Lake Greenwood,SC

Last Friday we left Myrtle Beach and headed to a small RV resort in the Upcountry area of South Carolina. We spent the entire Memorial Day weekend just hanging out. It was very hot, in the upper-90s, all weekend. Our campsite had a great view of Lake Greenwood and the boaters on the lake.

We left Lake Greenwood this morning, heading north towards Winchester, VA to spend the next few days visiting my sister Marcia, brother-in-law Mike and niece Stephanie.  

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Myrtle Beach, SC

We left Hilton Head Island last Friday and spent the weekend at the Joint Base Charleston family campground. We last stayed there five years go and it was as nice as we’d remembered. Our campsite was huge with a double-wide concrete pad and patio. We just hung out and I had time to fix a few small things on the motorhome. 

We left Charleston on Tuesday and headed up the road to Myrtle Beach. Neither one of us had ever been to Myrtle Beach before. We had reservations at Ocean Lakes Family Campground. We didn’t know what we were in for before we arrived. The RV park is what we would describe as a “mega” campground with 859 campsites and 2,567 annual lease sites on 310 oceanfront acres. It has nearly a mile of beachfront on the Atlantic Ocean. We rented a golf cart to get around.

The annual lease sites were a mix of a few RV trailers or 5^th-wheels, small beach cottages, and large beach homes. They were all very interesting to see, including one that had an outside bar. We also saw several beach cottages that were built around old travel trailers. The campground has 25,000 to 35,000 guests on any given day during the summer season.  

Last night we visited the Myrtle Beach boardwalk and promenade. It was an interesting area with all the souvenir gift shops, game arcades, tee shirt shops, seafood restaurants, cafes, and many pancake houses. Myrtle Beach sits in the center of a large and continuous 60-mile stretch of beach known as the “Grand Strand”. It is a huge family vacation spot, attracting an estimated 14-million visitors a year.

We knew that this Memorial Day weekend would be crazy busy anywhere along the Eastern seaboard, so tomorrow, Friday, we’re literally headed for the hills and a small RV resort in north western South Carolina.

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Our 6th Anniversary of Full-time RVing

We sold and closed on our house in Colorado Springs on May 20, 2013 and began our journey as full-time RVers. We spent about six months before selling the house getting rid of our stuff and down-sizing from the 2,500 square foot house to less than 400 square feet of living space in our 2008 Itasca Meridian 37-foot motorhome.

We’ve met many full-time RVers who head south for the winter, then travel back north in the spring to spend the summer. They pretty much do the same every year.

However, we’ve taken a different approach and enjoy traveling all over the country. We don’t have a particular place we go every winter or every summer. We’ve enjoyed several winters in Florida and a couple in Southern California, trying to stay south of Interstate Highway 10 during the winter months. We’ve spent summers in the Northeast and Northwest, including a RV trip to Alaska in 2015. We’ve traveled and camped in all but three states now: Vermont, Rhode Island and Delaware.

We’re currently headed north along the Eastern seaboard to visit those three states we haven’t been to yet. We’ve traveled over 94,500 miles the past six years crisscrossing the country, from Key West to Seattle and Bar Harbor to San Diego. There are still places we want to visit and things we want to see, so we plan to continue our full-time RV journey for several more years. 

  

Steve & Julie Cornelius (and Shasta)

Hilton Head Island

We left Skidaway Island last Sunday around 11AM and headed to the Hilton Head Island Motorcoach Resort. We were led by a resort host to our campsite across the street from a small lake and were surprised at how narrow the roads were. Not a very “big rig” friendly park. The resort is heavily wooded preserve, so there’s lots of shade, but no satellite TV reception. We had an excellent Verizon signal so we could stream Game of Thrones on Sunday night!

We got our rental bicycles delivered on Monday and enjoyed a nice ride through the RV resort after dinner.  

Tuesday I repaired the retractable steps for our motorhome. We began having problems right after the tire shop guys drove the motorhome into the shop a couple of weeks ago. The mechanic apparently opened our front door and stepped on the steps before they were fully extended which ruined the drive motor.

I ordered the replacement parts on Amazon and had them shipped to me at the resort before we got here. I watched several YouTube videos to get an idea of what the repair involved. It took me about an hour and a half to complete the repair.

