Travels with Snowbirds 2012 Eustis FL to Huntington Beach SC

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Monday February 27, 2012 Brunswick GA to Hunting Island SC

NOTE TO MY READERS:

My internet connection is very slow - snuck on to a neighbors unsecure. I don't want to upload all my pictures, will get them on Monday or so.



Monday: I snuggled in around 10:30 last night to watch the last of the Oscars from the comfort of my bed and that was a mistake. I woke up at 11:30 to see that George did not win best actor. Too bad, he’s so cute.

Oh boy did it rain last night. No wind, no lightening, but steady, heavy downpours all night long. Amazingly Winston stayed in his bed on the dinette, about 3 feet from me, all night long. He doesn’t jump in with me ever. He does wake me up in the morning when he wants to go out, but never jumps on the bed – not like home at all!

The ground was wet, but no big puddles of standing water. I did notice the edges of what puddles I saw were green with Pine Tree Pollen, glad I have been taking my Claritin! I dressed for the weather – socks, crocs, LLBean raincoat and took him for a long walk. He would NOT poop in the rig today!!! BUT, no poop. Growl. On my way back into the rig I hooked up my sewer line, knowing that for the next 3 nights I would not have a sewer connection, so I wanted things to be as empty as possible before starting out. That side of my rig was covered with 100s of little no-see-ums. Naturally they attached to me and came inside with me. Nasty little annoying things. It was easy to get on the road, as I didn’t put anything out, but did it leisurely, and was on the road at 9. First stop Flying J to get gas, $3.639, $85 and I was full. There is a slight chance that I will have enough fuel to get home….slight, but a chance.

Next stop, Cracker Barrel. A frequent stop in previous years, this was my first stop this trip. Breakfast special, 3 sweet potato pancakes with brown sugar butter, 2 eggs over easy, 3 strips of bacon, coffee, yummy. I sat there for an hour, catching up on phone calls and watched the pouring rain. I took Winston for a walk between the rain drops and he pooped. Thank goodness.

I decided to stick to I95 for this leg of the trip. I was concerned the local roads would be prone to flooding and the weather would make the 180 mile trip long enough. I95 thru GA is long and boring. The terrain changes again to lowland marshes with pine forests and again I am seeing the loaded and empty log carriers heading both ways. I was interested to note there were a lot of RVs loaded with Nascar stickers heading north (picture herein,) I suspect many left the Daytona 500 when they realized the race would probably be delayed or postponed again today. Then I saw large Nascar decorated trucks, and even saw a car thru the windows of one that I thought was from one of the lesser races earlier in the week (more pictures.) Looking for more of the same made the trip go faster. It poured and poured. My wipers were on as fast as they could go and the rain kept coming. I stuck to 50 or 55 mph and let the world go around me, and it sure did and I am sure I got cursed at, but I don’t care. I got lots of quality book listening in today; Ken Follett – Pillars of the Earth – why haven’t I read this before?

I passed the Camping World store near Savannah, visible from the road, where I bought my RV. No need for me to pull in to see if they had anything for me to trade up to, as I have been checking their web site; they have nothing that interests me. So, I stayed dry inside and just enjoyed the countryside.

I exited I95 on the road to Hilton Head and quickly turned off towards Beaufort for about 30 miles on SC SR 170 which passes thru more marshes. I think of all the landscapes I travel thru, the Carolina low country is my favorite. I can see for miles and miles over the marshes and see birds, and boats. Whenever I pass over the intracoastal waterway I can be sure there will be a very new very tall bridge – why do they have to make them so steep!!!! But the views from the top are often spectacular! Not today, tho, it rained. I passed what I thought was the main gate to Parris Island and reminisced hearing stories from friends how hot it was there doing basic training. Hot and buggy. Back to the bugs. They were all over inside the rig. 100s of them. The only good thing is they only live a few hours, I knew they would be gone. I wiped Winston down with a dryer sheet and sprayed myself with Off.

