Huntington Beach State Park, South Carolina

This weekend we were able to find a site at Huntington Beach State Park near Pawleys Island South Carolina. We had been there several times before, but this was the first time since 2006 (I think.)

Huntington Beach SP is just south of Murrells Inlet SC, which is just south of Myrtle Beach SC. It is situated on the beach near Litchfield Beach and Pawleys Island. The campground is only a small part of this large state park. It is on an old estate that included the state park land and Brookgreen Gardens just across Hwy 17 from the State Park.

On entry to the park you pass the guard gate and cross a causeway that separates a fresh water lagoon from a salt marsh. The freshwater lagoon is home to several alligators that can easily be seen from the road and from a gazebo that is built on stilts in the edge of the lagoon.

Don't worry too much about getting eaten by an alligator... there is rip-rap all along the roadside about 8 - 10 feet down to the water. It would be extremely difficult for one of them to get to the top of the rocks before you could get away.


The beach at HBSP is as beautiful as ever. There are 2 access paths from the campground to the beach. Each one is approximately 300 yards or so from the campground to the beach, so be prepared for a little hike each time. When we were there it was very pleasant temperature wise; mid 80s, with a nice breeze blowing most of the time. Bugs were not bad at all either.

We left home Friday morning and arrived at the park at about 12:30 PM. After setting up the RV on our site (#19), we hauled the chairs and umbrella to the beach to spend the rest of the day.

There is a paved road in the park that goes to another beach access about a mile north of the campground. At it's end is a parking area for day use or for campers that want to drive of bike up there. From there, it is about another mile north to the Merrells Inlet jetty. We didn't go up there this trip.

The park has a nice store with the basic supplies and the usual Tee Shirts and other souvenirs. It also has a very nice and rather large day use area with a big parking area and very nice bath house and dressing area.

Another attraction is the Atalaya "Castle". The Castle as it is called, is a very large spanish style courtyard house built in the early 1930's by the Huntington Family. (See Atalaya link on the Friends of Huntington Beach web site.) You can tour the house, but it closes at about 5:00 PM.

Also check out the official Huntington Beach State Park web site.

Here are a few more pictures of the weekend. The full set of our weekend pictures is on our Huntington Beach 05-2008 album on Dotphoto.com






























By the way, I have received comments from some of the readers of this blog with questions regarding the campgrounds we have visited...but with no email address. If you want further info regarding any of the places we have visited, PLEASE leave your email address, or you may email me directly at the email address shown on my blog profile. I will be more than happy to respond.

Back to the Island

It has seemed like a long winter. It was not a particularly cold one, just long, and dry. The Piedmont area of the Carolinas and Georgia, and some other areas of the Southeast have been under extreme drought conditions for nearly a year, maybe longer. So I cannot and will not complain about the chilly, wet spring we have had. But it did seem to make Winter seem longer.


But as Jimmy Buffett sang in the Leon Russell song:

I hope you understand,
I just had to get back to the island.
And watch the sun go down,
Hear the sea roll in.....
Hear the night bird cry,
Watch the sunset down,
I just hope you understand,
I just had to go back to the island.

And get back to the island we did!

Key West and Blue Water Key Redux.

Last year we went to Bluewater Key RV Resort just outside of Key West at MM 14 on US1. We were so taken by the place that we decided then that we would return. Now this may sound strange, but we went back, stayed in exactly the same site (#74), and did almost nothing for the entire week. Yep, nothing. There are not many places that I would want to return and stay again, but Bluewater Key and the Lower Keys are one of those rare places. We could have stayed, and stayed, and stayed...

Why would you want to leave this?

Sunset from our dock at Bluewater Key

We were so lazy, we didn't even make any more pictures this year. There are several reasons for this:

• Didn't want to
• Didn't need to (look at last years pictures)
• I looked better last year (10 lbs lighter!)
  
• I have on the same clothes as last year anyway (I hate to throw away a perfectly good and broken in pair of shorts and flip-flops)
• You can read last years Key West story on this blog.

We even stayed at the same campground at Flagler Beach (Gamble Rogers Recreation Area) on the way back. There is where the story really gets off of last years trip... last year we were on site #14 at Gamble Rogers, this year we were on #12.

We did do a couple of things different this year. First, we drove down to KW in 1 1/2 days. We left home at about 1:00 PM on Friday, and drove all the way to Palm Coast FL, arriving there at about midnight Friday night/Saturday morning. That is where it got a little interesting.

A few days proir to leaving, I phoned the Wal-Mart in Palm Coast and spoke with a member of management. I ask if if was OK to spend the night in their parking lot in our RV. I was told that it would be fine as long as we were out of the way by first thing in the morning. To me first thing is anytime before 7:00 AM, so this was no problem. So as the hours rolled by along with I-95, that Wal-Mart parking lot was looking pretty good.

