This road trip was to stay with our friends the Deschlers for a week of golf and good eating at Hilton Head. We also got three more National Park stamps and took part of a Virginia Tech tailgate. Some of the adventure is in the next post.
The first night away was spent in Gaffney, SC so we could visit Cowpens National Battle Site (https://www.nps.gov/cowp/index.htm) the next day. We had dinner at a quaint local restaurant (The Clock of Gaffney) and Steven got some peaches and hot sauce at the farmers market next to our hotel (The Gaffney Holiday Inn Express was well priced and very nice.) The history and story of Cowpens was interesting. Since we were on a tight schedule Vicki watched the film while Steven took the ranger tour.
After Cowpens we went to the other side of South Carolina to visit the National Reconstruction Era site (https://www.nps.gov/reer/) in Beaufort SC. While the Reconstruction Era exhibit was small, the city of Beaufort had many old houses that were ready for tourists to gaze on.
After Beaufort we drove down to Hilton Head and had a late dinner with Pat and Dave. We ate pizza at the Mellow Mushroom (https://www.mellowmushroom.com/locations/sc/hilton-head-island/33-office-park-rd/) on our first night because it was close to us, it was late, and we were hungry so we wanted something quick.
At Hilton Head we played golf on three days in Shipyard on the Ballantine, Galleon and Clipper courses. Vicki got her 70th game in since turning 70, and plans to continue going for another 70. The pool and hot tub in our complex was a pleasurable relief after golfing.
Food was a delight. Both Steve and Pat Deschler took a night to cook. Steve cooked Panko crusted chicken while Pat prepared a spaghetti sauce with Italian sausage. Steve also made a peach cobbler with peaches he had bought from Gaffney. But there were so many good restaurants (with local fish and shrimp) on the island we had to try as many as we could. We headed to an old favorite, the Black Marlin (https://blackmarlinhhi.com/) for seafood and atmosphere. We had barbecued brisket for lunch at One Hot Mama’s (https://onehotmamas.com/). Our fancy meal was at Poseidon’s Coastal Cuisine (www.poseidonhhi.com/). The most fun evening was at The Sandbar (www.sandbarhhi.com), which had live entertainment and was a short walk to the beach.
In the evening we would play games, the favorite game being “Hand and Foot” (a variation on canasta). Unfortunately most of these “Hand and Foot” games were very one sided, the losing team was not getting into their foot. Other fun games were Quirkle and Mexican Train.
Steve, the restless one, took a coaster bike ride to the beach, this time without crashing. He biked from the beach at Shipyards Plantation to Coligny Beach and then along the multipurpose trails back to home base. The ride was enjoyable: the sand near the water was packed and easy to bike on and the multipurpose trails had trees providing shade.