Havelock,NC-Myrtle Beach, SC 10/15 175 driving miles; 10.3 walking miles

What would a day be without a turn around or two. Suzy, our faithful GPS was dutifully tracking us right to where I punched the address. Thankfully, I didn't put my brain on auto pilot. I know Ed has taken us on quite the wiggily route, but with our "best men" coming in Saturday, I knew it was time to head South. So, when we turned around and rechecked the address, we discovered that we simply forgot the S at the end of the address. Suzy, once again, proved flawless. The day, another beauty, followed route 17 S through Kure Beach, a pretty cool little beach town where we caught a ferry and a couple moments with our "best" human of the day (Lisa Bryant) who filled us in on all the local info. It's SPOT season in Kure Beach. A SPOT is a migratory fish (Google it-they really have a spot) that had the local pier filled shoulder to shoulder with fisher people hoping to catch them-no limit. Lisa hadn't caught any, but she had a cooler of other fish and a set of bones from a huge fileted fish that another fisherman gave her. She said she had watched that Scandinavian cooking show in HGTV the previous night, and she was going to cook the bones in the manner she saw on the show. She called us "interesting" and she said she was going to use us as examples for her son, who I gathered complained he couldn't travel without a car. Lisa will suggest the bicycle. After an uneventful couple hours of driving, we arrived in Myrtle Beach, the so called Redneck Riviera. We walked all over, up and down the boardwalk, down main street, and up town to the Food Lion and back. Glad I am that it is off season. Under no circumstances (Well maybe if my favorite daughter, Libby, got married here) would I come here in busy season. While the beach is quite lovely, the string of high rise hotels, low rise motels, T-shirt shops, carnival rides, putt-putt golf courses, trinket stores, and over priced mediocre food is simply not my preferred tourist motif. I must be in the minority, though, because as I scanned the scene ahead of where we were walking, all I could see was high rise hotel after high rise hotel after high rise hotel. Incredible. The best news is since it's off season, we're finally in a hotel where the beds are soft, the towels are thick, the WiFi is fast, and the view is awesome. So naturally, life is good, especially today.

The pier was filled with hopeful (Aren't they all) fishermen/women.

Lisa, "best" human of the day, had the whole scoop.

Art shot of the day: Come on down to the beach.

This guy had four poles going at once.

Eduardo, wind rustling his hair, enjoying yet another ferry ride.

This little beauty, a Montgomery 15, made its way easily up the Cape Fear River, gliding as she was on the incoming tide.

Good bye little Montgomery.

 We stopped for some thin gruel in South Port, NC (BLT plus slices of granny smith apoles and a bit of gruyere). Very thin; quite yummy. 

The view of the beach from our hotek.

The boardwalk (Really, just a small portion).

Just one of the big wheels around here, I'd imagine.

Seriously, high rise hotels along the beach farther than you can see. Wow!