Ben Franklin visits Myrtle Beach!

Name: Nina Borgman
Date: 3/9/13-3/14/13
Destination: Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Latitude: 33.6890603
Longitude:-78.8866943
Round Trip:1785.7
Total Miles:3616.9

Ben Franklin and I left Wham on Wednesday afternoon and traveled to Cobden, IL where we packed up all of our things and got ready for our road trip. On Saturday, we went to Marion, IL to pick up our super cool travel device, a Toyota Prius. After we learned how to drive the car, Ben and I traveled to Sikeston, MO where we had hot "throwed rolls" at Lambert's Cafe! 

After dinner, we drove back to Carbondale, IL to make final preparations for our trip. We left Carbondale around midnight, and began our long voyage to Myrtle Beach, SC! We saw many things on the way, and even drove through a mountain!

It was pretty scary! 

After about 10 hours of driving, we finally made it to South Carolina!

 We found out that the dirt in South Carolina is red because there is an abundance of iron in the soil, and red dirt is common in the southern states! We were happy to make it to South Carolina, but we still had a long ways to go.

After 14 hours of driving, we finally made it to Myrtle Beach! Myrtle Beach was first settled in 1526 by a group of Spaniards from Hispaniola. In the late 1800's and early 1900's people began to vacation there, although houses and camps were few and far between.  The name "Myrtle Beach" was chosen in a name-the-town contest in 1900, and was named after the plant wax myrtle, which grows abundantly in the area. Myrtle Beach finally became a city in 1937, when the population reached 5,000. Myrtle Beach became a military town in the 1940's, until 1993 when the base was permanently closed. Today, Myrtle Beach is a popular vacation destination for Americans and Canadians alike, with a beautiful beach, and lots of family fun.

Some of the activities we did in Myrtle Beach included shopping, shell collecting, and eating LOTS of wonderful food. We stopped by Jimmy Buffet's famous restaurant Margaritaville.

Ben recommends the Lava Lava shrimp!

We also visited a place called Alligator Adventure where we saw many different animals including: alligators, crocodiles, snakes, lemurs, and tigers. Some other neat animals we saw were: albino alligators, a two headed turtle, an alligator born without a tail, and finally Utan, the largest alligator on exhibit in America!

Ben Franklin: Crocodile Dundee

All too soon, it was time to pack up our things, and head back home to Illinois. Ben and I stopped back in Cobden, IL to unpack, and then returned to Carbondale relaxed and ready to go back to school! Altogether, Ben and I spent over 30 hours driving in the car, and traveled 1785.7 miles!