I had google mapped a grocery store near my final destination and turned into the parking lot and that was a big mistake. The aisles were very narrow. The trees were very low, and there were no pull thru parking spots – everything had curbs between. I had to do a couple of jiggles and squiggles to make a few turns, then decided to take up 3 spots lengthwise and screw them. Publix is a great food store. Certainly better than Walmart, better than WinnDixie, on an equal with Harris Teeter, a little more high end than normal, and prices to go along. But, their bakery is to die for, their hamburger rolls rock. Their apple turnovers are wonderful, but my favorite thing is their sushi. Today for $8.50 I got a roll (12 slices) I have never seen before, raw tuna, avocado, a little spicy sauce mixed in topped all topped with thinly sliced salmon and avocado, topped again with a creamy light yellow sauce that the sushi guy told me wasn’t spicy. It was an awesome dinner. I also got a bucket of their fried chicken and had a wing and leg for lunch, excellent. I was getting tired of roasted chickens, needed to change it up. My refrigerator stinks of fried chicken and sushi!

That Publix was the last civilization I saw on my way to Hunting Island. More roads thru the marshes, only raining lightly.

Hunting Island is the island just to the north of Fripp Island which overlooks Parris Island which sits more inland. Got that?. The separation is small, you could almost think they are 1 island. Together they are the islands just north of Hilton Head. Tybee Island is just to the south of Hilton Head, these 2 are just to the north. The campground is oceanfront. Over a million people a year visit Hunting Island State Park; fishing is as popular as the beach. It boasts the only lighthouse in the state you can climb to the top of. Ospreys are abundant. There are some eagles, too, but they haven’t made the same comeback after the DDT devastation as the osprey, but they are coming back. I was astonished to learn there are alligators here too, I would have thought this was too far north, but there is one resident near the lighthouse that I will have to check out and one neighbor has a picture of. Wish I had a bike. While there are not a lot of campsites here, they are spread out into 4 large loops, and the lighthouse is 1.5 miles away – just a little too far for me to walk round trip.

Speaking of bikes, I really missed one this trip. I have prolonged buying one due to the small size of my rig. I have a platform on the back, and adding a bike carrier would extend my length even more. I want a full sized bike. I have often looked at the collapsible bikes and wish I could have found a used one cheap enough and I would have splurged. They have such small wheels, though; I would do a lot of pedaling if I had that kind. I really could have used one at Southern Palms, and really could use one here. I promise myself I will not go on next year’s trip without some type of bicycle!!!

#16, my campsite, is under the tall pines and (what I call) Carolina Palms. The sandy ground is covered with pine needles. It took me a while to get level, and had to jiggle a little bit to get up on my leveling blocks, and I still lean a little to the right, but it is acceptable. The bugs are here, too. Not as many as this morning in GA, but they are all over the outside. My loop is a double loop, campsites on both sides of the road with the bathhouse in the center of the circle, with access from all the campsites on the inside. If I walk to the bathhouse, then out the other side, I am at the ocean access. I can hear the ocean, but I can’t see it due to the sand dunes. None of the true ‘ocean’ front sites are really ‘ocean’ front, as the dune separates. There are mostly small rigs here, most of the sites are too short for the big Class A busses. I am surrounded by an antique Airstream, similar to Russ and Gail who I met at TT Orlando, and a few trailers. The Airstream has his running lights and tail lights on all the time. Good thing I have room darkening shades, as the back faces me and is only 50 feet away. There are several small Class C’s like mine; more dryer sheet for Winston, more Off for me and I took a walk to meet some people. Everyone is fascinated by Winston, as no one has ever seen a Bedlington terrier before. I talked to a couple from WV who have an ‘orange’ colored cockapoo and a small golden doodle, and Winston played with them! They invited me on their bike ride tomorrow. Damn. But, they said they would look for me when they took their dogs on the beach to let them run and play together. That’s one of the reasons I chose to beach camp in SC as dogs can run free in the winter – you’re not supposed to let them off the leash, but no one pays attention if they are behaving. Will Winston behave? I just don’t know, but I will try it. They have a Winnebago Aspect, one of the rigs I have been looking for, and I asked how they like it. They love it, except for the horseshoe dinette, which is one of the features I do not want in my next rig; I don’t need a dinette that seats 6. They spend a lot of time searching for shark teeth on the beach. I also spoke with a woman with an apricot poodle, Coco Latte, who had a pony tail on top of her head, and boy was she skinny. The lady said she had her shaved pretty much down so she was easier to care for while camping. Made sense to me!

The beach at high tide is narrow, it appears that there was a road that was washed away in some hurricane, and lots of downed palm trees along the dunes. I first saw the ocean at low tide, which goes out very far, and the sand is lovely hard and white. Picture herein is one of my favorites, the beach with dead trees, sea foam, fog and the lighthouse in the background. I love camping on the beach.

