We - me, hubby, 2 dogs whom I refer to as The Girls - have arrived in Bluffton SC where we intend to stay for this week. This trip came about because we are going to spend the winter in Florida -YAY! I really, really did not want to winterize our camper just to dewinterize a few weeks later.
The plan was for us to leave earlier in October so as not to worry about anything freezing in the camper, and find someplace to store our trailer until we are ready to start our warm winter along about mid-December. Hubby needed surgery, so our departure was delayed. One weekend in this otherwise warm fall saw temps go down to freezing, but our camper was stored undercover, so we lucked out.
As soon as the doctor said hubby could travel, we booked down here. We took one side trip off of I-95 to visit the Ava Gardner Museum in Smithfield, NC. If you are old enough to remember Ava and the movies she made, it is worth the trip and the $7 fee for seniors. Looking at the movie posters, her beautiful costumes she wore, and the pictures of her with her several husbands, my husband and I left wondering, even with her beauty, fame and money, was she happy?
We stayed at South Of The Border in SC, just because it is so gaudy. They have signs, and statues of a stereotypical Mexican man, Pedro, with SOB signs on them (get it? South Of the Border?) It is a large place on both sides of Hwy 501 I believe. Very nice campground, 5 restaurants, 2 gas stations, motel with outdoor and indoor pools, tourist trap shops, etc., etc. We had so-so margaritas and terrible food at the Mexican restaurant, the Sombrero Room.
Well, now we are chilling at our campsite in Bluffton. We need to rest before checking out the area.
We are staying at Stoney Crest Plantation Campground in Bluffton SC. We are paying $25/night for full hookups. Unfortunately, there is no picnic table, fire ring, shade trees or paved campsite. We are on grass. This is a bargain when you look at the campgrounds on Hilton Head or over in the Savannah area. We have our own tables and chairs and, since we are tourists, we will only be at our camper to sleep and long enough for a meal in the morning before we get going.
gbpack came by this morning. Their 21-BHS is on order and they think they will have to wait another month. We enjoyed showing our camper and what we have done with it. We tow with a Jeep Grand Cherokee and they showed us a picture of their JGC that they will use for their tow vehicle. We went up 9% incline in the West Virginia mountains - no problem.
We are having a lazy day today. Coffee shop right now, then some shopping. Hey, we can always use more stuff. Then a wine tasting this afternoon. Probably a Mexican restaurant for dinner tonight. So many things to choose - so little time...
Bluffton SC is the etc. in this thread. Bluffton is turning out to be a great destination. Yesterday afternoon it was raining, 83°, and very humid. We decided to take a drive to Myrtle Island, on the other side of the bay from Bluffton.
East on Burnt Church Rd, left on Alljoy, right on Myrtle Island Road. There is SERIOUS MONEY here. The houses are HUGE, on HUGE lots and the landscaping is lush. I will never know what it is like to live this way. There is a public park, with a sign that says it is for residents and their guests. Well.
Driving around Myrtle Island, we were able to find a couple of public access areas to the water and enjoy the view. Right turn, left turn, and we are lost. Don't know how to get back to Bluffton. Oh well. Made our way back. It is fun to get lost.
Now hubby is thirsty. We find Latitude Wine Bar on Calhoun St. Hubby goes in - thirsty - must have wine to take away his thirst. Latitude has an excellent wine list, some available by the glass or half bottle, all available as bottles. Hubby had a wonderful glass of Spanish Rioja, I had a luscious glass of Merlot from Walla Walla WA. There were small plates available. We had some snacks to go with the wine. Yum, yum, yum.
Thank you again for the tour of your trailer. Gregg and I enjoyed spending time with you, Al and the girls! Perhaps we can have another meet up when we have our trailer!
Enjoy your trip!
My son who lives in Washington (the state) and once a year goes to Walla Walla just for the wineries thinks I should tell which winery made the Merlot. Revelry Wines makes the Merlot.
So, yesterday it rained. At times it seemed like a monsoon. We slept in. 10 AM it was still raining. What to do? Go shopping! There is some fantastic shopping here. 2 PM it stopped raining, so we headed for Burke's Beach on Hilton Head Island. gbpack brought some info about the island when they came to see our trailer. Joan gave me a very helpful map of the beaches and it showed where the dog park is. Burke's Beach is close to the park.
The dogs loved walking the beach with us, watching all the other dogs and getting some love from people passing by, but Daisy the beagle x wanted nothing to do with the water. I took off my shoes and waded in, and Sweetie, the shiba inu x, was happy to go with me. There was a nice ocean breeze, soft waves, fairly warm water and sand covered my feet. This is good for the soul.
At the end of the day when we got hungry, we went to a restaurant, Holy Tequila, on Hilton Head, because it advertised that it was dog-friendly. The girls were happy to sit under the table on the patio. We ordered a pitcher for the margaritas. So good. The guacamole was excellent. The Mexican Ceasar Salad was dressed with a poblano vinaigrette, delicately spicy and delicious. The best part of the meal was the Deconstructed Bean Dip. It was a large bowl of smoky, spicy refried beans. But it didn'stop there. They piled on pickled jalapeno peppers. They then put ranchero sauce on top of 1/4 of the bowl of beans, salsa verde on top of another fourth, shredded cotija cheese over another fourth, and melted queso fresco over the remaining beans. I felt like I died and went to heaven! Mmm, mmm, mmm... This was a very satisfying day.
