Myrtle Beach Family Vacation 2022

Above: an heirloom gladiola bloom found in Lewis Ocean Bays

Myrtle Beach Family Vacation 2022

May 22 thru May 30 2022

(perfunctory entry)

Dana, Kenny and Gabe Koogler

Adam, Crystal, Michael and Tessa Lindsey

Myrtle Beach Pix Here

Lewis Ocean Bay Info

Day 1 Trip Down--Newberry SC KOA Campground

We planned a family vacation back in Winter for as soon as school let out for kiddos and my daughter, Crystal who teaches. We booked camping reservations for the whole family or at least everyone who wanted to go. Mike and Renae were not going like the previous year. Bethany and Joe and their kids weren't going. I found out last minute that Mike and Renae were going! We went to Pirateland Camping Resort in Myrtle Beach. Mike and Renae stayed next door to us at Ocean Lakes. They wanted something a little different.

Our son-in-law Adam just kept on having strokes of genius. He wanted to split the drive up into two days on the way down. He found us a KOA campground at the halfway point.. little Newberry, South Carolina. I drew and slept on the way down so it went by pretty fast. Gabe did great on the drive. He spent considerable time with his cousins playing games which made the trip much easier.

We arrived at our Newberry KOA campground and found it to be very attractive.

We had nice sites near the store and pool. It had the nicest pool, store, and playground. We arrived the day they held the grand opening of their new mining sluice! The kiddos got out and hit the mining sluice first thing. Next came the pool. Then they had to go back to the campers and warm up and dry off and play "run back and forth from one camper to another". Then they wanted to go to the playground so Nanny went with them to push them on the rope swing and keep an eye on them. They rode bikes and did all the fun stuff kids should be doing.


Above: Newberry KOA Campground rocks! We loved it. The only mistake we made on this camping trip was not stopping here on the drive home for a night or two.

Above: I loved the landscaping and flowers at this place. I can never get my petunias to do this well no matter what I try.

Above: The pool here was wonderful as was the family atmosphere.

Above: Nothing like a dip in a sparkling clear pool on a hot Summer afternoon

Above: the playground had shade trees and sitting in adirondack chairs for the grown ups. They had a zip line and two rope swings like this one. I spent a good bit of time pushing my own grandchildren and some of the other campground kids on this!

Above: the gem mining sluice was a huge hit! It was inexpensive and great fun for the whole family. They had a nice turn out for the event.

Above: Grandson Michael age 13 is checking out their raised bed garden. I am telling him what each plant is.






Above: Gabe going down the slide. The playground is right by the pool which is nice in case you are a parent or grandparent watching kids who want to go in two directions at once. After Supper we walked to the camp store for a popsicle. It did not matter that Papaw had a freezer full of icecream... .we had to have one from the store!




We had a fine, restful stay at this campground and will definitely be back. Newberry is a quaint area and next door to the Sumter National Forest and some good hiking through palmetto forests and swamps. I love South Carolina. If I had to move I could live there easily. The following day we pulled out of there after breakfast and finished our drive to the beach. We did not need to hurry because we couldn't check in until 3 pm. We were able to let the kids run around before we left the campground and play. We stopped at a pizza place on the way down. It was a buffet style like Cici's or Mr. Gatti's but it was good. It was inexpensive and everyone got what they wanted.
Pirateland!

We have been visiting Pirateland since our kids were little. We took whole family vacations here with my parents, my kids, and my sister and brother in law when Erica was pregnant with my nephew Joshua. I guess Jared was around four or five and Crystal was eight. Now I am back here and I am the Nana! Hey, I am the nana with a fifth wheel camper and a golf cart so pretty cool. This place is awesome. It has a great family atmosphere and is very relaxing. Some people have second homes here. Some live here full time. It is a neighborhood, but it is a Jimmy Buffett Parrothead Neighborhood with a "It's five o'clock somewhere" vibe.



