Days 16 & 17: SC, NC & home!

This post covers the final two days of this big Southern roadtrip. I logged over 6,000 miles and got close to 2,000 photos for the website. There were only a few interences: backing Sparkle into a ditch, some rainy weather, and picking up a stray dog. Little "you-you" is now being fostered by a woman in Savannah. I'm sure she'll find a great home soon. This will be the last big roadtrip until the six-week jaunt to California in March. Until then, there will be additions to the website and Flickr from some smaller blog-less trips in the Northeast. Now, on with the final misc. photos.

I got to explore lots of small towns on this trip. Here are some interesting buildings from downtown Georgetown, SC:





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This arch is in Wilmington, NC. The former playground is now tennis courts.



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I went to Airlie Gardens in Wilmington to see the bottle house and wish I'd had more time to check out the rest of the place. There are beautiful gardens with artwork scattered throughout. More about the place here:
http://www.airliegardens.org/




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Kitty Dunes Realty inhabits a mid-century-looking building in Kitty Hawk, NC:





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One of my favorite places in Myrtle Beach, SC is Bark Park (aka Barc Park). It's a 12-acre fenced area for dogs to romp around off-leash. There's a giant pond, shade trees, picnic tables and benches for the humans, and some playground equipment for the dogs. It's very clean and I have never witnessed any aggressive dogs. The park is owned and operated by the City. Although I can pretty much turn my dogs loose anywhere as they come when I call them, I wish more cities had places like this.





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Most "dog parks" that I have been to are really no more than "dog runs" (with questionable sanitation and too small for dogs to spread out and have their own space). I have my favorites around the country. One of them that comes to mind is the 42-acre Dogwood Park in Jacksonville, FL:
http://www.jaxdogs.com/

For a listing of dog parks, this website is a great reference:
http://www.ecoanimal.com/dogfun/

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There was lots of time for sleeping on the long drive home for some of us. Here's Fixie in an unusual position:



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A new snack discovery (for me anyway). Grippie gives her endorsement of Cheddar Jalapeno Cheetos:



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Lastly, here are a couple signs from North Myrtle Beach that caught my eye. This Preston's sign appears to be a new one but it is still nicely done:



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This sign is from an abandoned course. Myrtle Beach has long been populated with dozens of mini golfs but most of them these days are the new elaborate type with mountains spewing molten lava, giant waterfalls, and such. I prefer the older more understated courses. There are still some old carpets and hints of what this course looked like behind an overgrown broken chain link fence. That and this sign will probably not be around for much longer.