A New Side of Myrtle Beach

Our second season of travel started like the first, which meant making our way south quickly in order to escape the pending winter weather. We changed things up a little this time, though. Last year we traveled more inland, while this time we decided to stick more coastal. We followed a route very similar to part of our East Coast Road Trip in 2017, at least as far south as South Carolina. This meant making a stop at Myrtle Beach.

Arriving to the beach brought back a lot of memories from six years ago. I started thinking about our whirlwind road trip, wondering how many nights we spent in our cute little villa a stone's throw away from all the Myrtle Beach attractions. We did a lot during that visit. We walked the beach, went on the Skywheel, shopped at the kitschy stores like I LOVE SUGAR and the Gay Dolphin Gift Cove, and discovered our beloved Rioz Brazilian Steakhouse. I even read our blog post from then, which mentioned playing arcade games and barely spending any time in our suite, as lovely as it was. That's a whirlwind trip in a nutshell.

I could have sworn we had spent two nights at Myrtle Beach, but turns out, we did all of that in just one night. I described having arrived around 4pm, and by the next morning, we were already crossing the border into Georgia. Holy moly! I get tired just thinking about it. Nothing against our past road trips. We loved them. But I can see why it's such an adjustment for vacationing roadtrippers to suddenly become full-time roadtrippers.

This visit to Myrtle Beach was a far cry from six years ago. We stayed at Myrtle Beach State Park, which is about 4 miles down the street from all the tourist attractions, but feels a world away. Nature was the main feature here. As with most state park sites, our site was large and surrounded by trees. The beach was a less than 10-minute walk away, and once there we had a wooden boardwalk, some paved trails, and miles of sandy shore. If we wanted a change of scenery, we could head to the nature center and hop on one of the two forested trails in the state park, the Sculptured Oak Trail and the Yaupon Trail. Each trail is named after featured flora at the park, surprisingly not common on their namesake trails, but very easy to spot on the way to the beach. The sculptured oak tree groves lined the edge where park meets boardwalk, and the yaupon hollies were budding their red berries, giving a pop of color to the January woods. We hiked both of these trails, each about 2.5 miles and easy terrain, perfect for a quick mid-day hike on a workday.

The crown jewel of the park though, of course was the beach itself. Open to campers and daytime visitors, there is more than enough shore to set up a blanket and chairs for the day, or to just walk along the water. There is also a large fishing pier with an attached bait and tackle/gift shop. How convenient to just walk through the state park and buy souvenirs! It wasn't quite summer temperatures yet, but our week brought some 60-70 degree days, during which people took advantage and snatched a needed beach day, while we put down our patio and created our own little South Carolina oasis.

No longer vacationing roadtrippers, we don't have stories about rocking all the tourist attractions. We had already done and seen what we wanted in 2017. Well, except for another trip to Rioz because that's tradition! Instead, we set up camp in Myrtle Beach so that we could get through very busy weeks full of work calls and meetings. We got into the groove of alternating work-walk-work-walk, but we must say, work is so much better when we are smelling the fresh salty ocean air breezing through our open windows. Despite the mild weather, it was still January, so the days were short. This isn't a bad thing; we got to take advantage of both sunrises and sunsets at the beach, and I tell you, those are the moments that remind us exactly why we decided to pursue this lifestyle.

Our visit to Myrtle Beach is a testament to a lot of things. We're older than we were six years ago, and lots of times that means just kicking back and enjoying the slower paced life. RV life suits this. We have nothing against the touristy part of this area and probably would have frequented it if we hadn't already been, but this is the beauty of those whirlwind trips that we hold in our memories. We had satisfied our need to see the sights, so that this time around, we could just be. In 2017 we also still focused our trips more on cities and urban adventures. Shortly thereafter was when we began prioritizing the outdoors and nature. Funny to look back and see how much has changed in the way we navigate our lives, but how much still remains the same. 2017 was my first visit to the Carolinas, and I immediately felt a sense of ease. That feeling has never dissipated. South Carolina in particular continues to be one of my favorite states visited, and returning to Myrtle Beach was a great way to come full circle as a traveler.