We’re headed home from our second RV adventure with Harvest Hosts. On the recommendation of several other members of a HH’s Facebook group we decided to stay with HWY 21 Drive-In in Beaufort, SC this weekend. So Much Fun!
I don’t know about you, but I’ve only had the opportunity to visit a drive-in theater one other time and that was with MINI USA during MINI Takes the States 2014. Would I want to go to a drive-in all the time? Probably not…. mosquitos…. but with the car club? Or on an RV adventure? Sure!
We loaded up the Corgis and left Jacksonville, FL mid-morning on Saturday. It should have been a three-ish hour drive, but I took an on ramp loop a little fast (25 MPH!) and the refrigerator door popped open and freaked out Winnie and Pooka. I learned my lesson, but the girls wanted to bark me out a little more. So we stopped at the next rest area so they could have a potty break and glare accusingly at me. Once I had apologized sufficiently and begged forgiveness we loaded everyone back into the RV and took off again. Then we stopped again at Georgia Peach World, because I’ve developed an unhealthy addiction to their peach lemonaid and needed to buy another gallon. For me. All for me. No sharing.
We finally arrived in Beaufort, SC around two o’clock and headed straight for the shops on Bay Street. There is a medium sized ‘pay’ parking lot just as you enter the downtown area. It was a little snuggly for the RV, but we made it around. Fortunately/Unfortunately the lot was packed and there weren’t any parking spaces available…. but since we were a little too big for the parking spaces anyway they let us park in one the the tour bus spaces! (We still paid to park.) Street parking would have been pretty tight, so we would probably have ended up parking further away and hiking in. (Another win for the little RV!)
Winnie and Pooka were happy to get out and stretch their legs, but they were also happy to Hoover up weird, tasty tidbits along the sidewalk. To save my sanity (and their gastrointestinal track!) we stuffed them into their backpacks for the rest of the shopping trip.
We found a cute little pet store and the girls got a new snuffle mat. Pooka loves to jam her face into the grass, dirt, blankets…. and snuffle for treats. This seems a lot safer and more sanitary.
I kind of hustled us along and skipped some of the stores that I might normally have enjoyed wandering through because I had a lingering headache and was worried that toting a corgi might make it worse before I could get to the shop that I was most excited to visit. SCOUT Southern Market. I found them on Explore Beaufort, SC’s facebook page and could not resist trying an iced tea float. And let me tell ya… it did not disappoint! I ordered a half sweet/half unsweet iced tea with two scoops of peach sorbet. So good! Brian ordered a cream soda float and I may or may not have stolen several slurps of his too.
My headache was making a steady return so we meandered our way back to the RV. Brian was probably relieved because it’s a cute little shopping area and normally I’d have shopped myself silly.
Since we had already paid to park and weren’t due to check in at our Harvest Hosts site for a few more hours the girls and I curled up in the back of the RV and took a nap while Brian answered work emails.
For dinner I found a restaurant on Find Me Gluten Free with 18+ good reviews and figured we had to try it. Madison’s had gluten free CRAB-CAKES! and tons of other gf fried seafood. Brian called ahead and placed an order for takeout so we could eat in the RV with the girls. I might have gone a bit wild (I get hungry after headaches) and ordered the Captain’s Platter with fried scallops, flounder, shrimp, oysters and crab-cakes. The hush puppies were NOT gf so they subbed cheese grits (because I obviously needed more carbs!) and not to miss out on any yumminess we also ordered the calamari appetizer. So good. So good. Brian got the shrimp & grits.
The parking lot was small, but we got there before there were many other cars and parked back in a corner. We enjoyed a wonderfully decadent dinner under Spanish moss draped trees with the salt air wafting through the open windows. Everything you could want from an RV adventure! By the time we were finishing our dinner the parking lot was starting to fill up and we figured we’d better get out before we got wedged in.
After dinner we stopped to get gas and let the girls take a quick potty break. Winnie and Pooka saw a pretty area across the street with lots of interesting smells, so we made a run for it before Brian noticed. The Cypress Wetlands has a pretty little park area and a boardwalk out to a rookery. We didn’t get to explore too far before Brian caught up to us and reminded us that we had to get settled into our RV spot before the movies started. If you’re in Beaufort take some time to wander around the boardwalk and explore. What I had the chance to see was very pretty.
Despite my wanderings, we made it to the HWY 21 Drive-In in plenty of time to get settled, purchase tickets and grab some popcorn from the concession stand.
I’d sent an email to the Drive In earlier in the week to ask about gluten free options at the concession stand. As Harvest Hosts members we don’t pay anything to stay at the HH site, but we’re encouraged to purchase stuff from the Host. We’d be buying movie tickets, but if the concessions were safe for us who’d want to turn down movie theater food? Cara, the theater manager, emailed me back promptly and said that the popcorn, French fries, hamburgers and chicken breasts would be safe (minus the bun, but they could do a lettuce wrap.) I wasn’t positive that the French fries wouldn’t be a cross contamination risk, they did have other non-gf things that were fried. I didn’t ask, because I was happy with a popcorn and a big soda. (If you go, be sure to ask about cross-contamination on the French fries before you order.)
Cara got us situated at the back of the theater lot so we weren’t blocking anyone’s view and so that we could sit in bed and watch the movies out our side windows. It was awesome! After barking at a few people who had the audacity to walk past their window, Winnie and Pooka curled up and fell asleep. Cara brought us an FM radio since the RV only gets FM through the main chassis and not through the surround speakers.
I would 100% recommend visiting the HWY 21 Drive-In through Harvest Hosts. It was a fun experience and Cara was extremely kind and helpful.
We spent a lazy morning eating breakfast and tidying up the RV before heading out for another adventure.
Hunting Island photos are frequently featured on Explore Beaufort, SC’s facebook page. It looked like a pretty place to visit so after one last trip around the drive-in for a potty break and the chance to Hoover up some spilled popcorn, we loaded the girls back into their car seats and headed to the State Park.
The park was very pretty, lots of trails to walk, beaches to play and clean restrooms! The roads were a bit tight and windy. I don’t think we’d have fit in a larger RV (another win for the little one!), but we fit just fine and were able to park at one the the beach lots.
Winnie and Pooka explored the beach for a bit, but declared it too hot and salty and not nearly enough disgusting things to roll on. We walked to the lighthouse, but it was closed (I don’t think dog were allowed inside anyway).
It wasn’t quite time for lunch, but also close enough to lunch that we didn’t want to have to get on the highway and then back off so we decided to wander around the park a bit more. I saw a sign for a boardwalk and we tracked it down. Brian and the girls waited in the RV while I wandered down the boardwalk trail and took photos. It was a nice park and would be a good place to spend the day on the beach or walking the trails.
Winnie and Pooka had enough adventuring… and desperately needed baths, so we counted this as another fabulous adventure and headed home.
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