And just like that, it was Saturday again.  Time to say goodbye to Myrtle and start (slowly) making our way back north.

Goodbye beach!

Hello Sesquicentennial State Park!

Ellie had pointed out that Congaree National Park was pretty close to us, and several people (hello, Ingrams!) recommended that we try to hit any NPs that we could.  While I would love to make this journey about hitting all of the NPs, Billy would love to make this journey about hitting all of the notable burger joints.  It’s all about balance.

We packed up our exploded battery compartment and made our way west toward Columbia.  We still don’t know why a 2.5 hour trip takes at least double that in the bus.  At least the dog wasn’t freaking out this time!  Upon arrival it was time to patch up the battery business.

Here goes nothing

Front row to the fireworks show

With that out of the way, we set up camp.  We’re getting better and faster at it!  This park, while being as close to Congaree as we could get, only offered 30amp service.  So that meant we could only run one AC at a time.  Or one hair dryer.  Or the toaster oven.  Or the electric kettle.  You get the idea.  I think this honestly would be fine if the highs were around 75 degrees, but yeah, they totally weren’t.  It was above 90!  Kinda hot.

Back to bugs (one of many reasons Billy prefers the beach!)

The heat doesn’t bother me (or Finn, who insists that shorts aren’t ever suitable and wears pants all summer long), but the others aren’t big fans.  We thought about moving on after a couple of days, but the beautiful park won us over!  Plus, the heat drained our energy and made for some serious good napping!