Pirateland Family Camping Resort
I have to be honest with you about this. When we go to Pirateland, we're staying in a "campground" but we aren't really "camping". Camping, to me, implies sleeping in a tent out in the wilderness without much more than a backpack and a compass to sustain yourself. What we're doing is essentially staying in a condo that at one point in its life happened to have been a traditional tag-along style camper.
A friend of Jill's family owns what's referred to as a permanent site and these tremendously generous folks are kind enough to let us use it for our annual trip to Myrtle Beach. In case you didn't know, a permanent site is a plot of land in a section of the campground where people have taken actual campers, moored them into a foundation, then modified them so that in many cases they don't even resemble campers anymore. For example, the camper we make use of still has the overall shape of a camper, however it has added features such as a porch, living room, expanded bedrooms, full bath, and even a laundry/utility closet. It's not a huge amount of space (especially not vertically speaking; I have to remember to duck when going through certain doors else I wind up concussing myself) but it's more than adequate for the two of us.
The campground itself is almost like a carnival environment in that you have all these nomadic people who've traveled from far & wide then congregated together for the sake of seeking rest and relaxation (amongst other things). Personally, I love checking out all the various campers that people bring onto the grounds as I find these porta-houses and their associated technologies to be quite interesting. Recreational vehicles and motor homes are the most intriguing as some of these things are palatial in what they have to offer in terms of amenities. I've jokingly told my wife that when we're old and retired (assuming we get old and can be retired, that is) we're going to sell off everything and buy a RV then spend our waking years traveling around. Hopefully by then RVs will be equipped with guidance systems; I'm not sure how well I'll be able to drive one of those behemoths when I'm in my latter years.
Pirateland is one of several campgrounds in Myrtle Beach which are adjacent to one another - I've never been to any of those so I have nothing to contrast the kind of things that they may or may not have to offer with Pirateland. Be that as it may, Pirateland isn't too dissimilar from a hotel when it comes to offered services. There's a laundromat, a store, WiFi, several pools, and even a restaurant in the form of a food truck (Hog Heaven BBQ). I still enjoy staying in hotels but I will say that our set up within Pirateland affords us a level of privacy and serenity not found in most resorts. There's just something about being near an inlet nestled amongst a bunch of live oak trees that's particularly satisfying.
2013 Annual Truesdale Myrtle Beach Putt-Putt Challenge Championship
To make a long story short, the 2013 Annual Truesdale Myrtle Beach Putt-Putt Challenge Championship did not go my way. Very much the opposite, as a matter of fact, seeing as how Jill more or less took me to the wood shed this year.
The 2013 ATMBPPCC went 4 rounds, with my wife coming out on top 3-1 in our best 3-out-of-5 scenario. We played at some of the most challenging courses we've encountered yet, and I think that added a lot to the overall competitiveness of the event.
Round 1 was held at the Castle course of Adventure Falls Golf (the Surfside location; there's another Adventure Falls towards North Myrtle). This is an older facility but one that is certainly well maintained and deceptively challenging. The first hole nearly threw both Jill and myself for a loop but we managed to recover and finish the round with a final score of Jill 44 to my 45, 7 and 8 over par respectively (every hole was a par 2; I have no idea who set that up but I believe they were a sadist).
Round 2 saw play shift to the Viking course of Dragon's Lair Fantasy Golf, a facility I've wanted to play at for years but never had previously. This proved to be my lone victory in the 2013 ATMBPPCC as I managed to squeak out a win over Jill despite the fact that the final score was a tie at 43 all (43 also being even par for that course). ATMBPPCC rules state that in the event of a tie the player with the most holes in one for that round shall be declared the winner. I had 1 hole in one (hole #10), thereby making me the winner.
Round 3 truly was a test of our physical conditioning as the atmospheric conditions began to wreak havoc on the both of us. For this round, we played the Dunn's River Falls course at Runaway Bay Miniature Golf, which is attached to the Tupelo Bay Golf Center. The heat and humidity common to summers here in South Carolina was in full force this day - I'm not ashamed to admit that I had perspired through my clothing so much that at the end of the round the sweat stain on my pants looked as though I'd urinated on myself. Jill bested me this round by a score of 41-44 (both of us were over for the round as par there is 39). We retired back to our camper after this round, needless to say, for showers and a fresh set of clothes.
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| Me, prior to losing 20 lbs. of water weight at Dunn's River Falls |
The fourth and final round of the 2013 ATMBPPCC was held at Gilligan's Island Funland Miniature Golf. The Minnow course proved to be my undoing as I couldn't keep pace with Jill on the back 9. The 14th hole was particularly troublesome as it was there that I went from having a two-stroke lead to a two-stroke deficit. The final tally was 48-49, with both of us doing particularly well against the course as 54 is par at the Minnow.
