June 11-14, 2024 - Myrtle Beach, SC to Fort Collins, CO

What a whirlwind trip home!

We were on the road from Myrtle Beach by 6am on Tuesday morning heading to Vine Grove, Kentucky. The sun was just coming up!

As we hit the highway, we encountered fog for part of the trip.

We arrived at our friends, Cathy and Jim's house, about 5:30 pm in Vine Grove, Kentucky. We had a nice visit with dinner out before coming back to their place. Wednesday morning, Jim suggested we go to an unusual place for breakfast. We followed them so we could take off from there and wondered what was going on when we pulled into the Toyota dealership. Crazy thing - they have a restaurant in the dealership that serves breakfast and lunches! The food was actually pretty good - eggs, omelets, homemade muffins, and lots of tables for seating!

 
After breakfast, we were back on the road heading to Gilbertsville, Kentucky to visit friends, Chris and Sue. We enjoyed lunch at a local BBQ place and had a short visit before hitting the road again. We made it to Chesterfield, Missouri where we had a chance to visit with friends, Cathy and Mike. It was good to catch up and enjoyed dinner at a local Mexican restaurant.

On Thursday, we headed to Webster Groves, Missouri and saw Tobey's sister, Patty. We are selling our house there and we spent time going through things with her, deciding what we wanted to keep and what she wanted. It was fast-paced, but we accomplished quite a bit in the five hours we were there. 

Back on the road, we made it to Kansas City before stopping for the night. 

Friday morning we hit the road and made a beeline home to start the process of sorting things that were wet from our pipe break. Turns out it was a valve outside that has to do with the sprinkler system. Tobey replaced it and we should be good. We are still drying out one of the bedrooms but it could have been much worse if it weren't for our great neighbors. We'll be home for a while, so until the next adventure, stay safe!

June 9-10, 2024 - Myrtle Beach, SC

We said goodbye to Tyler, Katie and Charlotte this morning after driving them to the airport for their trip home. We had so much fun and we will miss them.

We went back and walked the beach and sat by the pool until after lunch when we moved to a different condo for a few days in another property and spent some time just catching up on some emails and reading time. We grabbed some takeout barbeque from Mission BBQ. The food was good - brisket and pulled pork, but I really liked their story. Opening their first location on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, they donate and support veterans and first responders. While we waited for our food, we looked at some of the photos and stories on the walls. Check it out!
https://mission-bbq.com/our-story/

It started raining overnight on Sunday ... and rained and rained off and on all day Monday! We had originally planned to spend three more nights here, but we had some bad news from home.  A water pipe broke and flooded our basement so we start our trip back tomorrow. Fortunately, we have amazing neighbors and friends - and son - and the water is off. They also moved stuff in the basement, pull up carpet, set up fans and start to dry out the floors. We are both a bit anxious to see how bad it really is especially after having lived through the horrible flood of 1997 in Fort Collins with over three feet of water in our house! We still plan to visit friends on our way home, just a bit more abbreviated stops.

The rain finally stopped late afternoon and we took a short walk on the beach looking for shark teeth - no luck. Dinner was at Mr. Crab. It was a fun place. We shared a snow crab claw and half pound of shrimp and had plenty to eat! The food was a little spicier than we are used to, but we still managed to eat all of it.


We were a little surprised when they delivered the meal ... all wrapped up in a big plastic bag!

We have an early morning, so we will close our Myrtle Beach trip for now.

June 8, 2024 - Myrtle Beach, SC

We started the day and ended the day in the water. Tobey and Charlotte went to the beach for a short while then the three of us ended up in the lazy river before she moved on to the larger swimming pool.

After lunch and a little more swim time, everyone got ready and we headed off to Myrtle Beach (south of us about 15 miles) to hit some of the big tourist attractions Our first stop was the SkyWheel followed by a walk along the boardwalk and out on the pier.

Charlotte spotted an small amusement park so she picked two rides that she wanted to go on so we added that to the schedule.

She and Katie rode in one of the back cars on the roller coaster because the front two went upside down!

Next on the schedule was the Pirates Voyage Dinner and Show. It was great fun, the food was good, and we all enjoyed it.

Charlotte got to meet a mermaid.

She even got her face painted to look like one!

