We passed a warm and humid night, parked in the back of Cracker Barrel, with all three Fantastic Vents running to circulate some air.   Thank goodness for those fans.   On nights like that, they are the best upgrade we ever installed.   We’ve even survived boondocking on 100-degree nights in Death Valley with them.

Our plan shaped up enough for us to know where we were going today.   We towed just 118 miles up to Santee, SC, and the Santee State Park on Lake Marion.   It’s a large shady park with two campgrounds in mixed deciduous forest, and it would be a fine overnight stop for anyone coming up I-95, but our real goal was to have a place within a reasonable commuting distance of Congaree National Park ““ with 30-amp electrical hookups for the air conditioning.

The major theme of Santee State Park seems to be boating on the lake.   The lake features a flooded cypress “forest,” which is an unusual feature.   Since we didn’t happen to strap a boat to the roof of the Honda, we walked the ¾ mile nature trail instead.

Frankly, there wasn’t a lot of interesting nature revealing itself on the trail, except insects such as spiders, beetles and ticks.   Emma discovered a few ticks on her shoes from a short sojourn off the trail into some grass, but fortunately I’d sprayed her legs with bug repellent before the hike and we were able to evict the ticks before they got a nibble of her.

For most of the hike I was elected to walk in front so my face would collect the webs strung across the path, and I eventually amassed quite a collection of them. Finally I started keeping my eyes open for spider webs, and that led to my involvement in trying to photograph spiders in their webs.   It’s a worthy photographic challenge, one which will probably keep me occupied for a while just like hummingbirds and bees have occupied me at various times.   Right off the bat I can see I don’t have the right lens for the job “¦

Even in the shade of the trees, the humidity slowed me down.   Just that little walk made me look forward to some air conditioning.   We have not yet escaped the southeast humidity, and it’s likely we’ll find more of the same up north in a few weeks.   I’m going to have a tough readjustment to northeast summer conditions.

South Carolina can be such a polite place. I haven’t heard Eleanor referred to as “ma’am” more than once or twice a year, but here she has gotten that treatment half a dozen times this evening.

The peak of “sir” and “ma’am” occurred when we stopped at the Lone Star Barbecue & Mercantile for the nightly dinner buffet.   This place is built out of four buildings recycled from the former community of Lone Star: O.K. Zeagler’s General Store, the post office, Dantzler’s Social Hall, and Schuler’s General Store.   Now connected together along State Park Road, they make a popular restaurant. On Saturday nights the line can go “all the way out to the oak tree,” we were told.

Maybe I was just hungry, but I can recommend the Lone Star for a taste of local food.   It’s nothing fancy, just good southern cooking.   Between the three of us, we had fried chicken, green beans, “tomato pie,” mashed potatoes, “hash” (a semi-sweet puree of beef, I think) over rice, macaroni & cheese, banana pudding, and Indian pudding with butterscotch topping for dessert.   $9.99 for adults and we sure didn’t leave hungry.   Being just a couple of miles off I-95, this place is a great lunch or dinner stop for anyone passing by.

Fuel report: towing at 60 MPH on the flatness of I-95 through Georgia and South Carolina, with the A/C on and only mild crosswinds, the Armada got 11.0 miles per gallon.   That’s about the best it has ever done, and fairly good for a gas engine pulling an 8000 lb trailer.

By comparison, towing at 72 MPH in west Texas, in similar conditions, the Armada got between 8.6 and 8.9 MPG.   That means going 60 saved us about 20% on our fuel bill.   I’m going to work a 60 MPH speed limit into all my long-distance travel plans going forward.