South to Tallahassee

Friday, October 28th.  We had about a 5-hour drive to get to Tallahassee.  Marty met us at the I-10 off ramp and accompanied us to the campground.  We got settled in and then Marty took us to his home, where we met Jan and saw David for the first time since he was a young teenager.  His home is very nice and beautifully decorated.  It's in a nice new neighborhood in Tallahassee.

This was a home football weekend for the Florida State Seminoles so lots of people were in town for the game and parents weekend.  Marty and Jan took us to a downtown street fair which is held every Friday night when there's a home football game.  It's called the Downtown Git Down.  There's a number of food booths and two band stages.  There were thousands of people there on a very nice evening.  Lots of fun.  They then took us to Cracker Barrel restaurant for some genuine southern cooking.  It was very good.  We'll definitely go to one of those again.  It's nice to be in Tallahassee with Marty and to finally meet Jan.  We're looking forward to a great weekend.

Savannah II

typical historic home

Gen. Sherman's hdqtrs during Civ.War

moss in the trees typical

a homeless person pandering for gas $

Thursday, October 27th.  Another nice day today.  In the low 80's.  We went back to Savannah to walk the downtown and see all of the squares.  There are about 19 such squares in the town with most having a statue or a fountain.  Most feature very old Live Oak Trees draped with Spanish Moss.   We were told that the moss is not a parasite so it doesn't harm the host tree.  It is very beautiful.  Each of the squares is named after a nationally or locally important person.  The folks that live around a square relate their location to the square...i.e.  the Madison neighborhood or the Lafayette neighborhood.  The architecture is beautiful.  But it's hard to photograph because the darned trees get in the way of the houses.  Savannah has to be one of the most beautiful cities in the nation.  We will definitely come back here again.

Savannah/Paula Dean's

mmmm good

Wednesday, October 26th.  We had a 3 hour drive down to Savannah.  Our campground was on Skidaway Island, south of the City.  The campground was beautiful with lots of old live oak trees draped with Spanish moss.  After getting set up we drove into the city, got our bearings and started searching for a restaurant for dinner.  We went to Paula Dean's restaurant, The Lady and her Sons, to see how long the wait would be to eat there.  Surprisingly, we only had a 10 minute wait.  So we enjoyed a wonderful classic southern meal.  It was awesome.  After dinner we explored the downtown briefly and then headed back to the campground.  We're looking forward to seeing the town more thoroughly tomorrow.

Myrtle Beach

Thursday, October 20th thru Tuesday, October 25th.  Myrtle Beach was beautiful and the campground was very nice.  We were supposed to leave on Saturday.  We got all packed up and when we tried to close the living room slideout on the motorhome, it wouldn't close.  Since it was Saturday, we couldn't find a repair person to come out until Monday.  So we were 'stuck' in Myrtle Beach.  We can't complain...the weather was beautiful and our neighbors in the campground were very nice.  On Monday the technician said it needed a new motor.  They found that it would take 7 days to get a new motor delivered.  So we decided to manually close the slide and leave it closed until Arizona, where we'll have more time get it taken care of.  So on Tuesday, we bid our neighbors farewell and hit the road for Charleston, SC.

It was about a 2 hour drive to Charleston.  The campground was south of town.  It was a very nice campground.  Because of our schedule and how it was impacted by the delay in Myrtle Beach, we passed on spending time in Charleston.  But we will definitely be back to the campground and to the Charleston area.

South to Myrtle Beach

Wednesday, October 19th.  It rained hard last night.  We awoke to a cloudy sky, but with promises for clearing.  We packed up and left at about 11:00.  It was a 3 hour drive to Myrtle Beach and the sun came out as we headed south.  It's a nice campground, but very tight in terms of getting into our site.  With skilled driving on my part and good directions on Diane's part we got into the site and got set up.  The campground fronts on the intercoastal waterway so we occasionally see boats going up and down (not bobbing in the water, but going north and south).  Even tho it wasn't raining, it was quite windy and continued to be windy throughout the night.  

Surf City II

Nice beach and water wasnt' real cold

Tuesday, October 18th.  This morning was a cleaning day.  I washed the motorhome while Diane did laundry and other indoor cleaning.  In the afternoon we went to the beach and had a great walk.  For dinner we went to Batt's Diner.  It's kind of a marginal looking place.  But the parking lot is full...and it's mostly locals.  Their menu offers breakfast items including a ham and cheese omelet with grits and toast for $3.95.  And they have good seafood.  Diane had clam strips.  I had shrimp and flounder.  They were both served with hush puppies.  I'm not sure what hush puppies are made of, but they were good.  I'm still waiting to have good southern fried chicken on this trip.

Surf City, North Carolina

View from our site-intercoastal waterway

Monday, October 17th.  It was about a five hour drive to Ocean City.  It is located on Topsail Island, an extension of the Outer Banks.  It's a small town.  But during tourist time, the population goes way up.  The campground is privately owned and the sites are very close together.  We have a great site, right on the water.  Its' the intercoastal waterway that allows boats to move up and down along the coast while being in protected water.  It's very beautiful.  We had to turn on our air conditioner for the first time in several weeks.  Hopefully we'll continue to have warm weather for a while.