Little Pee Dee SP

We drove through Myrtle Beach SP in order to get our book stamped. From there we headed here. The GPS routing took us to a closed road that had been washed out due to a dam burst during the hurricane. We had a navigation adventure. The dam that burst formed a lake that was the centerpiece of this park. The lake is now a mud Flat. Our plan for the next few days is to drive to a few parks and get a few more stamps in our book. As a reminder, if we visit all of the SC state parks, (47?) We will get a T-shirt. That is our goal, as illogical as it sounds.

Atalaya and Brookgreen Gardens

Atalaya (ah-tuh-LIE-yuh) was the winter home of an extremely wealthy couple in the early 30s. Their money was inherited. She was a world renowned sculptor and he was an early environmentalist. There are large properties along the east coast that he bought and are now wildlife management areas. Huntington Beach California is named after him. The house is weird. It's called 'the Castle'. Across Hwy 17 is Brookgreen Gardens. Mrs Huntington displayed her sculpture there. We spent 4 hours roaming around the garden. Some of the sculpture was interactive. There was a bird enclosure that was kind of an Alfred Hitchcock experience. We move tomorrow.

Huntington Beach day 2

The weather hasn't been beachy yet so we decided to extend for another day. We will spend 3 nights instead of 2. I did my exploratory ride this morning and ended up on the beach. We drove into town, 'Murrells Inlet', ate a good seafood lunch and went to Publix. Publix is OK but the entertainment value is much greater at Wal-Mart. After that, Jenny and I rode around some. There is a large (architecturally unique!!!) home on the park property that we visited briefly today and will tour tomorrow. I'll get to that on tomorrows post. I know you can't wait.

Huntington Beach State Park

The rain that threatened Austie's party followed us while we drove north. Making camp is unpleasant while it's raining. It was raining when we got here and it didn't let up until "60 minutes" was half over. I guess things couldn't have been to bad. This is not roughing it. I cooked outside under the awning. This pic was taken as I was about to go outside to check on the meal.

Birthday prep

The bouncy house arrives at 1:00. It hasn't rained in 37 days so, of course, there is a 90% chance today. We will be heading north to Huntington Beach State Park after lunch. I hate to miss the wet bouncy house but sometimes you get lucky. This pic is the boys helping with the party favors.

Thanksgiving trip begins

Our first stop was Charleston for Austie's 5th birthday. We thought we had reservations at the KOA we always stay at but when we got there we found out it was a different KOA 30 minutes away. We are parked in Lindsay's driveway. There are 2 benefits to this arrangement. It's free and I can drink with impunity. Austin's b-day was yesterday. His party is tomorrow. We are going to miss the party because we have places to go. We will be visiting some SC States Parks en route to the Thanksgiving blowout at Pat's. This pic is Connor playing "horse nuts" in the driveway. (That's what Jamie calls it)

Halloween 2016