The Beauty Around Us

South Carolina Vacation: Surfside Beach SC to Warren PA

By Linda G. on February 23, 2022

On Wednesday, February 16th, We “checked out” of Airbnb ”Seaside Cottage” around 6:30 am and drove to the beach, where we watched the sun rise. 

This was the first sunrise on the beach that I saw in the week we were in Surfside Beach.  I wasn’t able to get to the beach in time for sunrise the other mornings. A prescription drug that I take with dinner rarely allows me to leave the house before 9:00 am, unless I have the availability of a close by bathroom. Bob saw a beach sunrise the first and last day.  

After seeing the sunrise, we began our drive back to Pennsylvania.  

We arrived at the Quality Inn New River Gorge (Fayetteville, WV) around 2:00 pm.  We checked in and carried our baggage into our room.  Soon afterward we walked to Elliott’s Whitewater Bar & Grill, located on the hotel grounds.  There was a flurry of excitement, as we entered,  I thought there was going to be a bar brawl.  The guy cussing was told to “just go”.  He did, after a few minutes and more cussing.  Someone walked out with him to make sure that he left and didn’t hit anyone’s car!  The bar quieted down after that man left.  Later we learned that the unruly man had been there for several hours drinking Jägermeister and was saying things he shouldn’t be saying to the underage waitress.  The waitress felt so uncomfortable that she asked the manager to come sit in the bar.  A couple of the men at the bar, who had been there for only a short while, kicked out the unruly man.   By the way, the food and service were excellent.  Bob ordered a pork chop with onion rings.  I ordered fish sticks with a loaded baked potato.  Both meals included a side salad.

Soon after dinner we drove to the Canyon Rim Visitor Center, where we viewed the New River Gorge and the New River Gorge Bridge.  The Canyon Rim Visitor center is about a mile north of our hotel. We had planned to stop at the visitor center the next morning, but it likely will be raining.  So we visited this afternoon.

We have stopped often at the Canyon Rim Visitor Center, but we had never seen this particular view of the bridge. As we were crossing the bridge I noticed a man and a woman standing at an overlook. When we arrived at the visitor center, the first thing we did was look for that overlook. The trail shown in the photograph displayed above leads under the bridge. Bob walked down and back up that trail (steep climb!), but was not able to walk under the bridge. The passageway was locked.

We walked down a boardwalk to an overlook of the bridge. We could have walked farther, but neither of us felt like doing steps.

We walked behind the Visitor Center, where we saw the New River Gorge.

Around 6:00 pm we lost power at the hotel. We had no electricity until 8:11 pm. We never did find out what caused the outage. The power outage did not affect the hotel only. Nearby businesses lost their power as well. By the way, soon after the power went out, we lied down and fell asleep. The power coming back on awakened me. That is how I knew the time the power came back on.

We departed Quality Inn New River on Thursday, February 17th, shortly before 7:15 am. Before leaving, we enjoyed a complementary breakfast of scrambled egg patties, sausage and biscuits; orange juice and tea/coffee; and muffin/danish.  The hot food was served to us.  The remaining foods we were free to pick up ourselves.  The server told us the way they do breakfast is not COVID related.  They do breakfast this way year round.

We reached the West Virginia-Pennsylvania border around 9:30 am.  We still had a 3 1/2-hour drive until we would be back home.  Up to this point we had avoided the forecasted rain! Ten minutes later, at Masontown exit (exit 14 on I-79), we caught up with the rain.  The rain was with us the rest of the way home.

We got off I-79 at the Slippery Rock exit.  We were getting tired of interstate travel.  The slower pace was welcome.

We stopped for lunch at Eat’n Park in Franklin.  Bob ordered a chicken sandwich with cheesy fries.  I ordered a turkey club sandwich with a fruit cup.  We each ordered pie for dessert. 

We were back on the road at 12:35 pm and returned home at 2:00 pm.  We drove a total of 1,750.40 miles, since our departure on February 8th.

This was the first time that Bob and I had ever been to the South Carolina coast. We enjoyed our visit very much — so much, in fact, that we are already talking about going back next year.