Day 3 -- Travel from Cherry Hill, Maryland to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Saturday 6/30/2001
We got up at around 3 o'clock in the morning and started preparing the final things before leaving. While there was less things to do before leaving, it still took us an hour to get going. Just after 4am we pulled out of the campground. Not a soul was awake. I tried to minimize the throttle a bit as the new Banks exhaust system makes quite a bit of noise. I-95 is just around the corner so it did not take us long to get back again.
The first four hours were pretty much uneventful. As soon as other tourists started hitting the roads things started to heat up. We saw one near-accident situation where a tractor trailer was pulling out from the break down lane into rushing traffic. Somehow, the regular cars almost slammed into him. Blue smoke from tires and some cars had to drive in the grass of the median. But fortunately there was no accident.
We started seeing signs for South of the Border before going over the border from Virginia into North Carolina. After that they became denser and denser. We stopped for a refueling brake and ate a quick breakfast around exit 87 along I-95. It was not too warm.
Fuel and food break in Dunn, North Carolina
The roads from Maryland and down to this stop were almost flat. We managed to squeeze out 9.5mpg out of the truck which is pretty good. After the break we continued towards Myrtle Beach. We took exit 192 off of I-95 just a few miles over the border. The drive down to Myrtle Beach took longer than we remembered. It is actually over 70 miles (112km) from I-95 down to Highway 17 near the beach. Weather was nice and warm. A sign showed 91F (32C).
We took the shortcut from Highway 17 over the old Myrtle Beach Air Force base onto Business Highway 17, like we learned from previous visits here. As we checked in another 34ft (10.2m) Airstream pulled up. Their WBCCI numbers had pealed off. I did ask, but was certain they were not members (anymore). We got a site very close to the pool and just a few isles over from beach row. Click here for a partial map that shows our approximate location.As we pulled into our campsite I noticed a slight squealing from our brakes. Not sure if it came from the trailer or from the truck. We should probably check into that once we get back home.
As soon as we had set ourselves up the kids wanted to go to the pool. We at a little lunch first, under the awning of the trailer. There is a very nice breeze down here by the sea. Even if it is warm, it does not feel muggy. I tried the new awning tie downs we bought just before the trip. They were a bit complicated to install, but once down they appeared to hold things down very well. I also called Vincent, who was touring in Washington DC. Everything was fine and somewhat muggy. His kids sounded like they were in a good mood. Once Lilly got back from the pool with the kids, they wanted to go down to the beach instead. Both the pool and the beach is about 300ft (100m) from the trailer. That is so nice. Called Vincent again to see how things were going. He was on a tour-bus in Washington and things were just fine.
Parked at Lakewood; view from the beach. You can see the red Suburban up ahead.
As we got ready to prepare our dinner, Lilly found that the chicken we'd brought with us had gone slightly bad. So she had to go down to the store to get some more. We prepared chicken on the bbq. Very nice. We ate outside in the warm and humid weather. We felt a bit tired, but it was nice to finally be down here. After dinner Lilly and I took out our chairs and sat down and watched the local campground traffic. This campground is really amazing. It is like a small village with its 1900 camp sites. All the traffic we're watching is just the main-drag campground traffic. One golf-cart after another come by. Lots of teenagers out walking around. We went back to the trailer and went to bed.
