Brookgreen Gardens, the Huntingtons, and rice growing… (SC)

At 5 AM the windows flashed with distant lightning and something began to clank against the trailer. I prowled around once and couldn’t find it and on my second prowl I partially lowered the awning to allow for rain, and the noise went away. The rain finally came, in a downpour, just as we were trying to leave for a tour.

The tour was of Brookgreen Gardens, and the rain fortunately ended on our arrival. This place is immense and beautiful, constructed by Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington in the 1930s to display American sculpture and to feature native plants of the south-east.

Yes, this is another branch of the Huntington family, he an adopted son of Collis Huntington of California railroad fame and wealth. (The California branch, in addition to everything else they owned, for many years owned Standard Felt Company, where my dad worked his entire career.)

Brookgreen is every bit a worthy rival for the Huntington Library and Gardens in San Marino CA, only friendlier. The gardens are less formal, the sculpture more modern, and there are no wandering guards. Also no paintings of a very stern, dark-clothed and altogether frightening Mrs. Huntington. This Mrs. Huntington is attractive and is portrayed as a confident sculptress, pausing in her work as if the painter has asked a slightly amusing question. (She was a very talented sculptress, but I’m sure the Huntington money didn’t hurt any.)

The Huntingtons bought in Myrtle Beach in the 1930s hoping the climate would help Mrs. Huntington's tuberculosis (she later found a cure in Switzerland). They built a compound on the ocean side of the highway, now part of Huntington Beach State Park. Brookgreen is on the inland side and is over 10,000 acres.

This land was originally part of a huge 17th century rice plantation. Note the photo showing live oaks; they bordered the entry drive to the original plantation house, and yes, George Washington once tread (or much more likely road) this very route on a documented visit.

Why was he visiting? The owner was a friend, but politics is also politics; the man was wealthy beyond imagination, owning nine rice plantations and over 1000 slaves. He had power.

Rice growing declined rapidly in the low country after the Civil War because it was highly labor intensive, and the labor now cost money. The lands were too squishy for mechanical equipment so rice growing moved elsewhere. The plantation home, long abandoned, burned down in 1901.

Brookgreen Gardens today acknowledges this past with well-done displays describing plantation life. In the 1980s or 1990s the trust received permission to re-flood much of the old rice growing area, and it is now managed to promote water fowl and native animals. Our tour included a boat ride and we actually saw a couple alligators.

Myrtle Beach and a mighty fine burger... (SC)

As responsible for tonight’s social cook group, we broke camp early and caravaned to Myrtle Beach with the trip leaders, the two rigs responsible for the social, and the three rigs that would act as parking guides at the new camp. It was an interesting trip with the CB open and Susan and Jamie commenting on the history and land en route, much of which consists of pine plantations interrupted with luxury developments.

Myrtle Beach is in South Carolina, and it is a bit unbelievable. There are a zillion RVs and RV sales or supply outlets, malls, restaurants, outlets, Branson-style show places, condo salesmen, and giant campgrounds. And old people everywhere, with tanned gnarly legs.

We are at the Lakewood Camping Resort. Some say it has 2000 sites, others say 4000 sites, still others say 7000. (I looked it up – there are 2000 sites. Never believe rumors. It only feels like 7000.) It spreads from the waterfront to the highway, and has been here 53 years. As a group of 25 rigs we are insignificant here, but they did have a nice electronic welcome for us on the marquee.

The temperature is in the low 80s and the humidity a bit high. The playing cards feel limp, but it does not help.

The beach is fairly narrow, separated from the campsites by a sand berm held in place by grasses and sand fences. Wooden walkways cross the dunes allowing access to the beach without walking on the grasses or the dunes. The beach area is really quite nice, but in the distance in both directions you can see high-rise condominiums and hotels. I imagine this area will go soon.

A bagpiper is playing on our walkway, but these are not Scottish tunes – more American, played on a bagpipe. He is an American industrial engineer, learning to play.