We are going to store our RV here in Bluffton while we go home for a month to enjoy the fall weather before we head south for the winter. It seems a lot of other people do this, as well. I wanted the Camplite to be clean before leaving. My husband said he thought it was just fine as it was. No, no, no. So, I washed and waxed the Camplite today while he did laundry. This was fine with me. I have done enough laundry.
We were lounging while I admired the nice shiny clean trailer and he admired the folded laundry when I received a text from koolkaren. She and fasteddie will be about an hour north of us on Friday, so we made plans to spend some time sitting on the beach somewhere and watching the waves roll in, perhaps enjoying some adult beverages while we do this. So, okay, no perhaps about it. This trip is turning out better than I expected.
Savannah tomorrow.
Now we are back home again. We have thoroughly enjoyed this trip, even though it rained more days than it was cloudy. There was very little sunshine, but that didn't bother us, nor did it slow us down. The vinyl floor was totally wet for 2 days just from what we - including dogs - tracked in.
Originally, Savannah was to be the focus of this trip. Instead, we spent only one day there. I had no idea how much there was to do in this area until I got here.
USCG gave us some really good ideas about Savannah in a different thread. We went the entire length of River Street - or was it Road - anyhow, we did it! There is a park right along the river, with shopping and eateries across a cobblestone street that goes on forever. There are excursion boats and large shipping container boats that use the river. We were tired after spending the morning there, so we decided to head for the parks that Savannah calls squares.
Savannah has a series of squares (parks) in a straight line heading away from the river. It was our intention to walk and people-watch in each one, but we ended up skipping a few of them. We really enjoyed the parks (squares). Our girls got to meet a lot of other dogs, so it was a win-win all around.
We found a bench memorializing singer-songwriter Johnny Mercer in Johnson Square. We found the Mercer House, which was the house in the book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. I have read the book, but I haven't seen the movie. We skipped the square that had the bench where Tom Hanks said, "Life is like a box of chocolates". (I did not like that movie.)
We found Forsyth Square, where we spent most of our time. We found a coffee shop across the street from the park so I could have a latte, which was very good, and my husband says his cup of coffee was better than Starbucks. The beautiful fountain is the sister to the fountain in Madison, IN, just as we expected.
Savannah is so friendly! People constantly stopped and talked to us, about our dogs, about where we were from, and about Savannah.
USCG said to avoid the tourist places and go eat at the Crystal Beer Palace, which we did. Oh, heaven! Extensive beer list, prompt service, and the owner stopping by the table made for a good evening. We enjoyed the food, too! The stuffed mushroom appetizer was very good, but what I enjoyed most was The Other Salad, which contained very fresh greens, mandarin oranges, crunchy almonds and dried cranberries in a white balsamic vinaigrette. What really made the salad were the pickled ginger slices. Oh, wow!
Our last day was spent with fasteddie and koolkaren sitting on chairs on Edisto Beach. They are good company. Even our dogs like each other. We saw dolphins! Eddie was the first to spot them. 2, possibly 3, dolphins could be spotted from the beach. Also, a couple of fishing boats were out on the water. Karen said one was a shrimping boat. That one was really bobbing back and forth on the water.
We are going back. We have to. Savannah deserves a lot more time. Probably next month. We never got to Parris Island Museum. I didn't realize how close Hunting Island State Park was to Hilton Head Island, only about 17 miles away. We wanted to check it out, but we ran out of time. It is on our list of places to camp, ever since we have seen rideandfly's posts about it.
Our 21BHS is done! I would assume that we will take ownership by Dec 1, as promised. We would love to hear about your experience of storing your TT in Bluffton. We are planning to return home in the middle of our winter trip and we have been discussing storing but we weren't sure how that works.
It sounds like you and your hubby had a great time! Gregg and I would love to spend actual camping time with the two of you some time.
Joan
My husband and I have stored our Camplite several places now. This topic could probably use its own thread.
The most important issue for us with regard to storage is security. The surface on which it is stored, whether gravel, pavement or grass is secondary. I have heard some RVers say that when they store on grass, mice get into their RV. We have not yet had that happen.
For one thing, foods are kept in a plastic box with a tight lid, and never in the cabinets. We take the plastic box home with us when the camper is in storage. We also thoroughly clean the surfaces before we place it in storage.
Cost of storage is interesting. $129/month for storage on pavement in the Chicago suburbs for a spot that offered low security, to $50/month in Louisville for a covered storage spot on gravel with excellent security, to $40 for a bit more than a month near Bluffton SC in a secure spot with a lot of eyes on it, to $25/month in Florida for a spot on grass inside a locked fence at an RV resort. We have done some negotiating.
I hope this helps.