TRIP REPORT
MYRTLE BEACH
OCT 11-17 2015
Written by Barb
Day 1
We took a short trip to Myrtle Beach for a 4 night stay at Compass Cove Resort. We left early (and I mean EARLY) Sunday morning, for our 2 day drive. I’m pretty sure Don woke me up at 4:30am. It’s still kind of foggy, but I recall him getting some coffee into me, and loading up the car and, after with another coffee in hand, we hit the road at 6:15. We got to the border by sunrise. I’d like to say the border crossing was uneventful, but we had drama! Although, I must admit, it was NOT us who caused the drama. Honest! As we pulled up to the kiosk, the female customs officer jumped out of her booth and ran to the car behind us. She kept yelling at him to back up. I guess he didn’t realize that he had to wait behind the white line. And she did NOT like it……! After she chased him back behind the white line, she directed her attention to us. After looking inside our cooler to make sure we were not importing any meat products (although our sandwiches did have meat in them…..) she sent us on our way.
The drive was pretty uneventful. We only had to stop for gas once, and well, I lost track of the washroom break stops, but there were several. My favourite was at the Tanger Outlet Mall just outside of Pittsburg PA. They have very nice washrooms there! Really! We made good time, and we checked into La Quinta Suites Hotel in Summersville, West Virginia shortly after 3pm. I admit, I had a nap, (passengering is tiring!) and later, we walked over to Bob Evans for dinner. It was an interesting experience. Don ordered a 3 piece fried chicken dinner. The waiter brought out 2 pieces, and told us they had run out of chicken, and had to cook up some more. So, he brought out the 2 pieces, and the third would come out in 6 minutes after they cooked it. Well, he did indeed bring out the third piece, 6 minutes later. But when Don cut into it, it was still completely raw inside! I’m pretty sure they cooked it from frozen, and only the outside cooked in the 6 minutes they gave it. We brought this to the waiter’s attention. The poor boy was completely embarrassed, and took it to the back. Needless to say, Don only had 2 pieces of chicken for dinner, and they took his dinner off our bill. We walked back to the hotel and settled in for the evening. We’d never stayed at this hotel before. It was very nice, but there was a lot of noise from the parking lot of the plaza right in front of it. We did get a decent night’s sleep though and Don woke me up bright and early again (6am this time…..) We enjoyed the hotel’s free breakfast buffet before heading back out on the road for the second leg of our journey.
Day 2
It was a smooth drive all the way down to Myrtle Beach, except for some fog in the early morning, in the mountains. We arrived at Compass Cove Resort around 3:30, so we made pretty good time, considering all the washroom breaks, and leg stretching breaks at the Rest Stops...... The Rest Stop right after we entered North Carolina was particularly nice. Of course, we stopped to take a selfie there! Our room at Compass Cove was nice enough. It was an end suite so we had a side window as a bonus. I’ll take all the extra views of the beach I can get! We unpacked, rested up a bit and headed down the street to Damon’s for our ribs fix. Dinner was great. We picked up some groceries at Walmart and called it a day.
Day 3
We slept in until 9am, and headed down to the Compass Rose restaurant a half hour later, for the breakfast buffet. We saw our favourite waitress Jennifer working, and asked to sit in her section. She saw us waiting in line, and personally took us over to a table in her section. She gave us exceptional service, and even sat with us for 5 minutes when we were done, to chat a bit. She’s an amazing person and is the perfect example of Southern hospitality and friendliness. After breakfast we took a walk along the beach. It was a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky. We stopped to carve MB 2015 into the sand and took some pictures. When we returned to our hotel room, our daughter in law video called us and we talked to our granddaughters. I think they were missing us as much as we were missing them! I love modern technology when it gives us the ability to stay in touch with our loved ones through video phone calls. The future is now!
That afternoon we headed out to Tanger Outlets on Hwy 17. We prefer this location over the one on Hwy 501. It has a better layout and is easier to shop at. Once we were done, the next item on the agenda was a late lunch at Sonic Drive In. Yes, we LOVE this place. Don’t ask me why. We just do! Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel for some rest. Shopping can be tiring…. We decided on a late dinner at the hotel’s restaurant, the Crow’s Nest. We got a table outside on the patio, overlooking the beach, and watched the sunset while we ate. It was beautiful. Service was great, and the waitress even talked us into dessert. Of course, after that dessert, we were so full, we needed to walk it off. Since it was such a beautiful night out, we walked around the hotel grounds, and S. Ocean Blvd. We saw some Halloween displays and yes, we took more selfies!
Day 4
This morning when we woke up, we looked out at the beach, and someone had been busy building some creations in the sand. One looked like a pyramid, and another looked like some sort of animal. Very impressive. After another late breakfast buffet at Compass Rose, we headed out to the Boardwalk, to walk off our meal. It wasn’t too busy, and we meandered in and out of a few of the shops, and took in the sights. (and took more selfies! ) We stopped in front of their infamous web cam and waved! When we got back to the hotel, we totally forgot to check back on the internet and see ourselves! Don was pretty perturbed about that, I must admit! We stopped in at the second Tanger Outlet Mall, on Hwy 501 and finished up our shopping, then stopped at the IHOP across the street and had pancakes for lunch. Their New York Cheesecake pancakes are my favourite, and since we don’t have IHOP in Canada, I have to get my fix every time I’m in the US. Back at the hotel that night, we ordered Ultimate California Pizza for dinner and had it delivered to our hotel room.
Day 5
Our last full day at Myrtle Beach came up much too quickly. This morning there was another new beach sand creation. This one looked like a castle, complete with moat surrounding it. We had our last breakfast at Compass Rose and said goodbye to Jennifer. Back in our room, we received another video call from our daughter in law and chatted with our granddaughters for a while. We headed out to North Myrtle Beach for the day. We stopped in at Barefoot Landing, one of our favourite places to visit. We walked around and browsed through the stores. (Oh ya, and took more selfies!) We saw a lot of turtles in the water. Three of them were sunning themselves near the shore. It was fun to watch. On our way home we stopped in at a Bargain Beachwear store and picked up a few last minute souvenirs – because you know, we don’t have enough already……! Back at the hotel, we packed up most of our things, since we were making an early start in the morning. We had dinner at Outback Steakhouse, (not the best experience we’ve had there…..), then returned to the hotel and had an early night.
Day 6
We were on the road by 6:30am. We stopped for gas and coffee and were on our way. Our GPS steered us wrong after a washroom stop in Bennetsville and we got totally turned around. We had to stop at a gas station and get redirected, then headed back out. The rest of the drive was uneventful, and we arrived at the Sleep Inn in Summersville, West Virginia at 3:30pm. We had reserved the last room available because the next day was “Bridge Day” and the whole town was booked solid. The New River Gorge Bridge on Hwy 19 is closed the third Saturday of October, every year, for this celebration. It draws quite a crowd apparently, and the highway is closed for the day. I’m glad we went through there the day before it was closed. I’d hate to detour and lose time. We had a great dinner at Applebee’s and then had the best sleep ever that night. The beds at the Sleep Inn are very comfortable. I guess the hotel is aptly named!
Day 7
We were on the road by 7am after our free hot breakfast at the hotel. The drive was uneventful until we got to Erie, Pennsylvania, and encountered a freak snowstorm. I was not impressed. It slowed us down to a crawl, and I couldn’t believe the change in the weather. We got to the border crossing in Buffalo by 3pm and a half hour later we were back on Canadian soil and on our way home. It was a short trip, but we will be back in February for the whole month! Can’t wait!
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