Heading North to Cooler Weather 4/30/2011

The Endeavour shuttle was canceled until May 1, so we decided to not wait any longer. Ignore my picture date, they are off by 2 days. I thought I had fixed it, but I guess not. We didn't know we would be hitting mountains on the east coast this soon. This is a very steep bridge,

going across the St John on Hwy. 9 A east side of Jacksonville, Fl.

We took Hwy. 95 out of Mims, Florida to Jacksonville, then our GPS took us on Hwy. 17. She said congestion was ahead on Hwy. 95. That was a first. we have ever had our GPS reroute us for anything . She ( GPS) finally tells us to take the ramp ahead to Interstate 95 again. We will never know if there was an accident on 95 or the GPS was just mixed up, like she has been in the past. She did  get us back on course!

We entered Georgia, a different state after just short of  2 months in Florida. We continued the drive, 260 miles, at 55 miles an hour to conserve our gas, to Savannah and stayed the night at Wal-Mart Superstore on Pooler  Pky.  There were 6 RV's, 1 van, and 1 car that spent the night. I had told Joe I wanted to be out of Florida by May 1. We will catch what ever we missed when it gets cold again.


5/1/2011

The next day we entered into South Carolina, just north of Savannah. Thirty miles north of Savannah we took Hwy. 17 again, this time on purpose.

Hwy. 17 was mostly 4 lanes, except for a few spots.

Just before Charleston, we see the sign to Edisto Beach State Park. This is one of our favorite parks we stayed at on our first year out in 2008, when we were heading down the coast. We wish we could stop, but we are chasing after cooler weather. Shortly after this sign we went through a small town, and Joe saw a gas station with a gas price of  $3.72, but we zoomed by too fast. The gas in Florida has been $3.88. Just before we entered into Charleston, he saw a gas station with gas for $ 3.65. I told him he put on his brakes and turned in like he was driving a car, not a bus pulling a car! He filled up the bus and the car.

We cross the bridge in Charleston to a peninsula. Another bridge to the left,

and lots of boats to the right.

On the other side of the peninsula, we take another mountain across the river to Mt Pleasant, SC.

We didn't stop in Charleston, because we stopped there two years ago and we want to get further north.

Down from the bridge we could see the air craft carrier we saw last time we were here. Old memories, and two years older!

After the bridge we stopped at a Super Wal-Mart in Mt. Pleasant for lunch.This is a great Wal-Mart, because it is located in the middle of a mini mall. After lunch, Joe was a good husband and he walked with me around the mini mall. I even got to look  in Petco and TJ Max. There was a Micheal's, but I didn't press my luck.

We got back on Hwy. 17 north and were on our way.

In Georgetown we weren't sure if we would hit the low branches. But we thankfully we cleared them.

This is my Mallery snoozing away on my arm, while we traveled down the road. I mistakenly spoiled her the first six months of our new adventures. She literally shook for at least 30 minutes, every time we headed down the road. It was six months of travels, before she jumped in my lap and went right to sleep. I get tired of holding her and juggling the maps, camera, and checking the GPS, so I put her on the coach for half our ride this day: I tied her harness and leash to a cabinet pull above. She just stood on the coach and starred at me the whole time. After watching her for an hour, I gave in and put her back on my lap. This is the picture I took while she slept, having getting back in her usual position.

We arrive in Myrtle Beach, SC and booked our selves in at the nearest Wal-Mart. The drive was 200 miles for the day.