Third Trip-Cheraw, SC
Our trip to Cheraw State Park was a long time happening. We had made reservations two previous times and had to cancel due to "other things" but we finally did make the trip this weekend (October 13-15). It's a short trip taking just a couple of hours to drive, most of which is part of South Carolina's historic Cotton Trail through Hartsville, Darlington, Society Hill, Chesterfield, Cheraw, Bennettsville, Clio and on to I-95 near Dillon (Cotton Trail Brochure). Cotton fields still line both sides of the road today and you can even imagine bygone steamboats traveling the Great Pee Dee River. There are still beautiful plantain style homes in and around Cheraw but the economic condition of the area seems somewhat depressed today with many storefronts in Cheraw's Historic District boarded up.
Cheraw State Park is a very nice park and is one of two South Carolina State Parks that have a Golf Course (Hickory Knob in McCormick, SC is the other one). Lake Juniper is the backdrop for the Cheraw Golf Course and the golf course is also a Certified Audubon International Wildlife Sanctuary. Michael said the course was beautiful and well maintained.
We arrived at Cheraw in time to have our lunch there at the site. There are only 17 RV sites at the park and we had a site on Lake Juniper the first two times we had reservations but this time we were off the water but we still had a nice site.
Michael had given Kathy a Dish Satellite and Wally for her birthday and he sat it up after lunch. Cheraw State Park (like most State Parks) did not have Wi-Fi or Cable. We are now all geared and can watch TV and movies on our RV trips - especially if we are in a State Park or dry docking. It worked perfectly even though we were in a heavily wooded area.
That evening Kathy cooked and we just relaxed. The next morning we decided to go in town and eat breakfast. We had a choice of Mary's, Huddle House or Hardee's. We ate at Mary's. It was just okay. There were several other places to eat in town but they appeared to only be open during the week. After breakfast we walked around town and looked at some of the historic sites. Cheraw is the birthplace of Dizzy Gillespie and they have a wonderful statue of their native son.
The historic section of town is really nice it's just very sad so many businesses have had to close their doors.
After our walk around town we went back to the RV and Michael got ready to play golf.
Kathy and I just hung out at the site. Michael got back around 5:30 and we started getting ready for dinner. Afterwards we watch a couple of episodes of House of Cards. We still haven't finished watching all of this season and it is driving Kathy coo-coo crazy.
The next morning we went and had breakfast at the Huddle House and Kathy felt breakfast was much better than at Mary's. After all their cook was a big guy and he wore a t-shirt that said You can't trust skinny cooks. Any who after breakfast we went back and packed up. It was a great weekend. Lots of laughing at ourselves in the Twilight Zone (inside joke).
Until Next Time ...