Being from Oklahoma, we had to look up the meaning of the different beach flags. This double red flag means that the water is closed to the public. Yesterday a 14-year-old boy was caught in the rip currents and never seen again, so this is obviously a dangerous situation. Most of the week, the state park has been flying the single red flag, but today was even choppier.
On a hot week-end, there were still plenty of people at the beach. But we also saw life guards patrolling the edge of the water.
We even saw a ranger, patrolling the beach on a four-wheeler. He was making swimmers get out of the water.
Mark walked down to the pier, but with his blistered foot, he had to head back to the motor home.
With fewer swimmers in the water, there were more people actually sitting on the beach. That should mean good business for the rolling lemonade stand. We think most people buy her lemonade just because they feel sorry for all the effort it takes to push that cart through the deep sand.
We've been staying at Myrtle Beach State Park for 9 nights, but we have spent all of those days with our guests. We have been leaving the motor home before 9 a.m., and haven't gotten back to the park until after 10 p.m. This has surely broken some record for us--but after 9 days, we haven't even seen the trails or the nature center inside the park where we are staying. So Denisa used the last day here to go exploring. She hiked all the trails in the state park--all two miles of them. They were almost empty, as people obviously come to this park for the beach instead of the trails. Her hike brought her out at the entry road where cars were lined up as far as the eye could see. In fact, on the weekends they are often lined up all the way to the highway 3/4 mile away. All these cars are paying $5/person to enter. Knowing that all the camping spots cost almost $50/night, it looks like this park is a major fund raiser for the state park system of South Carolina.
Denisa's next stop was the nature center, where she arrived just in time for the weekly animal feedings. She had never seen a sea star's eating posture. The naturalist explained that it covers its food, and then actually spits out its stomach to swallow that food.
We have found whelk shells on the beach, but had never seen the creature that lives inside. That white bulging creature coming out of the shell is the snail that can grow up to 7.5 inches long. As the snail gets bigger, their shells grow with them.
It was also fun to see this large fiddler crab peeking out of his shell. Unlike the whelk, when this crab outgrows his current home, he just finds a larger empty shell to move into.
Those that don't like snakes or mice should look away now, because the next feeding was a corn snake eating a mouse. The mice are already dead, so it's not much of a contest.
Contrary to his name, the rat snake also eats smaller mice. It was interesting to watch the snakes dislocate their jaws to swallow their meal whole.
The naturalist called this "the spaghetti stage" when only the tail is showing out of the snake's mouth.
It was time for more exercise, and Denisa discovered the section of the state park beach south of the pier. We have been here over a week and didn't even realize there was this section of the beach. It looks like others have not discovered it either, as it was almost empty on this weekend afternoon. We wished we would have brought our guests here!
Denisa walked down the state park pier, another place we hadn't visited yet. Who knew there was a huge adirondack chair there for a great photo op?
There were lots of fishermen on the pier, but no one seemed to be catching anything. There was quite a stir when one young guy pulled in this baby shark.
The view from the pier gives a good sense of the crowds north of the pier and the layout of Myrtle Beach. This stretch of land is the last to not be engulfed by high rises in the city of Myrtle Beach. In the sky we see another jet coming in to land at the airport. A few people are drifting into the water, even though the rangers are trying to keep them out.
There was a single kite surfer zipping across the water close to the pier. The gusty winds make this a fast way to move around the water.
When he hit the waves close to the shore, he would fly 6-10 feet out of the water. It was quite a show to watch, and Denisa wondered how tired his arms must be from hanging onto that wind-driven kite.
So after spending 8 nights at Myrtle Beach State Park, it was fun to spend one day exploring what it had to offer. Now we wish we would have spent more time here with our visitors.
Before we checked out of our camping spot, we went to one more new place in Myrtle Beach. When looking for a church to attend on Sunday morning, Mark found that the private campground just down the road had church services. We got to the 8:30 service early, so we had time to drive through the campground. They have no trees, and the campers are parked side-by-side and end-to-end. Suddenly we realized how spacious our campsite at the state park was. We walked down their section of the beach to the amphitheater.
We usually don't take church pictures, but this was a special location. Even though it didn't show up well in the picture, we could see the waves crashing on the beach through the big glass windows at the front of the make-shift sanctuary. After some record-breaking heat, we were treated to a cool weekend. They mentioned that it was a nice to have a cool break from the normal "sweat church" they have in the summer.
Before we left our camping site at the state park, Mark climbed on top of the motor home to sweep off the tree clutter that had accumulated. It was the messiest we have ever seen, so he even took a picture. The tall pine trees that provided good shade this week also dropped lots of needles and pine cones on our roof and slide covers.
So after 9 nights, we are saying good-bye to the Atlantic Ocean and Myrtle Beach. But we have new adventures ahead as we head in-land.
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