Monthly Archives: May 2012

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If You Don’t Like the Weather, Wait a While

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Sunday May 13th, 2012

Well, before we could finish breakfast this morning, the rain had begun and the winds were howling.  Soon the light mist turned into a torrential downpour so it seemed it wouldn’t be a day for either the beach or the bike. What do you do on a day such as this when you live in a motorhome and your only means of transportation are motorcycle, bicycle or feet? This was the first time that we’d encountered this problem.  We were fortunate on our last adventure that the only days we had of rain were ones that we were traveling anyway.

We listened to music, read, answered emails and tried not to trip over each other.  After lunch I was tired out and had to have a nap!  When I awoke the rain had about stopped so we got out our gear, ready to take off on the bike. Before we got out the door, the skies opened again, but it lasted for only a few minutes. We headed out the highway and soon drove out of the rain entirely.

Again we went in search of the biker activities, this time further south towards Murrells Inlet.  We found one advertised venue, Jammin Leather, but there wasn’t much happening there either. At the Rally Centre next door I was almost convinced to buy a sexy pair of stretch pants with mesh and sequined cutouts on the legs. They were very comfortable indeed, but somehow they looked more like they belonged on the woman wearing the half-unzipped leather vest opened low enough to reveal her ample and rounded cleavage.  In fact, she’d just bought a pair, and assured me that they looked great on me.  Perhaps if Jim had shown some encouragement I might have been persuaded, but, although he agreed that they looked good, he doubted that I’d wear them much. I don’t know, he might have been wrong, but $50 was a lot of money to spend to find out so I left them on the rack.

Further down the highway, at the SB&B Bar (for those of you who really want to know what those letters stand for, put your imagination in the gutter – the rest of you don’t want to know), we found some biking vendors and some music, but after a short stroll through we’d had enough.  Instead of seeking out more rally venues, we became regular tourists again.  Further along the highway, an enormous upside down house captured our attention and we were drawn into a village called Broadway on the Beach.

Broadway on the Beach is a sprawling complex of boutiques, restaurants, bridges and entertainment. By the time we had entered, we were ready for dinner. Chef prepares dinner The Yamato Seafood and Steakhouse of Japan looked promising, so in we went.  We were a little surprised when the host said there would be more people coming to our table. Once in the dining room we discover that it was a traditional style Japanese restaurant where our food would be prepared on a hot grill, the centre piece of our dinner bar. A young family of six joined us. It was great fun watching the meal preparation and the reaction of the children when the grill went up in flames! And what a delicious meal of chicken, scallops, fried rice and mixed vegetables,  preceded by a yummy clear soup and a small garden salad with a unique choice of dressings. We enjoyed some very unfamiliar flavours. Flaming Grill

 

 

After dinner we wandered around the village, peaking into some of the shops, getting a closer look at the Upside Down House, gasping as some brave souls climbed to the top of a high deck to catch a zip line that whisked them through the air to the other side of the lake. I shuddered at the sight of the multitude of carp in the lake, scrambling with mouths open and fighting with young mallard ducks to capture the food pellets being dropped off the boardwalk. As the sun disappeared the lights of the carnival rides and the Dungeons and Dragons-themed miniature golf course dazzled the night. It was nearly 9:00 when we left for home.

Upside Down House

For a Mother’s Day that started out poorly, it turned out to be one of our best days,  despite being so far away from our children.

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Beach, Piers and Bikes

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Saturday, May 12, 2012 PM

This morning the laundry bag was full so we put our clothes into a washer at the Laundromat and went for a walk on the Apache Pier while we waited for them. A sign on the pier claims that it is the longest one on the East Coast with a length of 1206 feet. The railings were occupied by many fishing poles, under the control of men, women and even a couple of young boys. We chatted with a few of the men and learned that today was a slow day.  We were disappointed that we saw no fish being reeled in, but we learned a few things about the King Mackerel fishing, for which spaces were reserved at the furthest end of the pier. The view of the miles of ocean and beach was incredible too.

Apache Pier

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the permanent trailers at this campground are very interesting and several have wooden decks built above the roof line, making great use of the small piece of land that they sit upon.

After lunch we got back on the motorcycle and drove into town to see what was happening. Jim was disappointed to find that there were only a few parking lots occupied by vendors for Bike Week, and the number of bikes on the roads was surprisingly low. We were actually in North Myrtle Beach, so, after checking out the largest selection of vendors there, we headed to Myrtle Beach in search of more activity, but it was obvious that the bikers were being discouraged, at least from the residential areas.  Every side street off the main drags had sandwich board signs at the entrance “No Thru Traffic.” The multitude of hotels and resorts along Ocean Drive, however, displayed signs welcoming bikers. Every one of them also had “Vacancy” signs and some offered rates of only $35 or $40 per night. If we’d had the stamina to ride the bike all the way here and stayed in one of these rooms, we could have had a much less expensive vacation.  And still there were only small groups of bikers cruising the street or sitting in the outdoor bars.

The sun was bright and warm.  We parked the bike and wandered along the street, stopping to listen to music at the band shell, enjoying an ice cream cone and strolling along the board walk.  Then we decided to check out the view from 200 feet up via the Sky Wheel which from a distance I thought was a Ferris wheel.  It is the same concept, but the seats are enclosed in glass bubbles – no seat belts necessary. It moves slowly, allowing plenty of time to snap pictures of Myrtle Beach below.

