Camping Trips

Early on we discovered that our family enjoyed camping. We would go with our friends and set up on sites that were close together. There were always memorable experiences on every trip. On a camping trip to Kings Mountain State Park we could not believe all the yellow jackets that were around the campsite. Glenn, Jr. was eating a honey bun and as he was taking the first bite one landed on the honey bun and stung him in the mouth. He remembers dropping the honey bun when he felt the sting in his mouth. He was so sad when he found out there were no more honey buns left to replace the one he dropped. Kings Mountain was nearby so we could go over for Friday and Saturday night and get back home in time to go to church Sunday

From the beginning our family enjoyed camping with friends. Myrtle Beach State Park was a popular camping spot that we enjoyed very much and visited many times. We would leave home around 4:00 a.m. and drive down to get in line on US 17 between 8 and 9 a.m. and wait to see if we could get into the campground. We would always take what we were going to eat for breakfast and lunch because if we could get a spot in the campground it would be around noon before we could get into it to set up. The campground was close to the beach and it had a great big swimming pool and many other things that the kids enjoyed. One time we were camping with Sue and John Rogers. Michael and their daughter Teresa were about the same age and decided to walk around the campground. They found that they were lost and could not remember how to get back to the campsite. A couple saw them walking and asked them if they knew the number of the campsite. They shared that Michael said he was staying at campsite 2 + 2... so they brought them to the right place, 22. As time passed, many campgrounds sprang up around the Myrtle Beach area. We tried them out but liked the State Park the best. We would always go on trips leaving early Monday morning and would return home late Saturday so we would not miss church on Sunday.

Another camping trip that I will never forget is when we were to meet Tom and Margaret Worthy out at a lake, a place they had been before. On the way going out we headed toward Withers Bridge; I was pulling a homemade camping trailer that I had built. It came unattached from the axle and went into the side ditch. We stopped and thought that the world had come to the end as we just sat there. After thinking awhile, I went back up to th Byrum General Store and called John Rogers, back then when we were in trouble we would call our close friends. We took everything out of the trailer and put it all in our little station wagon and went on to the lake. When Tom and Margaret got there they thought we were having a bad time but little later we found that the trouble we were having were not bad at all compared to others. A man pulled his big streamline trailer in the spot next to ours. As he got out to see what he should do, a snake bit him so he went to the hospital to get a shot for the snake bite. A couple hours later he was back. It was dark and as he unlocked his trailer from his car, it rolled back over his foot and broke it. He had to go back to the hospital. We all waited up until after midnight to welcome him back to the campground and to see if we could help him with anything. When he arrived, his foot was in a great big cast. We had a great weekend camping. When we got home we saw that John had picked up my trailer and put it in the backyard. I repaired it and we had many good trips with it. Listen as I tell this story. In addition to Kings Mountain Sate Park, we enjoyed Hanging Rock State Park which has several beautiful waterfalls and Carolina Hemlocks Recreation Area where it seemed to stay cool most of the time.