South Carolina

Hope your thanksgiving week went as well as ours did. We spent it in sunshine and sand. Two of my favorite things. Myrtle Beach, SC is a little like Las Vegas, with night time entertainment, and a little like Seaside, OR with tacky little miniature golf courses and Ripley Believe It. Not large in population at this time of year, but 350,000 converge here in the summer months.

We’ve been pretty laid back in our travels. Took a short drive down to Georgetown. Third oldest town in the South Caolina. Believe the sign said 1729. Very lovely with lots of old homes. Some how they manage to keep a pretty boardwalk along the river and a steel mill and a paper plant. None of it seems to clash.

This is the area they call the Low Country. Looking out today at the rain, and the flooded parking area, I guess I see why. Yes the rains finally came, but it’s not too cold, and will be gone in a few days. It was busy in the camp over the holiday. They have an ingenious system. People store their RV’s here, then call ahead, and the park brings them out of storage and places them on a lot, then when they leave they wheel it back off the lot. This seems like a wonderful idea, even for the west. So many places you have to pay for storage anyway.

The Bluegrass festival was good. The location, a very large auditorium, didn’t have the proper acoustics for a show like this, but it certainly was well attended. Jeff Foxworthy would have been proud of all the red necks in their caps and tractor shirts.  Best group we heard was IIIrd Time Out. Rhonda Vincent was ok too, except couldn’t understand a thing she said. It was a fun experience. Saw six excellent bands we would never have seen if we hadn’t gone.

Some of the pictures will be of Huntington Park, some taken on Pawleys Island. In the 1850’s Southerners started raising rice. The plantation owners built homes on the Island for the summer season. Unbelievably a few of the original structures are still inhabited. One book called it “the fashionably shabby” area. Lots of wonderful looking restaurants.
Seafood is king, here.

Huntington Beach, SC

 

TN And NC

Just when we think we’ve seen it all, we see more. The trip from Lexington, Virginia to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee took a short day. Since we had already driven parts of the Blue Ridge Parkway, we just hit the freeway.

Didn’t known what to expect about this area, knew it was a tourist area, but that is an understatement. Sevierville, the first town you drive through, is about 18 miles long, and one block wide. It is packed with places to spend your money, then you turn a corner and it’s Pigeon Forge, a town with no soul. The Southern Baptists would burn me at the stake for that, but the whole place is so commercial. There must be 16 or more Outlet Malls, and the only thing that is hard to find is a grocery store. Imagine the Lincoln City on steroids.

The Southerners. Nice, yes, they are very friendly and pleasant. We really haven’t met anyone that was nasty or mean. They really do pour the religion on. We went to the Louise Mandrell show. A good production, very professional, much like Branson Shows. The original Blackwood Brothers from 1954 were a gospel music quartet. Two of them died in a plane crash, and now the heirs are signing and praising the Lord, Amen. We attended that show for breakfast! Then we took a day to do Dollywood. A theme park, and I guess the theme is Tennessee Country Christmas. That’s all we heard and saw. You pay $40 a piece and can see as many shows and ride what you want for the day. Good deal, if it wasn’t 25 degrees. It was so cold I’ll bet even the Baptists were swearing, (but not where they could be heard). We did the merry go round and steam train and three live shows. (Pics) Dolly didn’t show.

Half a day took us to Asheville, North Carolina. We drove over the Smoky Mountains, a distance of less than 100 miles. Views and vistas incredible. It was clear and the mountains really do have smoky haze look. Nearly all the leaves are gone now so it’s easier to see. A lot less color though. (Pics)

What you ask is in Asheville? Have you heard of the Vanderbilt’s and Biltmore Estate? We went to The Breakers in RI, so I had to see this one. 8,000 acre estate, 250 room house. Castle really. It is so over the top. But as tacky as Dollywood was, this is elegance personified. It is run so well. We bought tickets for $51 which included headsets and a narrative of the rooms in the house. Our 2 hour tour took me 4 hours, but there was no one hurrying us. (Pics)

The park is perfect, winding roads through forest and fields of corn. The house sits on the hill like a castle and the four levels take up 4 acres. It was built over 100 years ago and is still the largest home in America. One of my favorite rooms was the library with more than 10,000 volumes of George Vanderbilt’s 23,000 books. A Pellegrini canvas is on the ceiling painted in the 18th century, The Chariot of Aurora, originally in the Pisani Palace in Venice. Each room was filled with original works of art. I’m sure it’s on the internet.

Ross took many pictures, no one told him specifically not to. Home was decorated to the nines for Christmas. There must be a million ornaments. After the tour of the house we walked through the garden and conservatory. By then the temperatures were in the 50’s and tolerable. It is so worth seeing, one of the highlights of the trip so far.

Have a great Thanksgiving. We’ll be in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, have a spot reserved on the ocean.

Bye for now.
Susan and Ross

Biltmore House

 

Biltmore House

 

Biltmore House Asheville, NC

 

Virginia From Blue Ridge Pkwy

 

Smokie Mtns

 

Dolly World

 

Dolly World

 

Cherrystone RV on Chesapeake Bay

Still Moving On

We haven't had the best places to send emails, and when we did, we haven't had time. Good grief, we have been on the move. Weather is spectacular. In the 70's and sunny. D.C. was wonderful. We stayed in a RV Park in College Park that had bus transportation right on site. Took a Gray Line tour the first day and saw Arlington, the changing of the guard, Kennedy's Grave, also went to Mt. Vernon. Our bus guide -driver was amazing. There was a marathon going on downtown, and he somehow managed to get us around the mess, and we also got to see the Monuments. It was nearly dark when we saw the Viet Nam memorial. So that was just one day. We learned the Metro system and got around to 4 of the 16 Smithsonians. We saw the original US Flag, the Constitution and Bill of Rights, Ford Theater. My list goes on and on. We were so tired every night. After a week we needed a break from the city, so headed east to the Delaware Coast.

There's just so much to see. We drove down to a lovely campground on the Chesapeake Bay. I could have stayed there forever. This time of year there are so few RV'ers so we had the place almost to ourselves. We were near the island where they swim the wild horse every summer. You remember the children's book about Misty of Chincoteague?

We crossed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, 17.6 miles long! It's part bridge, then you disappear into a tunnel so the ships can sail over, then out again. Amazing engineering. Last night we stayed in Dinwiddie, doesn't that name just tickle you? It's a small place on the outskirts of Petersburg, VA. Serendipitously, we watched Ken Burns' PBS Civil Par program, and ended up today in Appomattox driving just miles from the battles and history. Oh, I forgot, we did do Gettysburg too, but that was before D.C. We stayed in York, and did the Harley-Davidson tour among others.

See what I mean, we have been busy. Decided to find a place and chill for awhile. We'll be here in Lexington,VA for at least 4 days if not more. What a great little place. It's the home of Washington and Lee College, and VMI, (Virginia Military Institute). Was a surprise to both of us. Old town, and of course we are minutes away from the Blue Ridge Parkway.

We try not to plan too far in advance, but we may go to Myrtle Beach, NC for Thanksgiving. There is a Bluegrass/Country Music festival going on, and that sounded fun. Last year we were in Mountain Home, Arkansas, and we loved that Ozark area.

We did get to see Rod row in Boston, and got around that town by train and underground quite well too. We are really becoming experienced travelers! The leaves are outstanding. There are so many trees and they are brilliant orange, yellow, gold, and red. We have only seen a smidge of the Blue Ridge, but it's spectacular too.