Jan 3, 2014:  We are now in Huntington Beach State Park, SC, just below Myrtle Beach. Getting here was a tough 300 mile drive. This was one of our major destinations for getting to a sunny and warm southern climate. Even thought it was sunny all day, the temperature never got above 37°, and the wind was strong and steady for most of the day. I had been curious about how it would be to drive the truck and camper in the wind. Well, today I got that curiosity satisfied--not always a comfortable experience. We drove on US 17 for the most of the day. Almost the entire length of this highway went through wide open-farm land--mostly cotton fields--and over some long bridges, giving the wind a clear shot at us.

When we crossed into SC around 4:00 and stopped at the State's Welcome Center. It was a good thing that we did. When I ask about the Huntington Beach campground, I was told that we still had a distance to go. The Center telephoned the park office and I was able to book a site over the phone. The Center then gave me directions on how to avoid going through the Myrtle Beach area on US 17, which has a large number of traffic lights and heavy traffic at this time of day.  We followed the directions for getting to the Parkway that bypasses Myrtle Beach, and once on it, we were able to drive 65 and 70 mile per hour without encountering any traffic lights. We arrived at the State Park entrance about fifteen minutes before the park gate was scheduled to close.

We found our assigned site and hooked up to electricity and water; there was no sewer connection at this site. The campground has a limited number of full hook-up sites, but because it is the weekend, all those sites seem to be filled. We hope that we will be able to move to one after the weekend crowd leaves.

The temperature is forecast to go down to the mid-twenties tonight. Around 7:30 our water hose started to freeze up so I disconnected it and brought it inside. We will be using propane to heat tonight because the furnace will also heat the holding tanks to keep them from freezing, and possible damage, we hope.

The campground is on the Atlantic shore. It has a beach, nature center, trails and a boardwalk into a saltwater marsh--all of which we hope to explore while we are here.