Friday, April 16, 2021

Temperature, Low 59 Degrees; High 75 Degrees

Travel Day

The Good Old Days

We awoke to a rather cool morning but there was no time to stay under the covers because we had work to do so that we could get on the road. A quick breakfast of bagels and we were ready to finish packing up.

So it was that by 9:30 am we were ready to roll. Well, almost. I suddenly remembered that I had forgotten to check tire pressure. OK, I’m a bit fanatically about this but why not, one thing we don’t need is a blow out. Now, wouldn’t you know, they were all low. Time to pull out the air compressor and get to work.

The time was 10:04 am and we were rolling. Sort of. It was interesting getting out of both our site and the campground in general. A lot of tight turns with minimal clearance but I just took my time and soon enough we were out on the highway.

The trip wasn’t that bad. The only slow stretch was going through the town of Conway. The traffic was heavy but moving, and of course cars cutting in and out like there was no tomorrow. However, once we were through the town the ride was a breeze.

This was on Route 501. A miniature version of South of the Border.

In due time we were on Route 95 heading toward North Carolina.

Then there it was, bigger than life. The true South of the Border.

We stopped here once a long time ago and once was enough.

Soon enough just north of that wacky, tacky store and we were motoring into North Carolina.

We made a quick stop for fuel and within ten miles we were at our exit. A right at the top of the exit ramp, a mile down the road and . . .

there was the sign pointing the way to our new neighborhood.

The road leading in. It is hard packed sand, but it is smooth as can be.

The welcome mat, or sign in this case, was out.

Time to check in and pick up our registration packet. We were one of eight who came in today.

Home sweet home for the next two days. The site is hard packed sand, level enough that I don’t have to worry about using the jacks. The utilities are right at hand. Unfortunately, we still have trees around us so once again no DISH. But, we can get a number of OTA channels so we’re fine for the time being.

Our new, temporary neighborhood.

We both have been having a good laugh the last few days. With no DISH its sort of like the good old days. Oh no, we weren’t going to get TV. At least I wasn’t. We played dominoes night after night and listened to a radio. We went to bed shortly after the sun went down and got up just as early when the sun came back up. That was the life of a full time RV’er. Yea, times have changed. We both admit we’re spoiled. We miss our DISH. We don’t like sites with trees. We tend to stay up later at night and get up later in the morning. Ah yes, the good old days were just that – the good old days. We’ll be happy when we finally get back into the 21st century.

That was our day on The Road of Retirement. Thankfully, once again the trip was an easy one. Our new home is fine by us. Soon enough it will be Sunday and we’ll be back on the road again. The only thing that is not agreeing with us is the temperature. The further north we move the colder it is getting. Ah well, such is life.

A quick update on Barbara’s brother Harry. Surgery took a total of ten hours and everything went as planned. The surgeon was pleased with the results. Harry is now resting comfortably and should be going home in about five days or so. Thank you one and all for your prayers.

Thanks for taking the time to read our blog.  We always appreciate your company, your comments, and your suggestions. Keep safe, keep healthy, live to the fullest the days that God gives you.

These are the voyages of  Elvira and her two intrepid travelers.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have never been before.

See you on down the road!

Thursday, April 15, 2021

Temperature, Low 67 Degrees; High, 71 Degrees

I’m Leaving On A Jet Plane

Time With Some Very Great Friends

We awoke to cloudy skies with the promise of rain later in the day. Believe me, being on a dirt site I wasn’t looking forward to rain. Thankfully, the rain never came.

However, to the northeast of us is the Myrtle Beach International Airport. This is the third busiest airport in the state. Eight different carriers operate out of this airport. Flights go to about 50 different destinations on a regular basis. Can you guess where this is headed? We sure don’t have trains to worry about this time. However, with the low ceiling, the airport’s only runway pointed directly toward the state park, you can definitely hear the different planes when they take off. I mean, you can really hear them! Thankfully, most of the flights are during the day with only a few at night.

Today, we had the wonderful opportunity to spend time again with our good friends Bob and Wendy this time at their house in Conway, South Carolina.

Barb and Wendy at the dining room table.

Bob doing his thing in the kitchen.

We absolutely appreciated their invitation to visit with them at their house and want to say a big thank you to them for being such gracious hosts. We were thrilled to have been able to spend yesterday and today with them. Time just seemed to fly as we sat and talked about everything under the sun. Spending time with good friends like the two of them is really what life is all about.

Barb, Wendy and Bob. We are already talking about a time in the future to get together again.

All too soon we had to head for home since we needed to start getting ready for our move tomorrow.

That was our day today on The Road of Retirement. We could not have asked for a better day than we had today. Today, was a special day spent with friends and it is a day that we will remember for a long time to come.

Thanks for taking the time to read our blog.  We always appreciate your company, your comments, and your suggestions. Keep safe, keep healthy, live to the fullest the days that God gives you.

These are the voyages of  Elvira and her two intrepid travelers.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have never been before.

See you on down the road!

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

Temperature Low, 65 Degrees; High, 71 Degrees

Down By The Sea

An Afternoon With Friends

I did it, I really did it. I managed to sleep to 7 am this morning. Usually, I’m up by 5 am or thereabouts. Now, if I can only figure out what I did different last night I could do it again. However, I doubt that that is going to happen. I’ll take what I can get.

This morning, after breakfast we went down by the sea.

The wind was definitely blowing strong.

Ah darn, I wanted my picture taken while sitting in the chair. However, I also didn’t want green racing stripes on my shorts! Check out, though, what is past the chair. What a fantastic place for a morning walk, the state fishing pier.

