Day Seventeen...

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...and we have 4 shiny new tires on the trailer.

That got your attention, didn't it?! No, we didn't have a blow out. We knew we'd have to get tires at some point on this trip, we just didn't think it would be this soon. Two of the tires were pretty low on tread. Oddly, the two were the driver side rear and passenger front. We found a Walmart nearby that had several in stock and they were able to get us in right away. We did a little shopping to while away the hours. We didn't confer with the flowers, however, or consult with the rain (name that tune). When they finished installing the new tires and adding air to the spare, they kept the two near-bald tires and gave us back the two okay tires. They can only keep and dispose of non-roadworthy tires. One of the employees asked Mike what we were going to do with them. He asked if he could have them for his trailer. Why not? What are we gonna do with them...haul them back across the country?? So we have 4 new and he has 2 newer tires. Everybody wins!

This morning as we were getting ready to leave, a train whistled in the distance. Just like home.

Today's drive didn't cover as many miles as we originally planned. The plan was to stop in Greenville, NC then the next day head out to the north end of the Outer Banks. Driving the entire length of the Outer Banks would be really pretty, I'm sure, but the ferry fee to get there would have made us choke. The tires took a 2-hour bite out of our drive time and we didn't have a place to stay, yet. What is it with wifi in campgrounds? It was fine last night, but this morning they had issues; it routed us to AT&T and said there was an issue with our U-Verse account. I was up late last night blogging, as I am every night, and decided to leave today's accommodations to this morning. I guess not. We left that campground not knowing where we'd be sleeping tonight. Not the first time.

We drove through Charleston heading north on US-17 which runs along the coast. We arrived in Myrtle Beach and Mike tried to take the house to the beach. Uh-uh, not gonna happen. Why? Yep, nowhere to park it. I managed to get a picture of where the beach and ocean are if you could actually see it between a couple buildings. I think all you can see is maybe the dune and sky. We drove a little more and I suggested we just find a big parking lot along the highway, park the albatross, and walk to the beach; it was only a few blocks. We did just that, except Mike went one better, he suggested we ride our bikes. We've been carting these things around for a few thousand miles and they haven't touched the ground yet. I thought it was a great idea. We rode out to the beach, took our shoes and socks off, walked along the beach and waded in the water. Ohhhhhhh, it was waaarrrrmmmmmm. And the beach was real sand. And there were SO MANY people. But it was still fun. We didn't stay long because we were hungry and needed to find somewhere with wifi so we could find home for the night. I was wanting to taste some of the local fare. We have yet to eat anything different than what we normally eat. Today was no different. We tried one place. It was a seafood buffet. They're on every block! It's like Starbucks for goodness sake. We walked in, no menu offered by either the hostess when she seated us or the waitress when she came to take our drink order. The waitress walked over, introduced herself and informed us the buffet was $27. 99...PER PERSON. Um, no thank you. We ended up at Denny's. Our waitress was extremely friendly and stayed for a bit of conversation each time she checked on us. We took full advantage of their free wifi, found a place to stay, and enjoyed the same kind of food we could have had at home...minus the sweet tea...yum! She knew the general area in which the campground du nuit was located and warned us it would take a little longer to get there due to the traffic. She was right.

Hopefully we'll be able to make up some of the lost time over the next few days. If not...oh well.

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