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The Attack of the South Carolina Grizzly

Saturday, March 26th – Myrtle Beach, South Carolina – Day 46 

 First thing in the morning, the kids asked why there was an empty food container on the campsite. The South Carolina grizzly had struck. Our beautiful leftover Mexican food had been taken out of our cooler sometime between arriving and going to bed without our realizing it. There were tiny little claw marks in the Styrofoam. We had to go through the cooler and try to find out what had been taken and touched by our friend the racoon. Lesson learned, store our food inside. Our limited storage space was reduced further. 

 In daylight we realized there was a play structure right behind us. Awesome. The kids went to play. They soon made friends with the children of our friends from the campfire the night before. They were a church group that had 9 different families staying around the campsite. They had invited us over to get beef brisket breakfast sandwiches, which sounded like the most delicious thing ever, but they were gone by the time we went. We made the most disappointing round of oatmeal in a while (and I normally quite enjoy oatmeal). 


 We loaded the wagon up and went to the nature centre to see a snake feeding. Hopefully this would make up for the missed opportunity from Skidaway State Park in Savannah. Unfortunately, the snakes didn’t eat anything. We did see crabs, conchs and sea urchins eat. The sea urchin was fascinating. The range stuck a piece of shrimp on it’s spikes and the sea urchin gradually moved the piece towards the opposite side of it’s body and into it’s mouth. After watching the aquariums and looking at the display cases full of skeletons (there was a massive loggerhead turtle skeleton) and turtle breeding information, we got the junior ranger packages and activity book. We did an interview with the ranger to start the books. 


 Next stop, Myrtle Beach. The day was beautiful but windy. Sand blew in John’s eye and that was it for the kids and the beach. Mary and Gen stayed while I went to supervise the kids on the play structure near the beach for the rest of the afternoon and update the ol’ blog. 


 We went back and I made chili and mashed potatoes. The kids played non-stop at play structure and with the kids next door. The church group next door was doing an outdoor movie night. They put on Encanto (all the kids were singing “We don’t talk about Bruno”) and Bluie while adults hung around the fire. They made crepes and fried pound cake. I ended up staying up late talking religion and politics with Scott which was very pleasant. We made no significant progress on the issues facing society, but we did achieve some mutual understanding. 

 I will say, as a group of campers, these people had everything down to a science. A movie for the kids using an outdoor projector and screen. Brisket breakfast sandwiches. Crepes and fried pound cake with a flambéed banana sauce. Handy foldable tables, foldable trash cans, portable grills and on and on. Plus great travel suggestions. Fantastic people to hang around with and learn from.

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