Congaree National Park

 After the sand of North Carolina, we were heading to the swamp in South Carolina.  But I guess it's not really a swamp, just swamp like. This stop was Congree National Park.  We had a campsite about 40 minutes out of the park at Poinsett State Park.  Pretty easy and uneventful drive but one of the longer ones at about 7-8 hours. This would be a short stop only here for one full day. 

The main attraction at this stop was a canoe tour we had planned; it's said that it's the best way to experience the park. I took my phone with on the canoe trip so actually have some pictures of us on the water this time. 

After our three-hour canoe tour we headed to the visitor center to check it out and to walk the boardwalk they have there.  Even though it was hot and we were tired from paddling we only had the one day here so had to press on.  As we started the boardwalk Marcus started feeling ill, we think he might have had a little heat exhaustion by the look of him.  We gave him the keys to the car and told him to drink some Gatorade and we'd do the boardwalk and meet him at the car. A few minutes later I worried a little bit, I hope he's smart enough to start the car and sit in the air conditioning and not the hot car. We were sure he's smart enough for that so we carried on, it took a little longer than expected and about 45 minutes later we were done. 

I had promised Lucas we'd drive into Columbia and get Qdoba if they had one. He spent most of the walk trying to decide what he was going it eat. We got back to the car and it was running and Marcus was on his phone feeling better. Everyone was starving so we headed towards Columbia and Lucas found a Qdoba and set our course.  As we got close to the turn off the car started acting funny.  When I hit the breaks the radio would go off and like restart.  It was strange.  Then some lights for antilock brakes and stuff started flashing on the dash.  I'm like what the heck, leave it to GM's great electrical systems. Maybe we have a short somewhere. Now we're taking the turn off the exit and right in front of us is the military base gate. I go Lucas are you sure this is the way I don't think we can go in there. Then the car goes into full freak out.  The locks start going up and down like the car is possessed.  Christine style stuff here and start sputtering lights flashing on the dash and I'm heading into a military base I'm not sure I can go into. I see a turn around right before the gate and sputter through that and start going away from the base.  Luckily there was a gas station right there so I pull up to the pump and turn it off.  Holy hell what just happened. We figured it was some sort of battery issue.  I checked the battery connections they looked good, so I filled up and we went to leave and the car wouldn't turn over, nothing when turning the key.  Ok the battery was dead.  Interesting it's a new battery maybe the alternator is out (that would be really great we're supposed to leave tomorrow). I have a portable jump station so I hook that up but it's a strange one that's slow and usually takes 15-20 minute until it charges the batter enough to turn over.  So we wait with doors open in the gas station in the sweltering South Carolina sun.  After the wait it starts, battery level looks good already so not sure what happened there we think maybe idling for 45 minutes with the air on caused it to drain to low but anyway we were running again.  Lucas thought we could go into the base but I didn't want to mess with it.  That was the only Qdoba within like 3 hours so we went and slummed it at the Chipotle which there were plenty of in this part of the country.  We haven't had any issues after that but it still makes me nervous and just something else to worry about.  I've never really paid much attention to the batter gauge in the car now I'm watching it constantly. 

So that was our stop in South Carolina here are some pictures.

Becky in front of the lake that looked like a stereotypical movie pond at Poinsett State Park

Campsite at Poinsett State Park

Hanging out at the campsite, Marcus and Lucas getting on each other's nerves. 
It was Father's Day, so I made the kids play frisbee with me.

There was a large open field right off our campsite.
So much room for activities.

Samus tending the fire as it got dark

Our main event for this stop was a canoe tour.
Here we are getting ready to put it.

Lucas and I shared a boat. 

Becky and Marcus had some issues, Becky tried steering first then they switched and Marcus gave it a try.  Either way, lets just say they covered a lot of water and got their moneys worth out of that canoe. Becky swears it was defective and couldn't track straight.

They had to bring a bigger boat for me.  Well the guide didn't explicitly say it was for me, but mentioned to the group that the one canoe was bigger for heavier individuals and left it at that. I lowered my head and walked over to that canoe.

