down here. We weren't up to making the drive
all the way down to Savannah, so we stopped in the middle--Charleston,
South Carolina. The FIRST thing we do: plug in and slam the air conditioner
on. The only time it hasn't been off is when we're driving--and that's
because we have the truck AC blastin'. There's a small, continuous stream
of condensation that's been dripping off
our camping the whole time we've been set up.
I've been studying the other (southern) campers. What's wrong with these people? They seem to actually LIKE sitting outside in this heat. I SEE a perfectly good air conditioner on most of these campers, and they're just sitting there...staring out into the trees, not even talking amongst themselves. Don't tell me they're still depressed over losing the civil war. GET INSIDE PEOPLE WHERE IT'S COOL.
We're now the running gag at all of the campsites when we pull in. Plug in, turn on the AC, set up the satellite dish, get inside and log onto the Internet. I tell them this is how a northerner camps.
This campsite had a zoo listed on it's map. A panting
cougar pacing it's cage and two comatose raccoons. I'm sure Schnookie has
plenty to say on this.
Uhhh...it is June
and this is the SOUTH! Come on, I knew it would be
in the 90's! Yes, we have been running the AC continuously. Just a
couple of wusses, I guess. But I don't require a satellite
set-up at every campsite--unlike SOME people! Oh, the horror of having
to read a book or even...*gasp*...TALK to each other!
I was appalled to see that beautiful cougar and those two unfortunate racoons imprisoned in those cages. The cougar was panting and pacing or just flopping onto the cement floor. The racoons were limp and practically lifeless on top of their shelter. When we first pulled into the camp and I was helping Eric back the truck into the site, I heard a strange sound. I thought "that sounds like a panther". Then I dismissed it as my overactive imagination doing its thing again (or maybe it was time to up my meds!). However, as you know, it was a panther/cougar. I'm going to report the sons of bitches.
Apart from the cougar, the thing I remember most about the campsite is a small, morose boy who passed by Mei-Li and me two or three times, and each time he stopped, paused and asked "Does he bite?" and "Can I pet him?"
Overheard in the local "Books-a-Million" store: "God
gave us two fists and if you don't shut up, you're gonna find out what
for!" (I went and looked: it was a teenage boy talking to a younger
boy.)
I
nearly forgot: the Tall Ships were in Charleston (we didn't know
about this beforehand), so we decided to go down to the waterfront
to check them out. We parked the beast and took the dog with us because
it was so hot (this was the hottest day we encountered on our trip:
we were told it got up to 101°).
There was a shuttle taking people to the ships & we asked the driver if we could bring our "little" dog on with us. He very kindly assented. Naturally, everyone was ooh-ing and baby-talking to Mei-Li, who is doomed to look like a puppy no matter how old she gets. There was one man and his son who were especially taken with her, couldn't stop petting her, etc.
Anyway, we got to the pier and--to make a long story short--couldn't get to the ships because of the stupid Homeland Security Act (you had to line up outside this building with your picture ID in hand, then go into the building to be searched, THEN you could see the damn boats!) all we saw of the Tall Ships was a bunch of masts.
As we were sitting, hot & disgruntled, trying to cool off with an Italian (that's "EYE-talian Ice") ice, the man and his son from the shuttle passed by us and the man said, "Look, it's that DAWG again!"
So, naturally, Mei-Li was referred to as "That Dawg" for the rest of the trip.
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(c) Eric Bickernicks/Therese Chase