21 May: Cedar Creek Campground, Sealevel, NC

 Left Topsail on Saturday morning and did a big bend around Camp Lejeune - THE BIG marine base in North Carolina.  It is unbelievably big!

Stopped in the middle of nowhere to do my laundry as the was not laundromat within striking distance of where I was going to be for the next week or 2. Laundromats are really sad places...  but at least I also stocked up at a Lowes (supermarket in these parts, not hardware), as I was heading out into nowhere land.

Got to Cedar Creek campground and it was exactly the same as the campground I just left - been in the family for zillions of years, no computer, basic - but great.  The 9? year old father stilled lived in a house on the grounds, all the children were in houses around the campground, and so were the cousins and 2nd cousins, and so on.

Definitely not a family RV campground - only for hardcore fishermen and their families.  Lots of fish around though - drum, blue fish, flounder as well as crabs, oysters and clams.  There are a few commercial oyster farms out it the bay.

 

The big talk was about the pig sticking on Memorial Saturday and everyone was invited.

 

 

The town is called Sealevel (probably because it is at or below sea level).

During the past week with the big moon eclipse and king tide, the whole campsite was under a foot of water.  The place is/was pretty much a swamp.  Funny part is the next town over is called Atlantic.  Not thinking very much away from the water here...  Also saw my first muskrat.  Weird little rat-like black mouse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Really sad area.  The only grocery store is a Dollar General.  The next closest is 35 miles away.  The number of abandoned houses/properties are crazy.  I asked people why there were so many, and everyone seemed perplexed - as if they had not noticed before.  Some said it was due to hurricanes and people just leaving their properties, others said  parents dying off and no one wanted the properties - just weird, but a very poor county. However, down one street just around the corner, there were these mansions on 1 acre plots that just did not fit.

The bird life was amazing - every morning I would walk out to the point at the campground with my coffee and see muskrats, and birds and more birds - and dead quiet except for the birds.  The thought that came into my head was this is like the bosveld except it is at sea level... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 So Memorial weekend arrived... first we had a tornado watch (not a warning - which is the next level up), but the skies looked angry.  In any case, that dissipated without any major issues.  That evening I was about to get into the whale and I heard a 'Yo, come over and get a beer', so I went over.

They definitely win the prize for the most decorated RV site.  Very nice people - Dick and Terri (I think), but what a wild night.  Terri had been in a major accident a number of years ago, and had a head injury so needed weed to stay 'on the level'.   That was naturally the excuse for Dick to also partake in the ganja.  Dick had been flying a Trump flag from his flagpole the previous week, but was asked to take it down, so for half the night he ran around the campground with a white flag which he wanted to put up. His boat is called 'White Boy'.  At one stage the 2 of them and another person that joined started talking as if we were in a revivalist church blabbered some serious religious stuff.  I just kept quiet and observed.

Quote of the week was 'The mosquito is the state bird of North Carolina'.  Someone took it to heart.

Very nicely decorated house - the only one in the area.

 

 

 

Trip to Portsmouth Island. Saturday 5/28

Straight east of the campsite is a series of barrier island - from Cape Lookout to Portsmouth.  There is a ferry that takes 4 cars/truck campers over every 2 hours. On the island there is nothing.  You can camp where you like on the beach, you need a 4x4 and you need to bring ice - lots of it.  The last hurricane wrecked all the huts on the island - park board rentals that are apparently going to be demolished and rebuilt - just to be wrecked again...

In any case, cycled the 5 miles to Morris Marina to get the 11am ferry.  Went over and walked along the beach for about 90 minutes one way.  The whole experience was a bit 'Into the Wild' - there was no one in sight and unbelievably desolate.

Then the clouds started building (the forecast was for a sunny, simple weather day).  In any case, got hit by a squall - huge rain drops hitting me at at least 40 mph does hurt.  Luckily I had changed into my swimming gear, so getting soaked was not that big a deal.  However, it was an experience - the bottom of my backpack got soaked - I eventually got back to the cabins, and changed under one of them and then waited patiently for the ferry to take me back.  In the meantime there was another squall and everyone was worried that the ferry would not get here to take us back - and we would spend the night in the abandoned cabins.

See the brown necked pelican... not seen them before.

Anyhow, we made it back in one piece, and the bike survived all the water, so I wized back to the campsite so as not to be late for the pig roast.

The pig turned out to be excellent - and the whole setup a real feast.  Everyone brought something - except me as I was totally out of provisions.  Funny part of the whole setup was that everyone would go and get their plate of food, and then go sit in their golf cart - so there was concept of a social gathering and sitting around a table and chatting.  Definitely different.

