“Is the trip still on?” “Are we still going?” The calls and emails kept coming to Mary and Barry Moien. We’d all been watching the news about the damage from Hurricane Joaquin and the devastating flooding in South Carolina. The date for the long-planned show trip to Myrtle Beach, October 12, was fast approaching. It was the first trip this year, and the 40-some prospective travelers were ready to roll. Yes, Mary answered each question, “but Charleston is iffy.”
By the time of departure, the situation in South Carolina had improved. The bus left the Library parking lot in great weather, which continued throughout the trip. Most of the passengers had been on the Mary and Barry trips before, but there were a few new faces. There were frequent stops, a new collection of jokes from Barry and lunch at Cracker Barrel; and by the time we reached our hotel in Myrtle Beach, the new people had become part of the family.
Brookgreen Gardens
The first day the bus took us to beautiful Brookgreen Gardens, a national historical landmark, in Murrell’s Inlet, about an hour’s drive from our hotel. From the windows we could see water from the floods still standing in the ditches along the roads and little ponds beneath each cluster of loblolly pines.
At the Gardens, we boarded a tram which took us through parts of the thousands of acres of beautiful gardens, sculptures, woods and open areas. We could choose to hop off at one of the attractions along the way. My little group spent time in the Butterfly House and wandered through the Zoo of domestic animals, admiring the centuries-old live oak trees festooned with Spanish moss. We had lunch in a charming restaurant near the Sculpture Garden. The only attraction not operating because of the recent flooding was the Pontoon Boat Ride, which would have been fun, moving through the ricefields, learning about the history of the Low Country, as this area of the Carolinas is known, looking for alligators and egrets.
See the rest of the story in the paper on Page 9 at:
http://greenbeltnewsreview.com/issues/GNR20151224.pdf