TS6 Hop 7: Myrtle Beach SC to Savannah GA

203 miles via US 17 and I-95. 219 truck miles. 1284 cumulative tow miles. 1635 cumulative truck miles. The extra truck miles were mostly due to the trip to the ER the evening of our arrival in Myrtle Beach.

This was an easy trip to navigate: follow US 17 until it meets I-95, then head south. The traffic on US 17, however, was heavy so it was not a carefree jaunt. Plus the original plan, courtesy of Google, was to dodge the section of US 17 that cuts through Charleston and go around, on I-526. The GPS, however, begged to differ and I missed the Google-suggested turn that would have cut off some miles so by the time I reached I-526 I felt it was wiser to just do the Charleston route. I have driven it before and it isn’t horrible.

While the truck’s oil pressure continues to run a bit high – though not so high as on Hop 1 – the concern this time was tire pressure on the RV. I try to keep those tires inflated to between 90 and 95 psi cold (max pressure is 105 psi) and in the 5 years we have traveled with it these pressures have held steady. Until yesterday morning when I noticed that the right rear tire was looking underinflated. Sure enough, it was at about 40 psi which was pretty shocking. I hadn’t tested the pressure since we left Massachusetts, over 1000 miles back, so I had to wonder how long air had been slowly leaking. I pumped it back up to about 90 and crossed my fingers. It didn’t look underinflated when we reached Savannah but I will check it again this morning. And tomorrow morning.

I guess I had better mention the ER. This was done at the recommendation of Jett’s oncologist who was a bit alarmed at Jett’s description of her bedsore (or “pressure ulcer” as the medical folks refer to it). So after we arrived in Myrtle Beach we went to the local hospital’s ER to have it checked out. The visit was blessedly brief – about 90 minutes – and blessedly successful – the doctor said that it not only wasn’t infected but looked to be healing. After some instruction from the nurse on how to change the dressing (and waiting while another patient in the ER died) we were on our way.

Our 3 nights in Myrtle Beach were at the Ocean Lakes Family Campground, an RV resort that we first visited in 2015. We were very impressed then. The facilities are undeniably first-rate and the beach is spectacular. But we were less enamoured this time, largely because with Jett’s illness we could not appreciate the facilities or the beach. And the sites are quite cramped for a rig our size. Add in some very cloudy and cool weather and a trip to the ER and it was basically 3 days of hanging out so that we didn’t have to travel on the weekend.

We were also unable to book a site there for 3 consecutive nights, so we had one night in one site and two nights in another. Which meant that I had to maneuver my big rig into two tight sites rather than one. A bitter cherry on a sour sundae?

Rusty and I did walk to the beach on the second day. It was cloudy and cool, but the beach is still lovely.