Family Visitors

We received a surprise email that Gary’s sister and brother in law would be passing through Myrtle Beach on a driving vacation.  They were taking in a few destinations in the southeast and Myrtle Beach was one of them.  Monday evening they came over to the campground and saw our motor home that they hadn’t seen before.  Then we all went out to our favorite Myrtle Beach BBQ – Sticky Fingers for dinner.  It was very nice to have family visitors.

Just When You Thought It Was Safe to Go Back In The Water

After the Lions disappointing first loss of the season, we went down for a walk on the beach and much to our dismay the water line was littered with....................JELLYFISH

We saw probably a hundred of them in a half mile walk or so.  Can't chance the sting from one of these so no ocean until they are gone.

A Man and His Kite

Not a whole lot to report but with this posting title and picture, the weather clearly has taken a turn back to the good after a bout with a subtropical storm that hit us with sheets of rain and wind.

We will be in Myrtle Beach for another week, before heading north in the car to attend the wedding of Gary’s son, Andy, in Columbus, Ohio.  When we return to Myrtle Beach we will spend one more week here at the beach.   Our Par 3 golfing could use a bit more work and we may even step up to an executive length course.

After years of our hobby of attending garage and estate sales on weekends, we couldn’t take not going any longer and yesterday hit the Myrtle Beach garage sale scene.  Gary snared a new putter and a $3 beach umbrella.  I found a small cooler to replace one we apparently lost in the storm winds.  We had said our garage sale days were over now that we are living in a motor home, but old habits die hard.

Myrtle Beach Campgrounds

Gary here for this post.  After our last post, Heyduke50 asked for our input on Myrtle Beach campgrounds. 

We are staying at Lakewood Camping Resort (the second time we have stayed here) which is a bit south of the city.  It is what I would consider one of the big four campgrounds here with the others being Ocean Lakes and Pirateland very near to Lakewood, and Myrtle Beach Travel Park (we stayed there once) which is north of the city.

These four campgrounds are all located at the beach.  They are massive and have loads of amenities.    They all have permanent residents in addition to the transients.  In the summertime, they command $60 to $70 a night.  This time of year they are more in the $45 to $50 a night range, but we chose Lakewood because they gave us what we considered a fantastic rate of $25 a night when we prepaid a 30 night stay (with all the taxes, fees, etc., it is more like $30 a night).  We had a slight preference for Myrtle Beach Travel Park, but they wouldn’t even consider matching the rate.  Their best was 7 nights for the price of six which still would have made it over $40 a night plus taxes and fees.

There are a few other options.  Apache is also on the beach, but I just don’t have the impression it measures up to the “Big 4”.  There are also the KOA and Briarcliffe, but they are off the beach  (Briarcliffe is Passport America affiliated).  And there are also two state parks – Myrtle Beach (without any sewer hookups) and Huntington Beach in Murrell’s Inlet which does have some full hookups and could be a very viable option if you are not staying a month and you can get it (seems to be very popular offseason).

Here is the link for RVParkReviews for Myrtle Beach.  We use this site a lot for user reviews on camp grounds.  And we need to start contributing to it as well.

http://rvparkreviews.com/regions/South_Carolina/Myrtle_Beach.html

Ah, The Beach, Myrtle Beach That Is

Wow, we have been at Myrtle Beach for a week already.  Time flies when you are sitting at the beach in 80 degree weather (well, at least it was in the 80s last week).

Our campground is right at the Atlantic Ocean.  Our campsite is about a hundred yards from the water.

There is so much to do in Myrtle Beach – shopping, eating, entertainment, activities, etc.  We have gotten the golf clubs out of the cargo carrier for the first time during the trip.  We have played some golf at a nearby par 3 course.  And for the first time playing this year, we have played reasonably well, for us at least.

Smokey Mountains

On our way to Myrtle Beach, we stopped for a few days in the Smokey Mountains.    On the road through the National Park, we actually caught brief glimpses of a black bear foraging along the side of the road. 

After visiting the park we decided to take a shortcut back to our campsite.  The road was very winding with switchbacks every 100 feet or so.  At one point, the pavement ended and we were driving on a dirt one-lane road not knowing where we would end up.  Finally, we reached pavement again and were relieved to be back in civilization.

We enjoyed Asheville a lot.  It is a very vibrant city.  We passed on visiting the Biltmore as it costs $55 each for admission.  Advanced purchase of tickets could have lowered it to $45, but for our budget would have felt better at about $30.   And then we could well pass through there again sometime.

Memphis

From Arkansas we went to Tunica, Mississippi, just south of Memphis, Tennessee.  We camped in the RV Park of Harrah’s Tunica casino.  It seems a number of casinos around the country have RV parks and at very reasonable rates (if you avoid the gambling which they are trying to draw you there for).   Harrah’s has a Paula Deen buffet featuring food all made according to her recipes.  Her broccoli salad was great and I got the recipe.  Gary really enjoyed the gumbo.  We saw cotton fields around Tunica.  Each bloom is like four individual cotton balls.  I picked a few for souvenirs.

We also explored Memphis from our Tunica base.  I went to Graceland (Gary had already been there).  We had BBQ  at Corky’s, featured on the Travel Channel’s best places for BBQ.  We also explored Beale Street, Memphis’ version of Bourbon Street, but with a blues vibe rather than a jazz one. We visited the Peabody Hotel where they have the world famous ducks.  Each morning they bring 5 ducks down to the lobby water fountain from where they live on the roof of the hotel.  They are brought down on the elevator and walk a red carpet to the fountain.  At 5:00 p.m. they have a big ceremony to escort the ducks back on the red carpet to the elevator to the roof where they stay the night.