We got our campers set up and visited the pool first and the beach second! I live in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, but I grew up loving both mountains and beach. Nothing has changed. I try to take the party with me wherever I go. There is always something fun if you look around. I love swimming and water. I have a passel of water loving grandkids which delights me. We had such a great time this vacation that before we even made it home we had book another trip for Fall Break in Panama City! Already daydreaming about that and taking my youngest granddaughter to see the beach for her very first time.

Below: a pair of squirrels in the campground burying walnuts and digging them up


Below: Gabe age 5 at the pool

Below: Papaw Kenny



Below: Tessa age 8 at the pool



Above: Michael age 13 at the pool

Above: out in the middle of the pool with just top of head and shades above the water... reminds me of an alligator... but it is Uncle Biff my son in law. 🐊




Above: the pool from under the cabana

Below: Gabe in his lawn chair at the beach
Below: our beach was lovely and uncrowded

Below: This was about the busiest it got



Above: toes in the sand.. that's how life should be!

Above and below: Gabe works on boogie boarding with Papaw



Above: I think he's got it! This is going to be the only drawback to going to the gulf in Autumn.. not as many waves







Above: We remembered to bring Gabe's kite to the beach this year. Papaw got it way up there. I crashed it a couple times before this.




We had a great time at Pirate Land. I realized that I had so much fun I did not take near as many photos as usual. That is okay. We had a fantastic meal each evening that we mostly cooked at the campsite. Or we went out for seafood at Crabby Mike's one evening. It was better than Captain George's last year and not as expensive and it was closer to home.

We went to Broadway on the Beach this year and loved it. We wore it out.

The kids went on rides and we shopped til we dropped and had lunch out at a BBQ joint.

We went to the icecream store and skipped Brookegreen this year.

Kenny and I went to Lewis Ocean Bays Heritage Preserve on a last minute whim.

It was not as great as the previous year, but still pretty and we saw some different parts of it.




Lewis Ocean Bays Heritage Preserve




We visited a nearby heritage preserve in 2021 and really enjoyed it. I had no plans to return, but I got to wondering what might be blooming and what I might miss? Kenny agreed that we should take a couple hours and go see. Gabe stayed with Uncle Biff and Aunt Yaya to play with Michael and Tessa. We had a little date by driving up the road about 16 miles to Lewis Ocean Bays Heritage Preserve. This was only our second ever experience here so we did not know what to expect. While it was pretty this time, the dry conditions had it not as pretty as the previous year. We saw not quite as many grass pink orchids, but we did see some and found them in a new spot we had missed before. We saw no spreading pogonia this time. I think they were already finished. The pine savanna was still pretty and I love nature whatever form it comes in. I still did not find the venus flytraps despite exploring some new areas. We did see a non native invasive shrub that is super pretty. We spotted this bright red blooming tree like a locust. It is a South American plant called Sesbania.






Above: orange milkwort





Above ferns line the floor of a longleaf pine savanna within the bay







Above yellow pitcher plants




Above and below: copper top and yellow pitcher plants



Above: pitcher plant flower



Above: I remembered this time to see which ones had gotten a fly or bug to eat. This guy got one!


Below: colic root in bloom.











Above and below: bearded grass pink orchids



Above and below: a new area of the preserve we had not visited yet. Blackest water! Lots of tannins!



Above: close up of sesbania bloom
Below: beautiful, but non native flowering sesbania tree





Above: more black water

Above and below: this tiny flowering plant was new to me. It is branching centaury. It is in the rose gentian family. See how tiny it is!?



Above: new area of Carolina bay with the sand circle

Above and below: sweet bay magnolia in bloom



Above: someone has deliberately planted these beautiful heirloom gladiolas in the preserve which I find strange.

Above: passion flower blooming in a ditch

Above: a deep dark hole of water

Unsure the id on this flowering shrub





We enjoyed the preserve and saw new things, but I want to go visit a different carolina bay next go round. Maybe the Green Swamp. If it is dry I think I'll pass on this place.


