PATH OF LIFE (March 19 -April 27, 2024)

 

This photo taken from our second-floor deck represents about as much excitement as you'll find on Edisto Island in South Carolina. It's been over a month since we met together on this site and it's now been 115 days since we left Wyndham Fairfield Glade Resort in Tennessee and arrived here at Wyndham Ocean Ridge Resort. You read that right, the Dicers have stayed somewhere for over 100 days! When you add on the 8 weeks we spent in Tennessee, we have been doing the time share thing for over 170 straight days! That's a new record.

These past five weeks has been time spent enjoying each other (most of the time) and experiencing God's wonderful creativity.  Spring has sprung in the Carolina Low Country and the beauty is amazing. Just today I saw our first Magnola blooms! The 20 weeks on "our" island will come to an end toward the end of May.

We did have visitors for a week of the time with my daughter's family and a friend dropping down from Indiana. We are so pleased when family or friends visit.                                          REFLECTIONS

PATH TO THE SUNRISE ON EDISTO ISLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA

On an island like Edisto you can catch both a sunrise and a sunset from your deck if your

condo is placed just right. As a matter of fact just a few days ago I was able to photograph the rising sun in the East and then turn around and photograph the setting full moon in the West. Only about 10 minutes separated the two.

It made me think about my life and how really short it has been. It reminded me of the song in Fiddler on the Roof that goes "sunrise, sunset, swiftly fly the years". It seems like just a short time ago that I lived in the "sunrise" days, walking briskly toward whatever the future might hold. Knowing that things were only going to get brighter. Back to a song, "Those were the days, my friend, I thought they'd never end".  They were days to run the basketball court, smash the golf ball, make friends, get married, have kids, etc. Days where you would "sing in the sunshine and laugh every day." (the songs just keep on coming!)

I don't know when it happens. I don't know if anyone really does. One day you wake up and realize that "those" days are over! Things become more difficult. You can't process things like you once could, you can't run the court (half-court stuff is even a challenge), the golf ball doesn't fly as far as it should (a 9 iron to the green becomes a 3 wood). You become aware that it's now the sunset path you are on. Everything seems a little darker and little more perilous. You begin to question whether your "day" was a "success". 

Having articulated my lament, let me end with this. Endevour to live your life's day so that when your sunset comes, those there to observe will say with a sense of awe, "Now that was a spectacular day from beginning to end."

PATH TO THE SUNSET ON EDISTO ISLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA

I NEED A PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY (February 3 - March 18, 2024)

 Today marks the half-way point of our protracted stay at WYNDHAM OCEAN RIDGE RESORT on Edisto Island, South Carolina; seventy-three days down and seventy-three days to go. Once again it has been a peaceful, enjoyable, relaxing retreat. In this section of the blog, I usually try to identify some things that we have done so that later I can be reminded of what transpired. However, while here at Edisto, we really don't "do" much! We did have good friends, Ken and Linda Moore from Ohio come for a short but wonderful two-day visit but, other than that every day has been pretty much the same. 

It's not at all bad to have quiet days just enjoying the coming of Spring. Since there really isn't too much to chronical, I think we'll just take a photographic journey around this South Carolina Low Country Jem.

                PHOTOGRAPHIC REFLECTIONS

I think that's enough but, I think you get the idea. From us to you: "be blessed and enjoy each and every day."

WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT TO COME HERE? (January 12 - February 2, 2024)

                                                                                          REFLECTIONS

Every time that we visit Wyndham Ocean Ridge on Edisto Island in South Carolina, I ask myself; "Why would anyone want to come here?"

There are no high-end restaurants or even seafood buffet places. "Why would anyone want to come here?"

There are no arcades or Ferris wheels or movie theaters. "Why would anyone want to come here?"

The no see ums are everywhere and I think every jelly fish in the Atlantic Ocean comes here to die on the beach. "Why would anyone want to come here?"

The winds often blow at Gale force, and it whistles through the door frame and windows. "Why would anyone want to come here?"

The rooms are small. The guest room has two single beds and no TV. The furniture is dated. The deck is only big enough for a small table and four chairs. Many buildings have no elevators. "Why would anyone want to come here?"

The nearest Walmart is an hour away! The nearest hospital is an hour away! The nearest National Restuarant is an hour away. Just about the nearest anything is....an hour away! "Why would anyone want to come here?"

"Why would anyone want to come here?" Yet this is the 7th straight spring that we have made an extended stay. We've been coming here on a regular basis since 1985. Guess we're just not too bright, but you, you're smarter than that. 

Besides, if you come here than it will be more difficult for us to make reservations.

Just in case anyone is confused....we love Edisto and you would too! 

WHERE I AM, THERE I AM (December 13, 2023 - January 11, 2024)

Fairfield Glade backyard deer

 

Our final three weeks at the "Glade" were spent watching a lot of basketball and football on TV as the weather turned off quite cold. My daughter's family drove down from Indiana and spent a week with us over the Christmas break. Puzzles and table games were the order of the days. They stayed through January 2, 2024 so we could all watch MICHIGAN win the National Championship! 

We left the woodlands of WYNDHAM FAIRFIELD GLADE a day early. This time we rented a car for our travel and headed via the southern route through Atlanta, Ga. in order to miss the icy Smoky Mountain roads. After spending the night outside of Atlanta we drove to South Carolina and Edisto Island and the WYNDHAM OCEAN RIDGE RESORT.                                                                                 

Blue skies greeted us as we arrived at our Bay Point unit at the resort. We have stayed in Bay Point every spring since 2017. Right now, this will be our front yard until June. We have just nicely settled in. It feels like "home". The resident dolphin have been active in the Bay and seemed glad to see us. The shore birds have flocked to welcome us back and the swaying Palm Trees waved hello.

Edisto has been a favorite since we first visited in the summer of 1985. We fell in love with the Low Country of South Carolina. We've never stayed this long....we'll see how it goes.                                                                                                         REFLECTIONS

I thought I'd reflect on the year just passed. In 2023 I pillowed my head in Florida, South Carolina, Indiana, Missouri, Alaska, and Tennessee. 51% of those nights were spent in WYNDHAM RESORTS and 49% were spent with family, friends, and as an interim pastor in Alaska. We "visited" WYNDHAM CYPRESS PLAMS (Kissimmee, Florida), WYNDHAM OCEAN RIDGE (Edisto Island, South Carolina), WYNDHAM MOUNTAIN VISTA (Branson, Missouri), and WYNDHAM FAIRFIELD GLADE (Crossville, Tennessee).

I am often asked which resort is my favorite. I don't have a good answer because they are all unique. Cypress Palms is located just off busy Highway 192 but has great pools and hot tubs. There are all kinds of eateries and stores within walking distance. Ocean Ridge, in the other hand, is located an hour from Charleston and is as remote as it gets. Yet it provides a place to enjoy the simpler things in life. There are zero hotels, motels, or high raise resorts. Ocean Ridge is it. The only national restaurant is the Subway in the gas station (several local places provide the best seafood ever. Mountain Vista is your invitation to all that is Branson. Nuff said. Fairfield Glade sits on top of the Cumberland Plateau. It is a golfer's paradise and its own post office and shopping center.

 I have awakened to grazing deer, slinking alligators, and jumping dolphins. We have been joined by family and friends. We have made new friends.

"Regrets? I've had a few. But then again too few to mention." So I'll look forward with great expectations for the year to come. I'll revel in the time with family. I'll enjoy reunions with friends. I'll kiss my wife goodnight and wake up somewhere that I'll be happy to be.

As Michigan's victorious football coach says; "Who has it better than us? NOBODY!

Edisto Island Sunset