We got there a few minutes before midnight, and as always, I went in to ask the managers permission. I was then told that there was a city ordinance against any overnight parking. She said that I could do it "at my own risk", but may get a knock on the door by PC's finest in the early morning hours and would have to move. We chatted a few more minutes about it and I decided that the risk of that actually happening may not be that great. Besides, where else were we going to go at 1:00 AM... back on I-95? Thats where we were eventually headed anyway; either with or without sleep! So we decided to try it.

We pulled over near the back of the parking lot, as far away from the street as we could get, and still out of the way of any other store traffic. I didn't feel too guilty because there was one 18 wheeler parked there too. By 12:45 we were asleep, and didn't wake up until about 6:30 when the sun was comming up, and the delivery trucks were moving in. After a quick cup of coffee, we were back on the road.

Now for an editorial comment: One of the quickest ways to get an argument started on some of the RV related Internet forums is to mention parking overnight in a Wal-Mart parking lot. For some reason it just seems to rub some people the wrong way. I see absolutely nothing wrong with parking in a lot like that for a few hours sleep. Not "CAMPING" mind you, but getting some rest while on route to your destination. If campgrounds and RV parks want to take advantage of these in transit overnight stops, they should provide a place where RVers can get in and out easily, no hookup's required, and stay open all night. I don't think there are many campgrounds that would have welcomed us at that hour, for a few hours, for a few bucks.

From I-95 near Jupiter Beach we took the Floridas Turnpike. I think it was a total of about $18 bucks by the time we hit US1 south of Homestead/Florida City, but well worth dodging all that traffic between West Palm Beach and Miami, and the hassel of that 30 miles or so of US1 between the end of I-95 and Florida City.

Since we were doing so good with our time, I decided to take the Card Sound Road through Largo, going past Alabama Jacks and crossing the swinging toll bridge. With the bridge construction on US1, this seemed like a more scenic route. Just after turning left onto Card Sound Road, we came up behind the first of about 1000 bicycles on that route. There was a charity bike-a-thon fundraiser going on. Just our luck, but I do hope they raised a lot of money. It then took us over an hour to make it down that 20 mile stretch back to US1.

Our Week in Paradise!

Finally at about 5:00 PM we were in our "One Particular Harbor"; our site in Bluewater Key RV resort. We had most of our meals during the week there, usually after a swim in the clear, warm water. We did venture into Key West a couple of times for dinner and to check out the action on Duval Street. Here's a picture from the Sloppy Joe's Duval Street web cam:

That day we had dinner at El Siboney, a great family run Cuban resturant. The next time we went to Key West a few days later, we walked around, bought the kids souvineirs, and had dinner at Pepe's. Pepe's has been in the waterfront area for 50 years or so and still serves up great seafood.

One day we did venture up to Big Pine Key, and over to No Name Key to see the Key Deer. There is actually a Key Deer preserve on Big Pine, but we saw none there. But there were several subdivisions we rode through where the tiny Key Deer had come into the area to eat the grass. We saw numerous Key Deer there.

No Name is also deserving of it's name. There is nothing there to be named! It is quite isolated, with only a few houses. Several construction sites appeared abandoned.

On the way back we stopped at the Sugarloaf Lodge. Their restaurant was open, so we ordered a couple of fresh grouper sandwiches to go. Those we enjoyed from our Tiki Hut next to the water back at Bluewater Key.

Most late afternoons found us on our bicycles riding around the RV resort, the neighborhood next door, and the larger island just north of us about a mile up US1 in the Saddlebunch Keys. We always managed to stop someplace and watch the sun go down...that seems to be a required activity in the Conch Republic. Not a bad way to end your day...

Hunting Island SC

This past weekend, we took advantage of the long Veterans Day holiday and visited Hunting Island State Park on the southern South Carolina Coast. Hunting Island is near Beaufort SC, and is not far across the river from Hilton Head SC. However unless you have a boat, you will need to drive about 70 miles to get to Hilton Head. It is also just south of Edisto Island. You can easily see Edisto from the the beach at Hunting Island, but again, it is about a 60 mile drive to get there.

The light house at Hunting Island (HI) can be climbed for a small fee of $2.00 per person. We arrived too late on Saturday to make the trek to the top, as it closes to climbers at 3:45.

Beaufort SC (pronounced Bew-fert) is a beautiful coastal town. It reminds one of Charleston only on a much smaller scale. There are many old historic homes to see. Guided or self-guided tours are available, as are carriage tours.

