Doing Myrtle

Across this great country of ours, there are scattered meccas we like to call tourist traps. Such as Las Vegas and Orlando. However there are others that we have been too also. The Wisconsin Dells, the Black Hills of SD, Niagara Falls NY, Gatlinburg TN, Branson MO and now Myrtle Beach SC. They are fun in moderation but you soon discover that they have so many ways of separating you from your money. And if you bring kids, just hand it over.

Attractions like Ripley's Believe It Or Not, haunted mazes and go cart tracks. How many miniature golf courses can one town have. Here they call them adventure golf, and there are maybe 50 of them here. Beach stores on every corner selling the same stuff everyone else has. Buffets everywhere which I will talk more about later.

We are staying at the Myrtle Beach State Park. The weather has been cool and windy here for our whole visit but that is not going to stop us from exploring the area. The state park is very nice and it sits in the middle of two tourist districts. It is like a green space between beach hotels on each side. We can walk to the beach from the campground which is nice.

This is the beach at the state park. Pretty desolate but beautiful. Like I said the weather is cool and the wind coming off of the ocean is keeping people off of the beach. Also, this park is below the landing path of the airport. I love planes so the noise doesn't bother me. However, some people might not like it. Depending on the wind direction, planes are either landing or taking off over the park.

Our first full day at Myrtle Beach was going to keep us busy. We wanted to do everything because the rains were going to start and it looked like our second day would be a washout. There's not a lot of free stuff to do here because they want your money. We don't want to give them our money so as far as sight seeing goes, it was going to be a short day.

We started off with a death march on the beach. It's not so bad if you have great scenery to look at. A lady went jogging by and she would stop every so often and pick up some garbage that she saw and stuff it in a bag. That inspired me to do the same. I found a ziplock bag on the beach and went to work.

These beaches are pretty clean and they are not littered with a lot of trash. But you can always find something. As I was getting trash, Gladys was adding to her shell collection which weighs about 100 pounds by now. That's just the shells we got at Myrtle Beach.

She must be going to decorate our rig with stuff like this.

Whatever she decides is fine. As long as it keeps her busy and distracted from death marching and lets me play video games. After that we got ready to go down to the boardwalk.

We walked and checked out some of the shops. I can't imagine this place when it is warm out. This is still the off season. We went into one shop called the Gay Dolphin, if you go in there you would be amazed at that place. Three floors packed full of everything you could imagine with touristy stuff.

I wanted this bronze mermaid but Gladys said "NO". Dang! I never get what I want. We walked up and down the streets working up an appetite. We wanted to be really hungry for our dinner out.

Our dinner was going to be out at Captain Benjamin's Original Calabash Buffet. 170 different options with many being seafood. It was all-you-can-eat. Challenge accepted. How much could we eat? We will find out. There are a lot of calabash buffets. We didn't know what that meant. Calabash is just lightly breaded and fried foods southern style. There was so much seafood there and we tried as much as we could. I have found a new love for scallops and crab legs. Trip after trip we went.

"Gladys, I am stuffed. Let's go home so I can take my pants off. Ugh."

"Fine. Get up off of the floor for goodness sakes!"

We left happy and satisfied. It was a little spendy but worth doing once in awhile. Laying on the couch was not in the plans for me. Gladys wanted more shells. I said fine but I am bringing my metal detector. We have to recoup some of that money we just spent, so back to the beach we went. Gladys went shelling and I went treasure hunting.

Back and forth I went with not much luck, maybe because the tourists are not here yet. I walked down to were the hotels start and instantly my luck changed. All I found at the state park beach was a pair of reading glasses and a tent stake. 

But where the hotels start I started finding cold, hard, cash. Count it. That is 61 cents. Our dinner just cost us 61 cents less. Cha-ching baby! As the sun was setting it made the waves really white.

All of these photos are with my cell phone so the crispness just isn't there. Maybe if the rain stops we will get out on the beach one more time.

Our grandbaby just turned one. I can't believe it has been a year and at how fast he is growing up.

We video chat with him often and that helps Gladys fight the urge to drive north too soon. We will celebrate with him in less than a month so that will work.

"Gladys, hitch up the horses, let's get out of here!"