When I last left you, we had just arrived in South Carolina. John and I have never been to South Carolina, Georgia or Florida – beyond layovers in airports. To be honest, we did not know what to expect. We don’t do a ton of research on a place before we get there and usually, we just look for a nice beach to hang out at and maybe some local food. And this week delivered just that.
We left Wilmington, NC with no plan and no campgrounds booked for four nights. We figured it would be a week of Walmart parking lots, until John’s aunt and uncle recommended Huntington Beach State Park, just south of Myrtle Beach, SC. We set it as our destination, still not knowing if we would end up staying there or not. As we arrived, we were greeted by the warmest weather we had experienced so far on the trip and beautiful trees covered with Spanish Moss – not something we see every day. We decided to take a look around the campground to see if we wanted to spend the night and by the time we made our way to the front gate again, we were sold. With the intention of just staying one night, we went to get a site and our favorite one that we had seen was available, for two nights at a great price. So we took it.
Huntington Beach State Park was unlike any park we had ever been to. Every site had electric and water hookups (which now, a week later just seems to be a southeast thing), the walk to the beach was through a jungle and there was a 1930s mansion to explore. For $2 a person, you could walk through Atalaya Castle. It was the winter home of industrialist and philanthropist Archer M. Huntington and his wife, the sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington. It was a large house with beautiful gardens and a good way to spend a crisp, sunny day. (Check out our photos from our walk through Atalaya at the bottom of this post!)
After Huntington Beach State Park, we made our way down to Folly Beach, SC, just outside of Charleston. We drove through the narrow streets of Charleston, attempting to find a good place for lunch, and decided it was too hard to park the van there, so we headed out to the beach. We had been given some Folly Beach recommendations by my cousins, who take an annual trip there, and found the Drop In Bar & Deli. It had good food, good people and good vibes, the perfect place for lunch on a chilly beach day. We found McKelvin’s Surf Shop, one of the coolest shops we’ve been to. The ceiling was covered with boards of all shapes and the used section was littered with unique hand shaped boards. They prided themselves on “No Pop Outs” – meaning that every board in the shop was hand shaped. It’s not something you find a lot these days and, when you do, it’s someplace very special. McKelvin’s was just that – very special.
We walked around Folly Beach for the day, taking a stroll down the pier there where you could grab a drink from the bar at the entrance and walk with it down to the end of the pier. It was a stunning, crisp and calm day out on the pier and we were maybe two of five people out there. We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out, before heading out to the grocery store.
We don’t usually do this, but that evening we went out to dinner. John had been craving barbecue since we arrived in the South East and after spending some time on Yelp, we found Swig & Swine. We’ve had barbecue before, but this was like nothing we have ever had. It was so good, I wrote a Yelp review about it.
After dinner, we spent the night in a Walmart parking lot. We stay at Walmarts when we are trying to save money or are driving all day and arrive to a place late a night. In Folly, we opted to eat meals out instead of spend money on a campsite. And it was worth it. The meals were amazing and we ended up finding the Walmart parking lot to be one of the best we had ever stayed at. I do a fair amount of research before we sleep at a Walmart to make sure that it is a safe place to stay. We try to arrive late in the evening and leave early in the morning. This Walmart had an amazing parking lot with lots of other camper vans and RVs already tucked in for the night when we got there. Seeing others always makes us sleep a little better, knowing that there is strength in numbers. The more we sleep in free camping or stealth camping spots, the easier it is to relax and have a good night of sleep.
The next morning we headed further south, making our way to Savannah, Georgia. We spent the day at Tybee Island, where – much to John’s dismay – there were no waves. And when I say no waves, I mean absolutely nothing! The ocean looked like a lake and the look on John’s face was so disappointed that we ended up just sitting on the beach, staring in disbelief for a while.
We spent the entire day there, moving from van to beach and back to the van again. We made dinner in the parking lot at the beach and, after dinner, we made our way to another Walmart parking lot to sleep. This Walmart didn’t feel quite as safe as the one in Folly, so we parked next to a massive RV and tucked in for the night. Despite it being a busier parking lot, we had a great night sleep and woke up to a beautiful day. We departed early and, again, headed south.
Have you heard of Amazon Lockers? They are amazing. You can order things on Amazon and have them delivered to a locker anywhere, where you have three days to pick it up. A couple of days before we headed to Florida, I order some things and had them sent to a Whole Foods in Jacksonville, FL. This ended up being our first stop of the day. We had lunch, went grocery shopping and picked up our packages.
And then we headed inland, to a KOA where we spent the weekend catching up on some internet related things, doing laundry and getting our bearings as we begin our month in Florida.
After the productive weekend, we headed back to the east coast of Florida, to St. Augustine, where we are now. We have been in shorts for four days now and are so happy to be where it is warmer – although we’d rather it not be raining as much and that there were fewer bugs.
Until next time,
Emma
Emma and John by Van 