We left Friday morning and drove to HI, arriving at about 1:30 PM. Our checkin to the campground was a breeze, being greeted by two very personable camp host volunteers. HI State Park is one of the most popular state parks in South Carolina, and most of the sites are reserved well in advance, as was ours. The greeters met us at the park entrance, verified our name, provided us with a park map, and sent us to site #22. We didn't even need to get out of the RV.

This picture is not of our site, but of the campground road that runs right along the beach to the left. There are some smaller sites on the left of the beach road that accomodate tents only. The RV sites of varying sizes are on the right in this picture.





This next picture is of the campground from the beach. This is a rather old campground that was not designed specifically to accomodate today's RVs. The sites vary greatly in size, some are very large while only some of the smaller RVs or tent-trailers will fit on others.

But as you can see the beach is the attraction here and the beach is what keeps the campground reserved months in advance at a very high rate of occupancy.


This trip to the beach was very relaxing and enjoyable. After unhooking the Tracker and backing into our site, it was apparent that there would be no TV watching this weekend. There is very heavy tree cover across the entire campground. Imagine my surprise when, just to see what would happen, I received a strong satellite signal on the dish. Apparently I had stopped exactly where there was a small hole in the tree canopy and was aligned exactly with the DirecTV satellite. In spite of that, we still didn't watch any TV. This is just too beautiful a place, and the weather was too nice.

Here is a brief slide show with the highlights of the weekend. Some of the things you will see in the slide show include

• Campground scenes
• Trip to Fripp Island where the deer are perfectly comfortable walking around the homes and businesses
• A drive into Beaufort with the beautiful old homes and harbour
• Dinner at Dockside Restaurant in Port Royal just south of Beaufort where we watched the sunset.
  

Please enjoy the pictures and if you would like more information or just want to comment, please feel free to do so.

Chuck & Pam

DelMarVa and Colonial Williamsburg

There are not many things worse than a stale blog, so my sincerest apologies for not having updated this blog more often than I do. Apologies out of the way, we had a wonderful time last week in Colonial Williamsburg. And a few days before that we were in the DelMarVa Peninsula. I promise to write about it in a little more detail but I do want to get the basic journal down before we forget where we went and - more importantly - where we camped and ate!

For now, here is the general path we followed:

Thursday, September 20, 6:30 PM - Left after work headed as far north as we could get before tiring out too much. Drove to Raleigh up Hwy 49 in the RAIN! It hasn't rained at home in months, and here it is raining on us in Denton NC. But it has still not rained at home. We made it all the way to Roanoke Rapids NC on I-95 and pulled into the Wal-Mart parking lot with a few other RVs about 11:00 PM.

Friday, September 21, 8:00 AM - Left Roanoke Rapids and stayed off of I-95 choosing to follow NC-158 over to Murphfreesboro then up toward Suffolk VA, across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, and all the way to our campground in Sanford VA. Not on the map, but as far north on the Chesapeake Bay as you can get and still be in Virginia.

Saturday, September 22. Left the Tall Pines Harbor CG in the toad and drove over to Chincoteague Island to cruise around, look at the ponies, and have lunch at a nice little outdoor place that served up GREAT sandwiches. We shared a hugh shrimp salad sandwich at the Sea Star Carryout. While there we also checked out Toms Cove CG - looks like a pretty good place to stay, and the Inlet View CG - A DUMP to be avoided at all costs!
Later we drove on up to Ocean City MD, drove up the beach to Bethany Beach DE and wet out toes in the water there... an new state for both of us.
Back across the peninsula we go to Crisfield MD for a very good meal at the Captains Galley while we watch the sun go down over the Bay.

Sunday, Sept 23. Lazy morning at the campground, and then a short drive down US-13 to Kiptopeke State Park near Cape Charles just north of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. This state park has full hookup campsites. It is on the site of the old ferry terminal. No longer used for that purpose, it has a nice sandy beach just a short walk through the woods from the campground. A large fishing pier, and boat ramp are where the ferrys once docked. This would be a nice place to spend a few days... IF you are there when those darn black flys don't bite you.

Monday, Sept 24. Back across the CBBT and up to Williamsburg VA. We arrived at the American Heritage RV park about 2:30 in the afternoon in time to settle in before meeting our dear friends from Austin TX. Dinner that night was at the Kings Arms Tavern in the historic district. This is one of the taverns that served the likes of Thomas Jefferson and his contemporaries in the 18th century. Our dinner consisted of Smoked Salmon for Pam and baked Tilapia stuffed with shrimp and oyster stuffing. Very good...but these old eyes have a hard time reading the menu and the check with only candlelight.

