Huntington Beach State Park, Murrells Inlet, SC

Thurs., Dec. 5 – Sat., Dec. 7th, 2019

It’s been a week to the day since we sold our home in Nottingham, NH and started this new full time RV adventure. Surprisingly there were no tears on selling our home. We were both ready for this next step. We sold to a lovely young family with three children… and a dog! They’re a perfect fit for our home and neighborhood!  Plus the fact that we will be spending next spring and summer in a campground near Nottingham took the sting out of leaving friends and family. We just had to say goodbye to our home… not the people we love and care about.

We had an awesome real estate agent and friend, Nancy Frost, who made this whole process painless! We could NOT have done this without her. She is a gem! Thanks to Nancy’s hard work and the buyers cooperation, we were able to close the day after Thanksgiving as we had planned and to escape the oncoming snowstorm. Getting stuck in the driveway with over a foot of snow surrounding the RV was NOT an option we wanted to entertain. By the time the snow hit at home last Sunday, we were at Cherry Hill Park in College Park, MD and only had rain. 

You don’t pack up a house and move into a 40 ft RV without loose ends to contend with… that was our first week on the road. Lots of phone calls to cancel existing insurances, cable, etc. and making sure all the new things are in place that need to be… along with paying bills, and organizing our new home. The kicker was when I had to empty out an entire drawer and lay everything on the bed to find the postage stamps I knew I had at the bottom of the drawer. Gary walked in and turned right back around and left me to contend with my mess. I did get the drawer organized so there was an upside! 

After our first week of dealing with non-fun admin issues it was time for some fun stuff! We pulled into Huntington Beach State Park on Thursday. Located in Murrells Inlet, SC, this park is a find! We’ve been here one other time and loved it. It’s got everything… spacious secluded sites, direct beach access, Atalaya Castle to tour, hiking trails, alligators to visit, marsh boardwalks, birding, and good bike riding. A magical place! 

Funny story backing in our tiny home into our site at Huntington Beach… the backing in was going fine except for the low hanging branches which were hitting the roof of our tiny home and causing me a considerable amount of angst. We were using our walkie talkies and I was a tad upset about the low hanging branches, so every other word out of my mouth was “sh#t, sh#t, Sh#t.” Gary had backed up enough off the road that he wasn’t in the street anymore. Put the truck in park, got out, and in a very Gary voice said “Teresa, the sh#t, sh#t, sh#t isn’t helping! Knock it off.” Oops, ok I meekly said. But, I think you may need to say that a little louder because those down at site 1 may not have heard you. We got parked just fine. Still haven’t quite checked on the roof but I’m assuming it’s okey dokey. 

Friday we enjoyed a hiking trail in the park, walking on the beach, checking on the alligators and walking on the boardwalk over the marsh.

This state park is conveniently located across the street from the famous Brookgreen Gardens. Established in the early 1930s, this sculpture garden is one-of-a-kind. We visited it last spring with many flowers in bloom and had the added benefit of seeing it tonight during Nights of a Thousand Candles with over 4,000 hand lit candles. Truly magnificent with many different venues of lights on display. We LOVED it!

Since it was so close to Christmas, Atalaya Castle was having a holiday craft fair on Saturday… each of the historic rooms was filled with a different vendor selling their wares and different musicians performing in the courtyard. I heard ringers and a jazz band at different times. Gary dropped me off to enjoy the craft fair while he went and put our groceries away. I think I got the better end of that deal. 

We did another walk on the beach and enjoyed a pre-dinner campfire. Dinner was a celebratory one of toasting this new lifestyle with grilled filet mignon, baked potatoes, mushrooms and a salad.  Not the kind of dinner we grill every night for ourselves! 

Sunday we move on to James Island County Park located outside of Charleston. 

Nights of a Thousand Candles at Brookgreen Gardens.