Tuesday after dinner, we drove over to the beach about a mile and a half from the RV resort. It was a beautiful evening. We enjoyed stopping by the beach-front Tiki bar and listened to a band playing there. 

We rode our bikes to the beach on Wednesday after lunch. It was a nice ride, once we figured out where the bicycle paths were, as we didn’t want to ride in the street.

We decided to go have an early (4PM) dinner at a highly-rated seafood place called Skull Island Boathouse on the other side of the island. The food was good but the view of the water was better. We ate outside on another beautiful day. There was a long line of people waiting to be seated when we left around 5:45.    

Today, our last full day in Hilton Head, we decided to go inland about 20-miles to the Latitudes Margaritaville development that we passed by on our way to Hilton Head Island last Sunday. It’s a brand new 55+ community being built. We wanted to take a look at the model homes and they were really nice. They have built 150 homes out of the 3,100 they plan to build. This new development will be close enough to do a day-trip to Charleston, Savannah or Hilton Head Island.

Hilton Head Island surprised us, as neither one of us had ever been here. It’s heavily wooded all over the island and businesses are set back off the road so you can’t really see them for all the trees. Hilton Head Island appears to be a big vacation destination with its beaches and 24 golf courses. It was a fun stop on our journey up the Eastern seaboard.  

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Savannah

We enjoyed a two-hour drive up I-95 from Kings Bay north to Savannah last Tuesday. We arrived at Skidaway Island State Park, about 20-miles southeast of Savannah, and had a nice, long pull-through site. The park is beautiful with its many pine trees, live oak trees covered in Spanish moss and cabbage-palmettos. This is our second time to stay at Skidaway Island as we spent a couple of days here five years ago in May 2014.

Our Wednesday was busy as we went into Savannah for lunch at Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room (Trip Advisor’s #5 of 662 restaurants in Savannah). The dining room, open since 1943, only serves lunch Monday through Friday, 11AM to 2PM. We arrived at 10AM and joined about 20 customers already ahead of us in line. Lunch is served family-style, where 10 people sit together at large tables and enjoy some of the best homestyle Southern cooking around. The fried chicken is the best I’ve had anywhere, bar none.    

We stopped at Leopold’s Ice Cream shop (#3 of 662 restaurants) for dessert after lunch. It has been in Savannah since 1919, founded by three brothers from Greece, and their soda fountain business is legendary. Leopold’s premium hand-crafted ice cream was really, really good.  

We went back to Skidaway Island after our big lunch and dessert and decided to go for a walk to work off some of those calories. The state park has several trails and we hiked the three-mile long Big Ferry Trail Loop. It was fun, seeing the old moonshine still, the different birds, especially the beautiful red cardinals.  

On Thursday we drove over to Tybee Island, about a half-hour east of Savannah. It is a Georgia barrier island that has been a popular vacation spot since the 1800s. We enjoyed going out on the town pier and pavilion. The original was built in 1891 and lasted 75 years. A fire destroyed it in 1967 but it was rebuilt in 1996. We also stopped by to see the Tybee Island lighthouse.

A beautiful Friday in Savannah with sunshine and highs in the low-80s. We enjoyed lunch at the nearby Driftaway Café. The fried green tomatoes, panko breaded with goat cheese and buttermilk dressing, were just plain yummy. My grilled fish sandwich and Julie’s shrimp tacos were good too.

We took a hike after lunch at the state park’s Sandpiper Trail and Avian Loop Trail. We did see a red-headed woodpecker, a finch, and one cardinal but I couldn’t move fast enough to get any pictures with my phone.

Today, Saturday, we drove into Savannah for lunch and to take a walk-a-bout. We love the layout of the Historic Savannah houses, live oak tree covered streets, and the beautiful square city parks. There are 22 squares in Savannah. We located the Mercer House, featured in the book and movie titled “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”, based on a true story.

We leave Skidaway Island tomorrow for a short 53-mile drive to Hilton Head Island and a five-night stay at the Hilton Head Island Motorcoach Resort. We’ve already reserved two bicycles to get around. 

Steve & Julie Cornelius