We were on the Sapphire pirate team and had fun with the competition against the crimson team. It was entertaining and action packed.


After the show we headed back to the condo to have one last swim. Little mermaids tend to lose their beautiful makeup in clorinated water, but it was a nice end to the day.

Tomorrow they fly back to Colorado and Tobey and I move to a smaller condo for a few more days so we need to finish our packing. 

June 7, 2024 - North Myrtle Beach, SC

This morning's agenda included the beach and pool. Charlotte and her mommy wrote in the sand, claiming their territory! I took this picture from our 10th floor balcony so you can imagine how large this is!

We spent time building sand castle moats and letting the water fill them in then moved back to the pool for a while before lunch. After lunch we headed to Molten Mountain Putt-Putt golf. If 18 holes of golf is good, then 36 holes is better!

The first 18 holes were outside and there were funny wheels we had to spin before the holes. Poor Tyler landed on one that said he had to hold the golf club behind his back AND close his eyes for his first putt! Some of the others were you could change your ball with any other player's after your first putt, or you had to do a hula dance before your putt.

It was so hot outside we all took a short break in the air conditioning before the second round indoors.
What do all pro golfers do after a succssful day on the links? They go to Sugar Kingdom for refreshments! This place was huge and had every kind of candy imaginable, as well as stuffed animals, toys, and ice cream. Charlotte opted for the chocolate unicorn milkshake. She did share with her mom and dad.

We headed back to our condo for a rest and quick showers before dinner.

We walked back along the beach and had fun looking for shark's teeth and cooling our feet in the water and watched Charlotte do cartwheels halfway down the beach. We didn't find any sharks' teeth, but we checked out the different rocks and shells we spotted along the way.

We also spotted one pretty cool looking bug. I dont know what it was, but it was a shiny copper color.
Charlotte wanted one more time in the pool, so she got to swim, go in the lazy river and hot tub before calling it a (late!!!) night. It's hard to believe tomorrow will be our last full day here with the kids before they head home on Sunday. We have several items on the agenda, so good night for now!

June 6, 2024 - North Myrtle Beach, NC

It rained and thundered overnight and we woke to overcast skies. We had reservations for a dolphin watch cruise this morning so we hoped for the best! They told us to arrive 30-45 minutes prior to departure (10:30 am) so we did. They were not ready! We waited and waited and about 15 minutes before departure, they finally checked us in. We headed to the top deck and had great seats.

After starting down the channel we passed million dollar house after million dollar house and a private lighthouse!

We came to an interesting bridge that rotated sideways to allow boats to pass through.

Before hitting open water we saw lots of smaller boats, one that look like it might have had a problem as it was sitting sideways, and a fishing trawler.

Then on to the ocean - and HUGE waves. We had to go downstairs before we got there because the captain warned that it was going to be rough and wet - and it was. Charlotte was not very happy about all of the bouncing and rocking motion of the boat. After cruising around and not spotting any dolphins, the captain turned the boat and we circled some rocky outcroppings where the water was smoother, but still no dolphins. Back into the channels, the water was calm and the sun was coming out and everyone had smiles!

We spotted a heron on the shore.
The captain pointed out the osprey nest on one of the channel markers. Mama was there with a couple of babies.
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We were back to the dock about 1pm. It was a fun boat ride, but we didn't see any dolphins. BUMMER. At least we got to go on the Starship!
We had lunch at Local, the restaurant next door before heading back to our condo. The sun was out, so ... you guessed it - beach and pool time! Dinner out tonight was Italian, followed by a game of Skip-Bo and Uno-Flip. Everyone had a good day and we're all tired, so goodnight.

June 5, 2024 - North Myrtle Beach, NC

Today was a beach day - all day! After breakfast we looked out our window and decided the weather and water looked like the place to be.

Tobey and Charlotte had a blast playing in the ocean, jumping over the waves and giving the boogie board a try.


After a lunch break, it was repeat the ocean, then hit the swimming pools. The first pool was fairly warm and we all had fun racing from one end to the other. Charlotte won almost every race.

We enjoyed the lazy river, but seven-year olds have no lazy in them, so she was doing laps around us!

Dinner out and a couple games of Uno-Flip and it was bedtime. Everyone had a great day!

