Pine Knoll Shores, NC to Georgetown, SC
Wilmington, NC
I got there around 2 pm, the temperature hovering in the high 90s. People were scarce on the streets, other than a handful of tourists like me. I went to a riverfront park and found some shade, but there were two menacing homeless people who had set up camp there.
It was really too hot to do much of anything.
On the way out of town I passed by a monument to Confederate soldiers.
I crossed the border into South Carolina! State #9 for the trip, a state I’ve never been to.
Georgetown, SC
Georgetown is a lovely town. Trees on both sides of the street whose branches meet over the road.
The South likes to talk about its history. But, with some notable exceptions that I will get to later, slavery and its horrors go unmentioned. (Not that the North is blameless in matters of race relations.)
Went to a Mexican restaurant that had good Yelp reviews, Los Arrieros, and the food was terrible. Sometimes on a voyage of discovery you discover things that are not so great. And then you see birds nesting in the Hampton Inn sign. (Those are my beloved house sparrows, Mary Beth told me.)
By the way – Hampton Inns seem to have hit the sweet spot of price/quality/location for me on this trip. I’ve already stayed in several with good results.