NOTE to my readers: Since I have no internet and cannot email these recent blogs, I keep going back to enhance the following paragraph as I notice more things: Enjoy this!

The campsite of my immediate next door neighbors to the left is interesting to look at. They have a 30 foot trailer pulled by a white (loud) diesel pickup. That’s long! It has 2 slides on my side. Between them and me is an open trailer, and I haven’t figured out how they hauled that here yet. They needed it to load all the crap, I mean equipment, they brought with them. There is also a satellite dish between us. They have a golf cart and 2 kayaks. They have a huge screen house with pull down sides as well, connected to their trailer awning which has the other two sides covered with screen. They have 4 bikes and 8 chairs. They have an external holding tank. They have a bright lamp suspended from a tree illuminating everything that is lit day and night! They have beach equipment like a sporting goods store, fishing poles, boogie boards (there must be wet suits somewhere in that mess, I mean campsite) and various colored noodles. They have a gas can, a propane tank and a kerosene can snugged underneath the trailer. They have two large and fat dogs that look like Bull Dogs, but their legs are long and a third that looks like a Jack Russell terrier. They keep them tethered on a Y leash to a large tree. They bark in unison; fortunately, they are on the screen house side of their site and Winston can’t see them. The piece de resistance is the 2 pink flamingoes. Fortunately, this stuff is all on the other side, and all I have to look at is the smaller empty hauler trailer and the satellite dish. Their yard looks like a flea market. There is no need for me to describe what this family looks like. Just imagine those pictures you have seen of two parents and one son and one daughter shopping at Walmart, and you will have a pretty good idea.

I am glad the Daytona 500 finally got off tonight, but it pre-empted House, so my choices are The Bachelor? NOT! Or The Voice NOT.

I just came in from walking Winston, another adventure! The boy from the flea market next door was sitting on the ground between me and the bathhouse hand feeding 6 deer who were surrounding him. When Winston saw the deer he barked, chasing them off. I felt like a Grinch.

My trip outside with Winston at 11 startled 4 raccoons feasting on the remnants of the food leftover from the deer fest and my Airstream neighbor had a huge fire blazing…at 11:00?? Unusual.

Enough for tonight.

Kat out

Tuesday February 28, 2012 Hunting Island SC SP

I slept in til 7:30, and was awakened by a cacophony of birds. A quick look outside showed about 30 crows behind my rig, eating in the same area the deer were. Winston was beside himself. The sun was out and I couldn’t wait to get to the beach.

The air was calm, the tide was high and it was beautiful. Not a great shelling beach at all, there’s absolutely nothing at either the water line or high tide line. We walked back to the campground, then explored a loop I had not been on yet. There are a lot of empty sites the further away you get from the beach, but they are all large, flat and beautiful, with lots of trees between. We walked for a long way then he must have been hungry because he pulled me back to our site.

I had been waiting for GMA to announce the new DWTS contestants, and I missed it while walking. I tried to check it out on my phone, but I have no signal. It’s kind of a weird feeling having no internet and no cell phone.

Today was the first day I showered in a campground bath house on this trip. Previous to this I have been fortunate enough to have a sewer connection, meaning I could easily shower in my rig and then empty my holding tanks whenever I wanted. State Parks, no matter FL, GA or SC do not have sewer connections, they offer 30 or 50 amp electric connections and water and that’s it. Nice long showers fill up the black water holding tank quickly, and since I have 3 more mornings here, I know I need to conserve space in there. There is also a picnic table and fire ring at my campsite. FL had a NO CAMPFIRE rule due to the drought and to enforce that all the fire rings had been removed from the campsites. The bathhouse looks just like every other bathhouse at SC State Park campgrounds. 3 toilets on one side, 2 sinks in the middle with no soap or towels or electric dryer, and 2 showers on the right of a building that probably measures 30x30, women on one side, men on the other. This morning the propane heater was blazing and it felt great. The bathhouse had just been cleaned and I was the first person to use the toilet as well as the shower. I remembered to bring my extra braided throw rug to put on the floor; I hate that yucky feeling under my feet while dressing and undressing. I wear my crocs while in the actual shower, thinking of my mother warning me against contacting athlete’s foot from wet and dirty public bathroom floors. The water was very warm and the pressure was amazing, I enjoyed this shower a lot. I go to the bathhouse in my sweats and return and dress in my camper, it makes it easier not having to carry a lot of clean things that just end up falling on the floor any way. Of course Winston was barking up a storm. I made him stay in the crate until I dressed, offering praise at how quiet he was. Do you think he will eventually get it?

