New place, set up - Yr 1, Day 159

Myrtle Beach, SC

Note the new location!  Traveling down from Raleigh, NC was not at all bad.  In fact, I did more than half the driving (2 hrs and 115 miles; Mitch drove about 1 1/4 hrs and 65 miles).  I emphasized "I" because other than the driving lessons, it's the first time I've done this.  I'm very proud of myself. The journey was about 90 miles on the highway, 20 through a local town and the rest a 2 lane state road (with shopping strips on either side), total about 180 miles.

I had hoped to hit the road at 9, but it was 9:45 when we took off.  Not that big a deal though.  Usually I close up most of the inside and Mitch, the outside, but I really wanted to see how it is done outside, so we worked together on the inside and out.  I guess the training took longer than it would have by himself.  Of course, with all the lifting and bending, I really can't do much of the outside stuff myself anyway.  But I guess it's good to know how, so I can instruct someone else if need be.

We had planned to stop for lunch at South of the Border (just pulling in to a parking spot and eating in the RV), but we discovered the directions we had, took us off the highway about 15 miles before that and it wasn't worth going 30 miles out of our way.  We found a place off the exit to pull over to go to the bathroom (a gas station with food mart and a large empty lot adjacent to it).  Not a very inviting place to stay and pull out the slides, so we just ran in to use the restroom and left.  Fortunately, we packed a few pb&j sandwiches for the road and it held us for the 4 hours we were in the truck.

We arrived at the campground at about 1:30.  I should mention it was an absolutely gorgeous day -- 70 degrees here and sunny with a nice ocean breeze.  Our site faces 2 lakes and is about 1/2 mile from the beach.  Here is a link to the campground map:  click here for map.  Our site (#1218) is in the upper right quadrant, dark purple area to the left of the chapel (corner site at intersection of Lafitte Trail & Market Street).  Note there is an indoor pool with a jacuzzi.  They offer water aerobics twice a week, and have various "old folks" activities a few times a week (Bingo, cards and pot luck dinners).  Mini golf is not open, and boating & fishing is probably not either, as it's off season.  Below are some photos of the 2 lakes and the various views from the front of our home.

There are a LOT of birds here - I saw ducks, cranes, sea gulls, geese and egrets.  I hope to be able to catch some photos of them as they wander all around the campground and near the lakes. I'll also get more photos of the campground.  As you can see from the map, it's a huge place!  Relatively empty now, but I can imagine what it's like during peak season!

As for the people here - wow!  I do wish I could have taken some videos of our backing in experience.  At one point there were 5 different men simultaneously trying to give Mitch instructions on how to back into the site (there were a few bystanders watching from a distance as well).  "Go this way," "no, do it the other way," "don't listen to them, do it my way!"  One person even offered to take over the wheel (we let him), only to learn that he put it in the wrong direction!  An hour and a half later we were finally in the spot!  I have to admit people here seem very friendly and wanted to help (either that or they were very bored and overly enthusiastic for something to do!)  Seriously, a lot of people were out and about walking their dogs (a LOT of dogs here), most folks in shorts and tees.  (Does this mean I can stop dreaming of getting my winter coat out of the locker)?   For comparison purposes, the place we stayed in Raleigh (Garner, actually), except for our next door neighbors, we didn't even realize people lived there as it was rare to see anyone outside.  Who knows - maybe it was just a fluky thing today because the weather was so nice.

There's a lot of fun stuff to do down here as well and I really hope we push ourselves to experience as much as possible.  I just signed up another new client today (that's a total of 3 on-going ones now, with one potential one waiting in the wings -- I should know this week or next).  So I'll just need to force myself to make time to do more than just work all day.  I didn't practice that in NC and I regret not having gone into the city or even the historic downtown area of Garner.  If we're going to travel, we really should get to enjoy our locations, right?

Of course, Mitch sees the doctor tomorrow, so what life will be like over the next few months will be decided then.  So until tomorrow....