After spending five nights at the Elks lodge in Morehead City, North Carolina, we were ready for a change of scenery. So Saturday morning we hit the road and drove east forty miles on State Route 24 to Jacksonville, where we hooked up with U.S. Highway 17.

We followed that route another 100 miles south to the South Carolina state line, passing by the sprawling Camp Lejeune Marine Corps base along the way. As we passed the base, chain link fences on both sides of the highway were adorned with signs written on bed sheets welcoming home units and individual Marines that had been deployed overseas.

Most of our route was good four lane highway with light to moderate traffic, except right around Camp Lejeune, where it was heavier. There were quite a few traffic lights to deal with in the small towns along the way, but we made good time.

At Wilmington, we bypassed the city on Interstate 40, passing by the battleship USS North Carolina, a proud old warrior from World War II that has been converted into a floating museum. I really think I’m getting over the worst of my bridge phobia. Crossing over the Cape Fear River, I wasn’t the least bit uncomfortable. I’m not ready to take on the big boys like the Tampa Bay Bridge or the Chesapeake Bay Bridge yet, but at least I don’t snivel as much as I used to on other bridges.

U.S. 17 became a four lane surface route again south of Wilmington, but there wasn’t much traffic. We pulled into the South Carolina Welcome Center at the state line for a potty break, and a half hour later we arrived at the Moose lodge in Myrtle Beach. We had covered 170 miles, an easy day of driving. Most of the day had been gray and dreary, but about the time we crossed into South Carolina, we suddenly broke out into blue sky. After a week of stormy weather, that sure was a welcome sight!

The RV parking here at the Myrtle Beach Moose lodge consists of several back-in sites on the edge of a big blacktopped parking lot, with 30 amp electric and water hookups. The only other RV here is a nice looking Winnebago Ultimate Freedom, so we don’t feel crowded at all. At $10 a night, it’s a heck of a bargain in expensive Myrtle Beach, and one more example of the savings on overnight parking that Elks and Moose lodges offer to traveling members.

The only drawbacks here are that there is no dump station, and even though we have three bars of EVDO signal with our Verizon air card, the internet is really slow. I did a speed check and we were only getting download speeds of 369 kbps, as opposed to the 1100 kbps we were getting in Morehead City. We’ll need to find a dump station pretty soon, the tanks on our Winnebago motorhome are not as large as we had on our MCI bus conversion, and we’re getting close to being full.

Though we love the ocean and the beach, Myrtle Beach just doesn’t appeal to either of us. It just feels too upscale touristy. So I don’t think we’ll linger here very long. This morning we have a couple of stops to make, and then we may just head on down the road.

We have a good friend who lives in Florida whose health isn’t doing very well, and we want to get down to the Titusville area to see him before he has some major surgery in a week or two. So after playing tourist the last couple of weeks, we’ll probably switch into our “go fast” mode and put some miles behind us in the next couple of days. 

Thought For The Day – Treat every day as a new opportunity to be happy.

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The purpose of our visit here to the Kansas City area is to spend some time with Terry’s cousin Carolyn and her husband Mel, two of our favorite people in the world.

Mel and Carolyn are completing the final steps to becoming fulltimers, and yesterday they took us to see their Heartland fifth wheel trailer, which they have in a storage lot just waiting to hit the road. Even though the slides were in and we could not get the full effect, we were impressed with how nice it is, just as we have been with all of the Heartland products we have ever seen. Mel says just a few more weeks and they’ll be on the road, and we know they are both itching to get out here and join in on all of the fun!

Two RVs that are on our very short list of rigs we’d like to have to replace the bus with are a Winnebago Ultimate Advantage or Ultimate Freedom, and there was an Ultimate Advantage in the same storage lot, which I pointed out to Mel and Carolyn. Just for the heck of it, when we left the storage lot, Carolyn drove past the dealership where they bought their trailer, and there was a used Ultimate Advantage sitting on the lot!

Even though it was Sunday and the place was closed, we decided to see what we could see. The bays were unlocked, and we checked out the impressive amount of storage space, and somebody said “It’s too bad the door is locked, or we could see the inside too.” Just being silly, I pulled out my key ring, and stuck an old key I have carried around with me for years into the lock. This was not a Winnebago key, in fact, it was originally for a small fireproof metal storage box, but it unlocked the door!

Mel thought that was funny and I told him it was my magic key, because in the past I have used it to unlock everything from storage boxes and padlocks to pickup camper shells. Just being a goofball by then, I walked over to another used rig, this one a three year old Allegro Bay diesel pusher, and even I was shocked when my key unlocked it too! I bet that makes you feel real secure when you lock your door and leave your RV for a while, doesn’t it?

I have had car keys that worked in the same model of cars before, and I had my pal Butch Williams install his special tubular locks on our bay doors a while back, because I know there are just a few key codes for them and if you put any ten RVers together, it’s a good bet somebody’s keys will open most of the bays. But I’d like to think that when Miss Terry tucks me into bed at night, the boogey man has to at least work a little bit to get inside!

I wasn’t too worried about the local constabulary coming to carry us away, because Mel and Carolyn have done enough business with this dealership that they have a very good relationship with them.

We really liked this particular Winnebago, and the price is right too. We’re not quite in a position to make a deal yet, but we’re close enough that I may go back to the dealership and talk to them while we’re here. But if we were to get it, or any other coach for that matter, you can bet that the first order of business would be to get custom locks installed!

So how secure is your RV?

Thought For The Day – Be wise enough not to be reckless, but brave enough to take great risks.

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