It's hard to believe we've been on the road almost 3 months since we left Rockport. This trip we are taking our time in most locations to get a real feel for the area.
Sunday, June 18 Happy Father's Day! I still miss my Dad, he passed away in 1963 when I was 15. Since it's Gary's special day he chose all of our activities. Drayton Hall is just down the road from Magnolia Plantation we visited last week. This place is very different, the families wishes are to leave the house as is, no renovations allowed. Drayton Hall, built by Charles Drayton in the 1740's, 630 acres on the banks of the Ashley River. Rice was their main crop, I don't think rice is grown anywhere in the south presently. The home was only painted 3 times in the interior from 1740 to 1950's, it's been in the Drayton family for 7 generations all this time with no modern conveniences such as bathrooms, running water or electricity. After we left Drayton Hall we drove to downtown Charleston. Gary found a nice brew pub for dinner, I had dinner planned but we put that on hold. We walked around the historic area before heading back to Lake Moultrie. The only road in an out of the area was scheduled for a railroad crossing repair, the detour would be impossible for a motorhome so we packed up and drove into Monck's Corner Sunday night to spend a lovely evening at Wal-Mart.
Monday, June 19 After fueling up at the Wal-Mart station we drove 77 miles to Pirateland at Myrtle Beach, SC. What a zoo, 10 kajillion golf carts whizzing by constantly and people partying everywhere. The sites were sizeable but it was a tight squeeze maneuvering the coach into the space, there are over 900 RV and mobile home spaces in the park. The good part, we were close to the beach, a quick walk over the dunes and we could walk forever on the beachfront. We could take Luci to the beach after 5pm and before 9am, she loved that! A word of advice, don't stay at Pirateland!!!!! Besides all that, it cost $85 a night. Live and learn. Myrtle Beach has a plethora of mini-golf courses. Of course after getting settled we played 18 holes. NO comment on who won.
Tuesday, June 20 We wanted to ride the SkyWheel on Myrtle Beach, it's 175 feet tall with 42 glass enclosed gondola's that are air conditioned. It didn't feel like you were riding a ferris wheel at all. We walked down the boardwalk to Pier 14, decided to have lunch there, on the deck. As we were finishing up it started to rain, by the time we got back to the car it was pouring. Since it was a wet miserable day we decided to check out Wheels of Yesteryear Museum, not a huge museum but some nice "rides". No mini golf today.
Wednesday, June 21 On our way to Myrtle Beach Monday we passed by Brookgreen Gardens, with a beautiful metal sculpture of two horses out front. We had to check it out, only about 20 miles south, we could not believe our eyes. Brookgreen Gardens is a sculpture garden and wildlife preserve, the 9,100 acre acre garden was founded by Archer Huntington, railroad heir and his wife sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington in the 1930's They purchased four rice plantations to showcase her sculptures we well as others. There are over 1,400 sculptures throughout the park, zoo, butterfly house, creek excursion and 3 restaurants. The $6.50 price of admission was good for 6 days, there is no way you could cover everything in one visit. We took a sculpture garden tour, free, the docent was exceptional, naming not only the sculpture, the artist, the garden design and the horticulture. Archer was the mastermind behind the layout of the garden, flowers bloom there from April through September. We finished up the day visiting the Butterfly House and the Ribbit Exhibit next door, a collection of larger-than-life-size copper frogs doing all kinds of things, playing instruments, dancing, gardening, catching butterflies or just sitting on a lily pad, the exhibit will be there for almost 3 months. Another must see if you are ever in the area. We did find the time for a round of golf before getting back to Luci.
Thursday, June 22, Across the highway from Brookgreen is Atalaya, the former winter home for the Huntingtons, now a state park. Built near the ocean, Archer also designed the home, all that is left is the 200' by 200' masonry structure. We went back to Brookgreen, to take the creek excursion and see the native wildlife zoo. We were lucky just as we finished the zoo the sky opened up and dumped on us. On our way home the rain eased up, we played a round of mini-golf on very soggy astro turf.
Friday, June 23, We were so glad to leave Pirateland and Myrtle Beach, what a zoo! We left about 11 for what was supposed to be 190 mile trip to Havelock and Cherry Point Marine Air Station. We made 4 wrong turns, yes even using GPS, we arrived at 4:15, 210 very stressful miles. What a great park! We have a view of the Neuse River, large spaces and lots of places to walk and ride our bikes. We're only about 25 miles from Pamlico Sound. It's a large base with jets rattling our coach when the cruise over us.
That's it for this week, will catch up soon. Enjoy the pic's on the next post.
TTFN
Gary and Pam
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