Trish & Anne RV Adventures

We left Boone on Monday, May 13 and made our way to Huntington Beach Park in SC. That’s just south of Myrtle Beach. Our friend Catherine was joining us for the next four days. After setting up our campsite we decided to go out to dinner. We settled on the Dead Dog Saloon. There were photos of dogs everywhere, and all of the tables had dog “dad” jokes on them. The hush puppies were very good, but the she-crab soup was not the best.

After dinner we took a short walk from our campsite to the beach – not much action this evening.

Tuesday it was supposed to pouring all day, so we decided to go to the movies – we saw The Fall Guy. It was cute, but a bit long – if you go be sure to stay, as Lee Majors makes a cameo at the end. After that we went to lunch at Tupelo Honey – Trish got fried chicken. She didn’t have grits here, but this wall was a decoration inside. After that we went to the driving range. We had a tee time for Thursday, but Trish and I hadn’t picked up a club since our trip last fall, so we thought it would be prudent. It was good warmup.

We needed to move the RV to a different spot on Wednesday, so we started the day going on a Bird Walk with an Audubon volunteer. It was along the marsh side of the park. Most of the birds below are either least or semipalmated sandpipers,

The least sandpiper has the yellow legs and the semipalmated has the dark legs.

We also saw a semipalmated plover, a spotted sandpiper, an anhinga, a tricolored heron, a great egret and a snowy egret.

Our next stop was Brookgreen Gardens and Sculpture Park. Archer and Anna Hutchinson moved to the area in the 1930’s as Anna had TB and they were looking for a milder climate. They bought up four old rice plantations, built a home (pictures of that later) and started the sculpture garden to display Anna’s works. The sculpture garden continued to grow with works from American artists – it’s a beautiful place to walk around. The umbrellas were along the entry way and that’s Catherine smelling the gardenias.

The sculpture with the jaguars playing was right outside the window of the restaurant we ate in. It was a very good lunch. And this bronze is Marine Relief by Stanley Bleifeld – it was originally just 12 feet long, but he added 12 feet when they decided to display it on the outside of this building. It reminded us of The Wave by Hokusai.

Yes, those are lights and not some sort of weird flowers that Catherine and Trish are standing under. And like nearly all southern plantations, this one has a live oak alley too.

That’s me sitting next to Len Ganeway by Derek Wernher – described as a farmer reading the county newspaper, and the three of us at the actual entrance to the sculpture garden.

Anna Hutchinson loved to sculpt animals – which is one reason they developed a little zoo on the property. I’m not sure about the lion, but Reaching Jaguar is one of hers. But it was done by looking at the jaguars at the New York Zoological Society, not something in their zoo.

That’s Dionysus by Edward McCarten – enlarged especially for Brookgreen Gardens. and The Wings of the Morning, by Marshall Fredericks.

I think Shell Boy by Avard Fairbanks was designed as a fountain, but this female cardinal seems to think it was a bird bath.

Pegasus by Laura Fraser is the largest sculpture in the garden, and it took 9 years to finish with the last 4 years on site. And I didn’t know that water lilies came in so many cool colors.

Samson and the Lion by Gleb Derujinsky is at the center of this pool, but we found the orange bromeliad statues very interesting in their placement by the real bromeliads.

In this pool the sculpture is Riders of the Dawn by Adolph Weinman who also did the friezes on the Supreme Court and the National Archives. And I’ll leave the sculpture part of the gardens with The Visionaries by Anna Huntington. It’s of her and her husband, and the reverse side has a poem that was written by her husband.

There is also a small zoo on the property, with both domestic and native animals (most of which have been injured and cannot be out in the wild. And even in the zoo there are sculptures. Here are some Spanish goats – mama and kids, Chloe and Lucinda by Andre Harvey, a horse and a sculpture of a Timber Wolf Family by William Turner.

There was a huge aviary – there were several black-crowned herons – that’s Catherine finding her way out of the double doors to keep the birds in.

And there were several playful river otters.

Barred owl, barn owls and a sand hill crane. Trish and I were wondering the other day, what barn owls were called before there were barns – so I looked it up and found out that some other names for a barn owl have included monkey-faced owl, ghost owl, church owl, death owl, hissing owl, hobgoblin or hobby owl, golden owl, silver owl, white owl, night owl, rat owl, straw owl, and delicate owl. Now you know too!

A wood duck and a ruddy-duck.

This is a Red Wolf. Brookgreen Gardens is a participant in a program to help save them from extinction. In late 2023 there were less than 25 known to be in the wild and 300 in captivity in 50 program sites across the US.

As we were driving out of the park I snapped a picture of The Hungry Loop by Herb Mignery. The title is a term used to describe a rodeo roper who desperately needs to win his event. And finally Fighting Stallions by Anna Huntington, which is at the entrance to Brookgreen Gardens.

Thursday was golf day. We golfed at Willowbrook Planation and Catherine played well. Despite hitting the driving range on Tuesday, Trish and I did not have a good day – and that’s all I’ll say about that. Here are some shots from the course

We did, however, learn about the history of the plantation from all the plaques that were set up along the cart path – so the day was not a total loss.

And we got to see some wildlife – there were many fox squirrels and that’s one of several alligators that were near the course – thankfully none were actually in the fairway. That fox squirrel on the lower right is eating one of Trish’s cookies. It was pretty aggressive and seemed like it might actually get in the cart to go after the food, so rather than let that happen, Trish shared.

After golf we went looking for breakfast for lunch so Trish could get some grits. We were not successful as the place that was recommended only served brunch on the weekends – but our sandwiches were good and then on the way back to the RV we found the Parlor Doughnuts and picked some up for Friday’s breakfast. Back at the park we got some ice cream and then went to the Nature Center. During the walk on Wednesday we had heard about a rookery, but we were not sure where it was and figured the folks at the nature center would know.

It was a good time to be there as there was a painted bunting at the bird feeder, along with a cardinal, a bluebird, and several other birds.

Then we took a quick walk through Atalaya Castle – this was the winter home of Archer and Anna. It was built from 1931 – 1934. Archer Huntington was an authority on Spanish culture and designed the home in the Moorish style of the Spanish Mediterranean coast. The house is laid out in a big square with two big, open grassy courtyards in the middle, separated by a covered walkway. There were 30 rooms around the perimeter of the courtyards. That’s a shot from the outside, and a not well framed selfie taken in Archer’s study – without any furnishings, all of the rooms looked pretty much the same.

Here are some shots of Anna’s outdoor and indoor studios. Those skylights gave a lot of light into the indoor studio. And the lower right shot is looking through the covered walkway.

Last shot of Atalaya is the covered walkway from the courtyard, showing the 40 foot tower that was used as a water tower. After pumping the water up to that height, it could flow through the whole house.

Then we found the rookery – we saw a summer tanager, a young black crowned night heron, a green heron and some juvenile herons or egrets – can anyone help with an id?

Our last activity a Huntington Beach State Park was a early evening walk on the beach – we were looking for skimmers, but we mostly we just saw sanderlings and a few pelicans flying by. And don’t we have some long legs?

Some not quite sunset shots.

And here is a great blue heron we saw as we were driving out of the park on Friday, May 18.

We were on our way to Charleston and Goose Greek to visit with my niece Allie, her husband Justin and their boys, Blake and Ben. Our fun there will be in the next update.

Until then, safe travels!