June 4, 2024 - Fletcher, North Carolina to North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

We hated saying goodbye to friends but we had an early morning start to make it to Myrtle Beach. Fortunately, most of the fog had lifted by the time we hit the road about 8:20 this norning!

Fortunately, the further east we went, the sunnier it got. By the time we hit Myrtle Beach, it was sunny and 86! We picked up Tyler, Katie and Charlotte at the airport and made our way to our condo in North Myrtle Beach. After unloading the car, we got our swimsuits on and hit the beach which is right outside the building!

Charlotte, Tobey, and I had fun slashing in the waves and let mom and dad relax on the shore! Afterwards, we let Charlotte play in one of the swimming pools for a while before heading out for dinner. We played a short game of Uno-Flip before bedtime and will have a busy beach day tomorrow!

June 1-3, 2024 Knoxville, Tennessee - Fletcher, North Carolina

We left Knoxville after getting our tires rotated and headed east to our friends, Daniel and Susan's house in Fletcher, North Carolina. Our route took us through the Great Smokey Mountains which we were excited about because we had never been there. It was free to go into the park, but they require a $5 parking pass if you stopped anywhere for more than 15 minutes.

Lots of winding roads and lots of trees !

We took the mile hike round trip to the observation tower at Clingman's Dome. The hike up is a paved trail but VERY steep! I wasn't sure it would be worth it, but the views were amazing.

You can see the road cut along through the trees in the picture below.

The path to the tower crosses the Appalacian Trail so we went between Tennessee and North Carolina and back.

These are other views of the park.




We stopped at one of the lookout points and I zoomed in on Clingman's Tower - the tiny bump on the right side of the far hill!


Leaving the park our road turned and we had a stretch of drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway where we passed through several tunnels.

We finally arrived in Fletcher around 3pm and spent the next couple days with our friends. We headed out for a drive and stopped at a local brewery for drinks and listened to some music before going to the Biltmore Estate and Museum. It is the largest privately owned home built in America and sits on an 8000 acre plot of land! There was a wedding on the main lawn so we couldn't get too close but it was beautiful. We walked through part of the gardens. There are hiking trails all through the property and Daniel and Susan have annual passes to visit. Their dogs loved being there, too!


Sunday was a rainy day, but we went into Asheville and walked around checking out many of the little shops between showers. One of the shops was an artists' gallery and there was a beautiful wood-carved Harley - complete with motor I didn't look at the price tag, but I can imagine it wasn't cheap. It took a long time because everyone we saw wanted to pet their dogs!

We had lunch at a different brewery and drove up the mountain to see the property where they will be building their new home. Unfortunately, it was so foggy we couldn't see the view! I guess that means we will need to come back when it is finsihed! Yeah!!

On Monday we went to Chimney Rock State Park. The monolith is 535 million years old! Tobey and Daniel took the dogs up the 500 steps to get to the lookout while Susan and I rode the elevator to the top of the 315 foot rock formation. The elevator was built in 1949 to transport visitors to the top of Chimney Rock. It took 18 months and eight TONS of dynamite to complete! The construction involved blasting a 198 foot tunnel through solid granite and building a 258 foot elevator shaft. With that history, of course we had to ride it! 

We had amazing views - they say 75 mile panaoramic - from the top. It sits at an elevation of 2280 feet. You can see Tobey and Daniel as they make the final assent to the top!

This is a view of the lookout area!

Daniel and Susan with Cassidy and Crystal, their Australian shepherds.

Tobey and I with a view of Lake Lure in the background.

Daniel, Tobey, and I then took the Hickory Nut Falls trail hike with the dogs. It was about 1-1/2 miles round trip and the view was beautiful.

The pups were disappointed because there was no way to get to the water for a swim after the hike!

On the hike out we met a family and they pointed out a bug they spotted in the leaves. When they showed us it had crawled up a post. We wondered how in the world they even saw it. It looked like an alien!

We stopped at a dog-friendly restaurant in the village of Chimney Rock before the rain started - and it poured! Fortunately, it stopped by the time we were ready to leave and head back to their place. We enjoyed the eventing visiting and sharing stories and laughed that we sounded ike old people comparing ailments and doctor stories!