Myrtle Beach...The Hitch In Our Plans

Wednesday, August 3rd, the plan was to go to Charleston, South Carolina. No reservations has been made. We were all totally flexible. Kris came out to breakfast and said she found an Urgent Care and we needed to get Cordell there that morning. Kris really thought he had a UTI. He ran a lot of fever through the night. We all loaded in the car and took Cordell to the Urgent Care Clinic. 

Kris and Cordell would spend most of the morning in this clinic. Many tests would be run. His Parkinson's doctor would be contacted. While they were doing this, we waited in the car in the parking lot. Cordell had Kris call us and tell us to go find the mall and be where it was cool and they would call when they were done. We agreed.

While driving to this Urgent Care Clinic, we took a wrong turn and turned around at the entrance to a mall. Claude and I thought it was down the street from the clinic. It took us two times driving that road before we were sure it wasn't that road. We drove a long way the other direction and still did not find a mall. There was a McDonald's and we parked and went in there and each ordered a soda. Claude and I would spend our morning waiting in a McDonald's. We noted a CVS Pharmacy close by. When Cordell was hallucinating, he kept saying he needed to go to CVS. This would become a running joke the rest of the trip. Whenever anyone saw a CVS, we would alert Cordell of it being close and ask if he needed anything. One time he actually had us stop at one and went in and bought a cane for the rest of the trip. He called it his kick-stand. 

After they finished running a ton of tests on Cordell, it was determined he had Covid. Ugh. We drove thru a Burger King and took lunch back to our unit at Harbor Lights. After eating, everyone but me napped. 

When Claude woke up, Kris and Cordell said the two of us should go and do something. So, Claude and I drove to Pawleys Island. This is one of the most historic of the communities on the Grand Strand. It is at the south end of the Grand Strand. It was summer homes for the pre-Civil War rice planters. There are 12 original residences from this period. The area is home to the original rope hammock. They are still handcrafted and available at Pawley Island hammock stores on the mainland. We found this part of the Grand Strand delightful. Quieter. A place we might rent a home for a week and just relax. Again, you must drive over the salt water marshes to get to the island. So beautiful. I will post the historic markers before the picture of the building. There was one historic marker for which there is not picture of a building. 

On the way back, Claude suggested we have ice cream. That is not something one says no to. We stopped at Paradice Ice Cream for pineapple mango smoothies. Yes, they do spell it paradi'c'e. 

As we drove home, we called Kris and asked if they would like McCallister's for dinner. Kris got the menu out and they let us know their order. We would stop and pick up dinner for everyone. The young man at the counter that took our order looked exactly like Stanley Tucci! I sent a quick text to Andie and assured her that Stanley Tucci took our order. She was amazed!

As we turned on the road back to Harbor Lights, the ice cream truck that drives thru neighborhoods for kids to buy an ice cream treat pulled in front of us. Ironically, he had a small generator on the back of his ice cream truck. The name on it was Predator. I think this is not a good name for that particular business!

We all ate together. Cordell and Kris sat on the balcony for a bit. It was too hot and humid for me and Claude. I picked up my embroidery project for a quiet evening as Cordell and Kris went to bed early.

Thursday, August 4th, all had a bit of breakfast in our living/kitchen together. Cordell and Kris both felt okay to travel and we determined to ahead and drive to Charleston, South Carolina as we had planned for Wednesday. We gathered our things and all headed to the car. 

The drive to Charleston is two hours. We passed several CVS's!! To enter Charleston, you cross over an amazing bridge. It is the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge. It is a cable-stayed bridge over the Cooper River connecting Charleston to Mount Pleasant. It opened on July 16, 2005 and became the longest cable-stayed bridge of its time in North America and the tallest structure in South Carolina. I'll post pictures of entering Charleston. At the end, I'll post pictures of leaving Charleston over this bridge.

When we plotted Charleston before our trip, we knew we only had one day with a two-hour drive at the beginning and the end. We prepicked two things we wanted to do. One was a good place to eat and the other was a carriage tour through the historic district. This day was exceptionally hot and very humid to boot. We found a parking garage for our car and walked the half a block to the restaurant. 

