Myrtle Beach by Tricycle

 Greetings from the beach at Myrtle Beach State Park,

It was just over 300 miles from our campsite in Okefenokee Swamp to our campsite in Myrtle Beach State Park.  My rule is no more than 300 miles a day, my bad.

I was driving when Steve used his phone to find us a place to get Pizza.  It turned out to be a pizza and coffee shop.  And they don't start serving Pizza until 4:00.  So we each got a sandwich instead.  Pizza is still on our agenda.  Maybe on a biking day...

The place had some interesting art work.  This piece reminded me of one of El Towle's paintings that I have a print of hanging in Steve's house.

Our site at Myrtle Beach State Park cost $85 per night.  I think that is the most I have ever paid for camping.  Steve commented that hotel rooms probably go for over $200 in Myrtle Beach.  

It was a nice park with lots of vegetation,  lots of beach access and fishing piers.

The pathways to the beach were bordered with wildflowers.

When we arrived we saw a man taking a Harley Davidson out from the back of a utility trailer.  I asked him if something was going on.  We had seen several big bikes on our way in.  "Yes, it is bike week this week.  Followed by black bike week next week.... with 400 lb. women in thongs."  He kept mumbling after that and from the bits and pieces of his conversation I could understand, I judged him to be very prejudiced.  Maybe I was being prejudiced.

From our campsite we could hear the traffic on Hwy 17.  Big trucks and lots of rumbling and revving bikes, we arrived on a week with a lot of events happening. Besides Bike Week there was a PGA tournament and a big BBQ Festival.  And at times we had to cease all conversation because we were across the highway from the airport.  The planes took off right over us.  

Our first full day, we went exploring on our tricycles.  We saw a bike trail leaving right from the park.  We found out it hooked up with a trail that went right down to the downtown/boardwalk area. That was fun!

This Octopus was in front of the Art Museum made from garbage recovered from the beaches (I am guessing here.)

We rode down the bike lane on the busy Ocean Blvd.  There were lots of shops, mini-putts (miniature golf) a couple of places with Ferris wheels and roller coasters, candy stores, restaurants.  In front of one store a tiny automated purple dog was walking and yipping (squeaking) on the side walk by himself.  I got a picture as we glided by.

We were real surprised to be there on a weekend, with several special events, and lots of traffic, and still the motels were advertising vacancies.   And look at that price!  

I thought about it a moment and came to the conclusion that we have the better place to stay.   Less cement, more trees, and the comforts of a home on wheels.

I pulled over after we got past all the shops.  It was a little park with a pirate-ship playground for the kids.  As soon as we parked a man came dashing over to ask us questions about our trikes.  Last year we didn't have our trikes with us.  I had forgotten how much of a novelty they are in places.  It's fun to chat with folks about them.  I had to smile as I heard Steve talk about them, "They're fast, they're fun, and very comfortable."   He's become a trike fan!

We found a park with music playing and sat there a while watching little girls dancing and doing cartwheels.

We had lunch at a buffet and then in the evening we drove back to town and had dinner at a restaurant on the board walk.

As we were heading back to camp we saw this amazingly tall mini-putt place.

We had heard there was solar activity that was going to possibly make the Northern lights visible in the southern US.  So we went out at night to the beach to look.  The sky was pretty lit up from the lights in Myrtle Beach.

The next morning we got up at 5:15 to go down to the beach to maybe catch the lights and watch the sunrise.  We stepped out of the trailer by 5:45 and it was pretty light out already.  But we still got a nice sunrise to watch.

We heard they saw the Northern Lights in Florida. 

That morning I rode my trike to Anytime Fitness.  It was conveniently located right across the highway from the campground!   I was able to do strength training and PT exercises and stretches.  

Then I went to an indoor flea market in the same strip mall.  It was pretty large.  It the picture below you can see the door that opens into another room that has a door that opens into another room that has a door...

There were live animals and reptiles for sale at the Flea Market.  This python was $350.

We had a first as a couple, that afternoon.  I cut Steve's hair.   Here he is before.

And here he is after.  I don't think it looks much different.  

I cut my own hair, doing the back, blind and by feel.  Steve evened it out.

Then we went exploring on our trikes.  I took him over to the flea market.  He found a shade hat for when we kayak.

We rode up a trail and pulled into a memorial park.  There used to be a base on those grounds, I think.

We rode to a Walmart, mostly on trails, where we saw this interesting trike.

The trails took us right past a huge new planned neighborhood of colorful houses with small front yards and big from porches. There was a cluster of up-scale shops and restaurants. We ended up returning there for dinner on our last night in town.

It was cool enough for a walk on our last day in Myrtle Beach.  We hiked about 2 miles on a nature trail.  I took a picture of the big-hairy poison ivy vine.

After dinner out, we went to that tall mini-putt place and played 19 holes.  It was fun.  Steve let me win by one point.

Here is the before and after pictures of Steve's trim job on the back of my head.  What do you think?  Should I leave a tip?

Today is Tuesday, 5/14/24 and I am missing a big bike ride that I normally do on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  My body is screaming for motion.  We spent the day in the truck heading to our next destination.  Which I will tell you all about the next time I write to you.  

It has rained on an off all day, and right now it is coming down steady.  The weather report is more rain tomorrow.

The news reported that there were more tornados and storms than ever before, with 250 tornados between like April 25 to May 10th.   We have been blessed with pretty good weather so far this tour.

Thanks for reaching out to me in turn.  I love hearing from you!