Shrimp Salad

Day 25: Travel day! We are heading out to the mountains in North Carolina to visit a massive mansion, see the large forests and maybe some waterfalls. To get there, we crossed South Carolina starting at Myrtle Beach and hopped a few highways heading up, up, up.

First stop, Myrtle Beach, SC (before the strong sun rays shine down)! We slept outside just outside of town at a Cracker Barrel and I was stoked to try beaching again. It was chilly (maybe low 70s) and we found some free parking a little away from the major Myrtle Beach (Surfside Beach). They also had a shower pole! Perfect!

The water was COLD! But, once we got in and were drenched by the massive waves, it was pretty warm (maybe because we were a little numb???). Chad submerged himself and was scrubbing his body viciously. “Chad, what are you doing?”

“I’m scrubbing my nethers! Aren’t you cleaning?? You are supposed to be cleaning, this is your bath time and you’re playing in the water!”

Chad then was partially hit by a large wave; serves him right haha. The water was so refreshing and the waves were awesome to play in. We tried to body surf but would end up mostly tossed around and smacked pretty good. I stood talking to Chad with my finger pointed in the air “As a matter of fact, I….” WHAM. Hit was a medium-sized wave, I was caught off guard and Chad died laughing. He saw the whole thing coming haha.

We showered up on shore and Chad mentioned he really like this beach a lot. “huh, maybe that’s because it’s early and all of the older people are on the beach. It’s so quiet. Yep, that’s it. It’s the older people that make it better.”

Chad, now hungry for the biscuits in the backseat, searched for a Hardy’s nearby. We ended up monkeying around town with traffic and we accidently missed the breakfast time….it ends at 11 a.m. and Chad went into a massive disappointment session. We are talking the silent treatment, for himself lol. He didn’t say anything and we navigated to a grocery store.

Bye bye stale biscuits, hello the best salad ever. We bought a package of cooked shrimp to thaw on the dash while we continued driving. I found a little park to eat at within a small town and we picnicked. It was SO GOOD. Chad felt better after eating and mentioned he had set expectations of having the biscuits...that’s why expectations are bad lol.

Pictured: Spinach, shredded cabbage, avocado, cucumber, shrimp, vinaigrette, and olive oil.

I drove and drove and drove. Chad ended up taking a little 45 minute nap while I listed to a Joe Rogan podcast about early humans (fascinating stuff there).

For dinner, we visited Costco and picked up a bird. Chad was ravenous and ate 75% of it. I was still content with the salad and shrimps. For dessert, we made fruit parfaits with bananas, clementines, and apples. YUM. We also stalked up on 6 gallons of water (only $5 !?)

We hit the mountains close to dusk and made camp in a local truck stop called Mountain Energy Truck Stop. Lol creative name y’all. There were other car campers (the kind that maybe do this for real??) and the cars were all older.

I think our car was the newest in the entire parked lot! There was a DQ attached to the gas station, so we parked really close to the drive through and nobody bothered us because they were so concerned about where to enter the drive through, they never looked around. Perfect.

We were expecting rain in the early morning but left the windows cracked anyway. It was hot and we were hopping the temp would drop soon. The car was parked on a hilly slope and our heads were sloping down. Uh oh. But, don’t worry. With a pillow propped under our heads and the seats tiled just right, it was like sleeping in a lazy boy. Night night!