I'll update this post weekly as I work my way through the advent calendar. Unlike tea and beer, where I have strongly held opinions, I know almost nothing about cheese so I'm flying blind on this.

In previous years I have done beer and tea.

1. Extra Mature Cheddar - I lack the vocabulary to describe cheese. The internet says an extra mature cheese has been aged for at least 15 months and has a complex and sharp flavor. I thought this cheese started with a very smooth and understated flavor, then a strong wine presence made itself known with the finish. Overall, it’s tasty and I would eat it again.

2. Black Pepper Gouda - Smooth and creamy with a little bit of a pepper bite. Quite tasty.

3. Smoked Cheddar - I'm not generally a smoked fan unless it's meat, but this was good. The smokey notes are subtle.

4. Spiced Apple Cheddar - It had some sort of spiced flavor, but I wouldn’t call it apple. It tasted fine, just a bit undefinable.

5. Mature Gouda - Creamy and buttery-tasting goodness. Would eat again.

6. Cheddar with Whiskey - A mild cheddar with a slight hint of whiskey as you finish the cheese. You could also smell whiskey as you ate the cheese.

7. Cheddar with Port Wine - The port gives the cheese a reddish tint, but otherwise, the wine flavor is very subtle, bordering on not there. I did taste these immediately after the whiskey cheese without cleansing my pallet, so this may be an unforced error on my part.

Some users have been having issues with Pinboard, the online bookmarking service that I have used for years. I haven't had any issues, but I also have read that the creator has lost interest in the project and it's kind of running on auto pilot these days. Then layer on my general loss of enthusiasm for anything in the "cloud" and it seemed like a good time to rethink bookmarks.

In scrolling through my Pinboard account to get a general sense of what was there, it struck me that I generally never go back to the things I bookmark. As I poked around the bookmarks a bit and clicked on some that were interesting, I realized that 90% of the pages I had bookmarked were not bookmarked for any sort of long term issue. They were bookmarked because I needed (or thought I needed) to refer back to them for a specific project over a short period of time. In most cases, I was done with the link within a couple of weeks.

I came up with several non Pinboard options.

1. Dropbox. I have Dropbox for general backup purposes already, and it has a cloud bookmarks function. I tried it. It sucks.

2. Another cloud service. I don't want another cloud service.

3. Browser bookmarking. It's a fine option, but I have to deal with sync issues between work and personal PC, plus mobile. I use separate Mozilla profiles on my work and personal computers, so they will not automatically sync. Also, that's not a particularly elegant solution given that most of my bookmarks are temporary and don't need to clog up my bookmarks file.

4. Email. What?

Email is the solution I've implemented and it works great. I created a filter that takes any incoming email with a specific hashtag in the subject and files it in a folder. I simply email links to myself, then I can deal with them when I'm on my primary PC. Things I need temporarily can just sit in the bookmarks email folder until I'm done with them, and others I'm bookmarking for a later day get added to my browser bookmarks. I still need to finalize a taxonomy for bookmark folders. I think I'm going to create maybe a dozen at the most - named for broad interest areas that I'll likely need regularly (camping, birds, web etc.)

I'm not paying for yet another service, and I'm using basic open standards based tools (email and a web browser) to do everything. I'd call that a win.

Part 1

We woke up Wednesday morning to more rain, which killed our plans to go birding before heading out. We only had a 90-minute drive to our next stop, so there was no hurry. Since birding was a bust, we instead packed up and headed out to the Hofwyl Broadfield Plantation State Park in GA. It was a rice plantation with over 350 enslaved workers from 1820 through the Civil War. After the war it started a slow decline and became a dairy operation around 1920. The last owner, the great-granddaughter of the founder, willed it to the state on her death in the early 1970s. We got a private guided tour of the house as the only visitors there at noon the day before Thanksgiving. The tour was fine, but it was very just the facts and lacking personal color regarding the people whose story could be told there.

