NC SC area

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Originally Posted by Foy

Beaufort Inlet) at Atlantic Beach, NC, and Wilmington for a tour of the USS North Carolina (WWII battleship). From there, you can venture just a few miles down to Fort Fisher, the Civil War Confederate fort which guarded the mouth of the Cape Fear River, the loss of which cost the South their last seaport and more fully sealed the fate. From Fort Fisher, you can take the ferry across the Cape Fear on down to Southport, thence on down through Myrtle Beach, SC enroute to Charleston. Along the way there, Calabash, NC serves up lots of deep-fried seafood and there's a one-
Foy

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From Wilmington, if it's open, stop at Britt's on the Carolina Beach boardwalk area for some of the best doughnuts you'll ever eat. Definitely visit Fort Fisher, a generally unknown Civil War battlefield, but very important one.

You definitely have to try some of that Carolina 'cue, I like mine with the bbq, double order of cole slaw, lots of hushpuppies and sweet tea.

And Calabash shrimp...once you've had them, that's the only way you'll want them afterwards.

Keep on Down that Two Lane Highway. --RoadDog

We ARE gonna get after some of that barbecue!! I think we'll check out
Fort Fisher too.

Thanks for the ideas RoadDog!

Rod

Rod & Judy,

While near Charleston SC you might consider visiting Fort Sumpter, where the civil war began. It is a fantastic way to spend an afternoon...A 40 minute ferry ride from Mt. Pleasant to Fort Sumpter, with a narration the whole way about how and why the civil war ocurred. Then, at Fort Sumpter, a park ranger took us around and gave us another great narration. There is a very interesting museum inside.

We made virtually no advanced plans on our recent 9 day and 8 night road trip from SW Florida up to Ohio, and everywhere in between.

Let me also just mention that our whole trip was highly facilitated by a few things:
1) A laptop computer with National Internet access.

2) A GPS (I have a Garmin C330). There is nothing like punching in a destination, and being verbally given directions until the destination is reached.

3) A cell phone.

4) An inverter so you can charge your laptop, cell phone, camcorder, and AA battery charger on the road (as to avoid hauling everything into your lodge nightly). The AA battery charger I didn't put down as an item, but I use mine to charge photo camera batteries for the next day as I switch out batteries daily to ensure I won't run out of power on a single set.

5) Carrying a CB with an easy magnet mount antenna and parked on channel 19 is another way to add to that "all American road trip feeling". You may not hear much chatter if you will be mostly on the country back roads, but it sure is a source for traffic conditions and/or entertainment while on the Interstate. But beware, watch for the ocassional foul languaged hillbilly, lol.

If you can swing some or all of the above equipment, you will have perhaps the most relaxing, care free road trip as we did.

For example, we would target a town we would want to end up that evening based on our current location and towns within say an hour drive before we would want to stop driving, then lookup on the laptop for a specific motel chain (wife gets discounts at certain motels through her job), call the motel and compare the rate to the online discounted rate (online was always cheaper except in one case). Book the room online, then as short as 5 minutes later walk into the hotel and check in with that booking! (Also, don't forget to sign up for a reward account depending on the motel/hotel you go to.)

We spent a week in and around Pigeon Forge last year as our base for going through the Smokey Mountains which was great. In Pigeon Forge we stayed at James Manor, and the room had a balcony and wasn't much more than about $40 a night. Not sure if you are willing to go, but north and west of Pigeon Forge by a couple of hours is Kentucky's Cumberland Falls - absolutely breathtaking, and that is no exageration... would be a great day trip.

You mentioned going to Key West. Nice place but LONG drive once you cross the Florida border! Florida is long long long!

Thanks Turk!

We already have Ft Sumpter on our list, sounds like a interesting place.

My wife bought me a gps for christmas, but after i played around with it for a bit, i didn't really care for it. Sooooo, i went to best buy and bought a new hp laptop and the ''streets and trips'' mapping program with a gps locator.
i took it on a shake down trip and it seems to be all right. its the same thing as a garmon, exept the screen's a lot bigger and it has a keyboard.