It was all over but the crying at that point. I humbly submitted my congratulations to Jill on having defended her title, the first successful defense and retention of the ATMBPPCC trophy in its history.
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| Jill with the ATMBPPCC trophy |
Random Acts of Fun and Hilarity
Food, Food, and MORE FOOD - Vacation, for a lot of people, is an excuse to let go of their diet and eat whatever they want. For me, it's just another day. I definitely need to be watching what I eat but I don't, and with that in mind came a consumption of mass quantities during our trip to Myrtle Beach. Every day while we're camping begins with a healthy portion of bacon, sausage, country ham, eggs, and crock pot grits (sometimes waffles, too, but they're not an every day offering). Several ladies in the family prepare these meals and they are always amazing - the meals and the ladies, I mean. Lunches are random in that they can be anything from buffalo chicken salad at Sweet Carolina's to a caramel mocha Rockuccino from the KISS Koffee House. Supper tends to be a family affair as well seeing as how one or two couples out of the gathering will handle cooking duties for the evening and provide enough vittles for the whole gang. Is it any wonder my clothes aren't fitting that well right now?
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| A typical breakfast during our annual Myrtle Beach trips |
The New House of Blues Menu Blows - I have a long relationship with the House of Blues. I started going there for concerts around 2000 while I was a student at Francis Marion University (FMU and HOB are separated by roughly an hour's drive). It wasn't long after that that I found out about their Pass the Line program, whereby patrons of the HOB restaurant get early access to the concert hall. All you had to do was buy an entrée and you got in before the rest of the crowd; trick was, you still had to get there early enough to be at the front of the Pass the Line line. (HOB later debuted a program they called Crash the Barricade, which was similar to Pass the Line except you got treated to a buffet line with burgers, hot dogs, and the like. I never did this as I saw early on that folks in this line never got in as early as those of us in Pass the Line.) Seeing as how I went to hundreds of concerts at HOB, I became well-versed with their menu and I had several favorite items. Main among them were the catfish nuggets appetizer, buffalo chicken tenders, jambolaya, and the banana bread pudding (which was absolutely amazing). Unfortunately, sometime in the past two or three years someone within HOB's administration decided it was time to monkey with the menu in an apparent effort to fix what wasn't broken. They brought in Aaron Sanchez of Food Network fame and he redid the entire thing, removing all of our favorites in the process. I will say that we've eaten there twice since the changes were made and while the food is not bad it is not what we remember. I truly hope someday the old menu comes back but I'm not holding my breath on that.
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| The now extinct catfish fingers/nuggets appetizer from HOB |
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| HOB's banana bread pudding - I can't tell you how depressing it is to know that I'll never eat this again |
C4W Explosive Wrestling - I don't get to attend as many independent professional wrestling events as I'd like, but I do try to keep my ear to the ground when it comes to the industry as it relates to local wrestlers and promotions. C4W is a federation I'd been following loosely online via their Facebook page as I'd never had a chance to see one of their shows live previously. They ran a card the Saturday we got into Myrtle Beach which is why I took the opportunity to check them out. I will say this, to get off on a positive note; C4W has a great venue and set up as they're part of a sports complex called the X Gym. Their staging and ring all looked good, so from a presentation standpoint C4W has what a lot of other indies don't. Other than that, I have nothing particularly positive to say about C4W. Yes, I am a wrestling snob - I've been around enough good wrestling to know bad wrestling when I see it and C4W is mostly bad. To me, they are an example of what happens when an indie promotion with limited talent tries too hard to replicate what WWE does with a show like Monday Night Raw. You wind up with overly intricate storylines and "wrestlers" trying to emulate what they saw on TV. What boggles my mind the most about this show, though, is the fact that it drew a big crowd - as in probably between 100-150 people. I have no way of knowing how many were paying admission (some weren't; I saw the girl at the gate marking off names from a list) but it was an insane amount of people for a show that poor.
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| This is all you need to see to know C4W's quality - kick pads over Vans instead of boots |
Teazers Pole Fitness & Dance Studio - Men have won the battle of the sexes. You know how I know we've won? Because pole dancing is now considered a legitimate form of exercise. While I was at the C4W show, I noticed a section within the X Gym that had a sign promoting "Pole Fitness". I wanted to give this the benefit of the doubt as being an honest gimmick like Zumba but did a little research on the matter (You guessed it, I Googled something!) and it turns out this is a business operating within the X Gym called Teazers Pole Fitness & Dance Studio. I guess it would've been too obvious if they'd called it Myrtle Beach Stripper School.