There were a number of people fishing. Or as I call it, drowning worms

And some actually caught a fish or two.

Some were already out soaking up the rays.

Others were looking for their next big treasure.

Some were willing to brave the waters to try and ride a wave.

I was really happy to see that they are watching out for the sea turtles.

This is why I stay out of the water.

My Lady soaking up the sun and enjoying her walk on the pier.

That was our morning. Now, for our afternoon.

We were here to meet some old time friends who we had not seen in years. A long, long time ago in a land far away we were all part of a Goldwing Motorcycle Club.

Wendy.

Bob just being Bob.

The four of us together for a late lunch. It was a delightful afternoon as we broke bread together and spent time catching up on old times. We’re going to get together again tomorrow afternoon at their house. We’re all looking forward to it.

Today we discovered two things that Myrtle Beach has more than anything else. Pancake Houses and. . .

Minatare Golf courses.

That was our day on The Road of Retirement. We had a delightful day from beginning to end. The icing on the cake was spending time with our friends. I have a request now for all reading, Barbara’s brother Harry is going into surgery tomorrow. The procedure is expected to take between eight to nine hours. Please keep him and his wife Janet in your prayers. Thanks.

Thanks for taking the time to read our blog.  We always appreciate your company, your comments, and your suggestions. Keep safe, keep healthy, live to the fullest the days that God gives you.

These are the voyages of  Elvira and her two intrepid travelers.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have never been before.

See you on down the road!

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Temperature, Low 52 Degrees; High, 77 Degrees

Mixed Emotions

Travel Day

Mixed emotions according to the dictionary is: conflicting feelings or emotions. Then there is my definition: the excitement of traveling to a new location over against the worry that things aren’t going to work like they are supposed to. Lately, I’ve been having these type of feelings on a regular basis. My sister says that I worry too much. Ms Barbara says in essence the same thing. Could I be getting older?

Ok, enough of that. This morning I must admit I probably drove my wife up a wall. We were not due to leave until 11 am since we only had to go about two hours up the road. However, by 8 am I couldn’t sit still. I started puttering around, putting this away, checking on this and that. Yet, to my credit I honestly waited until 11 am before we hit the road. It was tough but I managed to do it.

Update: all the lights are working once again. It was indeed just a loose wire. Chalk up one for the good guys.

First, the trip. No interstate this time since we were taking Route 17 N all the way. Well, the road isn’t bad. But you can forget about making time. I believe the first thirty minutes of the trip was 60 mph, but the rest of the trip was never over 45/50 mph. Sometimes we were down to 35 mph. I will say that traffic did continue to move. Yet, I really had to stay on my toes. There were traffic lights that seemed to turn red on a moments notice; cars that came and went from shopping centers; and, cars that always wanted to be in front of you even if it meant cutting you off. It made for a very interesting trip overall.

Second, our new home. In plain English I goofed on this one. This is absolutely no place for us nor for a rig this size. Why, then, are we here? Miscommunication, and I’ll leave it at that. This one is on me.

This is a state park and it is real easy to find on Route 17. That big sign is hard to miss. The fun starts, though, when you make the turn in. Once again I found myself on a narrow entrance road. How narrow? While we were going in another rig was coming out. This was a pickup with extended mirrors towing a 5th wheel. We both had to slow down and our mirrors ended up being within inches of each other. Oh yea, it is tight.

Now, this entrance road is about two miles long, maybe more before you get to the actual campground. I was beginning to wonder what we were in for. Arriving at the ranger station for registration I wasn’t feeling much better. And it was only going to get worse.

After registering we wound our way into and through the park to our site, #308. How in the world am I going to get Elvira in there?

Notice the tree to the right in the picture above? First obstacle to overcome.

And notice those trees to the right above? They were situated right where I had to swing the front end to back in. This was going to be interesting. Now, If I could only bend the rig in the middle.

It only took me about ten minutes going real slow and checking, and checking and making sure no trees had decided to move!

As for the site itself. This is the first South Carolina park that was developed and opened in 1936 and I don’t believe they’ve done much to improve it since then.

Our site is hard packed dirt and I haven’t been in such an uneven site, well, I can’t remember when. The height of our front step will give you some idea of how high I had to raise the front end.

Thankfully, I’m not as bad as the rig next to me. That’s going some to get level.

Utilities? Again, I can’t remember when I had to use two sewer hoses to hook up. Plus, it runs uphill!

Then I had to get creative and find a way to keep my sewer hose in the sewer pipe. No threads, of course not, why would I think there would be.

Bottom line, I’m so glad we’ll be here only three days. This would be a great vacation spot for someone from this state. But, what they charge per day for an out of state resident makes this park and site an absolute bust. Coming to this area? My advice, do yourself a favor and go somewhere else. Anywhere but here would be better.

Oh, did I forgot to mention since it is so heavily wooded we have no DISH! Strike three.

That was our day on The Road of Retirement. We had an easy trip here. We did manage to squeeze Elvira into our assigned site. Now for the fun. We’re going out tomorrow to see what we can see. Then, the real reason for being here, tomorrow afternoon we’ll be spending time with friends we haven’t seen in years. We’re going to pack us much as we can into the next three days. Yipee!

Thanks for taking the time to read our blog.  We always appreciate your company, your comments, and your suggestions. Keep safe, keep healthy, live to the fullest the days that God gives you.

These are the voyages of  Elvira and her two intrepid travelers.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have never been before.

See you on down the road!