Kris had been to Charleston with her sister so we let her be our tour guide for this day. The restaurant is called SNOB (Slightly North of Broadway). It was excellent. This time, our server looked like Anthony Bourdain! This required another quick text to Andie to let her know Anthony Bourdain was our server. She was aghast! We enjoyed a taste of pickled shrimp for our appetizer and we all pronounced it good. For my meal, I had shrimp and grits. Claude opted for salmon salad which Kris had loved when visiting with her sister and really wanted to have again. It was an excellent meal. 

While we arranged a carriage tour, I took a couple of pictures of local street art.

We found Palmetto Carriage Tour several blocks from the restaurant. We decided to walk to it. Upon arrival, I secured us four seats on the next available carriage ride. The horses at Palmetto Carriage Tour are taken very good care of. One of these pictures has fans with a horse in front of it. What doesn't show up well is there is a spray of water coming from above the fans. The horses were getting cooled off better than us! The horses that pulled our carriage were Martha on the left and Butter on the right. Our guide had a doctorate in music and was very knowledgeable about his city.  He didn't overwhelm us with facts and dates but gave us what we needed for each view. I appreciated him as a tour guide and driver of a team of horses. After we left the red barn, the first stop was a little white building that actually looked like an outhouse. It is where the city rules the carriage tours. Each carriage must go there first. There are only 28 carriages allowed on the streets each day. A fee is paid per head on the carriage to the city and the city in turn gives the guide the route they must follow for that tour. This spread out the routes and limits that number of them. If a tour guide ventures out of his assigned tour area, he is personally fined $1000. The tour guide has to be prepared to tell you about all the different paths for the tours as he doesn't know until he pays the fee for that particular carriage ride which path he will be assigned. 

Back to our car we walked. Then drove back across that lovely bridge. This time I didn't have to worry too much about driving directions for Claude, so I took more pictures of this drive across the bridge. Love this series of pictures.

We were all very, very thirsty. Claude found a shopping area with a Chick-filA and a McDonald's. He drove through the McDonald's first. Now, we were only ordering four sodas. Two large Dr. Peppers, 1 large Coke and 1 large diet Coke. That is all my friend. That is all. We got to the place to place the order. Claude started to tell the girl two large Dr. Peppers. She paused him and then asked again what he wanted. He again started with two large Dr. Peppers. She again stopped him. Okay! Then she didn't come back on the voice box any more. I finally called across Claude and said, "Are you there?" She said she was and we could place our order. It took several more times to get the four drinks right with her. Then we pulled to the window to pick up or order and pay. Claude paid. She gave him a Coke which I gave to Chris. Then she gave us a diet Coke which I placed in the cup holder. Then she tried to hand Claude two Dr. Peppers which looked for all they were worth like watered down iced tea. I assured her she could take those back and try again, they were not Dr. Pepper. She said they were. I told her they were too light and her machine needed to be refilled. She called her manager. He asked me if I wanted the drinks. I assured him they were not Dr. Peppers. He assured me they were. I assured him they were too light in color and that meant they would be mostly seltzer water with no Dr. Pepper syrup. He eventually walked away. I asked for our money back as this was not a correct order. We went back and forth at that drive-thru window with her assuring me it was a Dr. Pepper and me assuring her I could tell by the color it was NOT a Dr. Pepper. Finally, I took the cup, got out of the car in the drive-thru lane, and headed to go inside the store. I told Claude I would meet him on the other side if he had to move the car. By this time there was line behind us. All we wanted was four sodas. Not a hard order to fill. When I got inside, the cashier finished taking the order and money for the person she was helping. There were two other people in the line. I stood to the side and said nothing. It was obvious I was upset. When the cashier finished taking the order, she ignored me and went to the next person in line. I was okay with that as I knew they were before me. The next lady in line however, looked at the cashier and said, "She is obviously upset. You should take care of her." I thanked her and told the cashier I wanted a real Dr. Pepper. She said they were out of Dr. Pepper. The manager came to the counter. He told me he had refunded the money to Claude. I asked him if they even tried the fountain in the seating area. He said no. I gave him is non-Dr. Pepper and left. As I left, the people behind me were asking and concerned that there was now no soda. Ugh! Let them figure it out. We went to Chick-filA and got sodas! What an amazingly stupid experience. 

Back to Harbor Lights for us. As we got close to Harbor Lights, we would drive-thru a Wendy's for dinner.