Day 19 of 166 Days of RV Adventures in the Summer of 2026

It is Monday May 25th, it is the last Monday in May. Happy Memorial Day. 

Memorial Day isn’t a barbecue or a three-day weekend for us. It’s a roll call of faces, voices, and shared laughter that cut through the dust and heat of Iraq.

To us, Memorial Day is not about the start of summer, or the BBQ, or a 3-day weekend. It is a roll call of names, of faces, voices, and shared moments that cut through the dust and heat of Iraq.

This and every Memorial Day, our hearts are with the brothers and sisters who never made it off that field of battle. And just as deeply with the soldiers who brought the war home in their heads and hearts and lost their battles, at home.

Our wounds of war don't stop bleeding when we leave the sandbox, and those we have lost to the invisible weight of it since... you are not forgotten. We carry your memories,  we share your stories, we live for your honor, and we miss you every single day.

Rainbow, Never Forget!

Here is a little known fact about Sumter, South Carolina. It is home to the world's largest commercial Ginkgo biloba plantation. 

Ginkgo biloba is often called a living fossil because the ginkgo has existed for hundreds of millions of years. This resilient tree tolerates heat, pollution, salt, confined spaces, drought, insects and fungal pathogens. In 1945, the ginkgo even famously survived the fallout of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.

This massive agricultural operation produces millions of trees to harvest leaves used for medical and herbal extracts. With almost a million trees planted in tight rows, the plantation spans over 1,000 acres. Unlike traditional ornamental landscaping, these are densely planted in a hedge-like manner and mechanically harvested for their foliage rather than grown as mature, towering shade trees.

There was a great deal of community uproar when the ginkgo plantation wanted to come to Sumter. The local residents were concerned about the smell! The trees smell? Well, not the tree, but... Female ginkgo trees produce fleshy, apricot-like seeds commonly referred to as "fruit". Because ginkgo is a gymnosperm, it doesn't produce true fruit. While the inner nut is an edible delicacy, the fleshy outer coating contains an acid that smells strongly of vomit and contains skin-irritating toxins.

When ripe fruit drops and decays, it releases butyric acid—the same chemical compound found in rancid butter and vomit. The fleshy exterior contains ginkgolic acid and urushiol, the exact same oily skin irritant found in poison ivy.

The plantation grows the trees for the leaves. So, they keep the trees very short and they never produce fruit. Here in South Carolina, they harvest the leaves, dry them and ship them overseas for processing into their final forms.

We enjoyed a grill night and birthday cupcakes. Yes, my birthday fell on Memorial Day in 2026! 

Stay tuned for more Two Lane Adventures.