Sonny's Beach

After visiting Porter Creek Bridge Ruins, there were a couple of other places on my list to visit. Unfortunately, they were all unsuccessful except for Sonny's Beach. Despite the unpromising expectations of this stop, it was one of the coolest abandoned places I have visited. I vaguely found directions online on how to get there, and, after using Google maps, threw a hail Mary hoping when we arrived in the general vicinity we would know where to go. One thing I hate about the abandoned community is that no one shares locations because they want to be the only person to see the place. *eye roll* The only time I understand not sharing a location is if it is on private property and you got special permission from the owners to explore it.

Before we even found the trailers, we came across this cool building. The builidng in and of itself wouldn't have been worth the 1.5 hour drive because it was boarded up so we couldn't go inside, but it was cool to take pictures of the outside. Now, you're probably going to hate me because of what I had just said, but I can't remember *exactly* how to get to the trailers. It is near Route 2 on Catawba Island. We found a rode that looked like it would go nowhere. We got out of the car and decided to just walk and see if we would eventually find it and we did!

Sonny's Beach was founded by Walter ""Sonny and Joyce Lammers. As a soldier during World War II, Sonny said that if he ever made it back home he would never leave the area again, according to a 1985 article by the News Herald. I guess this makes creating a cottage complex worth the stay. I couldn't find much more on why this park became abandoned or when. By the time the News Herald article was published, Sonny had passed away. I'm assuming it just became nonexistent because the Lammers' got too old. It's just fascinating to me that it literally looks like people just left without packing anything up. All the trailers are full of people's personal belongings. The position of the complex itself is in a really cool place, the only downside are the train tracks that run right next to it. The train conductors are really nice though!

The downside to writing this so many years later is that I can't remember and little stories or anecdotes that go along with our trip. The only thing that stood out to me was the uncertainty of how to find it.