It’s hard to believe that we’ve already reached the halfway point of our time here in Cheraw. Especially juxtaposed with the slow pace of life here, the past month has absolutely flown by, and the more I think about it the more I am reminded how much I’ll probably miss Cheraw once I’m gone.
Despite a long hiatus since my last blog entry, a lot has been going down in Cheraw. Work at the state park continues to surprise and please me. Lately, we’ve been working a lot on birdhouses for blue birds and on (yup, you guessed it) monitoring red-cockaded woodpeckers. Just today we had a safety briefing over lunch, during which Ranger Rick so eloquently delivered a scintillating allocution regarding the dangers posed by hurricanes and the early symptoms of heat exhaustion (chief among which is seeing blue spots, an danger known all too intimately by Rick). Perhaps the best part of the safety briefing was the much-anticipated hot dogs cooked in beer and beans baked in Jack Daniels (Terry legitimately backed up all of his beer dog-Jack Daniels beans rhetoric that had been emanating from his mouth for the past week).
Yesterday I took Anthony, Snayha, Will, Abbey, Rui to shoot sporting clays out at Morree’s Sportsman Preserve. We all had fun, and it was the first time most of them had shot a gun, but based on his performance I’m pretty sure that Will Rhem has a future in marksmanship. Another highlight of the past couple of weeks here in Cheraw has been getting to know the Bennetts, Powells, and Spruills. So far I’ve been fishing with Judge Spruill and golfing with Robbie Bennett, and a Bennett-Keshian vs. Powell-Spruill golf challenge is in the works for next week. The Bennetts and the Powells generously hosted all fourteen of us for a sumptuous Southern supper (sorry, but the alliteration was too tempting) complete with Robbie’s macaroni and cheese and Phil’s gazpacho, not to mention the homemade peach ice cream to complete the ensemble.
Believe it or not, tonight the Bennetts are again courageously hosting my appetite and I for dinner, so I have to run. Until next time, thanks for reading and have a splendiferous Independence Day.