A fiery contribution from Steve Charest. . . .

Following are the shots and video that Steve Charest got of the North Myrtle Beach (Barefoot Landing) - thanks, Steve!

Adventure's over, back at home. . . .

Vacation's over. It happens every year but it never gets easier. It's not the drive home, we know every Walmart and Rest Area up the east coast, it's the packing everything up and leaving the beach. . . Heather and I took the dogs down there Saturday morning before we hit the road - of course it was gorgeous and the weather forecast for the week was amazing. *sigh*

So we hook up the car to the motorhome and stop at the guard shack on the way out - the nice old man asked us how the visit went, will we be coming back and we answered to the affirmative on both questions. What had Bob and I laughing as we left was when he commented that he was glad we'll be coming back and that they'll be looking for us next year - to which we simultaneously said, "WE BET YOU WILL"!!!! It's their own fault - they are the ones that keep renting us golf carts fer crying out loud. . .

The roadtrip home was interesting. As posted earlier in this blog, I noted that we had some setup "issues" that we had gotten resolved but typical for us, more issues challenged us on the way home. We stopped for gas in Maryland and while we were gassing up I noticed that the CO detector was chirping and that the fridge was flashing on/off. Then the water pump stopped working. That caught our attention - we've got a day and a half of travel ahead of us, running water is CRITICAL!!

We've got 15+ families that have left Myrtle Beach between Friday evening @ 9PM, Saturday morning @ 4AM, 6AM and then at 9AM, so we've got eyes all up the east coast and those that were running into traffic/construction problems were coconut telegraphing their locations back to the rest of us. There was a horrific accident on the Jersey Turnpike and traffic was seriously messed up - right at where we were planning to get off and Walmart it for the evening. Fortunately for us (and not our predecessors), we were far enough down the coast so that it was cleared by the time we got to our stop.

We were still plagued by minor electrical issues but were able to get the pump to run when the motorhome was shut off, although the fridge was shut down and wouldn't run on propane. That was no biggie as there was no food left at this point anyways - we're on our way home, we'll eat pretzels and peanuts till we get there!

We left Burlington, NJ at 5:30 Sunday morning and were home by 11:30AM - plenty of time to get the laundry started and prep ourselves for returning to the reality of work Monday morning!

As usual, it was a GREAT trip - we'll be doing it again next year and I strongly recommend the locale to anyone interested! Don't have a motorhome? No problem - the campground has several park rentals, which are very nice.

Till the next trip. . . .

I’m a photojournalist in a combat zone. . . .

I suppose this is my own damn fault but suddenly, chronicling the activities of the S’mores campers has become hazardous. Ever since I reported Steve’s NASCAR golf cart tactics, every golf cart I ride in has become an effort in “one-upsmanship” to toss me in the drink or worse! Take, for example, Missi M’s effort to roll the golfcart over – on MY side!!!! Eyewitnesses tell me that Eric M topped his wife’s antics by zigging when he should’ve zagged and managed to launch poor Beth to the roadside. I must note, however, it was kind of them to stop and pick her back up. . . .

FIRE! FIRE!!

FIRE!!! Here, there, EVERYWHERE!! Myrtle Beach is certainly a hotspot this week. As we were visiting Brookgreen Gardens a few days back, Murrell’s Inlet had themselves one doozy of a brush fire. And North Myrtle Beach, not to be outdone, has a raging brush fire that went into a development at Barefoot Landing and the area has been declared a disaster zone. National Guard helicopters were called in to help get the fire under control. The smoke from this inferno can be seen for miles, has closed highways and has turned the hotel district into a smokefest

Murrell's Inlet brush fire. . .

North Myrtle Beach fire. . .

Hotel row in a cloud of smoke. . .

From the "tickles my fancy" category. . .

A HISTORICAL first - Steve Charest, Jim Brawn AND Bob Egan at the beach! The sky is falling, the sky is falling!!!

Beth and Jason share a "special" talent? And Bob makes it to the lazy river?

Stephanie and Jackie split a corona and hop onto a golf cart - what kind of example are we setting here??!!

A lovely stroll through Brookgreen Gardens. . .

Brookgreen Gardens – a philanthropist with an ailing wife bought up several plantations and they dedicated the area to showcasing the wife’s sculptures. To date, the area is a sanctuary in Murrell's Inlet with mossy trees, landscaped gardens and sculptures, historical preservation of a rice paddy, an a rehabilitation zoo with local critters. . .

BAD S’mores! Bad! Bad!

We didn’t start out bad. It just happened. It’s really not our fault at all. . .

The day started out innocently enough. The weather forecast was for horrific thunderstorms, so nobody planned for a beach day. Bob, Steph, Jackie and I decided it would be a good day to hit Broadway at the Beach and go to Margaritaville. It was a good plan. . .

Later on, back at the campground. . . The sun went down (it does this every day, who knew this particular sunset was going to be an ominous one for the S’mores campers?). .

And we hopped on the golf carts. They knew where to take us, leisurely cruise around the campground. . .

Suddenly, it was “start your engines” time!

We had a brief blast of mischief in the golf carts – I was riding with Steve R, who I thought fancies himself a NASCAR racer and I envisioned us going into the drink a couple of times (that lagoon was too damn close for comfort!) and trying to shoot off pictures while holding on for dear life. . . That explains the poor quality of the pictures. . .

But then it’s all fun and games until a pissed off patrol guy happens upon you. Now, for some background, this campground is ¾ empty and we are situated in an area that pretty much only has us in three rows of campsites. UNFORTUNATELY, there’s an elder couple at the top of our row (and the only non-S’mores camper) in our row. So – even tho we were horsing around BEFORE quiet time, it was probably well past their bedtime when we were doing it and they probably complained. We can understand this, who hasn’t been there but man, are they going to have a tough week (there’s PLENTY of empty beachside sites that aren’t anywhere near us and besides – we were here first).

So – we’re done playing around and just sitting in the golf carts in our road – we’re partially blocking the road because we’re the only occupants of it! Patrol guy comes out, he hasn’t witnessed any of our shenanigans but boy, is he pissed off. We must’ve woke him from his nap or something. Well, doesn’t he light into us – threatening to call the cops on us when we sortof called his bluff - and told him that he'd better get his manager down here or we'll go up THERE to see him. He leaves, he's angry.

But he sure does return - WITH his manager! Long story short, Manager smooths things over and we weren't unreasonable with the guy, just pointing out that his patrol guy has major attitude and if they want us to come back, he needs to learn a little diplomacy!

Well, not quite sure what happened the next day - BUT - the day security guy came by and made it a point to talk to the boys and apologize for the 3rd shift guy. He told security and manager that we've been coming down here for years and we've never been a problem. Funny thing is? We haven't seen hide nor hair of the guy with the bad attitude since. And every patrol guy that drives by waves nicely to us from now on. . .

Maybe we weren't so bad after all?

Oh, and I'll close with this picture - I surely can't explain it but I find it pretty hilarious!