Monday, May 5, 2008

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (and getting there)

From Prentiss Mississippi our plans were to head back to Myrtle Beach in SC before commencing another journey in two and half weeks time to the north east of the USA.

After leaving Prentiss in Mississippi we travelled west on Sunday afternoon to Meridian, Mississippi. We stayed the night in a RV park, had long showers and cleaned the truck and fifth wheeler. The next day we continued our trip on the I-20 back to Myrtle Beach, SC. We passed through Birmingham, Alabama again and nearly ran out of diesel waiting too long for nice place to stop. After passing through Atlanta Georgia we got to Aiken near the Georgia & SC border. We decided to stay the night rather than drive another four hours to Myrtle Beach.

The next morning we packed up to drive to Myrtle Beach. When we pulled away with the fifth wheeler the truck had no power. It was blowing a lot of smoke. We called the RV helpline again and they arranged for a tow truck driver to tow the F250 to the local Ford dealership. After doing their initial review they said the EGR valve needed replacing (again as it had been done in Plano Texas) and that it would take a day or so to fix. Later that afternoon we got a call to say the EGR cooler needed replacing as well.

The next day (Wednesday) we got a call in the afternoon to say the F250 also needed a new turbo. So, on Thursday afternoon the F250 was ready. The truck was much quieter and smoother in its power delivery. So, after picking up the truck we hooked up the fifth wheeler and drove to Myrtle Beach. We were so keen to leave Aiken as our food and drink supplies had completely run out, along with our patience! We weren’t stopping for anything to get to Myrtle Beach. Thanks to the team at Satcher Ford for fixing the truck.

We arrived at Kyle and Michelle’s place Thursday evening. They kindly allowed us to park the fifth wheeler there as we were going to stay with Jessica and Joshua Tew (we stayed with them when we first arrived in the USA). We had not seen Kyle since September last year and missed him when we arrived two months ago. It was great to finally see Kyle and meet Michelle. Kyle has been a tremendous help to us and “hooking us up” with different things. We were keen to see Jess and Josh as well. Both are doctors and Josh is a specialist radiologist so they were a good match to help us out with Joel’s broken arm. All of the Natzkes were real glad to be back in Myrtle Beach.

The two weeks we spent in Myrtle Beach were fantastic. We had the opportunity to relax and have some fun. Some of the things we have done have included going to the main beach and a private pool club, going out to Mayabi’s Japanese restaurant (the chefs cook in front of you and do all sorts of entertaining tricks), trying Krispy Kreme donuts (they make delicious donuts), shopping, motocross riding at some local tracks, mini putt and going to Riley‘s Aquarium. One paragraph does not really do justice to the excellent time we have had with Josh and Jess and also with Kyle and Michelle. But, it is late at night and we need to write something of what we have been up to over the last few weeks before it is forgotten.

Our journey is now to travel up the north east of the USA.

1 comment:

Cara said...

Yay!! A new post. BTW, Krispy Kreme donuts are amazing!!

It's so funny for Tiana and I to be staying in South Carolina with our brother and his family for a little bit. This is really like our first time in the south, not including florida and texas as they are quite different than "the south". The southern accents, the people, everything. We almost feel like foreiners ourselves. Especially since we just got back from living in NZ for a year. Haha!

Hope to catch up with you soon. God Bless!