Camping: The Beach Trip that Wasn't

It started with an email from Mellow Mushroom, the pizza shop in Myrtle Beach that Shelley and I visit each time we go down. I must have signed up for their mailing list to get a coupon or something, and this one made it through the spam filter.

I called out to Shelley, "Do you want to drive to South Carolina and get Mellow Mushroom pizza?"
"That sounds delicious."
"Great! Road trip!"

So I began clicking around, trying to plan a road trip through. We wanted to car camp and drive through Asheville Falls, and stop at some less traveled beaches, and hike some mountains.

Then reality set in. We are pretty spontaneous in our travels, but doing so in the midst of a pandemic (and especially through states that have been seeing a steady increase in recent weeks) was not a wise idea, no matter how badly we want to see the ocean or how good that pizza is. We shelved the idea.

A few days later, Shelley said, "I think we should try camping somewhere local first" and I agreed. She said, "Great, we're leaving tomorrow afternoon to camp at Raccoon. I booked us a campsite, and we're staying two nights." (See? Spontaneous).

Our little campsite 

We had some camping supplies accumulated over the years, mostly the Ozark Trail line from Walmart (like our tent, our foldable couch, camp pillows, and pretty much all of Shelley's supplies) plus a few random Coleman/Marmot supplies, like lanterns, headlamps, my sleeping bag, and ground pad. We loaded a cooler with salad kits, hot dogs, sandwiches, and all the s'mores supplies and packed our trunk to its full capacity.

We did it!

When we first arrived, we spent a decent amount of time trying to figure out where we should put our tent. The ground was pretty uneven on our site. We were excited because we erected our tent by ourselves-- it was only the second time we had used it. We layered the bottom with our ground pads and about six blankets before rolling out our sleeping bags. We strung up a hammock Shelley found when she went that had little twinkle lights built in (I am such a sucker for string lights).

The life. 

Probably swatting a bug.

Feeble attempt to chop wood. 

The camp's website said you couldn't bring in outside wood, so we went gathering wood and fallen tree branches that Shelley cut into firewood. We watch a lot of survival shows, so we tried to start a fire with a fire starter, unsuccessfully, before pulling out the lighter and grilling ourselves hot dogs and baked beans for dinner. We played War (one of our favorite card games) by citronella candlelight until we went to bed.

The essentials.

Enjoying our campfire!

 

The coolest LED color changing citronella candle

A few words of advice if you're nascent to the camping scene:

1) Tent sleeping is not super comfortable. In the future, I'm either trading in my Coleman foam pad for the inflatable one Shelley got at Walmart, or we're bringing a blow up mattress.

2) Bug spray is your friend, and so are high socks, long sleeves, and even pants. Ticks are not a joke. We sprayed ourselves, and our tent. We lucked out with the weather being cool enough that long layers weren't insufferable, but if it would have been muggy and hot the way Pittsburgh summers can be, it would've been rough.

3) The worst part is having to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Our site was pretty close to an actual restroom, but it was still a chore to wake up and crawl in and out of the tent, quickly zipping it before any unwanted guests could climb inside.

Hammock hangs 

The next day, we spent the morning in the hammock. The weather was beautiful, sunny, and cool, and we rocked back and forth just appreciating the peaceful solitude of nature.

We hiked down to the beach after lunch and saw a massive turkey walking through a campsite. We gathered some wood, and while Shelley broke it down and I read parts from Mary Oliver's Upstream to her. We talked and joked and finished our never-ending game of War.

The giant turkey 

Hiking down to the beach 

We learned that they sold firewood we could use near the beach, so Shelley went to get some while I tried to keep the fire alive-- and failed. I learned that I would likely die in the wilderness, because I cannot chop wood nor coax a fire to keep burning.

That night, we made s'mores and stargazed and told ghost stories. We were awakened a fair few times by coyote calls, but eventually they ceased and we went to sleep.

S'mores!

Toasting marshmallows

Perfect scene for spooky stories

The final morning, we woke up and were heading to the restroom and I saw a beautiful doe. I held my arm out to stop Shelley and we just all stood there, staring at each other. We had gotten so close without realizing-- maybe 8 feet away-- and when she moved to run away I froze thinking she was coming to us before she ran into the woods.

The most gorgeous doe

Packing up to head home was less exciting, obviously, minus the SIX! spiders we saw scuttling around the roof of our tent. It was definitely a fun experience, and I'm looking forward to going out again when the weather cools off and enjoying the fall foliage.