Lake Lure

Hitching Post Campground




The day we pulled up stakes and started our journey back toward home we had the same plan as on the way down. Stop and split the drive up and enjoy a stay in a campground on the way back. We had great difficulty finding one in the Lake Lure/Chimney Rock area so we stayed at Hitching Post Campground. We had been there once before in Autumn and liked it fine. We got the campers parked and set up and went back to the nearby Ingles for grocery items. It is conveniently located near Lake Lure and services. Fuel. Groceries etc. It is down in a hole and has no phone service. It has no wifi or tv service. Go prepared for this.

The other thing they lack is a swimming pool. We foolishly figured since we'd be close to Lake Lure beach it would not matter. Oh how wrong we were!

We had not been swimming at Lake Lure beach in a minute. We found it to be jam packed! It was a festival weekend of some sort and parking was at a premium in town. You couldn't have fit another person onto that beach or into the lake with a shoe horn.




The Flowering Bridge


We visited The Flowering Bridge in Lake Lure. It is a spot where they re-routed the road and the bridge was left abandoned. Instead of demolishing it, they kept it and repurposed it as part of a park system. It is a sight to behold.
It is admission free, but I think they take donations. It is well worth the stop to see this pretty place. I wish our area would do this with a couple of the abandoned bridges we have. Neither one is real suited to this however.





Above Granddaughter Tessa

Above and Below: Michael and Gabe and Tessa



Below Grandson Michael.









Below: a view of Chimney Rock off in the distance under blue, blue skies.







Above: Lake Lure Flowering Bridge

The lake and colorful flowers

Above: red old fashioned single bloom roses

Above: fountain

Above: the boys check out the frogs in the tub

Above: Gabey



We enjoyed all the little scenes and flowers along the bridge.

Next we went on to Chimney Rock!



Chimney Rock



Kenny and I had been to Chimney Rock once before. Though Crystal and Adam and Michael had been to the area, they never visited Chimney Rock for whatever reason. We would fix that today. Now they have buses that shuttle you to the top.

You pay your admission, park your vehicle and catch the next shuttle to the top.

It was like being in a third world country on those crazy buses. 🚌

But it was fun.

We got up there and the line was long to get in. We waited our turn and it rolled along pretty good. They only take so many at a time up in the elevator. We got to the top and went out to the rock to have our view from the observation platform.

It was very pretty and very crowded.












Above are photos from Chimney Rock


Once we got our look at the top we were all ready to get out of that crowd. We piled back on the bus and down the mountain we came. Once we got into town we found a place to park and tried to get lunch out of the way before things got really crowded. We just had fast food, but I do not remember the name of the place. Once that was done we went to do some gem mining. It was a lot of fun and Gabe found lots of good stones!


We then went to do some shopping all up and down the streets of the village.
It was fun, but hot. I got me a Chimney Rock t shirt, but that was about it.
We had ice cream at Village Scoop. It was super good and just right on a hot day.
Everyone was about over the crowd and we headed back through Lake Lure.
The crowd was unbelievable. We could not wait to get out of that mess.
We went back to the campground where it was quiet.


Hitching Post Campground has nice clean bathrooms, and the sites are very attractive with full hookups. They have tent and RV camping. There is a fishing pond and a nice little creek. It has lots of shade. There is a playground which the kids wore out. We had sparklers and a campfire. Lots of fun conversation and cooked some excellent meals together. We got one of those pellet grills and it has ruined us. We liked it so much that I got Kenny another one for the house for his birthday. Our grill was getting in rough shape.


We spent two nights here and then were ready to finish up the trip home.
All in all it was an excellent vacation. I have no complaints, but in the future I would go back through Newberry and stay at the KOA on the return trip.
I would have enjoyed doing some hiking in the Sumter National Forest.
It is all part of the learning process. The main thing is we had no major problems. We learned that splitting the drive up into two days makes it a lot more fun.


Below is a video of The Embers singing "I Love Beach Music" which is classic shag dancing music for Myrtle Beach.