I saw the flea market neighbors father and son (does this kid go to school?) attach their external holding tank to their golf cart and haul it away, I assume to empty at the dump site. It would be impossible for a rig this big and this attached to the ground to get towed to the dump site to empty its holding tanks, thus the external one that can get emptied easily, but what a site it is to see the golf cart hauling it. I wish I could have been unobtrusive enough to get a picture. Maybe tomorrow I will try thru the window, tee hee.

After breakfast we went for another walk, this time on the beach. There are lots of pictures from this walk. The light was great. I learned from another walker, Coco Latte’s mother, that there was another loop in front of what is the current edge of the campground. You can see evidences of it from the uprooted palm and pine trees, and even some water logged and decaying asphalt. It made for some interesting photos, and I even got one of me and Winston from a fellow walker. I wasn’t consciously looking for shells, just occasionally looking down, and letting Winston sniff where he wanted, when I saw a shark’s tooth! In all my years of walking on the beach I have never found a shark’s tooth, and this find this morning is quite a treasure. It is very large, see the picture I took next to my iphone. It is in perfect condition. I showed it to the shark tooth hunter couple, and he said it was a million years old…..why do I not believe him…….and probably came from a lemon shark because the tip was slightly curved up. It is a good treasure for me for sure and I really have no idea if it is an old fossil or a new tooth.

I moved the picnic table about 20 feet to get it closer to my rig, and what a tough job that was. It is very heavy to begin with, and looks and feels waterlogged from sitting out in the moist shady area. I was all set to eat lunch sitting there, when the clouds came in and the temperature dropped requiring a sweatshirt.

The air antenna signal is all goofy today as well. I spent the early afternoon watching the Diana Ross and Billy Dee Williams in The Billy Holiday story on ‘Bounce’ network, which as near as I can figure from their ads, is a new public broadcasting network by, for, and about African Americans. I had never seen this movie, and it was quite good. I never knew much about her, so when I did have a cell signal I read her bio on Wikipedia, and was sad to learn she died a drug addict and of cirrhosis.

I had no cell service for over 3 hours, so I took a walk around the loop again to try to find a spot with signal so I could let TS & KS and JD know I was alive and well, just out of touch. As I was holding my phone above my head, a nice couple, my age, came over to see if I needed help. Campers are so nice. They explained they had a similar problem when they first arrived, and they called Verizon who said their phone needed roaming updates, and suggested I call them. I looked at this ‘blonde’ in amazement, until she realized what she had said. No signal, no calls. I accused her of having a blonde moment, and she said it was more white hair moment, and we laughed. They took off on their bikes for a ride, and I am jealous. I really want a bike right now.

Returning to my site, the flea market people had started their campfire. Even though it is shielded from me by their paraphernalia, they started it with lighter fluid (to me a camping no-no) and wet wood. The smoke is incredible, and since I am downwind of them, the inside of my rig is smoky and smelly. I am now wishing I had another campsite, but, if I did, what would I write about???

Today I decided to honor the good memories I have of Happy Hour – this year with Ginnie, and I also have fond memories of last years’ travels with Judy B. 4:00 Happy Hour. Why wait til 5? At 5 it gets cold. I took Winston on another walk and it was cold and blustery! The wind was mighty! I found a cell signal about 100 yds from the campsite and txtd Tim and Kristine and John to let them know I was alive and well and then headed home. Despite my jeans, hoodie, winter socks and thermal hiking boots, I was shivering. What better to take away the chill than a frozen margarita. During my last trip to Walmart, right near the cash register (wtf?) was a display of Dailey’s ready to freeze drinks. $1.87. I bought something pomegranate and a margarita one and stuck them in the freezer and forgot about them. When I was taking my hamburger out of the freezer to somewhat thaw I saw them. Directions said massage gently with hands, pour and drink. Let me tell you, that margarita was as good as any I have had anywhere. Salty sweet and frozen. AND, it gave a nice little buzz. So, here’s to Ginnie and Judy B, I was thinking of you both. My contribution to today’s happy hour was peanuts. Cheers! Miss traveling with you both.

Enough rambling for today. I know what tomorrow’s writings will be about. Across the area where the deer gather a new family moved in. They have a Class B, very similar to my old RV (looks like an ambulance.) The dad looks somewhat older, the mom looks like a hippie. 3 kids, about 8, about 6 and a babe in arms. I can’t imagine traveling with 5 people in such a small rig. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings. I’m gonna keep a good look out for the deer and raccoons tonight.

