DAY 4: Saturday 12 May 2012 - Columbia to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
We had a 7.45am bags, 8.45am bus day today. No breakfast though (partly why they lost the Ted). We set out and passed Woodrow Wilson’s House again. We’d passed it yesterday, but Brenda only mentioned it after we were passed and, once again this morning, she only mentioned it after it was too late. So, no, you don’t get a photograph.
Brenda then decided to tell us about The Shag which was/is a dance craze, based in the South Carolina area - particularly the beach area - which was where we were heading to today – Myrtle Beach. I assume that this can be the only explanation as to why Brenda decided to show us a film about the dance. It’s supposed to be a cross between the Jitterbug and the Jive, but from what I could see it was more the over-forties shuffling about doing dad-dancing while stubbing out a ciqarette with each foot simultaneously. At least, that's what it looked like to me.
I can’t talk about the dancing so much (which looked pretty bad to me) but the movie was hideous. They claim it was the era of beach music but I didn’t see Frankie Avalon or Sandra Dee anywhere – and that is beach music. To me anyway. Although the movie was horrible, some of the music, from the 70s was okay. If that’s what Myrtle Beach is it’s enough to put you off going. (It won't be the last thing to do that!)
Ah well, things started to look up when we were promised a mid-morning Wal-mart stop. Yay. [How times have changed. I remember a few years ago moaning about the Wal-mart stop, but now I'm a convert. Maybe since getting a Wal-mart of my own. In Florida. Well, sort of.]
Rats! The Walmart stop became a K-Mart stop and, despite Brenda’s insistence it was just the same, it really wasn’t. More like a poor man's Target I thought – in that they don’t have much, food-wise, and David couldn’t find any fruit (obviously I just wasn’t looking for any!) Since the stop, while on this trip, there’s been a guy reported on the news who bought out the entire stock of a K-Mart to give to the needy – and it cost him ONLY £20,000. It would take way more than that to buy out a Wal-mart!
They didn’t have much in the way of snacks either, but I did find some cheesy popcorn. I do like a snack that’s bigger than I am! Anyway, I hope that’s my last K-Mart stop. I didn’t enjoy the experience. The wait at the check-outs was not unlike Walmart though – it took forever and there were only a couple of us waiting.
When we were just outside Myrtle Beach, Brenda suddenly decided a Walmart stop was called for after all. Except we only got twenty-five minutes! It takes that long to check out of Walmart. We just had time to grab a couple of bottles of $2.97 Oak Leaf red wine (in case of emergencies, obviously) and some Coke for Di then it was back to the bus. No time for real shopping sadly.
Myrtle Beach attracts fourteen million tourists each year and Brenda mentioned there was a bikers festival this weekend. In hindsight, I didn’t notice any motorbikes while we were there! Before we arrived, we were advised by Brenda that, for those of us not taking the buffet/Carolina Opry optional that evening, there were hundreds of restaurants within walking distance of the hotel from which to choose. Had it just been the Opry show, we might have gone but you know Di and Paul are feeble about going to buffets, and I just don’t like to mix with the peasants! We figured one of those local restaurants would work better for us.
It took driver David a couple of attempts to find the hotel – more expert reversing and manoeuvring until we found the bus drop off point. Finally, we arrived at Hilton Myrtle Beach. Wow! The hotel definitely looked impressive, with it’s wide open lobby with seating areas, and inner walkways off for several floors.
Our room was on the 9th floor – very large and spacious, with a microwave, refrigerator, some flouncy toiletries (pressies for home!) and some good quality towels. The downside was the Wi-Fi was $9.95 for 24 hours, or $12.95 for multiple devices. Hmph! You know I drop Teds for that kind of thing! Well, I didn’t drop them a Ted for the view! Nice, eh?
Our room overlooked the Atlantic Ocean and the beach. The sun was shining. It was a great room.
We decided to go and explore. We’d ditched Dave cos he was going on the evening optional and we had those plans to eat locally. We soon found the hotel’s restaurant, the Café Amalfi – it looked a bit upmarket though and $29 for the cheapest bottle of red. The meals seemed fairly expensive too. We carried on and continued around the mezzanine until we found the biggest Business Centre I have ever seen!
Eight PCs, with printer, fax machine, and even a couple of stations to plug in your own laptop (and getting around the paid-for Wi-Fi problem). Their machines cleared down your personal data when logging out, including temporary files, and there were links to social networking sites, uploading files from your memory stick. They’d thought of everything. I was very surprised and impressed with this. It didn’t get them that Ted back though. Why charge for Wi-Fi? It’s just wrong!
Important stuff checked out, we decided to head outside – we thought we’d walk along the beach and check out what was nearby. On the hotel deck, by the nice-looking swimming pool (bigger than mine!) was a burger bar, and also a drinks bar. Maybe later.
