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!

And let the golf cart races begin. . . !

Sorry, friends, between the cocktail hour and the golf cart races, maintaining a blog is pretty much impossible! Wish you were here, don’t you? Yeah, it’s tough having problems such as this. .

To catch you up on our ever so hectic schedule. . . The beach is gorgeous, the weather is sunny and in the 70’s! We’ve buried the kids up to their necks in sand. . .

Then, to end the day’s water activities, a ride down the lazy river!

And I’m including this photo of James, just because that photo really tickles my fancy!

On other exciting news – Jim Moro got a hole in one on Friday at Tupelo Bay at lucky #7 hole. To quasi-quote Jim on this momentous occasion – “it was a crappy shot, but it went in!”

We see Patriot’s Day is supposed to be pretty cold up North but we’ll be sharing your weather misery as we’re supposed to get some intense thunderstorms – guess we’ll just have to hit Barefoot Landing and visit Jimmy’s Margaritaville for some fruity drinks! Ah, life is good. . .

More later.. . .

We have landed on the sands of Myrtle and have taken the Beach!

We finished our journey south and have arrived at Myrtle. Good news - 12 year old Belle, who regularly poops on my carpets at home at least once a day but somehow just turned gaseous for a day and a half in the motorhome, FINALLY pooped in North Carolina. Gas problem solved! Phew, peeew problem gone. . . .

The trip down has been surprisingly hassle free - no traffic to speak of, gas prices weren't stupidly crazy ($1.86 seems to be the norm). We arrived the campground to find ourselves surrounded by New Yorkers (apparently this week is NY's school vacation week, next week is MA and I'm not sure when NH is), we've been advised by our NY neighbors that it's been a very chilly week here - we'll be attesting to that as tonight's low is for 40 degrees and frost warnings. Forecasts for next week promises warmer weather in the form of highs of 70. We'll see.

So, as the Moro's, Egan's and Brawn's get settled into our campsites, it was not without angst. The Moro's, pictured here, had a smooth setup, no problems and were lounging posthaste!

BUT (and don't deny it, you knew this was coming), the Egan's and Brawn's had, typically, "issues". . . Aud goes to open the bedroom slide, and what happens? Nooooo, opening of the bedroom slide. I holler to Bob of the problem, he responds in a rather colorful manner and adds it to the list of setup stuff we need to do. Aud resigns herself to tearing apart the bedroom (which was so sytematically packed) so Bob can take the bed apart and get underneath to the mechanism that works the slide. Much ado for a cotter pin but unfortunately necessary. . .

What happened with the Brawn's, you ask? Much more upsetting than what the Egan's went through. They start setting up - the motorhome jacks won't go down (for those who don't have a motorhome, the jacks are CRITICAL to having a stable camper that doesn't rock around when you walk around in it, they are also key to being able to put out the slides without damaging them. Bob, Jim and Jim spent hours poring over the owner's manual (useless) and we hit the website for the jack manufacturer (again useless) and they ended up calling a local RV doctor, who made an emergency trip out and got them fixed up. Then, inexplicably, their bathroom sink BROKE! Just split right in half - and it's an odd shape - we're not sure how that fix is going to play out. . . .

But the girls are happy. . . Now that we've gotten all the tough issues dealt with, it's a slide into "ahhhhhh, vacation"! We've got at least 3 families joining us tomorrow afternoon followed by another dozen or so to arrive on Saturday. Pirateland is definitely going to be a happening place for the next week!!!

The boys are consoling themselves with a golf plan for tomorrow, the gals have plans for the beach as the weather looks to be mighty fine tomorrow!

Looking forward to the rest of the arrivals, picking up the golf carts tomorrow. . . Let the races begin!!!

More later . . . .

ENROUTE TO MYRTLE BEACH

Wednesday was a tough day to work, but to my credit I did – it helped that I was home alone, already had the camper packed to the rafters and had nothing else I needed to do.

4:45 PM – we hook up with Ellen and Jim Moro at Wyman Gordon’s and Jim and Heather Brawn pull up shortly later, we’re on track for our 5PM departure to hit Myrtle Beach!

We’ll have to leave on Wednesday evening from now on – we made the Tapanzee Bridge in 2 ½ hours, ran into very little as far as traffic, this trip is one of our best with no nightmares.

Whoa, I spoke too soon. We decided to take Belle with us. I went back and forth over the decision and decided to bring her with us for 2 major reasons – (1) she’s 12 years old, she stresses at the kennel and hates it as she doesn’t play well with other dogs, and (2) I selfishly thought that the $300+ wasn’t worth it to have to deal with a completely neurotic dog once I get home (in hindsight, bad decision).

All was going well, until after we congratulated ourselves for being so clever and planning our departure at such an opportune day/time to miss any kind of traffic jam. As I mentioned, we crossed the Tapanzee bridge in record time and that’s when it started. SOMEBODY in this camper has gas. BAD. The girls had set up their beds and woke up, whining – what’s that SMELL? I went back to check things out and hooey, don’t light any matches back here, we’ll blow up!

It’s Belle. We hit the last rest area in NJ and I’m out there, walking Belle and willing her to POOP ALREADY. No such luck. So now we’re tooling down 95 at 70 mph with the heat on and the windows WIDE OPEN. . .!

I’m keeping an eye out for bridges and tunnels that have restrictions with regards to gas. I’m not worried about the damn propane, it’s the methane that’s gonna kill us!

Knock on wood, hopefully that’s the worst that will happen this trip, I’ll keep you posted!

Can't leave for Myrtle Beach soon enough!!

We're looking to leave Grafton on Wednesday, April 15 circa 5PM. Should arrive Myrtle Beach, specifically Pirateland by dinner on Thursday!