Day 2 involves a ride east to Myrtle Beach and Wilmington, North Carolina to check out the fairly new South Carolina 22 (Veterans Highway) and 31 (Carolina Bays Parkway) freeways, Myrtle Beach itself, and the new Interstate 140 in Wilmington among other things.

In Summerville, the interchange between U.S. 17 Alternate and Interstate 26 exists within a commercial district based upon big box retail. As such, the interchange garners a lot of traffic from the freeway for the services that the nearby businesses provide. Looking at the satellite image of the interchange, it’s quite apparent that the full-cloverleaf interchange was recently altered to that of a six-ramp partial-cloverleaf interchange, ala Interstate 65 at U.S. 90 and U.S. 45 in Mobile, Alabama and Interstate 385 at South Carolina 291 in Greenville, South Carolina. The addition of traffic lights to an already congested stretch of U.S. 17A does not help, but at least there are still two ramps per direction from Interstate 26.

U.S. 17 Alternate joins U.S. 521 on their final approach to Georgetown and junction U.S. 17. Just ahead of their respective ends, U.S. 17 Alternate turns onto Church Street for 1.5 blocks to its junction with U.S. 17 and U.S. 701. U.S. 521 remains straight and ends at U.S. 17 on its own. An end sign is even in place to herald the conclusion of the two-state highway.

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