After lunch in the truck, we made the 30-minute drive to Blythe Island Regional Park for a 1 night stay. We should have been at Jekyll Island, but somebody screwed up and left Wednesday off the registration. The campground is okay. The park is nice, but the campsites are too close to each other, and this place very much caters to the large 5th wheel and Class A crowd. Also, people at this campground were weirdly obsessed with leaf blowers. We were camping in the woods, and we saw three different people blowing leaves away from their campers that were parked in the woods, under trees. It did have the best campground wifi we've ever experienced, though. We did a walk around the lake birding and though the birds were mostly hiding, I added 1 species to my life list. I made cacio e pepe for dinner, and it was fabulous. After some campfire and chill time, we did the YouTube and chill thing in the camper.

We got up at 7 AM on Thanksgiving to take showers, then relaxed in the camper watching the Macy's parade until it was time to move out. We got to Jekyll around 1130 AM and campground check in was at 1. I can park the Ascape anywhere, so we parked at the fishing pier and spent 90 minutes birding before a picnic lunch. The boat-tailed grackles here have no fear of humans. They landed on the picnic table and squawked at us. It didn't work. We don't feed the wildlife. After we set up camp, we split because our existence was upsetting our camping neighbor, who apparently drove up from Florida with his six figure 5th wheel to sit under the camper awning and watch college football. We went to Driftwood Beach, the ruins of a 1742 plantation that includes Georgia’s first brewery, and a beach on the south end of the island that looks west for sunset. Sunset was underwhelming. Then we when went to Cracker Barrel for Thanksgiving dinner. When we returned to the campground after dinner at the late hour of 7:30 our too close neighbors were apparently already in bed. So we got some campfire and chill time without having to listen to their TV.

I'm typing this paragraph on Thanksgiving, and I have plenty to be thankful for. But that is not going to stop me from bitching about Jekyll Island Campground. It's the only campground on the island. My camper is maybe 12 feet from the neighboring camper, and that is only because I was able to pull my tiny camper forward in the spot. If I was backed to the edge, I would be 6 feet from him. They have way too many campsites crammed into this space. Also, it was simply the least friendly campground we’ve ever stayed at. Not a single person said hello as they walked by the campsite. Michelle witnessed two women fighting in the bathroom over who used up the hot water, and another woman yelled at Michelle from the shower when she flushed the toilet. I’ve lived in an old frat house with bad plumbing, and it was expected that you would yell flush first so that the person in the shower could step out of the way for a second until the temperature leveled out. But not flushing was never an option. That said, the bathrooms were clean, but very dated. As we were packing to leave, I saw a state trooper driving out of the campground. Given the family argument we heard from a neighboring campsite on Thanksgiving, I’m guessing he was called out at 7 AM for a domestic dispute of some sort. The whole vibe of the campground was just off.

On Black Friday, we started the day on the retail end of Jekyll Island, where we were able to knock out some Christmas shopping in the local independent shops. We also visited the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, which is a rehabilitation facility for injured sea turtles. It is a really great facility doing good work, and we learned a lot about sea turtles. Only 1 in 4000 baby sea turtles survives to mating age, which is approximately 23-25. So the couple of dozen the center saves each year is actually rather impactful. We also stopped in the local Irish Pub for a pint and a snack. We spent the late afternoon cleaning out the truck and loading up to head home on Saturday morning. After burgers for dinner, we headed back into the historic district for the Christmas Light tour. We hopped on an open air trolley for the 45-minute ride through the area where over 1 million lights were on display. It was certainly a much better time than our last Christmas light tour.

