We travelled from Savannah, Georgia into the state of South Carolina, and ventured around the edge of Charleston, the capital of the state crossing a magnificent bridge.  Temperature outside had reached 100F, but in the air-conditioned car, very comfortable.  We drove through Georgetown, a rather industrial town, with a stench from the papermills.  The population of the County swells during the summer months when families holiday at Myrtle Beach a nice seaside area.  Students here are off school for almost 3 months.  We could not believe there are 250 golf courses in this place.  We reached our hotel mid-afternoon just as a thunderstorm happenedagain, so a rest time and then off to check out the area.  Full of holiday hotels, motels, homes etc and young families.  Evidently all the seniors (school seniors, not ‘oldies’!) come here in September for Seniors week (like ours do in November in Aus) cheaper accommodation than say Virginia Beach.  We checked out the beach, very long beach with a boardwalk, but very windy although still 88F in the evening. Today we had Taco Bell for lunch another American food experience.

 Strange to see motorcyclists without helmets, only some states here where you have to wear helmets.  Not sure if they wear bicycle helmets anywhere, strange, especially as they travel so fast on the freeways, some motorcyclists are sensible and wear helmets even though it is not law!

 Next day off early as a fairly long drive north to Virginia Beach.  We travelled through the lovely green countryside, viewing the corn and tobacco fields and passing through some nice little country towns.  Nice Bank buildings here, a stand-alone type of building.  Noticed pawn shops and pawn bail also around, some people are going through really hard times, a couple of times we have even seen a person standing on the median strip with a piece of cardboard strapped on to themselves saying they are homeless and hungry, you cannot always believe them though, but sad to see just the same.

We crossed the state line into North Carolina, more corn, tobacco & country towns, then into Southern Virginia, it has the red Cardinal bird as the emblem, they are so pretty.  Arrived at our hotel in Virginia Beach about 3pm, and booked in, Shayne had miraculously been able to get us upgraded to suites on the beach front all rooms with balconies and 2 of the suites on the corner of the hotel, ours was on the 8^th floor, superb.  First job was buy champagne and nibbles so we could sit on the balcony and enjoy the view of the wide beach and boardwalk that went for miles, what a marvellous place.  Actually Pete & I had spent half a day here last trip and certainly enjoyed being back again.  All along the beachfront are hotels and restaurants then behind is a street of shops.  Megan & Shaun were off to have a swim and Megan to be buried up to her neck in the sand!!  Temperature in the 90’s right into the evening.  A lovely seafood bar/restaurant downstairs was our choice for dinner, again a fun night and lovely food for us all.  What a lovely day again, and thanks to Shayne & Lee’s planning, they have certainly done a wonderful job with this trip for us all, trips organised like this do not happen by themselves, it is like our own organised tour but no regimentation!!  Great. 

The next day we had hotel breakfast, very busy as everyone seems to prefer late breakfast, it was overcast and a couple of showers, cooler only in 80’s!!  Had a walk to Starbucks for a coffee and then a nice walk along the boardwalk from 31^st to 18^th streets.  A pleasant restful day, thousands on the beach and boardwalk.  Very organised along the boardwalk, all bitumen of course, nice lawns and gardens along in front of hotels, then a 2 lane road for bikes only, they are called Surrey’s you hire them, hold 2, 4 or 6 people, lots of them around and a great way to travel up and down the boardwalk.  Then another strip of garden then another wide ‘roadway’ for pedestrians, then the wide sandy beach.  Very neat, clean and organised. 

 Sunday was our last day of the trip and our ‘tour leader extraordinaire’ had organised late checkout for us, so Lee, Shayne, Pete & I decided to hire a Surrey, great fun with four of us pedalling along the boardwalk, we got a bit hot so stopped at Calypso Joe’s  stand and bought true American Lemonade, that is amazing, the guy cut a new fresh lemon and put it in a huge container, everything here is huge, and then filled with ice and water, it is what they call lemonade here, the other is ‘Sprite’, I must say it is probably the only drink  that is not really sweet, I love it and thoroughly enjoyed it on our hot ride, yes we had lots of laughs.  Subway for lunch and then on our way, except for a final stop for a Starbucks Frappuccino (with an extra espresso shot) for the drive home, just to keep us all awake.  As it was Sunday and we got closer to Fairfax, we struck bumper to bumper traffic 3 lanes wide each way, can’t rush, it is mid-summer holiday season.  We stopped on the outskirts of Fredericksburg for ‘Chipotle’ Mexican food for dinner, Shaun had introduced us to this food previously, another American experience.  We arrived home about 9pm after a wonderful family trip lasting 10 days, travelling about 3,000 miles (4,828 kms) and covering 5 States, our fuel averaged $3.50 per gallon (92c per litre), fantastic, lots of wonderful memories, fun times and great places visited.