South Carolina

June 6-24 2005

June 7 Entry
We're in Sumter South Carolina for about 20 days. I'm crazy excited because this is the city my basic training was in. We land at the airport and everything suddenly looks familiar. The last time I was here I was scared out of my mind. I grabbed Eric's hand and pulled him around the corner. I said "I bet the people in the room over here look scared." so we walked by and looked in, sure enough! It's the dreaded room under the stairs where Sergeants come and psych you out before taking you to basic training. When I was sitting in there someone came in and said "Don't freak out, once training is over it all mellows out and I promise you will love it." If that guy hadn't said that to me I might have been a mess like a lot of the other girls in basic. Someone was already there telling them the same thing. Thank God. :)


Sure, I lived here for a couple months, but I was on lockdown. I had no idea the city was so big. I don't drive yet and Eric works during the day. There's a Walmart across the street I'm going to check out. Well, it's more of a highway.

4 hours later...

That was awful. It's not across the street... it's across a small highway. I had to walk a mile down just to get to a crosswalk. My ankle is the size of a softball. I will NOT be doing that again!

The Food
It didn't occur to me that Mexican food would be so bad on the East Coast. All the Boeing guys went out to dinner. The people from the area loved it. It's normal they said! Chow hall food is better than this. Europeans make better Mexican food. There is one thing they do really well. BBQ. All of Eric's family on his mom's side is from the area. His grandpa lived in Myrtle Beach. They loved coming up here from Florida to get BBQ.

The Zoo
Visiting the Zoo has kind of become our thing. It's still shocking to me. I've never dated a guy who actually loved animals like this. I went with a guy once and he was so bored, and made it so obvious I had no fun. I just assumed guys were like that. Not Eric! When it's his idea to go I get so tickled. The zoo here was so awesome! I absolutely love cold blooded animals. I love them all really but these are my favorite. They had Galapagos turtles that you could actually touch! So guess what? I did. I happen to know they loved to be rubbed under the chin. People around me were freaking out. I even heard one lady say "Oh my God it's going to bite her." But nope. That turtle was so happy. He perked his little head up and enjoyed his chin rub. This was the best zoo experience ever.

Myrtle Beach

Eric was very excited to bring me here. He's spent a lot of time here with his grandparents. He showed me where they used to live, which is right near the beach. Awesome! Now I was a little confused because it's not spring break. Summer break, yes. There were college kids everywhere! We were sitting in traffic and off to the right was... BOOBS! Well that was weird and kind of gross haha. 

We find a place to park and walk around a little. I miss living in a city where you can actually walk around and explore. So we're walking and it starts to rain. I am loving this. I've never been so happy. Eric knows I can't run so we take our time, getting soaked! 

We find a Ripley's museum that's also an aquarium. We went to one on our trip to Florida and it was cool so why not? We both put aquariums up with Zoo's. Eric told me he would've liked to have studied marine biology in school. I'm still learning things about him, and every time I love what I learn. 

Ripley's Believe It or Not