We hit the road about 8:30 AM on Saturday morning, headed for Badin Lake Campground, which is a National Forest Campground in NC where we planned to spend the night. We got there with no issues, but the quiet, empty campground I was expecting was not there. Apparently it’s a popular campground with the local ATV crowd, as almost all the campsites were filled with tents, large 4X4s, and heavy-duty ATVs. It felt like crashing a party we were not invited to. We arrived just before dark, so by the time I was parked and leveled, we simply went into the camper and stayed there for the night. It dipped below freezing that night, and my camper battery, which I’ve known was on its last year of service all summer, didn’t quite make it through the night. The propane alarm went off very loudly at 630 AM from low voltage, as we realized we could have light or heat, but not both. So we turned off the heat, packed up, and headed home. Since it was the Sunday after Thanksgiving, I decided to stay off the interstates and take a state and US highway route home that was only 45 minutes longer assuming we cruised the interstates at the speed limit all the way, which was highly unlikely. As I pulled into a gas station to fill up (both gas and coffee) the oil pressure light came on. I was a quart low, and fixing that seemed to eliminate the issue. The engine has 125K miles on it and about 8000 miles since the last oil change, so burning a quart in that time is not particularly concerning. It was due for an oil change anyway, so it’s at the mechanic now, and I asked them to take a look for possible leaks. The rest of the trip was a scenic if uneventful drive through rural NC and Virginia. We got home to a forecast of low 20s on Monday night, so I had to drop everything and winterize the camper Sunday afternoon.

Update - no evidence of an oil leak.

The original plan was to fly to Vegas, rent a camper van, and spend a week in Death Valley and Joshua Tree. However, most of Death Valley is still inaccessible due to the summer hurricane, and the government shutdown was scheduled for the day before our flight. Flying to Vegas seemed like a risky proposition, so I canceled that trip and headed south in our camper instead.

We left RVA on my birthday and drove about 5 hours to Sand Hills State Forest in rural SC. Our $15 campsite was lakeside and came with a huge CCC era stone pavilion. We were only there overnight, but it is easily one of my favorite campsites ever. We didn't see another human there, and within 15 minutes of arrival I spotted a pair of red-headed woodpeckers, a lifer for me.

After a very dark and quiet night, we headed out towards Conagree National Park. When we got to the park, I stepped on Michelle's makeup mirror that had fallen during transit. I'm sure the broken mirror had nothing to do with the fact that I then forgot to switch the fridge to propane before starting our hike. We were about an hour into the hike when we remembered. I speed walked back to the truck but was not surprised to find the battery so dead that the power locks didn't work. At that point, I reset the fridge to propane and speed walked back to Michelle to continue our hike, as the truck wasn’t going anywhere and I figured I could get a jump start when we were ready to leave. A park volunteer had a portable starter in his car and kindly jumped me later so it all worked out.

Conagree exceeded expectations. It's the smallest National Park, but it delivers. The 2.5 mile boardwalk through the forest is really nice. We saw some good birds, and learned a lot about the ecology that makes the area special. After that, we continued on to our next stop, Skidaway Island State Park, just south of Savannah, GA. We got in at 5 PM, so we had just enough daylight to set up camp.

On Monday, we had a 2-hour walking tour of Savannah booked. We turned out to be the only people that booked that tour, so we got a 2-hour private tour. The tour was great. We learned all about Savannah history and why it has always been a bit of a sleepy backwater sort of place. We had lunch at the Six Pence Pub, which was fine but wildly overpriced. After lunch, we wandered around some more before eventually heading back to the camper for dinner.

Savannah as a city is fine, if a bit underwhelming. I thought the squares the city is so known for would be more interesting. I don't have any complaints, but everything just seemed very average. It seems like a fine place to live, but as a tourist destination, there isn’t a lot going on. I guess that sort of fits with the Slowvannah nickname familiar to the locals.

Monday night was rainy, so we spent it in the camper doing the Netflix and chill thing.

It was pouring Tuesday morning, so we slept in a bit. We had to switch campsites, so we hung out waiting for the people on our next site to leave, which they did around 11. After moving the camper and lunch, we headed into Savannah. We started at the Juliet Gordon Low birthplace. She is the founder of Girl Scouts. This was very much Michelle's thing, but it was interesting. She was a bit of a badass and way ahead of her time in many ways. After that, we toured the Davenport House, a well-preserved Federal Style house built in 1820. I really appreciated that the tour started in the basement with a discussion of how the middle and upper class back then only existed due to the unpaid labor of the enslaved people doing all the work in the household. We also wandered into a small military museum that was all a private collection containing artifacts from every war the US has been in. After a fabulous dinner of shrimp and grits, we headed back to the camper to chill for the night.

Continue to part II (coming soon).