Writing about travel has always been one of my favorite topics to share with our readers and is certainly a labor of love.
I have used this space since August to share anecdotes and vignettes about the week that my wife and I spent in east Africa. Our seven days in and around Kigali, Rwanda, in June were unforgettable — a sentiment that I hope I was able to express in the five pieces about our experiences there.
Each day was filled with a new adventure that we will always remember, and I can say with certainty that we’ll return soon to spend more time in Rwanda.
I appreciate all of the feedback from our readers about the series. Perhaps a few of you are now considering a trip to Rwanda in the coming years. You might just see us there as well if you happen to go in the summer.
Our time in Rwanda, however, was just one week of our 21-day sojourn to Africa. From there, we boarded a plane to fly to Cape Town, South Africa. We spent another two weeks in and around Cape Town, and I’m looking forward to writing several more columns about our time there.
Look for those columns to begin later this month or the first week in October as I share stories from another safari we did in which some hungry-looking lionesses got a little too close to our vehicle. I’m also looking forward to writing about a hike to the most south-western point of the African continent, in addition to sharing anecdotes about the delicious food we enjoyed.
Speaking of delicious food … I couldn’t end this week’s column without at least mentioning Bluffton’s annual five-day fall festival that opens today in downtown.
Those of us born and raised in Bluffton — with the exception of a handful of Parlor City residents — love the Street Fair as much as we look forward to the holidays.
This year’s fair will be the 112th to take place in Bluffton. The first Street Fair occurred in 1898, but officials had to cancel the fair a handful of times since its beginning, including in 2020.
My grandpa and I are fairly certain that our family has been attending the Street Fair since its beginning in 1898, as our family has called Bluffton home for more than 100 years. The fair has been an important annual part of our lives, and I’m sure the same is true for you.
This year’s fair will be a bit different for my family, as my grandma Delenia passed away last October a couple of weeks after the fair ended. Grandma had not been able to go to the fair the past couple of years, but it was always one of her favorite times of the year in Bluffton.
She always enjoyed watching the parades, walking along the Midway and sampling all of the Street Fair delicacies. Her favorite activity, however, was the mouse game. She was the luckiest of all the Peepers and always managed to win each time she played.
If you were to stack up all of the quarters she spent at the mouse game over the years and measure the pile, I’m fairly certain it would equal the number of inches Jim Barbieri wrote during his tenure at The News-Banner.
Grandma Peeper’s love of the Street Fair rubbed off on my cousins and I as we were growing up, and it just won’t be the same at this year’s fair without her.
I’m hoping some of her luck rubs off when I put my quarters down at the mouse game this week to try to win a prize that will probably end up being one of my golden retriever’s newest toys.
I’m sure that she’ll be looking down as my cousins and I play the game that she taught us to love so much.
jdpeeper2@hotmail.com
