As is becoming the norm, we’ve been so wrapped up in experiencing our travels that we’ve scarcely paused to document them. Its been an eventful few weeks since we bid Savannah farewell and took our sweaty selves northwards.
After our breakfast under the bridge, we continued on US 17 towards Charleston, pausing only to fill up on diesel (another day, another 37 gallons) and pick up a pair of travelers who were slowly walking their overloaded bikes and trailers along the highway shoulder. They were a father and son, on their way north to Raleigh from Jacksonville and were more than a little bit overloaded for a bike tour. After we’d loaded up them, their bikes and their two one hundred pound trailers (complete with cat carrier and a surprisingly chill cat), we took them as far as Charleston, where we parted ways and they began their travels inland.
We continued north to the Francis Marion National Forest, where we found a campsite at Elmwood Recreation Area with cold running water, much to Hannah’s relief. The heat was still onerous, and the biting flies were pretty obnoxious, but at least we had some great neighbors! Places like Elmwood are relatively unimproved, but they are free to stay for up to 14 days at a stretch, so you usually end up with an eclectic mix of short and long term campers interspersed with full-time nomads who hop from site to site every few weeks.
We were fortunate enough to park next to Adam and Patricia who were staying there semi-long term while waiting for Adam’s birthday so he can get his CDL, and Mark, who is spending some time out there on retreat while writing a book and painting. As we were preparing to cook dinner and settle in for the evening, Mark knocked on the door and asked us if we wanted to head down to the pub for a drink. This was about the last thing we were expecting to be asked and we were pretty tired from our travels, but hey, sometimes you have to jump when opportunity knocks!
We ended up at B J’s Mini Mart, which is about a mile down the road from Elmwood Recreation area. It is a small and unassuming country store run by Ben and Shirley, but around the side is a full bar and game room which they open up on occasion, as they did for us that evening. Ben and Shirley are seasoned world travelers, great story tellers, and gracious hosts. We planned to go for only a half hour or so, but ended up spending a couple of hours there, only returning to the campsite around twilight.
The next morning we made tea and coffee for all and sundry, visited for a bit, then packed up and rolled on northwards in a continuing quest to escape the bugs and heat. There’s not a tremendous amount to say about the Carolina coast along US 17- a few interesting towns and cities are largely drowned out by mile after mile of RV parks, strip malls and strip clubs, water parks, and mini golf. So much mini golf. The heat was oppressive, so we mostly focused on making miles.
We’d originally planned to go as far as Jacksonville and visit our friends Sean and Charity and their child Lincoln, but they were in the throes of packing up house and moving to DC, so we passed on through and instead headed to the Croatan National Forest to spend the night.
It was around dark when we arrived in Croatan, and our campsite was a few miles down a washboard road. When we arrived at the campsite, we found one old RV, surrounded by junk and makeshift screened spaces, one space to park the bus, and some of the worst biting flies we’d yet encountered. Hannah left the bus for all of 15 seconds before being swarmed, and refused to set foot outside after that. We moved on early in the morning.
The drive was uneventful, if a bit long. In a single day we crossed North Carolina, Virginia, and into Maryland, where we spent the night in a Wal Mart parking lot. Traveling in the bus has warmed me a bit towards Wal Mart- odds are that any given one will be OK with overnight parking, and if one isn’t, well, there is always another one a bit further down the road. With the curtains pulled and the fans running, its actually pretty easy to forget where you are, and the convenience factor is pretty high as well. On top of that, our first night in Maryland was our first cool night since the trip started!
We’ll leave it there for now and dedicate a catch-up post (or three) to DC and Annapolis goings-on.