We cooked Costco burgers for 48 people on five small camping barbeques, and it worked out well. Afterward Marcia and I continued our introductory bridge drill. They are very patient and don’t make you feel like an idiot as you do dumb things, but it is still not a pleasant experience.

Carolina Beach, Fort Fisher, Southport, Oak Island, and home… (NC)

A free day, so Marcia and I drove the 30+ miles to Carolina Beach, which looks similar to Oceanside but with bigger more modern homes in bright pastels – a little gaudy, and colors we haven’t seen elsewhere.

A few miles south of Carolina Beach is Fort Fisher, a Confederate fort that guarded the Cape Fear River entrance. It was very important to the Confederacy because ships entering the port could unload at Wilmington, and in turn these provisions could be carried by train to support the war. The Union blockaded the port but nighttime blockade runners still got through.

In 1865 the Union had had enough of this last bastion of the Confederacy and bombarded the fort from sea for several days, after which Union troops advanced across the beach and engaged in hand-to-hand combat, “Glory” style. The attackers were driven off which started another three days of bombardment and another siege, and the fort finally fell.

Well, wouldn’t you know, today was Monday, and the fort museum was closed. We were able to walk the earthworks, however, and imagine how things must have been.

We continued south a short distance and took the 30-mnute ferry ride ($5) across the Cape Fear River to Southport, a small community little changed from a hundred-plus years ago. Cute wooden cottages, with one “craftsman” style beach-front fixer-upper yours for $1.5M (agent on duty). Real estate is crazy here too.

We had lunch at a little outside restaurant that could have easily been in San Felipe, flies and all. But the food was good, attitude great, and the beer welcome.

After lunch we drove to Oak Island, a peninsula with a 1957 light house, the last lighthouse built in the US.

Today was a loop trip for us but we got lost, finally trusting the god GPS, which also seemed challenged. We got back to camp later than intended and tired, with the GPS still muttering about additional turns we needed to make.

Dixie Grill, Cape Fear Museum… (NC)

Marcia and I went to the Dixie Grill in downtown Wilmington for breakfast. Very crowded but we saved time by accepting two stools at the counter. Marcia won this time: her egg, bacon, cheddar scramble on a biscuit was fantastic; my hash, cheddar and eggs was OK, but was difficult to eat as an integrated taste. Slices of mild sausage served as the meat, and the potatoes were tasty but cut large, a mouth-full on their own. The servers were very nice and attractive but tat-covered. In the background a guitar player sang blues/country songs.

We then as a group toured the Cape Fear Museum, covering local history from the earliest times to the near-present. This was my first chance to see how they handled Civil War history, and I was surprised to see the war blamed directly on slavery, with no mention of “states rights”.

During the afternoon four of us shopped for food for a social that is our responsibility at our next stop, and later I went out on my own for minor convenience items.

Wilmington invaded: battleship, water taxi, river cruiseboat, trolly… (NC)

This was a busy day.

Late this morning we met at the battleship USS North Carolina, now a memorial, for a self-guided tour. We went seemingly everywhere, following arrows and reading signs, encountering not an interpreter or safety person anywhere, and ship’s ladders present a lot of potential for trouble.

But we had our own interpreters. Marcia and I hung around with fellow Airstreamer Bill because he was a font of information and excitement, demonstrating some weapons he hadn’t seen since serving on a WWII carrier at age 17.

The North Carolina’s construction was underway when Pearl Harbor was attacked, and in July 1942 she became the first major replacement ship to enter Pearl. She served in just about all the major Pacific battles and was torpedoed once but was able to stay on station. Decommissioning came in 1947 and in 1961 she was floated up the Cape Fear River to her current resting spot in Wilmington. And I do mean resting spot. She grounded while being positioned, so rather than presenting an aggressive bow-out posture, she shows her stern to the city and any visitors.

(The North Carolina was the first so-called fast battleship. She was 729’ long and displaced 35,000 tons. The Iowa class Long Beach based USS New Jersey, commissioned in 1943, displaced 45,000 tons and was 887’ long.)

