The next morning, as promised, we slept in...and it felt great!  After roughly twenty-eight hours of driving, we were grateful to get a good eight hours of sleep to rejuvenate enough for that last push to Columbia, SC.

We left Thomson, Georgia, at 8:00 a.m., to begin the last leg of our journey, which would take us only two hours to complete.  Instead of taking I-20 straight into Columbia, though, we opted to go into Chapin first, to get settled in at the Lake House before going to visit Omi and Opa.  That meant exiting I-20 at the US 1 interchange and heading north on SC 391, over the dam on Lake Murray, to the junction with US 76.  It wasn't the fastest way into Chapin, but it certainly was scenic. 

At 10:00 a.m. - after about thirty hours of driving, over a period of nearly two and a half days - we finally arrived at our destination: the house on Lake Murray!  Talk about a sight for sore eyes!  What a relief it was to be done driving!

As promised, Lotte and Richard had left the key to the Lake House for us under the door mat prior to leaving for Minnesota in their motor home.  (They already had this trip planned when we announced our visit but said that we were more than welcome to stay at the Lake House.)  Once inside, we found a note from Lotte with instructions about how to work the air conditioning, where to find the keys to the boat, and some of the other things that we needed to know about the lake house.  She also mentioned that she had broken the chain to the ceiling fan, so we would have to stand on a chair to turn it on and off.  John examined the chain and said, "It just needs a new chain; we'll just go to Home Depot and buy her a new one."

Once we were settled in, we called Omi and Opa to let them know that we had arrived, safe and sound.  They invited us to come and eat lunch at their house and we accepted - after all, we were done eating ice chest sandwiches.  A nice, home-cooked meal was well-deserved!  It did come with a price, though: after lunch, we had to take Omi to a doctor's appointment, during Opa's nap.  Omi explained that she had been feeling out of sorts since she started taking medication to fight a case of bronchitis, so she had made an appointment to see her doctor about it.  Naturally, we were happy to do it for her!

When we arrived at their house in Columbia, SC, we were greeted warmly by John's grandparents.  Right away, they presented Mary with a number of gifts: a big Belle doll (her favorite Disney Princess) from Opa, and a beach towel and beach toys from Omi and Lotte.  Among the beach toys was a set of Velcro mitts and a ball, with which to play catch.  John and Mary immediately went out into the backyard to play with it, while Omi showed off her latest successes in her greenhouse.

For lunch that afternoon, Omi put out some lunchmeat and a delicious homemade chicken salad for us to enjoy - and it was much better than those sandwiches we had been making on the road!  We were grateful for every morsel.

After lunch, we drove Omi to her doctor's appointment.  As soon as we arrived, Omi was called back to see the doctor, leaving us in the waiting room.  Mary kept herself entertained by playing with the kids' toys; John, on the other hand, wandered around, looking for something to do.  He flipped through the magazines, played with the toys, watched the television, and eventually checked out the brochures in a little stand on the reception desk.  In one brochure, there was a four-question quiz that caught his attention, so he sat down next to me to answer the questions:

• "Do you get bored easily?" Yes.

• "Do you often leave tasks unfinished?" Yes.

• "Do you often fidget?" Yes

• "Do you find your attention drifting?" Yes.

At the end of the quiz, it said, "If you answered 'yes' to three or more of the questions above, then you might have Adult Attention Deficit Disorder."  When we read that, we both burst out laughing, because that explained everything!

Thirty minutes later, Omi emerged from the examination room to report that she wasn't going to die - at least, not yet.  It turned out that the medication she was taking for her bronchitis was causing a bad interaction with her blood pressure medication - and that was making her feel out of sorts.  The doctor prescribed a new medication for her - one that wouldn't cause that reaction - and sent her on her way.

We took Omi to the pharmacy so that she could fill her prescription; then we took her home.  When we returned, we discovered that Opa was still taking his nap, so we decided to leave them and head back to the Lake House, for our own peace and quiet.  We were still a bit fatigued from the long drive and needed a nice, long rest.

On the way back to the Lake House, we made two stops: one at the Home Depot to buy a chain for the ceiling fan, and another at the Food Lion to buy food supplies for our stay.  Upon our return, we carried everything inside and put it all in the refrigerator; John then repaired the ceiling fan.  At that point, we were ready for some downtime.  John and Mary both laid down to take a nap; I relaxed and enjoyed the silence.

While John and Mary were sleeping, I went outside and took a look at the lake.  As Lotte had explained to us over the phone, the lake was very low; it was so low that their dock was high and dry.  Their pontoon boat was docked at Rick and Shirley's house because their dock was long enough to handle periods of low water.  However, the water was so low that their dock was about twenty feet above the ground!  Getting out to the boat would involve a steep climb up the dock then an equally steep descent to the dock. 

It was very peaceful out on the lake that afternoon; there were no other boats out, and with all of Lotte's neighbors gone, it was very quiet.  The only movement out there was from a blue heron, out in the shallow waters near the dock.  It was the first time I had ever seen a heron on Lake Murray, and I took a couple of pictures of it.

That evening, we ate dinner at the Lake House - grateful to have a home-cooked meal - and relaxed, for in the morning, it was back on the road again...

Return to South Carolina or Bust.

Return to Naked in the Woods.