What I did learn there was that most people that were in their early 50s - younger than me - were already grandparents - the one couple had 3 grandchildren and the grandma was not even 50... Made me think of religion, marrying early, losing those prime years between 20 and 30 looking after kids...etc

On Sunday 5/29 I had to drive 35 miles back the way I had come to provision up again as the next stop was Cedar Island and then Ocracoke - which did not have much in the way of groceries either.

15 May: Holden beach to TopSail Island

Left Holden  Beach for Topsail Beach (life is a beach - not so).  Easy drive to Topsail - really is an island with a high connecting bridge on either side.  Stopped off along the way at the Lion King - see it hiding behind the bush for provisions.

Surf City campground is a classic beach RV camp.  Been in the family for over 50 years, the old guy still runs the place and the sons do all the work.  Everyone stays on the site, and the best was no computers... they still use the old lines book to manage the bookings.  I bet they do their accounts by hand as well.

Beautiful beach to walk on with a few weird things I had not seen before.  They look like young clam-like shells that live in the wave wash area of the beach.  When the wave washes over, they pop out and as soon as it pulls back, they burrow in as far as possible under the sand until the sand hardens and they stop.  Next wave, repeat...

The other thing we saw were sand hoppers/sand fleas.  It must be the time of year, but there were millions in the water.

Headed down to the pier on Monday night for a beer.  There were some waves and a few surfers out - some very good ones, but unfortunately it was too far to carry my board, so I stuck with having a few beers.

Also experienced the moon eclipse and extra large king tides at Topsail. 

Apparently Topsail Island, and specifically the northern part where I was, is known for picking up shark teeth on the beach.  

I asked a picker upper what they looked like and stuck gold.  BIG enthusiast - had 2 velvet bags, 1 for the normal stuff and the other with over 20 shark teeth - from a real large looks like a shark tooth to a few triangular black stones that he swore was 100million year old fossilized teeth.  The black teeth definitely have a definite shine to them and are not shells.  Naturally as he walked away he went 'Oh, here is one' and picked up a small black stone and gave it to me - thereby condemning me to spending the rest of my time there looking for @#$)(*8)$)* shark teeth.

So fun observation for Linda....

I was sitting watching the Sanderlings scrounge for sand fleas. 

Then a crow (of which there are many that have adapted to beach living) started following a specific piper - probably to steal anything they catch.  The sanderling then promptly walked away from the water and tucked his head under his wing signalling no more catching for now.  The crow, being somewhat miffed, started doing exactly what the sanderlings do - run down the beach after the retreating wave pecking into the sand to see if they can find anything.  This one on the second run, actually caught a sand flea - nearly got washed away by the next wave, but actually got his own dinner.  Now this is not normal crow (or the local North Carolina variety - I think they are called something else) behavior, but was fascinating to see.  When the crow flew away, the sanderling started hunting again.

Best part of the Topsail week was that Gina drove down for a sleep over on Wednesday night. Had a great time and went to a local fish restaurant for dinner.  Thanks for coming.

So this was the start of what I envisioned traveling would be - wake up early, go for a swim, do some body surfing, do some work and maybe swim again over lunch and then head out to a pub to listen to a local band and have a beer or 2. 

14 May: Myrtle Beach to Holden Beach NC

 

Packed up on Saturday and headed out.  Hit a few heavy rain downpours along the way, but the for the Whale it was not an issue.  Seems there was some type of Motorbike rally in the Myrtle beach area as they were everywhere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Holden Beach RV grounds were fine - lots of seasonable/permanent residents and everyone packed in tight.  I asked about cycling to the beach and was advised that it was not a good idea due to the bridge across the intracoastal waterway.

Crazy to think that Gene and I sailed/motored past here about 30 years ago in Tao.

Headed out anyway and stopped at the Provisioning Company - a great restaurant/bar on the waterway to observe the bridge - looked daunting.  
The restaurant had this floating bar - basically a round tub with a bar in the middle - definitely something to go do one day.

Then went over to a bicycle rental place and talked to them and the advise from the manager was - 'do it at 3 in the morning on a Thursday night - because by then all the drunks are asleep'.  In any case, set the peddal assist to 5, got up to about 25mph and flew across the bridge without incident.

