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Having spent a couple of hours a few days ago typing a trip report only to lose all I had written, my own fault as I didn't put in a heading in the subject box, this one will therefore be somewhat reduced!!
Flew in from London on the 1st October with US Airways via Charlotte, good flights, the trip from Charlotte to Myrtle Beach only took 35 minutes, in the past I have usually come via Atlanta, but Immigration and Customs was so much easier in Charlotte, Lynda and I were through in about 20 minutes whereas Atlanta can take almost 2 hours.
Collected our luggage and a rental car and drove over the new bridge to the condo in Waterway Village,(just off of River Oaks Drive,) this took less than 10 minutes and avoided all of the traffic. I can't understand why there aren't any signs on the 501 directing those people to use it who want to get to the US17 By-pass, must be for locals only!! Once at the condo we opened the blinds, pulled open the sliding doors, put the kettle on for a cup of tea and then sat on the porch looking out over the golf course enjoying the peace and quiet. This would be nice for the next few weeks we thought. 4 days later we woke up to a lot of big equipment being assembled about 100 yards away, a team of about 12 workers digging out the bunkers on the course and a big lorry being parked that carries huge logs. I went downstairs to have a chat with our neighbour who told me that the Otter course had been renovated and over 2000 trees removed and the same was about to happen on the Fox course at River Oaks.
No peace and quiet, but it was fascinating to see how quickly work progressed, trees that had been growing for 40 or so years were on the ground in a matter of seconds, they were then pulled to a central area where they were stripped of branches and cut into long lengths that would fit on the lorry. A mechnical hand then picked them up to put on the lorry, these guys were experts, I hated to see the trees removed but you had to admire the operators of the equipment. Several large holes were then dug and all the branches, roots and the surface of the former cart path were shoved into them and covered over with earth. In the UK we often have to get local authority approval to even trim some old trees, (they have preservation orders placed on them,) to see well over 150 trees disappear in a couple of weeks was sad especially as I used to enjoy watching the birds fly between them.
On to our vacation, we went to The One Show and Medieval Times, we also went to Spook-tacular at Carolina Forest High School, this was good and for the finale there were approaching 140 pupils on the stage (and floor in front of the stage,) playing their musical instruments, the auditorium and equipment impressed me, you would only see such an assembly at a musical college in the UK, to see it at a normal high school showed a high level of commitment both of the staff and the pupils. I would advise board members to study the local papers and try to attend such events. It was a good evening for an expenditure of $5 each. We also went to the Pop 101 concert at Coastal Carolina University, to be honest this was not as good as in previous years but there are some goods things on there and I am surprised that there seems no mention of these on the message board. We did attend a meet-up, much to Patrish's surprise; I seem to be able to receive emails via outlook express but cannot send anything whilst in MBeach, so I had not told her we were coming, it was very enjoyable to meet her again and to meet some other board members.
Another good day out was on the Casino Cruise, vouchers for this are in some of the booklets that you can pick up and for a $10 boarding fee we had a buffet breakfast, a trip along the waterway from Little River, then out into the oceon where we saw dolphins until we were outside of the 3 mile limit. It was a lovely day and after losing a few dollars I went onto the top deck and sat in the sun, free beverages were being given out and all in all I really enjoyed it and would do it again. I am not a big gambler so was not sucked into the noise of money dropping from machines and $100 notes being handed to those who had big wins, if you can curb your gambling instinct, treat it as a boat ride and choose a nice sunny day with little swell, go for it.
We enjoyed sitting by the pool, walking on the beach, the areas by the Myrtle Beach State Park and up by Lake Arrowhead are our favourite places, we also had a pleasant day at Pawley's Island where there were very few people, possibly because there didn't seem to be many parking spots at the north end of the island, the Town Hall impressed us, we felt the building was just large enough to hold the Town Council!! On the subject of politics I couldn't get over the amount of money being spent on electing a mayor and a few councillors in Myrtle Beach, all that money spent on under 10,000 votes. I am sure such money could be put to better use simply by limiting the expenditure for each candidate to $5000 and making them produce a document that set out their aims and objectives that could be delived to the voters.
I did manage to get in 4 games of golf, I will write these up on the appropriate board, over the next few days. Lynda was not keen on doing to much cooking on this trip and her aim was to go to as many different eating places as she could, I think we got up to 24, which varied through tBonz and Liberty Steakhouses to Victoria's Country Kitchen and a burger and fries at Ron Jons.
We did take in the two Tangers, Broadway at the Beach, Barefoot Landing and a couple of the Malls, I still can't make up my mind about The Market Common, I think the layout of the houses is pleasing to the eye, somewhat similar to Celebration in Orlando, but the shops are so quiet and I wonder how those out of the main area make a living. I enjoy walking round the lake, there does seem to be something taking place most weekends at Market Common but to me the place as yet, has no heart.
Our vacation passed all to quickly and it was time to tidy up and prepare for the journey home . The cases were packed and taken down to the airport where we booked in and handed them over and were back in the car within the free parking time at the short stay carpark. Back to the condo for a final snack and look at the golf course, which was now beginning to look like a proper hole, before making our journey back to the airport, handing the car in and going through security just in time to hear the first call for our flight to Charlotte. The flight to Charlotte only took 32 minutes and the one to Gatwick was on time and arrived a few minutes early. No hold up at immigration but the cases took a little time to arrive, through customs to meet up with our daughter, son -in -law and our Grandchildren Sophie (6) and Jessica (3). A lovely welcome.
Been home just over the week and we seem to have had a lot of rain and wind, must be time to plan the next trip to Myrtle beach
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