Myrtle Beach Fun...Getting There

Saturday, July 30th, was my birthday. Poor Claude, he kept trying to find me a gift for my birthday. As we have aged, this had gotten to be more difficult most of the time. We are at a place in life where we have very few needs. What we want to do and enjoy, we pretty much do as we have that desire or need. Our house is smaller and full. We neither are anxious to add anything to its walls or furnishings. I honestly told Claude I really wanted to have a day in the car with him driving to our vacation destination. When evening came, I wanted to pick a restaurant in the town where we stayed for my birthday dinner. We did just that and it was a wonderful birthday. 

This first day of travel we would drive to an Econolodge in Lugoff, SC. The total drive time to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina is a little over 9 hours with no stops. Our condo in Myrtle Beach was for a Sunday check-in. We needed to pick up Cordell and Kris Sunday at 1:30pm. So, we decided to drive the first seven hours and get a room for that first night. That would allow us to sleep in a bit on Sunday.

With that in mind, we left before 9am to get our biscuit breakfast. We were only a few blocks from our home when I realized I forgot my tumbler. It was full of ice water on the counter in our kitchen. Claude returned home to get it. We had our biscuits and were on the road by 9:15. 

I started a crochet project on the drive down. It will be a scarf for winter. It was a new pattern. Very simple and easy to stop and then pick back up at any moment. I sent this picture to my friend, Laura, to show her what I was working on. She assured me I was probably the only person she knew who would crochet a winter project when it is over 90 degrees outside! 

We entered Tennessee at 11am. I have come to see my cellphone as the Magic 8 Ball. Therefore, I shall call it my Magic 8 Phone. It knows all the answers! We had a gas stop in Tennessee at the Pilot station. Gas was $3.75/gallon. Better than Kentucky. We entered North Carolina at 1:15pm and South Carolina at 2:35pm.

Along this drive, Claude tried Rosemary cashews. We both agreed they were okay, however, we probably wouldn't buy them again.

We checked into the Econolodge in Lugoff and I found San Jose's Mexican Restaurant for my birthday dinner spot. Good meal. We followed it with dessert at Dairy Queen. Dessert for me was the Girl Scout Thin Mint Blizzard. I only get a small. But on top of a Mexican dinner, my tummy was FULL. 

In Lugoff, South Carolina, we found a business named "Rock Ye Tops Marble". They make headstones. Gave me a chuckle. 

We filled up with gasoline at Pilot in Lugoff at $3.50/gallon. This would be out best gas price of the trip. I asked the cashier how you pronounce Lugoff. It looks for all it is worth like it would be Lug-Off. However, not so. It is Lu-Goff. There, now you know!

It was a good birthday.

Sunday, July 31st, we were on the road by 10am. I saw a billboard that amused me: "Ain't no potty like a Buc-ee's potty." Buc-ee's is a gas station like no other. Haven't been in one yet. They have more gas pumps for cars that any other gas station ever. Inside there is supposed to be shopping of all kinds as well as lots of things to eat. Will have to get in one some time.

We arrived at Harbor Lights about 12:15pm. I went to the office and did prep to check-in. Check-in is at 4pm. They would call when our room was ready. We left to find the airport. We picked up Kris and Cordell at Myrtle Beach Airport. Their flight was 10 minutes early. One usually gets in a little earlier flying west to east as you get a nice tail wind that helps the pilot speed the flight along. We were very happy when their luggage and our luggage fit in my car!! We hadn't given that a ton of thought. We tried to pack light. Weren't sure if they would think of that. My car is the middle-sized Buick, the Envision. We got their two suitcases (one large and one small), our suitcase (large) and our two back packs in the trunk. Yeah us!! Now, we couldn't buy big souvenirs as there was no room.

We drove back to Harbor Lights Resort to try and get a key to the room. The room was just about ready so the clerk gave me four keys and told me just to go on in. We did. 

I went up to the room to be sure we could enter. The room was on the second floor. I found the maintenance man trying to close the sofa bed. It would not close. I assured him I would bring up re-enforcements. I went back down and got the rest of our group and we brought up our luggage. Claude and I would take the A bedroom and Cordell and Kris would have the B room in Unit 1723. 

We put our luggage in our respective bedrooms. Then the guys went into the living room to help the poor maintenance man who was struggling and sweating trying to get that bed back together. Between the three of them, they managed to at least get the sofa bed closed. I assure the maintenance man we didn't need to use the sofa bed. He could put it on his maintenance list and deal with it when we checked out. He was grateful. 

However, as Kris and Cordell put their luggage in their room, they realized the carpet was wet. The air conditioning unit over their door was dripping. The maintenance man went in to look at it. He called another maintenance man to join him. They took the unit down, cleaned it out and put a new tube in it. Then we asked for a fan to help dry out that carpet. He brought a big fan and we set it to work to dry out the carpet. Whew! Now we were set for our week at Harbor Lights as it would be our home-away-from-home.

I stepped out on our screened in balcony and took this picture. Harbor Lights set on a waterway. Nice relaxing view. 

It was now time to determine where to have our meal of the day. Seafood seemed the best bet since we were at the ocean. Kris found Tasty Crab House and we pointed the car in that direction. Turned out to be a fantastic choice. They served what we would call a steamer pot with shrimp. Claude, Cordell and Kris ordered that for each of them. I ordered fried shrimp. They brought out a bucket full of the supplies we would need for dinner. Paper plates for them, plastic gloves for them, hand wipes for after eating. LOTS of napkins. It was a fun meal and we all enjoyed what we ordered.

Cordell would tell me later that Kris has a problem with putting fingers in your mouth. Having plastic gloves was a help for her. The next day would prove a challenge in that regard.

After dinner, we found a Walmart grocery store to pick up a few things for our kitchen. We would eat our meal of the day out of the condo each day. We wanted breakfast things and snack things. Walmart was an Absolute Zoo. I have never seen that many people in a Walmart at one time, not even at Christmas. I assured the others that, if we were going to get Covid on the trip, it would be in that Walmart store! 

In the evening, I picked up my crochet project and worked a little more on scarf.