Samus rode with our guide.

It was the Munsch family and another group of two on the tour.

Water level was down we had to avoid quite a few logs and trees in the water. About 3 feet of water on average but there's a thick layer of mud.  Sam found that out the hard way stepping off to the wrong place getting the canoes out of the water in mud up to his knee. 

It was a out and back trip we stopped at the halfway point and got out for a rest.

Landscape when the water is higher it floods and then they can canoe through the tree's a little bit. That would have been cool but I'd think you could get lost and or stuck in the trees pretty easy that way. I thought Congree area was a swamp but it's not technically a swamp, just a forest that floods often.

The trip was pretty easy and enjoyable. I was worried at first about a out and back trip but water flow was minimal so didn't really notice it at all going against the current. We saw a lot of snakes resting on logs as we went past. They didn't worry us much spiders were a bigger fear, even though we didn't really see many but at times would have to scrape under tree branches or against logs and there would be a web or you just knew they were waiting to pounce. Imagination is often worse than reality.

We only had one day here so after our canoe tour we went to the visitors center and wanted to walk the board walk there to see more of the National Park.

Trees and their knees. The little stumps sticking out of the ground on the lower left are called knees and are from the trees roots. They think the knees help stabilize them in the soft ground. 

More board walk, sans Marcus.  He wasn't feeling well and went to sit in the car instead of doing the two mile boardwalk.

Campion trees

Becky walking the board walk

Strutting her stuff

We saw some lizards.  Lizard One.

Lizard 2

South Carolina's state tree the Palmetto. These are dwarf Palmettos.

Saw a few turtles and gar swimming around at the lake there

We saw a snake on the board walk as well.  We saw a lot more on the canoe trip and closer up but I didn't have my phone out to get any shots of those. 

Almost done, it was hot and humid and after Canoeing for three hours we were spent after the two mile walk.

Relaxing in the evening

Sunset on this leg of the trip.

Cape Hatteras Pictures

Our next stop was in the outer banks in North Carolina. But before we got going water struck again and we had the third issue with the camper.  This one was smaller, but it made a big mess. 

When the rain finally stopped in Delaware we prepared to leave.  I was out doing camper stuff and inside I hear Becky dressing down Sam about his ability to wash dishes there’s water everywhere on the floor of the camper. He’s like I’m just washing the dishes normally and insisted he’s not being messy.  As she inspects further there is water pouring out of the sink from underneath into the cabinets where we have the garbage and from there making it to the floor. It was also making it out of the camper I could see suds dripping from the wheel well outside. Of all things to break the sink drain, it has a huge crack in it just letting water out of his plugged sink.  What kind of crazy force that caused that to break is beyond me. It's an easy fix right, well we couldn’t get the nut off and no wrench we had was big enough so a stop on the drive to ACE for a 40-dollar wrench that I just needed for a quarter of a turn, and we got it fixed up.  This one is metal so we’re thinking the sink will break before we have issues with it.  Anyway, a dumb thing but just another break-down on our camper that is getting long in the tooth and has Becky looking at new campers way more than I’m comfortable with.  I think the paper house still has Alaska in her.  Becky absolutely does not.

Sorry for the tangent but I know some of you enjoy our misadventures as much as our adventures so wanted to make sure it was documented. 

Ok now on to the OBX in NC. Another beach and a couple more beach days.  This beach was even better than Delaware. Delaware still had it in the power department. They were way stronger but here the waves are higher, the sand softer, and the water is much warmer.  I guess I see what the big deal is about the outer banks now.  Maybe our best beach visit yet, top three at least.  You could get to the beach from the campground but is was a bit of a walk. If we would have did some more research you can drive right on the beach but you have to get a permit online and print it out we didn't do that and decided to walk it. Probably a mistake it would have made it way easier to drive in and back the car up to the waves, but there were people getting stuck and pulled out the second day we were at the beach so at least didn't have to deal with any of that. Our luck so far this trip hasn't been great and has us a little on edge. We stayed at the Oregon Inlet Campground in Cape Hatteras National Seashore it was right at the beginning of the national seashore before you get to the islands. We spent most of our time at the beach we attempted to drive down some the seashore drive one day but you couldn't see the ocean at all on the drive and every minute we went farther away was taking away from beach time, so we stopped at an access point checked out the beach there, it looked a lot like our beach and turned around.  

