Introduction

This report covers two consecutive weekend trips to Myrtle Beach.  We don't usually make our visits there quite so close together, but a confluence of circumstances caused us to do so.  The first trip was from February 5 - 7 and was primarily undertaken to attend a wedding shower and the second was February 13 - 15 to support and participate in a charitable fund raising event.

Since all of our planned activities for the two trips were centered in the Ocean Drive section of North Myrtle we decided to try new accommodations for us located there.  We have plenty of observations to share about that matter.  For the most part we had some very good dining experiences with only a few notable, less than desirable exceptions sprinkled in amongst them.  As always we enjoyed visiting with friends and talking about all manner of things related to Myrtle Beach, past and present, and yet to come.  We're quite fortunate to count among those friends a number who have special insight to the goings on with and perspectives about business, politics, entertainment and the many interesting local "personalities" associated with the area.  Indeed, it's never boring!

Just as was the case with our previous trip in November 2009, the weather was a consequential matter and warrants comment.  So, we'll lead off with that topic.

But before doing so, we want to remind our readers that there's always a photo album at the end of our reports.  We wanted to make that point here because we've recently learned some folk are missing that - guess they're reading too quickly and think it's all done when they see our complimentary close or perhaps they're just exhausted by the time the end of the verbose narrative is reached.  Anyway, the photo section is unusually "robust" this time - take a look.

Weather and Travel

We love doing the nice, scenic drive to Myrtle Beach all the while listening to good music and anticipating the things we'll be enjoying once there.  That's what we love, but didn't have on these trips, at least as far as the weather was concerned.  In thinking about the drives one word readily comes to mind and that is "nasty".  On the first trip to Myrtle it poured the proverbial buckets of rain a good bit of the time we were driving there and when it wasn't doing that we had a fair amount of fog and intermittent light showers.

After we arrived it cleared off nicely other than a persistent wind, but later that afternoon a new storm appeared - one which was even worse than what we experienced earlier in the day.  It made us wonder if we had encountered a rogue hurricane which was well outside the normal seasonal boundaries. Though it was daytime the sky was almost black, palms were bent to the breaking point, traffic lights were frightening as they flapped all about trying to detach themselves from their supports, and the rain was blowing almost horizontally from the ocean front.  At the hotel the wind was so strong it was quite a struggle to open the car doors.  That was no fun at all!

A curious thing about the drive there that day with all the adverse weather was we made exceptionally good time.  From our driveway to the intersection of the new Robert Edge Parkway with Main Street in Ocean Drive it took only 3 hours and 10 minutes.  Actually, that's probably our shortest drive time ever and apart from having a strong tail wind the biggest contributing factor was being able to take SC 31 from SC 9, and then the Parkway to dump into OD.  It definitely cut a noticeable number of minutes from our drive.  But having made that point, we'll also say for the whole trip we paid careful attention to the Passport 9500ix radar detector which was a good thing.  The patrolmen along the way weren't being deterred by the weather in their quest for speeders.

The morning of the second trip we awoke to about 5" of snow on the ground at home which had accumulated overnight.  For awhile we seriously considered taking the 4 x 4 Ford SportTrac truck, but after studying weather conditions and highway cameras at various strategic locations along the route we concluded we would be OK with the Cadillac CTS if we could make it the 1.7 miles from our development to I-85.

In our driveway ready to depart

There probably was more snow and ice on the way to Asheboro, NC than we anticipated, however there weren't too many anxious moments.  Well, there was that one episode of having to pass an unbelievably and unnecessarily slow vehicle on NC 64 in one of the few places one is able to do so, even in good weather.  Beyond Asheboro US 220 was for the most part clear though we kept hitting small patches of ice immediately under overpasses which caused a momentary slip of the wheels - kind of an odd sensation.  The light snow that had settled on the countryside was pretty.  By the time we reached OD there was none evident there, but we did see pictures made during the early morning hours with the snow blanketing everything, including the beach.  We gather it was the first significant snowfall in Myrtle Beach since 1989.

On subsequent days after our arrival on both trips the weather was better as far as precipitation and strong wind, but it was bitterly cold - at least by our standards.  Overcoats and heavy furs were worn whenever we ventured out and we were very glad we had them with us.  It does never fail that no matter how uncomfortably cold we might find it there are always a few folk pretending it's summertime.  On several occasions we observed people wearing bathing suits in the outside hot tub area at the hotel.  Then there were the slightly more sensible ones reclining on lounges by the pools wrapped in many layers of clothes with only a tiny bit of their faces visible and turned toward the sun.  Guess they really were intent on getting a token tan to show the folk back home.  Whatever.

Sparkle Car Wash

Yes, this subject needs to be right up front in our report after dealing with the matters of weather and travel!  We said the weather for the drives to Myrtle Beach was "nasty" and there would have been no doubt whatsoever about that matter for anyone seeing the Cadillac after our arrivals.  Make that especially so after the snow drive - it was covered with salt spray and other assorted ugly stuff - probably the dirtiest it's ever been.  But Sparkle Car Wash & Detail Center was there to make things much better.

They're the only full service car wash of which we're aware on the northern end of Myrtle, and we were very pleased they were available.  Their address is 1212 Hwy 17 South, North Myrtle Beach, SC 29583 and the telephone number is (843) 272-2777.  We used their services on both trips and were quite happy with the results.  They certainly earned every penny of the cost for the Diamond Wash as they worked and worked to get the accumulated grime removed.

We definitely recommend a visit to Sparkle Car Wash whether it be to remove snow related grunge or just the ocean salt spray from more balmy days at the beach.