3 - 1 Camping Dreher Island State Park

 Hi,

I promised Eric and Ryan that I'd create a post of this week's camping, the first camping trip we've made in over 2 years, or maybe since before Covid????

Dreher Island is near Columbia South Carolina so about an hour and a half drive from home.  I definitely like fair weather camping and the weather looked promising, no rain and unusually warm temps predicted.  The trip was Tuesday - Thursday, March 21-23,  the first official days of Spring.

Day 1 March 21 - Check in, Set up tent, and enjoy the evening.

Gravel tent pad for our site T-6. Lovely view.

                                                    

The master at work...

Tent was up in 20 minutes.  Then it was time to enjoy the views, and for a 2 mile walk around the grounds.

Electrical plug behind the tent became our charging station.

Hot chocolate ready, temps cooling quickly. Expected (and actual low) tonight was to be 44 degrees, by far the coldest for our adventure.

A lovely sunset on the water and a campfire - before retiring to read in the tent at bout 8:30pm.

Day 2, March 22.  A cold first morning - Phil made tea and coffee to order.  How nice. He was bundled up!

Oh dear - the first problem - Phil's air mattress did not hold  air all night.  So fortunately there was a Walmart within 10 miles or so.  After a breakfast of oatmeal, Wally mart was our first stop. Then onto Arianas for a Greek inspired lunch.  Then to The Riverbanks Zoo and Garden. The zoo was full of kids on school trips, but the place was big enough to handle the crowd.

Newly born Koala, usually hidden behind mom.  Our lucky day!

Visit cut short due to misty rain that wouldn't stop. What happen to the forecast of 0% chance of rain???  Here we are a little soggy on the way out after a fun 2 hrs at the zoo (and botanical garden).  

Day 3  March 23.  Someone broke into our carefully packed up goods left over night on the picnic table.  One of the oatmeal packs, was on the ground.  The nuts and dried fruit gone but the oatmeal left behind.  Who would do that?  Phil thought squirrels.  We were so delighted that bears would not be a problem in central SC that we didn't think through the the threat of squirrels! 

My pack of oatmeal was untouched, so I had a nice breakfast.  Phil made do with 2 bananas, yogurt and biscoff.  

This was a foggy but much warmer morning (55 degrees).  BUT.. wet, with light rain through the previous evening.

                                                    

So we packed up the wet tent..

The turtles waved good bye on the way out.

Once home, Phil laid out the tent and tarp to dryout on the driveway, I washed the dishes and utensils.  We'll be ready for the next camping trip.

PS  It's always fun to see how others camp.  There are a lot of RV's - is that really camping??  Our tent neighbors to the right set up their own shower and toilet.  Must be nice.

Here is a photo of a cute teardrop, small RV.  When it rains, it sure would be nice to have dry shelter.  Although, we did stay nice and dry through both nights.

PS, PS. Here is theCamping menu.

Breakfast:

DIY instant oatmeal (with raisins, cherries, almonds, pecans, flazseeds cinnamon, powdered milk).

Fruit - oranges, bananas, strawberries.

Yogurt and milk

Coffee and tea

Lunch was at local Restaurants: Arianas Greek in Columbia, Catch 22 Seafood in Chapin. Both were exceptional!

Dinners:

Baked Greek cheese with baguette rounds.

Smoked salmon brought already cooked.

Salad

asparagus

Cheese nachos with jalapena peppers, and mexican beans, corn optional.

Snacks:

Hot chocolate

Roasted marshmallows

Peanuts

Biscoff 

Bye-bye for now - till the next trip!