Van Adventures

  Myrtle Beach SC, Raleigh/Durham and Goldsboro NC - April 21-29 We were warned about the touristy vibe at Myrtle Beach but we rented a campsite at the MB State Park which was a delightful surprise! Great shaded sites, decent bathrooms/showers and great staff. A very relaxed vibe.  The park owns about a mile of oceanfront property away from the resorts and high tourist area. The beautiful beach was just a 5 minute walk across the road and across the dunes from our site. The weather was perfect, bright sunshine and mid 70s. It was so nice, we didn't move our van for 3 days. We walked the beach, went to the fishing pier to see what people were catching and ordered up scooped Hershey's ice cream at the camp store. Yum, the ice cream, not the fish! We did a little hiking around the park to see if we could see something other than an armadillo, since that seems to be all we see on hikes.  We saw maybe a squirrel or two and birds. Their little gem is a Nature Center, not just f...

 Asheville, Greenville and Charleston April 11-20 We've always wanted to go to Asheville and, being just an hour from Gatlinburg, we took the opportunity to spend a few days there. Asheville suffered a lot of damage from Hurricane Helene back in 2024.  They are still recovering and are slowly making their way back and are welcoming visitors. We hopped on the Blue Ridge Parkway to the Southern Highlands Crafts Guild's Folk Arts Center.  They have a fabulous display of beautiful local artwork and a gift shop selling arts and crafts by local artists. Asheville has a thriving Riverfront Arts District that we spent a Saturday afternoon meandering through. Pottery, fiber arts, metal sculpture, painting...... The city is nicknamed the Beer City for the 30+ local breweries that call the city home.  We made it to five.  Our favorite was Burial.  Besides great brews, they had some interesting tap handles as you can see in the picture below. Asheville is also the home...