Today is our last full day at this park.   We arrived on Monday afternoon, today is Thursday, after a long day of driving.   Again, we were able to take a 3 ½ hour drive and turn it into 8. 

We stopped in a little town as soon as we arrived in SC to have some lunch.  It had once been a great town with a thriving Main Street.   All the buildings remained, but few were occupied.  There was one business remaining a small restaurant I can’t remember the name of, but the sandwiches were very good.   I had the Italian, ham, pepperoni and provolone on Texas Toast with banana peppers.  Jerry, of course, had the BLT.  I think he has had a BLT in almost every state in the Union and guess what?   When I ask him, they all taste the same.

After that was a trip to the laundry which took a bit more than an hour.  Then back on the road with a stop at a farm stand, then Walmart.   By time we got back on the road the evening rush hour had begun and a trip that should have taken 30 minutes stretched into 90.  We finally arrived at 5:30 at the campground.  Once we pulled into our space, we quickly walked to the beach, less than 50 feet from our space.

Last post I mentioned Ernie picked up a tick.  On Tuesday, two days later the tick was out, but there was a hard lump we felt in the spot.  We decided better safe than sorry and made an appointment at a local vet.  They were so nice and we had an appointment for later that day.  They gave him a full check up along with the bite site and the bill was $59.  That is about half of what his home vet charges for a quick look.  They said we did get out all of the tick but the lump was a result of irritation and would go down, and it has.   They also suggested he have a blood test in 45 days just in case but since he had no fever and looked great it was just a precaution and no need to worry.

The receptionist also gave us a great recommendation for lunch.  It was really good.   I had crab cakes and Jerry had a BLT.   NO, just kidding, he had shrimp. 

After that we came back to the park and went to the camp store, ice cream shop and historic home on the grounds.  Atalaya was owned as a winter home for Archer Huntington and his wife, Anna Hyatt Huntington who lived in NYC.  The home was built during the depression and only local residents were used to build and work in the home.  They were good to their employees giving them living quarters equal in comfort to their own rooms.   The home is built of massive concrete and brick walls around a courtyard.  While it was hot on the day we visited, the air inside was cool.  It was an odd building with a narrow hallway around the entire center of the courtyard with over 30 rooms along the hallway on the outside of the building.  All windows were placed in areas where the building created shade or into the hallway near a door to the courtyard.  Because of all the concrete and exposed brick, it looked a lot like a prison to me.  They even had a self-sufficient water system where the ground water was pumped into a tower where it was filtered and the tower was high enough to provide enough water pressure to draw water to every room in the house.

Then it was back to the campsite to take Ernie swimming.   He does not like salt water and as soon as he smelled the water, he was having none of it.  He kept looking at me like – you know I only swim in fresh water what are we doing here?   The surf is very rough here and you can hear and smell the ocean from our site. 

Yesterday Jerry took a ride to town on his bike and found a NY style bagel shop.  He brought me back a sesame bagel which I devoured upon seeing it.  It was really good and when we leave tomorrow, I want to go and get some more.  It is very humid here and the sun is hot.  We wait until about 4 o’clock to go to the beach which is what we did yesterday.  Neither of the boys are beach people.  I did go in the water a few days ago and it was really cold.

Today we walked to the nature center here.   They had a touch tank you can put your hands in, which I took a video of and a tank with sea horses.   This park is one of the largest bird sanctuaries in the US.  We walked into the marsh and saw herons, king fishers, osprey and a really pretty woodpecker with a red head.  We were told there was a bald eagle nest in one of the trees and we saw the nest but no eagles.  We were also told about two years ago a hurricane badly damaged the marsh and birds are still finding their way back.  No matter I thought it was great.

Tomorrow, we go 18 miles down the road to stay at a campground/marina.  When we leave there, we turn back north to start our trip home.

Today’s song would be Fly Like an Eagle.   Just remember the Post Office commercial from years ago and you’ll know the song.