Myrtle Beach Trip

I worked until midnight Sunday night, and after I got home, we decided to go ahead and get ready to leave rather than sleep for a few hours. I figured I’d not want to get up if I went to sleep and since it was at least a 12-hour trip, we wanted to get there while there was still part of the day to enjoy. We got on the road a little after 2.

As it was, I drove for about 2 ½ hours and then pulled into a rest area and napped for about 30 minutes, then did the same thing again a few hours later. We had to get the key to the place at another location about 5 miles away, so that added time, but we got into the condo about 4:00, which I thought was pretty good for having to drive the whole 665 miles myself.

There were a few surprises waiting for us in the condo. The patio door was stuck due to a bent and rusty track. At first I couldn’t get it open at all. Later I figured out that if I lifted the backside of it carefully, so as not to jam my fingers, I was able to pull it over the bent area and get it open. We then just left it open for the rest of the week, which turned out to be fine. Even when we had the violent thunderstorm on the last night, it wasn’t enough to get the living room carpet wet.

At first we couldn’t find any towels or washcloths, but then we found them in the dryer, although they weren’t dry. The sheets that were folded up on the master bed were also wet and had to be redried. All together there were 4 bath towels, 1 hand towel, and exactly zero washcloths in this unit that sleeps eight people. There were also no kitchen linens. For 3 bathrooms, there was a total of one-half roll of toilet paper. There was also no dish soap.

There were other minor problems that were not irritating by themselves, but under the circumstances, they also added to the perception that we were not exactly in a high-class joint.

We were too tired to do anything about it right then, so we waited until Wednesday morning. We drove back over to the Century 21 office, where we had gotten the keys, with a written list of these complaints so they could notify the owner, or whoever. Then we went over to WalMart to buy all the missing items we needed. Since we were only going to have three people rather than the five who were invited, we just bought some washcloths, and called Ralph to have him bring his own towels. It wasn’t until Thursday that someone called us to discuss these problems. The person said they would bring over some towels, which they never did, that they would tell the owner about the patio door, (I’m guessing the owner already knows about it), and that as far as dishwasher soap, they don’t provide it. I told the lady that this was the first time we had ever rented a condo in which dishwasher soap was not provided. After all, we are required to wash the dishes before we leave, so most owners consider it common courtesy to provide the soap.

The name of the condo is The Summit in North Myrtle Beach. It is better avoided for future reference.

Once we got over this initial hurdle, the rest of the week was rather grand. Well, that is excepting my usual $40 poker losses to my brother. But that’s just my life, and I probably wouldn’t know how to handle it if I actually won.

Kim and I got to take our usual walks on the beach, although she didn’t find many shells worth keeping this time. We think the gulf side has better shells. We got to spend a lot of time just relaxing on the balcony listening to the waves (my biggest reason for going in the first place). We went out for the obligatory seafood dinner, a buffet this time. And Ralph took us on a sightseeing drive down as far as Murrell Inlet and back, mostly because he got bored after I was forced to quit playing poker, having reached my loss limit. I got to make my Books A Million run. And we stumbled onto a discount bookstore in a shopping area called Tanger. That’s quite an outdoor shopping center. There must be a hundred stores there, mostly clothing, but other stuff as well. Anyway, I couldn’t believe how cheap the books were in this bookstore. And they were new current books, not used. Recent books by Dean Koontz, John Updike, John Grisham and Ted Dekker, among others. An illustrated coffee table version of David McCullough’s 1776, which lists for $65, sold for $14.99.

I got $283 worth of books for $86.

I would have kept going, but I didn’t want to hold up the others any longer.

Saturday night, our last night there, Ralph went ahead on home. Kim and I sat on the balcony as a rather violent thunderstorm went out over the ocean. It’s amazing how much louder thunder sounds when it’s out in the open rather than in the city. The lightning show was rather fascinating, and it’s always fun to count the seconds between lightning and thunder so you can figure out how far away it is. When the lightning and thunder are virtually simultaneous, the noise is deafening.