We headed north of the hotel for about half a mile and all we found was other hotels, and an RV campsite. No restaurants. No bars. No ice cream kiosks. Just hotels and the beach. Hmm. Not promising, considering all of those nearby restaurants. So, we headed the other way.
We walked about a mile back to the Atlantic Pier (half a mile south of our hotel). They wanted a dollar each to walk on the pier so we didn’t (yes, we are that cheap. Still didn’t find any restaurants though – we did find one bar that looked closed and another RV campsite. We took a little walk through there but they didn’t seem to have anywhere to eat either – except in all the RVs, obviously, and no one invited us for dinner. Nope. No restaurants here!
We turned around and headed back to the hotel. All the while we were on the beach, we kept seeing aeroplanes pulling banners telling us about local restaurants, but whenever Di googled them, they were a few miles away. There's even a Build-A-Bear Workshop in Myrtle Beach (of course I checked!) but that was 13-miles from the hotel. This is not a no-car town, it seems.
Back at the hotel. we headed to the aforementioned bar. $3.75 each for a Budweiser! A bit steep, but it was cold, and overlooking the beach. Di decided to google restaurants on her phone. She found two. The one in our hotel, one in the hotel next door (which was likely to be similar). This was not promising - we really didn't fancy the $29/bottle hotel cafe.
Heading back into the hotel, we bumped into a couple from our trip - Rosemary and Mike - and we got talking to them for a while. They too had been looking for the many restaurants and had been disappointed to find none. They'd seen the concierge who had told them that if they walked down the road for a while, then left and right, they’d find an Irish pub. Hmm, not very specific and not great if they didn’t like what they had on offer. We headed inside and we asked the concierge if there were any restaurants in the local area – within walking distance. “No” was the answer given. O-kay.
However, she continued, the hotel did have a minibus shuttle that would take us to nearby eateries within a mile. Oh well, it would have to do. By this time, Rosemary and Mike had joined us at the concierge desk. The concierge then tried to sell us on The Chestnut Hill Restaurant but it sounded a little upscale and we were looking for something a little lighter, rather than a full dinner.
We asked about pizza and the concierge offered the Ultimate California Pizza. It sounded good to us so we arranged to meet up at about 6.30pm, in the lobby. In the meantime, we said we’d go ask Brenda what happened to the hundreds of restaurants when she was meeting up with the group for the optional.
We caught up with Brenda but she didn’t seem overly interested. She said we could take the hotel shuttle, which she had mentioned, and which we had by then booked, but she suddenly seemed very vague about the previously discussed restaurants within walking distance. Totally uninterested in fact. Hey ho.
We met up with Mike and Rosemary at the agreed time and went to wait for the shuttle. The valet did try to give us an SUV which we liked the look of. Paul was all for taking the car but I mentioned Grand Theft Auto (the crime, not the computer game!) and he changed his mind. As did the valet when he realised we were shuttle-waiters. Shame! It was a very nice car!
The shuttle picked us up and drove us for five to ten minutes, dropping some others off at a seafood restaurant then dropping us at the pizza place. The driver gave us a card to call them to pick us up later (good job Di has a phone!)
It didn’t look very promising. Ultimate California Pizza. is part of a gamezone-type place, with lots of arcade games scattered about. The restaurant looked a little basic and empty, but we were here now and the shuttle was gone. Our cheery waitress showed us to our seats, offered separate checks and fetched us some drinks. They only did wine by the glass ($4.25), not by the bottle, but Paul survived. It wasn't long before the restaurant was buzzing with folks!
I have to say, the pizza was amazing! Crunchy base, just the right size. We’d skipped an appetizer – Mike and Rosemary hadn’t and their seasoned fries order was huge! So we had a few, just to be sociable.
We skipped dessert (too stuffed) but thoroughly enjoyed the evening and the company. After dinner, Di google-mapped the hotel and got walking directions. It claimed to be ONLY 1.6 miles from the hotel. Now, you know me, I’m not totally convinced that 1.6 miles should be considered walking distance. I only have little legs you know! Short, fat, hairy ones, like Ernie Wise!
It took a few minutes to get through to the shuttle to pick us up, but they did within about fifteen minutes and dropped us off back at the hotel. It was a good evening, but a little dampened by the misleading advice of our Tour Director. Had we known, we might have still skipped the optional, but it would’ve been nice to make an informed decision. On our way up to the room, we nipped into the Business Centre to check on emails. Not a soul in sight! Love it.
The hotel only managed three Teds though - charging for Wi-Fi is always a Ted-dropper as I already said, and no breakfast, expensive restaurant and store and no restaurants in walking distance [which probably wasn't totally their fault, but you know me. Never one to let fairness stand in the way of a rant!]