Kat out.

Wednesday February 29, 2012

Leap Year Day!

I heard on the TV last night that there would be air maneuvers overnight for the next two weeks from Beaufort for the squadron soon deploying to Afghanistan, and they sure were right. We got buzzed more than once. Since it was dark I couldn’t see anything. The deer were out again, but only 3, and one very close to my rig. I made sure they were gone before Winston did his last pee for the evening.

Slept again until 7:30, how nice. The people I wanted to write about in the small unit were up and gone before I got up. That’s what having small kids will do to you!! A short walk on the beach to relieve Winston, and then back to the rig to get dressed – no shower today, will save that for tomorrow. Then I took a very long walk on the beach and caught up on some phone calls. There is absolutely no signal at my rig this morning. There are no shells here on this beach. I casually looked for shark’s teeth, but they are difficult to find as there are so many black shells, and bending down to pick something up is boring to me, so we just walked and walked. The fog crept in on little cat feet and I wasn’t able to see more than 50 yards, then all of a sudden it went away. When it is clear out I can see the high rise hotels on Hilton Head way off in the south. People continue to want to hear about Winston; his unusual looks strike up many a conversation. I spoke to a woman from Harrisburg (who knew the development Jeff and Autumn live in.) She and her husband spent most of their winter in the Sarasota area, and they are on their way north/home as well. Winston terrorized a boxer mix pup who wanted to play, but Winston barked at him, so he cowered. Jerk. My flea market neighbors were out with all their dogs who just snarled.

Two of my neighbors left this morning, The airstream with the lights on all the time, and a fifth wheel, but they didn’t actually leave, they moved across the street. I went over to comment to them about their short move. They are from Ontario and spend all winter in SC SPs along the coast. They have never ventured into FL, and I encouraged her to at least try Blue Springs or Silver River. You can reserve and stay in one site here for 30 days in the winter, then have to leave or move. They have met many campers over the years who come and spend time with them during February, kind of a nice thing to do, but I think it’s a little cold and damp here to want to spend a month. They will also be going to Huntington Beach SP on Monday, just when I will be leaving.

The weather for this weekend does not look that promising, threats of thunderstorms. I am sure that will impact Tim and the family’s trip, but we will see, maybe they will just come down for a visit. If the weather is lousy over the weekend, but looks nice for Monday thru Wednesday, I just might stay out a few days longer at my ever favorite Myrtle Beach Travel Park, a private campground on the ocean with nice people and good shelling. We’ll see. I have started to run some numbers, and I have spent less than previous years on campgrounds, and less on campgrounds, but I am also out about 3 weeks less and travelled 200 miles rather than 3300. I also ate very well this year, but I really don’t include groceries in my budget as I have to eat anyway.

A very boring day overall. No cell signal makes doing anything on the internet via my phone very difficult. Phone calls are impossible, they keep dropping. So, I walk on the beach, and walk on the beach, maybe walk around the campground, crochet a whole lot, and walk on the beach some more. I have studied the map from here to Huntington Beach SP so much I know it by heart. While this is a beautiful campground, I really don’t like being under the trees. Too many bugs, to cold even though it is very warm out in the sun. Between the low cell signal, poor TV reception, no internet, I have gotten bored. Too much computer solitaire. Time to move on and will be happy to be on the road tomorrow. I have scoped out a few sites to see along the way, first will be the lighthouse I can see from the beach, then downtown Beaufort – maybe I will see Tom Berringer, I learned from the local tourist magazines that he lives here.

Kat out

Thursday February 30, 2012….laugh, Thursday March 1, 2012, Hunting Island SC SP to Huntington Beach SC SP (near Myrtle Beach)

First time since I’ve been on the road that I was anxious to leave a campground. Nice enough place, but 3 nights was too long for me without a decent cell signal, and no internet anywhere. Up, walked Winston, took shower and was on the way to the dump station at 8:45.

No see ums everywhere at the dump station. I was spitting them out, it was disgusting. And why oh why do they make the roadway there pitch away from the hole in the ground? This means you don’t fully evacuate your holding tanks. If the RV leans enough, gravity does a good job, but leaning away from the hole leaves (literally) some crap in the bottom of the tanks.

