Somehow on this trip, it is always warmest at night when we don’t have shore power. Last night was warm and humid and the rain ensured that the roof vent did not run so it was a rather difficult night.
It was raining when we got up so we took care of some of the necessary things. We found a small laundromat just a couple miles from where we stayed overnight and camped out in the parking lot, waiting for the machines to finish and making breakfast during that time.
Interesting laundromat. The building was shared with a hardware store and the parking lot was tiny. Directly in front of the door was a pickup with the hood up. A woman sat inside the laundromat on a stool, babysitting two car batteries and a charger. She was also doing a huge load of laundry and her and a guy worked on the pickup truck for a while, tying a rather large load down under a sheet of plastic. We just watched all this while eating breakfast in the RV.
I know, we’re easily entertained.
We hit a grocery store and stopped in a couple thrift stores before arriving back at Sunset Beach. The rain had stopped and the sun was starting to peek through by this time. We made lunch in the city park and then drove onto the island. A bit busier than yesterday, but we managed to park in the same spot, one of the very few that actually will fit an RV.
After coming all this way, it would be a shame not to swim in the Atlantic. So swim we did, attempting to body surf and just frolicking in the water. I gotta say, I prefer the water of Lake Michigan to this. Salt water feels slimy and tastes terrible. But I doubt very much I would be swimming in Lake Michigan in the middle of October, so we will take what we can get.
We were some of the very few actually swimming in the water. There were others wading or sitting at the edge in lawn chairs, but we Northerners have to take the opportunity to swim when the water is this warm.
After showering to get rid of the salt we went back to the city park for a snack and to just sit for a bit. Nice park, with some swings at the edge of the Intercoastal Waterway. One could spend a long time here.
We wandered back towards Lake Waccamaw. After enjoying the tranquility of the beach we were a little reluctant to come back to a rodeo in full swing.
When we first arrived here, we marveled at the size of this place. Now we know why it is so big. Coming back in, all that empty space that we marveled at was filled with rows and rows of horse trailers. I had to drive in very slowly because there were groups of kids running around, people riding and leading horses all over the place, people on golf cars, quads, Segways, and all manner of ground transportation. I’m going to try to get an aerial picture tomorrow morning as it was too dark this evening. There may be somewhat fewer people here tomorrow; we’ve seen several trailers pulling out this evening. Must be their part in the event is over.
After making dinner we walked to the arena to see what this was all about. We had to wait for the Zamboni (actually two tractors with rolling harrows), but eventually got to see some barrel racing.
Three horses, one at a time, each racing twice, one loop around each barrel then a sprint back to the starting line. Total time for each horse, about sixteen seconds. After two of these sets, the Zamboni comes out again. So it’s quite a bit of waiting for a few short races. We watched a couple of these, then walked around outside for a while before returning to the RV.
When we got back we discovered that the farrier had set up shop about ten feet behind our RV space. So we were serenaded with the clanging of hammer and anvil, and the sound of horses not liking what was happening. I guess if my shoes were nailed to my feet, I might be a bit uncomfortable as well.
The farrier was a busy person. She worked steadily until after 8pm when she closed up shop and drove away. And all was quiet again. Tomorrow, we get to experience this rodeo all day long. We’ll have to walk right through the middle of it to go to church in the morning. With this many horses around, it goes without saying we’ll have to watch our step.
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