Family Time and The Outlet Mall

We had more opportunities to spend time with additional family members on Sunday and Tuesday. Sunday we went to Maple Cane Baptist Church with Roberta and joined his niece Bonnie, and his nephew David and wife Rita, along with their son David, his friend Kristi and his daughter Connestee. Everybody joined us back at Roberta’s house for BBQ steak with her homemade mac and cheese. We had not seen David since he visited his Daddy Bob’s farm when he was maybe 14 years old in the late eighties.
On Monday we thought we would run down to the factory outlets that Ron had seen a billboard for on the way back from Savannah and St Augustine. So we headed south on I-95 again having our sights set on shopping binge. When we reached our exit on the freeway we really did not see any outlet mall, but figured it was back off highway 17 somewhere. Did we feel like total fools when the business we saw on the billboard turned out to be ONLY the Sabatier knife outlet only in a building about 700 square feet. We actually passed it by and kept driving on 17. We did stop at the old Frampton Plantation museum and gift shop and go through it, so the trip was not a total loss. We stopped at the knife outlet and Ron bought another chef’s knife and a bread knife. Just what we need, more kitchen stuff!
On Tuesday we returned to Beaufort and vicinity, which we will describe in a later post. We had to hurry back because niece Sherri was fixing a Lowcountry Boil. A Lowcountry boil is just about whatever seafood and stuff you want to put in a pot. In Sherri’s case

it was shrimp, sausage, corn and potatoes. If this was an outside feast the boil would just be dumped on newspaper on a picnic table and everybody dig in. Since we were in the house weused plates. We got to meet some more of Ron’s family as his grandnieces Amber and Erin Driggers dropped on at their parents house.

Grandnephew Stevebo and his friend Heather and her son Tyler. Also Bonnie’s daughter Stacey joined as well as there was Ron’s sister Betty Rhode and her husband Bryant and their daughter Julia. Betty fell and broke her shoulder in November and has been slowly rehabbing, and has battled the lows that an independent person who is always doing for others has when she is the person being done for. It was good to see both of them out and about.
To some this may seem like total boredom. You drove 5,000 miles for this? The answer is YES! We actually scaled back on some of the things we had planned because of the wonderful time we have had meeting or reuniting with. In fact we are already looking forward to the next trip.

Tonight as I post this we are in the Days Inn at the lovely city of Chapel Hill NC. We will be touring the Duke and UNC campuses before heading back to SC for one last week. Coming soon (I hope) Beaufort Part 2, Myrtle Beach, the USS North Carolina and Tobacco Road, including a visit to Kannapolis, the hometown of Dale Earnhart. Yes I made a redneck odyssey.