South Carolina: cotton fields and weird legless lizard

Driving through South Carolina, I was totally enchanted to see actual cotton fields. Acres of white fluffy stuff that is not snow. It was amazing to see where a lot of our fabrics start from. Of course I knew all about the cotton plantations from movies and learning about slavery but to see it right there by the side of the road was cool. We also got to see baled cotton which looks like very large hay bales packed with cotton. Neat!

Doesn't it look a bit like snow?

We stayed at the Little Pee Dee State Park which is quite beautiful but they lost their lake during the storm because of a broken dam. We were told that so much rain came down that the water pressure was too much for the old structure and it gave way draining the lake. What is left is a bit of water on the bottom and a lot of tree stumps. The now empty lake is popular with egrets and herons as the fish must be real easy catches! My camera would not focus well during that time (realized later that it had been put on manual focus by mistake) so no good pics of the birds.

The park itself was different for us as the sites were all sandy and we were surrounded by those trees with spanish moss hanging from them. The sand was a more reddish colour. I met my first campground host there. Her name was Vicky and she and her husband Bill, were very nice. They camp host year-round going from 6 month engagement to 6 month engagement in another camp. They were amazed that I was backing up the trailer by myself but they definitely didn't see the tight spots we got into looking for free camping! I know that getting the truck and trailer out of those spots taught me a lot and reinforced my backing abilities.

It's a bit of an odd feeling to have the same interior all the time but with different views outside. The campground was pretty quiet with not too many campers as the temperature was getting cold. They are however open year-round. At about $20/night for electric and water hook-up it wasn’t bad and there was a dump available on our way out.

 It seems every campground provides us with a trail or nearby trails for our lively Cheeka. This one was no exception having a trail right there but also having a park nearby (Beaverdam Park) that offered miles and miles of trails! We did encounter a weird creature on one of our walks. It looked like a snake at first but upon closer inspection was more like a lizard. When Glen (the brave one) pushed it aside with a stick it moved more like a fish out of water than a snake but it had no legs. It did have a small fin on its tail. We have no idea what it was a no one at the campground could tell us either. Any ideas?

We enjoyed South Carolina a lot and wished we had more time in better weather to visit. We were also really near to Savannah which I would love to see but again we decided to head for warmer weather ASAP. We’ll put this one on our to do list for the way back.