Southeast #1

Hello all,

Well here we are back on the road again. We left M’ville Saturday morning, and spent the weekend with some friends in Georgetown SC. Watched the Daytona 500 on Sunday, and saw some of the sights in Georgetown Saturday. Georgetown is a quite old seaport about an hour South of Myrtle Beach on Rt. 17. It is also home to a steel mill and paper plant. It has a very cool waterfront with a small boardwalk with neat pubs and oyster houses. We left Georgetown Monday morning headed South. The stretch of Rt. 17 between Georgetown and Charleston SC is nothing but a straight road through some pine trees—not too much to see but a lot of marsh and wetlands. Charleston is really old. According to the literature, many of the buildings are of the 1700’s vintage. We toured through the old Battery section of the city, and were amazed at the well-preserved old city. Many of the streets were paved with Belgian blocks, which came over as ballast in the old sailing ships. For my friends from Pittsburgh , I’m sure you remember the Belgian block streets (cobblestone) that have now mostly been replaced by soulless asphalt. Also in Charleston is a magnificent bridge called the Cooper River bridge which Vickie got some good pictures of as we crossed. We headed south from Charleston, and slipped onto some side roads that paralleled Rt. 17. We took a side trip out to some island, which dead-ended us in the parking lot of a towboat company. On the way back we took a little side trip where I had noticed a sign advertising a waterfront lot for sale. We found a 2-acre lot overlooking a beautiful marsh vista, complete with dock permit. Just for curiosity, we called the number on the sign and inquired. The lot was on sale for the bargain price of $589,000 (no house). According to the fellow we talked to, another nearby lot on the same water vista had recently sold for $985,000. Keep in mind, that this lot was a long way from anything except Rt. 17 and some marsh. Can’t believe what the influx of boomer snowbirds is doing to the price of any waterfront lot in the South. We continued South, and took a side trip out Rt. 21 to Huntington State Park, which is near Paris Island Marine Corps training base. It was a beautiful 20-mile drive to some gated community island way out on the Atlantic Ocean. There is quite a maze of off shore islands off the coast of SC and GA, some of which are accessible only by ferry. They are beautiful and remote, but look like somewhere I wouldn’t want to be during a hurricane. (or when global warming raises the water level by 10 feet) We continued south to Hilton Head Island. Hilton Head is a classic example of too many people having too much money and time on their hands. The whole island is one huge maze of condos, resorts and golf courses. (I literally felt like a Corvette rat in some giant alien’s maze) The traffic was unbelievable, and the interesting method of disguising everything (even McDonalds and KFC) to look like a plaza or resort, m ake finding anything very difficult. We decided to call it a day at Hilton Head, and started considering our landing options. Just on a whim, we called our Marriott Vacation Club to see if they had a vacancy. They didn’t, but hooked us up with another Marriott property that did. We ended up at a very nice 2-bedroom condo at the Barony Beach Club for motel prices. We got settled in, and headed to the Westin something or other next door where we had reciprocal privileges. We were told we could get a drink and eat, at something called Turtles Beach Bar. It was a short walk and we found it handily. As is typical of these resorts, they give you a cheap room and everything else is ridiculous. 2 drinks cost us like $17.50 with tax and tip, but it was cool cause the bartender was a Corvette guy, and we had a good time talking to him. We looked over the menu, and decided to pass on the $14.00 appetizers, and $36.00 grilled ribeye. We had a small mishap…. on the way back to our room, I misse d one step and took a fall. (I’m ok, just a skinned knee and a slightly sore right hip) This was due to darkness and bifocals contrary to what you might believe alcohol was not a factor (this time). We really didn’t want to head back out into "the maze" so I manned the trusty yellow pages. Found an Italian place nearby, which was on the Internet, took American Express, and delivered. We scrutinized the menu on line, ordered some choices, and while I relaxed in the giant whirlpool tub, they brought our stuff, hot and tasty, right to us. Ended up costing a fraction of what the resort was trying to screw us out of, and great food to boot. Thanks to Giuseppi’s; we had a great dinner right in our own condo, in front of the 754-inch TV. More later.

Wes and Vickie