General feel about Holden beach is not positive - very few public access points to get to the beach, brown sea water, dirty beach, big houses and large parts are fenced communities.  Did about 3 miles down the island.  Once I made it back over the bridge I headed back to the Provisioning Company for a beer and dinner.  1/2lb of shrimp, crab cake and corn for $16 made for a great dinner + a beer and a number of rum and pineapple specials and all was good.  The fact that the Bruins lost against the Hurricanes did not help me at all, but...

 At the bar I started talking to a couple from Texas who was here to scout for a retirement place (the wife grew up here).  Interesting conversation about retirement and RVing and ...  At one stage I must have said something, and the husband said 'You seem like an intelligent person, do not tell me you are a liberal - how can you think like that'.  My response was 'What do you think - I am from Boston, I am not a liberal, I am a socialist'.  After throwing out things about our borders being overrun, Hunter Bidens laptop and a few other priceless quotes, my only response was that I was also an immigrant and he should stop watching Fox news.

They left shortly after and I headed home slightly unsteady on my bicycle along a road full of trucks with very big exhausts.

 

10 May 2022 Sesquicentennial Park, Columbia, SC to Myrtle Beach SC

Left Columbia after an epic weekend of graduation stuff. Will write about that later, but needless to say... I needed some time to recover.

As I lifted the jacks on the RV, the front jacks did not want to go all the way up - which is what has been happening the last few times.  I checked that they were high enough (they had less than an inch to go before being totally stowed) and headed off.  The problem with driving while not fully stowed is the Whale emits this extremely irritating beep to let me know I should not be driving...  After about 30 minutes I pulled over at a rest stop and took out tool J (the hammer) and gave the jacks a slight tap each to see if that would persuade them to stow.

Well 3 hours later and just as I was pulling into the Costco in Myrtle beach to fill up, the beeping stopped - not the most pleasant drive, maar nou ja....

$225 later and a full tank I did the last 11 miles to Myrtle Beach State park.  Beautiful.  Spanish moss as you enter the park and very friendly park rangers everywhere.  I had a back-in site with water and electricity, so this was my second 'solo' back-in to a site.  When I got to my site, I had about 3 cars/RVs behind me waiting, so I hopped out and asked the neighbors to help me backup.  The guy looked a bit puzzled but I said just shout if I was going to hit anything.  After settling in I figured out that said neighbor was a French Canadian and could not really speak english ...

11 May

Took the bike to the nearest Walmart to get the gear for my new griddle (thanks Bernd).  Naturally they did not have it, so I went to the pier and had a beer.  The place makes me think of Avon on the Outer Banks where we go most summers  (my final destination on this section). We rented a house in Avon from 4 June for 2 weeks.   Its going to be lots of fun. Sea looks the same, but much more built-up here at Myrtle beach.

Before the beer, I went for a swim.  Water was warm, waves were not really surf-able, but there were 2 surfers out.  Was great to have my first swim of the summer.

A trash octopus at the Myrtle Beach art museum.

 

 

 

 

 

12 May

Rainy windy day.  Small craft advisory out due to mega high tide and rip currents, so definitely not surf-able.  Had a great walk along the beach on the sand bank the waves were washing over.  I did go for a walk and met up with 2 wedding organizers setting up 8 chairs on the beach - pretty minimalist wedding but great setting.  Dirty sea foam was blowing up against the chairs and it all looked pretty unpleasant.  I asked if it was a good idea, but apparently the bride had said that she was getting married on the beach - come hell or high water (which was just 15 minutes past).

 

 

 

 

So I figured out what the downside of the state park is - it is right next to Myrtle beach airport and the planes are at about 100ft when they come over the park.  Not really a big deal, but great for photos.  Need to get a good one.

 ps: the bush under the airplane is the campsite.

Big thing though is I took the Left Whale in for an oil change - the first one.  I needed to see how it gets done so that I can do the next one myself.  Went to Coastal Car Center in Myrtle beach - Bill and his wife run a mom and pop auto shop and the nicest people.  Their son is also graduating this weekend, so they were very excited.  Bill probably spent an extra hour going over the Whale explaining everything to me.  The good news is all I need to get the jacks not beeping again is new retraction springs that are apparently relatively cheap, and I can do it myself.

At least I am pretty confident I can do the next engine and generator oil change.  General verdict from Bill was that Gary (the previous owner) really looked after this baby.

13 May

Had 3 older ladies move in next door.  They were locals who 'left their ordinary lives at home' for the weekend to come and camp and celebrate one of their 50th birthdays. Luckily one of them was an experienced camper who had all the gadgets and there were many.

Saturday I went for a great swim/bodysurf session in the morning and then packed up for Holden beach.