While I was dumping, a work camping couple I had spent time talking to walked by. On my previous encounters with them they did not have their dog, as they were working. This morning they did. Sammy Winston. We had a lot of laughs about that, of course. One of Sammy’s parents was a black and white (piebald) dachshund. The other was a Jack Russell terrier. Sammy’s peeps were told his coloring and looks were outstanding. He looks like a dachshund, long body, low to the ground, dachshund head. His body hair is wiry like the Jack Russell. He is white with a black saddle spot, black ears. Absolutely stunning, but his hair was like nothing I have never seen before. Wiry, a little long, but does not require grooming. He and Winston wanted to play, but it was not the time and the place, me with holding tank hands, yuck.

I checked out of the campground and surrendered my hang tag as requested. I went further down the road to get my closeup picture of the lighthouse and was stopped at the gate to pay the daily fee. Huh? I just checked out of the campground. I needed to show my hang tag to get in free. Rather than pay the $5 I went back the 2 miles to the campground, got the Ranger to dig my tag out of the trash, and went back to the lighthouse. Growl. Will the day ever get better? I was the only person there. It was a little creepy. I was hungry, so I locked all the doors and ate my cereal, jumped out with Winston to get my obligatory picture, and got quickly back in the rig and was on the road. I am sure it is a lovely crowded site in the summer, but it was creepy today. The lighthouse visitor center looked amazing. It looked like one of those main lodges at a National Park, like Grand Canyon, or Zion. It was tucked in the woods, beautiful landscaping, but no cars there. Still creepy.

On the way to Beaufort the rain started. Lightly at first. I wanted to ride around Beaufort a little bit, from my readings of the local magazines collected at the ranger station, I knew it was a beautiful historic town. They recently had a film festival put together by Tom Berringer – he lives there. The Big Chill was filmed in Beaufort as were parts of Forest Gump. Cute little shops, restaurants, marinas in the downtown area. What they call uptown is strip malls and gas stations. Next time for sure I stop here.

Shortly before joining up with US 17 again I passed the Marine Corp Air Station. Lots of different jets on display at the front gate, and lots in the air overhead buzzing the ground. It was deafening. I guess this is where those that were buzzing the campground came from.

AHHHHH, back on my old friend US 17. I have had a love affair with this road like some people have of Route 66 or A1A in Fl. US 17 is my road. I find it ironic that I now live off US 17 in Wilmington. I can almost throw a stone to it if that stone could get thru large woods. Most of the way it is four lanes and divided, but narrows down when you pass thru some amazing tiny towns. This is the low country at it’s best, lots of marshes, pine forests, unusual names (Ashepoo, Camcaw). What mental pictures I have whenever I pass over the Harriet Tubman bridge. I stopped at a favorite store, Carolina Cider, and got some souveniers and pecans for myself. (All the driving I have done in the south and I have never knowingly passed by a pecan farm. I’ll have to look one up and find it next year)

The rain became intense requiring fast wipers. I opted to take US 17 right smack dab thru Charleston rather than the I526 loop around town. Bad mistake today. They are constructing US 17 from one side of town to the other. There are lots of ‘new’ ‘temporary’ traffic lights and ramps to existing businesses. Finally I made it thru to Mt. Pleasant, and guess what. They are still widening the darn road here, too. What’s interesting is this part of the road is called the Sweetgrass Basket Makers highway because of the shack stands that basket makers sell their wares from on bring sunny days, certainly not rainy ones. Now with the road widening they have torn down all the old worn out shacks and rebuilt them with nice timber and metal roofs. But, there is no place to stop!!! The roadway has curbs, and there will be no place to pull off. I guess I will have to do this part of the road one more time in my life to see what happens here. Next I travelled thru the Francis Marion National Forest, certainly not the depth and breadth of the Ocala National Forest, but also impressive with its shorter pine forests. I would love to pull in one of their recreation areas and see what this place is all about, but not today with this persistent rain.

Stopped at what could be my last Walmart of the trip in Georegetown SC for a few staples, and arrived safe and sound at Huntington Beach SP. This campground is a favorite of mine. Good beach access, the sites are nice and big and out in the open and nice and grassy. I had started to notice green stuff growing on my nose at Hunting Island, it will be nice to be out in the sun, if it ever comes out…laugh. There is a lot to see in the campground and beach area, a mansion ruin, visitor center, birding watch stations. I look forward to my time here, and if the weather is good on Saturday, Tim and family are still planning on visiting. It will be good to see them.