Tuesday, Sept 25. All day walking around Colonial Williamsburg... and it was a hot day too with temperatures in the upper 80's. We started at the visitors center, rode the shuttle bus to the Governors Palace to start our tour of the area. Lunch was at Chownings Tavern on Duke of Glouchester Street (sandwiches and cold water in the outdoor eating area under an arbor.) In the afternoon we walked to the Colonial Capital Building where we heard Thomas Jefferson speak. The interpreter/actor did a fine job of representing Mr. Jefferson and playing a little to "Pop" history. I don't think Mr. Jefferson would have been at all comfortable speaking to a group like this and answering questions from the audience...but it sells in Williamsburg, and it was fun.

The evening found us at "The Whaling Company" a local seafood eatery outside the historic district, but not far from town. Great fresh seafood again. I think we would never tire of fresh seafood.

Wednesday, Sept 26. Again the day spent walking around Colonial Williamsburg. Touring the Capital Building, several houses, shops where artisians practice crafts as they would have done them in the 17th and 18th century. For example a saddle maker, cobbler, silversmith, foundry, gunsmith, and watchmaker. Lunch was outside the historic district in an area of modern shops and restaurants called Merchants Square near the College of William and Mary. We went to a place called The Cheese Shop, that was a fantastic Deli, and very crowded at lunch time. Tuna Salad sandwich for me and Crab Salad for Pam.
More walking in the afternoon and a quick trip back to the RV to freshen up before dinner. It was over 90 degrees today! Dinner was at Christiana Campbells Tavern. This is another restaurant in the historic district that maintains the historic atmosphere.

Thursday September 27. Time for a change in scenery and temperature. Today we drove to Charlottsville to visit Montecello, Thomas Jefferson's mountain. About a 2 hour drive from Williamsburg brought us to Michies Tavern at noon. This place has been serving travelers great meals since the early 1700's, and was no dissapointment to us either. The lunch buffet was probably one of the best I ever sampled, with home cooked vegtables and peach cobbler with home made ice cream.
On to Montecello, we toured the mansion and spent another hour or so just walking around the grounds, gardens, and viewed Thomas Jefferson and his family burial grounds. What a genuis this man obviously was.. whether or not you arreed with his politics and style, he was an extraordinary person.

All Jefferson all the time??? That evening dinner was The Jefferson restaurant back in Williamsburg.

By the way, while we were on the mountain, we heard a couple of the security guards talking about a celebrity being there too. It turns out tha Bob Dylan who was doing a show at UVA that night, rode his motorcycle up to see Mr. Jefferson's house too. We didn't actually get to see him, he was taking the house tour while we were in the garden areas.

Friday September 28. Boys and Girls split up today. The ladys went shopping at the outlet stores while us guys went to do more history. Jamestown and Yorktown. Then back to the RV for a rest in the shade, then (what else) out to dinner on the waterfront in Yorktown. Nicks Waterfront Restaurant was very good. Again, great seafood and a beautiful view of the York River. There was a concert on the green in the waterfront park in Yorktown while we walked off our meal on the new Riverwalk Park area. Then time to say goodbye. Flights back to Austin Saturday morning dictate a farewell this evening. What a great vacation this has been.

Saturday September 29. Very cool and breezy this morning. Get the RV packed up and ready to go about 10:30 for the trip home. Taking our time, we cruise up Hwy 5 along the James River past many plantations, and back over to I-85 headed south. This gets us home about 6:00 PM.

Wow.. what a nice trip, and after the planning and the anticipation it's already over.

Blue Ridge Weekend.

This weekend, we were able to leave late Friday afternoon and go to Marion NC and the Buck Creek Campground. This was a nice little campground with sites right along Buck Creek, just off of Hwy 80 North of Marion NC on the way up to the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Buck Creek is not an RV "resort" but a true campground type of place. Very well kept, the owner lives on the property, and it provided a very nice getaway to the mountains without having to really climb the mountains.

Highway 80 is a scenic and very curvy and steep drive up to the parkway. From it's intersection with the Parkway, it is about 16 miles south to Mt. Mitchell State Park.

We were a little dissappointed in that after getting to Mount Mitchell on one of the only times I have ever been there with the sun shining and the weather nice, we found that the observation tower on the summit was closed for rebuilding. The project will take all summer and the tower is scheduled to reopen in September of 2007.

From there we went south to Asheville and had dinner at the Jack-o-the-Woods pub. Always good pub food and burgers, we enjoyed Fish and Chips and a burger before heading back to the campground and a late afternoon swim in one of the swimming holes on beautiful Buck Creek at the campground.

Check out some of our pictures including a few of the campground on our Dotphoto.Com site.