Hey Myrtle! Where's the Beach? Beach!

We enjoyed Myrtle Beach early in our journey. It was stop #21 as we first headed south down the east coast during the initial part of our journey. We dug it enough to come back for seconds. It worked well into our plan, routing, and repeat, as we prepare to head towards Minnesota and the Great Lakes. This stop will be the last of our "extended stays". Then we hit the road-road again. No more extended stays until next winter.

Myrtle was a fine two weeks and a wonderful combination of friends, family, beachtime and more. Brad's sister Donna and Brother-In-Law Bob stopped by for an overnight visit. Kathy's brother JP and Sister-In-Law Debbie visited for 4 nights and our dear comedy friends Vinnie Mark and Jodi Weiner were in Myrtle for the first three days of our visit. They were all fantastic additions to our stay and there were more. You can't put a dollar figure on being able to spend quality time with those you love. Period!

We stayed in the same RV Park as our first time here. Pirateland's name is lame but the facility itself, is awesome. Out of the 1000 MobilHome and RV spots there, we stayed in one right next to the beach. It was beautiful waking up and seeing the sun glisten through our windows and was so very-very convenient for morning strolls. The 4th pic below is our RV from the beachside and the rest are either from the Coach windows or at the campground beach.

On our first full day in Myrtle it was St Patricks Day so we tried to party like we belonged. We celebrated at Merrill's Inlet which has a beautiful harborside with a dozen neat and well run restaurants and bars. Our first stop was the Deaddog Saloon. We chatted it up with a local lady while we had our first round of St Paddy Day beers. We decided to come back later for All-The-Cornbeef and Cabbage you can eat for $20.

After the Deaddog we went next-door to their sister restaurant called the Claw House. They had a musician playing the guitar and singing outside on the deck. His name was Bill Krause and he was not only a good entertainer he was hysterical as he worked the crowd, he had great energy and was very entertaining. Venue and beer #2 down the hatch! Our next stop was at Drunken Jacks and we sat at the bar and Kathy had her first green beer of the day.

Our last St Paddy's Day play was at Suck, Bang, Blow. Yes, a biker bar that we dug last time in town, originally recommended by our nephew Chris. We hung around for a couple hours listening to a great band called the Southern Country Outlaws. Kathy switched to tequila. Ha! Brad drove home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdwM4TkqdSg

We met our friends Vinnie Mark and Jodi Weiner the next day to coincidently celebrate Jodi's bday. They've been down in Myrtle since January and we've planned on meeting up with them for months. Jodi was happy to celebrate with us and their good friends Bob and Kristi joined us as well. We bought lunch as a bday present to Jodi and we thoroughly enjoyed their company and seeing how happy both were under their very extenuating circumstances. They returned the favor in a BIG way the next day by getting us comp tickets to see Eaglemania at the Carolina Opry. What great seats and what an amazing show. Twenty-five Eagles songs in a two and a half hour show. Jodi used to go out with the lead singer some 40 years ago and Vinnie and him since became friends, both from Long Island.

The venue was sold-out but still, Vinnie and Jodi danced at their seats. It was heartwarming and while Joe ( the lead singer), was doing his one song out in the crowd, he sat on Jodi's arm of her seat and serenaded her. It was a Kodak moment. See the last still above or the video below even better yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxZEiOed1eo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQK9ECOZbgY

Brad's sister stopped for an overnight stay on her half way from Boca Raton, Fla. back to NJ. We had a wonderful dinner and then we ate, drank, and laughed the night away. The next morning we took them back to the Golden Egg for breakfast. We dug it the first time there and since our overnight guests picked up the check it even tasted better the second time...or was it the company?

That same afternoon, JP and Deb flew into Myrtle Beach airport. It was only ten minutes away from our RV Park. Brad made his patented dry rub for two racks of ribs for dinner. They were cooking at 300-350 for four hours and were MMmmmmm Mmmmmm good. We gave up our bed for their stay and we slept on the couch and a blow-up bed. We had a great first night together.

After a morning stroll and some shelling on the beach we went to Brookgreen Gardens. Which is a 9100 acre sculpture garden. We got comp tickets from a new RV friend at the campground and we stopped by Kathy and Tom Morse's house to pick up two more free tickets compliments of them. A very nice gesture on their account. That's how they roll. Very sweet people.

We had a great three days of beaching, eating out and partying with JP and Deb. JP had some old time softball buddies that relocated to Myrtle Beach so we caught up with them a couple afternoons. Once at the MarshWalk at Merrel's inlet and the second time at Barefoot Landing . Good times with great people.

We all went to the House of Blues to see country singer Dylan Scott. This was our second visit to Barefoot Landing. We went to the Flying Fish for dinner before. The House of Blues had a 1800 person capacity and was sold-out. The line to get in wrapped around the block. We sat in VIP seats for the opening act until we got kicked out. Ha, somethings never change. Now that Kathy and I are contemporary country music aficionados we dug the show. JP and Deb, not as much.

We had a wonderful dinner with Kathy's High School friends Marcia and Charlie Hanscome at the Hook and Barrel restaurant. They were great company. We chatted it up for hours. Great people! We also met Kathy and Tom Morse for lunch at California Dreaming. It was nice having quality time with them as well. Such wonderful people! We were having such a good time seeing them, twice, we forgot to take pictures.

Special thanks to Kathy and Tom for getting JP and Deb back to the airport while we head to Columbia SC and then to Asheville NC the day JP and Deb left.

We rarely include all our in-house RV cooking which we do regularly. Most often, we do two meals a day. Dinner is the more exciting. Below are some. First, pork tenderloin with apples, raisins and carmalized onions, the aforementioned baby back ribs, chicken caesar, shrimp scampi and last but not least chicken cacciatore.

Plus, there is regular RV maintenance and cleaning that we have to keep up with too. We don't talk about that much either. We cleaned all the interior fans and window screens along with all the outside windows one afternoon. Brad does the heavy lifting but Kathy was just as integral to the maintenace. Just not pictured below.

We also had a wonderful all-you-can-eat seafood buffet at Crabby Mikes. Happy hour at the 8th Ave. Tiki Bar (thanks to Ed Medalis for the recommendation) and an awesome 10 mile beachside bike ride. Plus, the campground hosted a car show that was so convenient we couldn't pass it up. All were worth mentioning.

See ya Myrtle Beach! We're off to the city. The Capital of SC Columbus first, then, off to North Carolina and then The Smoky Mountains.

Thanks for following our journey. Peace, love and Soul Train!

Kathy and Brad