After our tour the group took a water taxi (top picture) across the Cape Fear River to downtown Wilmington, where we boarded the Henrietta III (no picture - not the Just Enuff lady) for lunch and a river tour. The lunch was huge (we skipped dinner that night) and the tour interesting, and it was a beautiful day. At one point the guide was speaking about Wilmington during the war, which I soon learned means the Civil War around here, not WWII.

After the cruise the group took a trolley tour of historic Wilmington, but the driver wasn’t very dynamic and I had had a lot to eat so, yes, I nodded off a few times. I still don’t think I missed anything; I was listening.

Amusing ourselves Chocowinity to Wilmington… (NC)

Today we broke camp in Chocowinity and caravanned again with Ed and Susan and also with Jean and Jim from Long Island. They retired and sold their home and have been full-timing for about a year, although they recently bought a new home in upstate New York. They have exactly the same dialect. Her dialect and way of speaking reminds one of Carmela Soprano, at least to a Californian.

Much of today’s drive was through Camp Lejeune, reputed to be the largest Marine base in the world. The base is hidden behind trees on both sides of the highway, and it is huge. Nothing visible--but wait a minute—what’s that up there? An Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft in hover mode. Later we saw it in normal flight. Those are monster rotors.

We had to kill time en route so we stopped at Mayfaire Town Center, very interesting from a retail perspective. It has conventional areas, e.g. a large department store and a large Whole-Foods-like Fresh Market facing on large parking lots with outboard standalone restaurants (Macaroni Grill, Red Robin, etc.). But a smaller part is split into newly constructed city blocks with mall stores lining the streets. The streets are landscaped, wide, allow a lane of traffic in each direction, have wide sidewalks and diagonal parking. A couple blocks have condos above the stores, offered at close to $400K for 1300 feet to over $600K for larger units. North Carolina has joined California in having delusional housing pricing. Although I didn’t see examples, the mall also includes luxury apartments and single family detached dwellings, as well as office space and a hotel.

At our appointed time we checked in to our new home for the next few days, the KOA campground in Ogden, serving Wilmington NC.

We go to Hog Heaven for eastern NC BBQ… (NC)

This was a morning of reflection as Marcia started in earnest on her painting and I tried to track down the source of foul odors. She did better than me.

We were on our own for dinner so we went to a BBQ place called Hog Heaven, reputed to exemplify eastern North Carolina BBQ, something taken very seriously around here. Their BBQ is always whole-hog pork, and is vinegar and pepper based, no tomatoes.

The place was a little strange, painted a brilliant white inside and out, with long flickering fluorescent tubes providing an overdose of buzzing lighting inside. As we entered there were a couple of black parties leaving; inside everyone was white. The walls were decorated with prints reminiscent of Thomas Kinkaid’s country scenes - brilliantly lit cottages on small streams; interspersed were humorous photographs of hog farmers, young and old. The cash register area carried shelves and shelves of schlocky little figurines and clocks.

Marcia ordered the BBQ with coleslaw; I ordered BBQ, coleslaw, green beans, and Brunswick stew, which is a corn/bean/chicken/onion soup. (I have since learned that Brunswick stew was classically made from squirrel and stale bread.)

I expected something that looked like typical BBQ but would taste different, so I was a bit surprised at what we were served: brown cafeteria-style plates filled edge-to-edge in Marcia’s case with chopped up meat, a bit brown-gray under the fluorescents. No obvious sauce, and not a hint of red. My segmented brown plate was broken up into a section for the chopped up meat, a segment that tasted just like school-cafeteria style canned green beans, and a third section with the stew. Our coleslaw was in a serving bowl, and a separate plate provided hush puppies and corn sticks.

So how was the BBQ? Although a little unappetizing to look at, the meat was really quite good and not fatty, tasting lightly of vinegar and pepper. Marcia sensed more vinegar and pepper and felt it was better when mixed with the coleslaw. The hush puppies were good but not as good as some we had had earlier, the corn sticks weren’t too interesting, the stew was OK, and the coleslaw was very good. Service was swift and we were out of there and back at camp in probably an hour. On exiting we saw a long drive-up line of people picking up dinners-to-go.