Here are some pictures from North Carolina. 

At the beach!

First day after pulling into our campground and setting up in a quest to see the Atlantic Ocean. 

Finally crested a dune and we could see it.

But we still had some walking to get to it. 

Did a little wading

And then of course Marcus went all in.

The seashore

Other direction

Our breakdown for this stop, crack in the drain.
And more of enemy number one in the camper... stupid water.

Ready to go to the beach in earnest the next day. Full gear to spend some serious time at the beach.
We picked up two new boogie boards that morning after a stop at Duck Donuts because of course our old ones were cheap and old.  Becky and Marcus wanted new ones, Lucas and Sam still thought the old ones would be fine. They soon found out they were not.

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Our setup at the beach it's Friday and not many people, a few fishing not many in the water.

This is our Derelicte setup, we have a broken umbrella from Alabama that we took some paracord and created guidelines to keep it open.  It was trashy and only had shade for one. But worked as a base camp.    

Everyone got in and had a blast, boogie boarding was the favorite of everyone

They were doing well catching the waves and riding them in

The family is in there somewhere, we got banged and bruised a bit.  Samus and Marcus got their faces smacked and Lucas got a pretty good scrape on his back

Me

This is on Roanoke Island, little town of Manteo.  Lucas ran out of books so we were on a quest for a bookstore and this was the closest. Didn't have what he was looking for but found a couple to try.

This is us on Pea Island when we drove down the road to check out more of Cape Hatteras. 

Pretty much looks like all the other beaches this one was deserted 

On Pea Island we stopped at a visitor center the volunteer pointed out a shipwreck that you can see out the window of the center.  That's the top of the boiler sticking out of the water. 

It was so hot out, Luke couldn't handle his hair anymore so asked for a Becky cut. It looked pretty good in front but she must have lost interest because the back was a mess and he looked like a psycho. It was so bad we got a clipper and fixed him up a couple days later in South Carolina.

Shot of our campsite, the water tank held and no leaks or anything to report

Next day final beach outing. This time in style I picked up a collapsible wagon, a sun shelter, and a third decent boogie board at the Walmart when I went into town to grab a pizza.  Yesterday was Friday and that's pizza night at the Munsch's. This is stuff we could have used many days this trip but bought it for our last day at the beach and probably won't need it again for quite a while.

New shelter, so much roomier. 

Marcus returning from the waves. All three kids wore themselves out. I think the most enjoyable for Becky and I was that they were all having a blast and playing in the waves together. 

Catching some more waves

So many waves

This was a Saturday, and it was a lot busier beach was pretty full up. 

So the beach wagon allowed us to bring a lot of stuff and walking to the beach it worked well but the soft sand between the waves and the road was a problem.  Samus and Marcus took matters into there own hands and carried it.

They were tired afterwords but it worked and best part was I didn't have to do anything. 

Our rug, it's not really a camper rug but we've had it since the beginning.  It's a felt like material that soaks up water when it rans and gets so messy with everything sticking to it.  But we've always managed and delt with it.  This stop had some terrible stickers in the grass, you couldn't walk barefoot or they would stick you and stick to your foot which I found odd. They really burrowed into the rug.  So many we decided it was the end of the road for the rug and dumped it in the dumpster on the way out.

So the original rug, the umbrella from Gulf shores, and the boogie boards we bought in California on our first trip all were left in the dumpster in North Carolina.  The boards where just foam and the waves here snapped them in half the first day out.  The new boards are way better quality and everyone wanted to use those instead of these even before they broke.