Abbey's Road

My brother Jim and his wife Carol own a B&B in Conway, SC about 20 minutes inland from Myrtle Beach called the Cypress Inn. It’s been a AAA 4 Diamond Property for 8 years in a row. Abbey and I have been staying in the luxury suite in the parking lot. We get to sleep in the RV cause Carol is allergic to dogs. Besides I’d be too nervous that Abbey was going to have an accident in the room or something. Plus, I actually kind of miss sleeping in the RV so I don’t mind. Their place is right on the Waccamaw River (yea, I never heard of it before either). I have only been here one other time - about 6 years ago - and Conway is actually nicer than I remember. There are a bunch of huge old live oak trees which remind me of the ones we had in Texas, though these are much bigger and ours didn’t have Spanish moss hanging on them.

On the way down here I just had to stop at South of the Border. For those of you who haven’t traveled I-95 near the SC/NC border, it is one of the tackiest tourist traps around.
They’ve been selling fireworks and other assorted junk there at least since I was 5 years old (1967 if you can believe that), but probably much longer. I only stayed long enough to get a picture of old Pedro though.

Jim and Carol had a big group meeting at the Inn for a few days so Abbey and I took off down the coast for a short trip. We stayed at a small campground on the Intracoastal waterway in Francis Marion NF.
I think the campground is normally used mainly by boaters, fishermen and shrimpers, but it was kind of quiet being in the off season. The first day I tried to drag Abbey on a hike, but we only got a mile or so before it got too muddy. They don’t call this the Low Country for nothing. It is very swampy and marshy – great for birding, if you’re into that, or canoeing. I was wishing I had a canoe, but I’m not sure how Abbey would handle that. Someday I’ll have to try it. The next morning Abbey woke me up around 5. I think the oyster shells and shrimp carcasses she got into the day before didn’t agree with her. So I had a leisurely morning cleaning and repairing things while her stomach recuperated. In the afternoon we drove down to Charleston. I had always heard that it is a quaint and charming old town but had never seen it. We headed for the historic district and then to the waterfront at Battery Park. I managed to find a spot big enough to parallel park the RV in. I was pretty proud of my parking job. Charleston has some beautiful old homes dating back to the 17 and 1800’s.
It’s a great town for walking so that’s what we did. They have a nice downtown market, though we didn’t make it that far on foot. We had another quiet night at the campground before we drove back to Conway.

Jim had lined up something “interesting” for me to do on Friday. He had been putting off cleaning out the drainpipes beneath the kitchen sink, and when he heard that I helped my father unblock their kitchen sink he figured I was perfect for the job. And I figured what the heck. I had to repay them for all of their hospitality somehow. It was a dirty, stinky job but it wasn’t too bad. Plus we blew out the line all the way to the main drain so they should be set for a while. On Saturday, I got Jim to repay the favor by helping me with some problems on the RV. We figured one out, but the other still stumped us. My furnace has been rattling for months now, but I can’t figure out where the rattle is coming from. It drives me crazy at times, but I need someone else to look at it because it only makes a noise when the RV is moving at a high speed. I guess I’ll just have to keep the radio blasting while I’m driving for now.

On Sunday I actually managed to make it to the beach.
It was a bit too cold for a dip in the ocean, so we only took a short walk before we ate dinner at one of their favorite Italian restaurants in Myrtle Beach. All in all I had a good week in Conway and SC. I got a good appreciation for what it takes to work a B&B. I don’t think I’d want to be tied down so much like they are. But I wouldn’t mind doing some inn-sitting for a few days or a week sometime, especially if the inn is in a nice location;)
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