Sky Wheel

Back on the bike, we finished the drive along the coast on Ocean Drive, admiring the prosperous-looking homes that we passed. Obviously there are many people who are not affected by the recession. We stopped at Shorney’s for the healthy salad bar, and then called it a day.

Note: Jim just found a message on the Myrtle Beach website that says the “Spring Ride” is NOT in Myrtle Beach, but in North Myrtle Beach, Murrell’s Inlet and Surf Side Beach.  That may explain why there are so few bikes around here! Not like the last time Jim came down eight years ago. Perhaps we’ll be riding further south tomorrow.

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Life is Good

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Saturday, May 12, 2012

We are awakened in the morning by a very chatty bird somewhere in the tree above the RV. Otherwise, all is quiet at the Apache Family Campground.  I’ve yet to discover the bird, but he makes a pleasant alarm clock. The sun flickers through the blinds. Ahh, life is good.

We arrived here at about 4:30 pm on Thursday.  Other than the witnessing of some amazing driving skills by a tractor trailer driver who had somehow lost control of his rig but managed to keep it completely upright as it careened through the grassy medium between the north and south bound lanes of I95, the drive on Wednesday and Thursday was uneventful and rather tiring, despite mostly sunny weather.  It did pour rain on Wednesday night while we holed up between semis parked at a truck stop. Poor sleep and frustrated attempts at getting connected to the internet with our newly purchased Verizon Wireless Wifi card (you may recall the problems we had with that on our adventure to Sturgis) caused us both to be a little grumpy, creating some tension.

Fortunately Thursday was sunny and we made good time, so took a couple of breaks.  We HAD to take Exit 97 to check out the JR Bargain Shop that had been bill boarded along the highway for the last twenty miles or more.  It’s huge, but there wasn’t much there that we couldn’t live without. The next exit took us to a very large outlet mall. Can you believe I left empty-handed? Jim picked himself up three badly-needed new shirts.

The evening was spent setting up, having dinner and making a trip to Walmart for a few necessities, and one not-so necessary item, but a great buy – a 22” TV for the RV. Hey, cable is included in the price of the campsite! Yes, I carried it between us on the bike!

After catching up on emails and business on Friday morning, we headed into town. The sun was warm; bikes were just beginning to arrive; things were getting set up for Bike Week.  We pulled into Barefoot Landing and began a walk around.  It’s an area of boutique style shops and a number of restaurants and a theatre. I treated myself to a new Tilly hat, and we had a bowl of clam chowder at Joe’s Crab House. On the boardwalk, a chatty sales lady representing Wyndham properties convinced us to take advantage of some free treats in exchange for spending a couple of hours listening to a presentation for time-shares.  Not in the market for luxury traveling at the moment, we never-the-less decided to take the offer. Who knows, someday we might tire of “roughing it” and knowledge is always a good thing, right?

It turned out to be well worth the three hours that it took for the talk and the tour of a grand suite on one of the Wyndham properties.  In exchange, we enjoyed a wonderful sea food dinner at The Flying Fish Market and Grill, Flying Fish Market and Grill followed by a two hour variety show called simply ONE, at the Alabama Theatre. The show was spectacular, with musical numbers from a variety of genres – country, rock and roll, Motown, a couple of show tunes, and tributes to both Frank Sinatra and Michael Jackson. The amazing costumes, lighting and special effects were icing on the cake. During the many scene and costume changes, comedian Grant Turner (a.ka. Ricky Mokel) had us laughing uncontrollably with his “stage hand” monologues.

Between dinner and theatre we took a stroll across the parking lot to photograph The Blues House, a popular bar and entertainment venue named for the Blues Brothers. I wonder what it looks like on the inside!

We haven’t yet decided what we’ll do today. We could walk down to the beach and pier (we should have brought fishing rods) or get back on the bike to take in more of the sights and sounds of downtown. I’ll let you know tomorrow what we decided.

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Best to Get the Glitches Out of the Way the First Day, Right?

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It was our intention to leave by 8:00 this morning, then Jim realized that he needed to pick up a prescription and our pharmacy doesn’t open until 9:00, so we thought we’d be on the road by 9:30. Hmm, there was more left to do than we thought and it was after 11:00 before we even left the house. We picked up the prescription and figured we might as well have lunch before heading out. We still needed to make a stop at Canadian Tire to get a pair of heavy tie downs for the bike, because when Jim went looking for the ones he had, he remembered that he’d used them on the old bike and trailer that he’d given his son-in-law last summer. He forgot to get them back!  We also had to go to CAA to get our travel insurance –Jim had tried by phone this morning to renew the RBC plan that we had last year, but was told that we’d need to go to a travel agent to do it (if I’d known sooner, I would have called my friend Pat). We got to CAA only to learn that they had just launched their new insurance company and were training on it, so it was a slow process.

At 2:00 pm we were finally on Hwy 115, on our way. Twenty minutes later, on Hwy 28, the RV suddenly started to shake and shimmy! We pulled over and Jim checked things out, but couldn’t find the problem. To make a long story short, we made it to a truck and RV repair centre in Cobourg. It took about 45 minutes for them to find and fix the problem — an unattached stabilizer bar. We were on our way again by 3:00 pm. We arrived in Brockville at 7:00, too late to stop in to see Mom, as was our plan.

So tonight we’re “camping” in my brother’s yard. Tomorrow we’ll visit Mom early after breakfast and the  head across the border over the 1000 Islands Bridge. It will be a much better day!