MagiQuest - After Jill & I had completed round 2 of the 2013 ATMBPPCC at Dragon's Lair, we were planning to spend some time walking around Broadway at the Beach which is a huge outdoor shopping and entertainment district. You can find everything at Broadway from the Hard Rock Cafe to Build-A-Bear, from Ripley's Aquarium to an Imax theater. We've checked out most of the offerings at Broadway but one we'd never tried previously is MagiQuest, a live-action role playing game. The concept is that you create your own character (I'm Red Beard and Jill is Lady Night Owl) that exists in a magical realm (think Middle Earth from Lord of the Rings) and you go about accomplishing tasks and missions in order to develop your character's abilities. It's a lot like RPG video games in that you're building up skills and resources with the ultimate goal being to become a Master Magi. You get a wand, which you can also customize, and you basically run around with a bunch of kids trying to slay dragons and other random baddies. I wasn't sure if it was going to be corny or not when we first went in but we wound up having a lot of fun with it so I'm glad we took the time to check it out.
An Octogenarian on a Trike - I bear no shame in admitting that I have the worst sense of balance in the history of mankind. Seriously, I can be standing still and lose my balance. As such, riding a traditional bicycle is not all that easy for me. This is why I purchased a Schwinn Meridian earlier this year; it's more or less a tricycle for adults, and I've gotten a lot of enjoyment out of it so far. The only issue I have with it is that it has no gears so hills can be challenging. Jill & I decided it would be fun to take our bikes to the beach this year as the campground makes for a great place to ride. Little did I know that my trike would inspire Jill's 80-something year old Grandfather to jump on it and go for a ride himself! Well, "jump on" might have been too extreme as he needed a little assistance in mounting up but once he got going he was fine. I can't tell you how many laughs seeing him on my trike generated; it was a great moment and a fine example of why it pays to always have a camera handy.
Myrtle Manor, aka the Farcical Nature of Reality TV - Myrtle Beach has never had an issue with maintaining its visibility as a tourist destination. Try as local government has to bolster its popularity by giving the area a more wholesome presence, the fact remains that there are parts of Myrtle Beach which will always be synonymous with booze, partying, and loose morals. When it came to pass that the cable TV network TLC (which I think should be legally required to change its name; it may still be "TLC" but I don't think their current line-up is indicative of a moniker like The Learning Channel) announced a show called Myrtle Manor to be filmed in a Myrtle Beach trailer park, there weren't too many happy elected officials. Be that as it may, the show went on and it featured an assembled cast of random miscreants who were intended to represent trailer park stereotypes. It was something of a hit in its first season as another batch of episodes has been ordered. We couldn't not see this place for ourselves which is why we sought out Patrick's Mobile Home Park, the trailer park where Myrtle Manor is filmed. Myrtle Manor doesn't make up the whole of the park, rather a rear corner of the property. In case you're a fan of the series and had any delusions that what you see there is real, I can tell you that Myrtle Manor looked deserted. It had the appearance of an abandoned movie set, which is more or less what it is at this point in time - a facade meant to serve as a location for a scripted series of events.
Medieval Times - I remember the first time I took my then-girlfriend, now-wife to Medieval Times. She had a strawberry daiquiri in the lounge while we were waiting to be seated and it turned her cheeks a bright shade of pink. I swear, she's let me drag her to so many weird venues for wrestling and shows like this that I'm surprised she goes along with any of my ideas any more. Regardless, going to Medieval Times has become a tradition for us as we've been every year since then. The show has changed significantly from what it was when we first started going but what's remained the same is the quality of the entertainment and the meal you receive during the performance. It's not a cheap night out but I think you get your money's worth.
Homophones Are Fun - One of my favorite moments of the entire week happened when we went to the MT box office to purchase our tickets. We've been to the arena so many times that there are only a couple knights we haven't had the opportunity to cheer for, and this being the case we wanted to see if it was possible to get into one of those sections. Generally speaking, seating is first come-first served meaning you won't know which area you'll be seated in until you go through the line. While we were purchasing our tickets the lady behind the counter asked Jill "Which night would you like?" Jill's response was, "WE GET TO PICK WHICH KNIGHT WE WANT?!" I cannot duplicate with text the excitement in her tone of voice when she said that and I only wish I'd had a video camera on her when she did. Of course, the lady at the counter meant which evening's show would we like to attend, not which knight's section in which we wanted to be seated. Epic blonde moment is epic.
We've been back home for a few days now. One thing that I realized immediately when we got back to our house is how much bigger our place seemed after having lived in a camper for a week. Our house isn't huge by any means but man did it ever seem gigantic when we returned! While the camper may be small, it's become a beloved part of our life together. I guess that sentiment plays into the old saying "Home is where the heart is". We've built a lot of memories during these trips of ours to Myrtle Beach and I certainly hope they continue on for decades to come.
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