I hope to get this long blog off tomorrow, as the ranger station has internet access. WhoooHooo!

Kat out

Friday March 2, 2012

Huntington Beach State Park, SC

Ok, so I lied. I didn’t get to the internet today. I tried, a variety of ways, just didn’t make the walk to the ranger station. More about the excuses later.

Had a very peaceful night last night, watched my first episode of American Idol, I hate those first rounds, and think they have some good singers. Is it my imagination, or are they being coached by the pro what ever his name is earlier than in years past? Are they getting better songs to select? Are they trying to compete a little bit more with “The Voice?” Then I tried to watch “Awake” but fell asleep before it was over. That will teach me don’t curl up in bed with your glasses on and light still on and think you are going to stay awake.

Sitting with my morning coffee I determined that the camper across the street is a single lady. My coffee and I walked across the street and said hello, and we had a lovely hour chatting. She is new to RVing. Nancy owns a house in nearby Murrell’s Inlet, rented her house for a year and is going on the road. She has a 21’ Class B+ - like mine, but no sleeping space over the cab, that’s an entertainment unit. She has a slide, and I was jealous, but she has a jackknife bed like mine and I wasn’t jealous. But, she’s going on the road for a year!! I am jealous. She is still working out the kinks to her new rig and I tried to trouble shoot her TV/Cable/Antenna/DVD/VCR system for her, but it didn’t work at all. She was interested to see my battery operated TV as she thinks she will be doing some boondocking to save on expenses on her way across country. Then she mentioned that she has 2 bikes at her ‘house’ up the road. Tomorrow when Tim arrives we will take a ride to her house, check out the bikes, and if it looks like an equal deal we just might trade a 7” TV for some type of bike. Funny how things work sometimes. I can figure out some way to attach the bike to my rig for the next few days, or if Tim has room in his car, shove it in there, but I just might want to use it.

Huntington Beach State Park offered a guided tour of Atalaya (say it At-A-Lie-A), the vacant home of the now dead former owners, ultra wealthy Anna and Archer Huntington. There were about 20 people in the tour, almost half of them volunteers who are learning how to give the tour. The guide was the SC SP ranger, Elizabeth, who is the head Ranger of Atalaya. She is passionate about this decaying house. She has studied it for years and has immersed herself into its architecture, its inhabitants, the landscape, etc., etc. This is my third or fourth time at this campground, it is one of my favorites, and I have walked thru Atalaya each time I’ve been here, but never took the tour. It has been vacant for over 20 years and the windows and doors have been blown out by ‘the extreme marine environment’ it sits in. It is a brick house with weeping mortar, built in the 1930s in the Moorish style, wrought iron grills over the windows with a stunning courtyard with some of the original palm trees still standing. Elizabeth has met some of the nieces and nephews of the family and has flavored her historical overview with funny family stories. There was no wood furniture, it was all wrought iron. There were no rugs, they decay from the salt air, etc. etc. Anna was a renowned sculptor whose indoor and outdoor studios overlooked the animal pens. She could sit in her studio and study and sketch the animals in preparation for her sculptures. Their land holdings stretched for almost 10,000 acres of former rice plantations. They turned some of it into a zoo for her animals, and these were transported to the pens at this oceanfront house for her to study. Brookgreen Gardens (www.brookgreen.org) has many sculptures by numerous artists and many good programs for adults and kids. Put it on your list of places to see before you die. It’s worth it. Everything has been removed from Atalaya because of the security issues this open building presents; there are pictures in many rooms showing what it looked like when it was occupied.

Back to the rig and I stood outside for a long time and Winston wasn’t barking. I took him for a walk on the beach, but had to leave quickly. Peasoup fog was rolling in and I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. They are predicting massive thunder storms tomorrow with 2 to 4 inches rain. Should be fun. Lots of crochet time for me, glad I have lots of yarn.

Nancy had offered to let me log on to her wifi, but she has been holed up in her rig all afternoon, watching some of the DVDs I loaned her – nothing works in her entertainment unit except the DVD player, so I didn’t see her to ask her. I just couldn’t walk back to the ranger station again, my shins hurt from walking so much today. As long as it is not raining early in the morning I will head over there first thing and upload this blog. I promise.

Kat out

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Photos

Hunting Island campground
a few campsites are on the beach

my first ever shark's tooth
A park ranger said it takes 300 or more years for a tooth to get black.