Day 131: "Sweet Caroline"

Goodbye, South Carolina.  We’ve loved our time with you!

We squeezed in one more of its sites on our drive to North Carolina…Congaree National Park. It’s one of the last remaining stands—in the world!--of old-growth riverbottom forest.  Some of its trees are 700 years old and reach 16 stories into the sky.  Wildlife is abundant, although an alligator still eludes our check-off list. And incredibly, the swampy terrain was not the mosquito zone we’d anticipated. The visitor center’s official “Mosquito-meter” registered a “2--mild” on the scale that reaches “6--war zone."

We wrapped up our day with Raleigh friends, Amy and Brian, in the hallway of our hotel in Charlotte…it felt like the dorm days of college, hanging in the hall because roommates were sleeping. Brian and Stan head to the Speedway early in the morning for their training and preparation for the NASCAR Experience. The camera battery is charging in preparation for some fun photos!