Usually in our travelogues this topic is devoted to our experiences once we’ve reached our destination and are employing rental cars and limousines. In this case we were driving from our house to Myrtle Beach and, of course, returning using one of our own vehicles. The decision of which one to use involved more than a little casual deliberation.

Choosing The Right One – Those of you who know a bit about us personally are aware that Ed’s Cadillac XLR roadster is one of his passions. He not only enjoys driving and babying it, but sharing information with others who may have an interest in the marque. The very thought of a run to Myrtle Beach using the XLR put a sparkle in his eye and rekindled more than a few fond memories of doing such in various English sports cars, often hurtling along at unconscionable speeds indicative of one’s reckless younger days.

While relishing the idea of once again enjoying a nice convertible at the beach, that thought also turned to questions of whether it could be safely parked, particularly overnight at the resort where we would be staying. Inquiries to the hotel revealed all of their parking was on ground level, open-air lots with part of it being across an adjoining street, and that security patrols were provided. Though somewhat encouraged by the latter part of that response, worries continued and as a consequence further input was sought including posing questions related to such on an internet forum devoted to Myrtle Beach. Frankly, Ed kept having paranoid visions of some intoxicated passerby, a careless, improperly supervised kid flinging a door open in an adjacent car, or just some plainly malicious person resentful of what they couldn’t own causing damage.

If there was any doubt left about what to do it was erased when Ed was visiting with Bruce Hayes, President and owner of Hayes Jewelers in Lexington, NC. Bruce is an extremely well known and respected businessman who frequents Myrtle Beach often and sponsors events there. As he was walking around the XLR and admiring it Ed decided to seek his advice and consequently put the question to him. Bruce thoughtfully weighed the matter and after an obvious period of deliberation responded "Ed, don’t do it. This car is just too beautiful and too distinctive to not be a magnet for trouble if it’s left overnight in a publicly accessible area in OD." Well, that pretty much sealed the matter. We would be using the Escalade for the trip which, though not near as much fun as the XLR, did serve us well. Mind you, for reasons you’ll learn later, we’ll probably take the Sport Trac the next time we venture in that direction.

To and Fro – Ed initially plotted the trip in a number of ways using MapQuest variations, all of which seemed to result in too many miles and too much driving time – way too much from our viewpoint. We had never done the trip from our present location and there just didn’t appear to be a decent, reasonably direct route. Finally, we rediscovered the directions for the way we had driven to Myrtle so many times in those years long ago and realized we could still effectively use certain parts of the route. One of the landmarks in the original instructions was an old BP station at the intersection of NC State road 1003 and US-1 (now replaced by a new one across the corner) near Hoffman. The older station building is now gone, but we remember it especially well because we limped into its parking area late one evening after being attacked by a crazed kamikaze deer some miles before that intersection on the way to the beach. While there beneath the gas pump lights Ed could better see the extensive damage and managed to pull more of the badly crumpled sheet metal away from the right front wheel and secure the remaining dangling parts of the headlight on that side. It was quite a pitiful sight, but nonetheless we did make it to our destination that night, albeit slowly.

On the morning we departed for our current trip, any lingering aspirations Ed may have had about taking the XLR were quickly doused by the miserable weather – cool, foggy and misty rain. The weather did take a turn for the better though after the first few hours, but it definitely still wasn’t very good. Even so, we did enjoy the drive because it was a lot of fun being surprised at how little had changed along the back roads and in that respect how much we managed to remember. One new discovery was a huge number of what appeared to be large Foxglove plants with dark yellow flowers growing wild along considerable stretches of the road. One of the largest and most notable displays was encountered soon after turning off US 1 onto NC 1001. They were in full bloom and absolutely beautiful. Since then we’ve regretted not stopping and taking a few pictures, especially because researching Foxglove on the internet has revealed varieties very much like what we saw, but the leaves are not exactly the same. We would love to hear from any of our readers who are familiar with that area and who would be able to tell us more about those particular flowers.

The total distance from our house to the reception parking at the hotel was exactly 206 miles and the actual driving time was 3 hours and 50 minutes. We weren’t "pushing it" at all in terms of speed and, in fact, for the most part drove at a quite leisurely pace. Not included in the actual driving time were a brief stop at the new BP station and a short lunch break near Laurinburg, NC.

The return trip was even better; however, because we weren’t paying sufficient attention we did manage to miss one of our turns that cuts off a corner in the route. That mistake probably resulted in an additional 10 - 15 minutes of driving. And apart from a stop for a special treat along the way, what made the return better? The weather, wouldn’t you know it, was fabulous the day of our departure – the best of the whole trip.

Driving While There – Our strategy of concentrating most of our endeavors in the OD area where we chose to stay, fortunately, negated the need for much driving while there. However, each evening we dined out of the immediate area and encountered horrible traffic at times. That and the changed landscape (door-to-door all-you-can-eat buffets catering to overweight Americans and Canadians, and those "theme theaters") made us especially appreciative of the Escalade’s onboard navigation system, which unfortunately we should have employed sooner on one of our forays. But, we’ll get to that in a moment.

Our first evening we were driving (well, "crawling" would be more descriptive) along Kings Highway (US 17) toward 73^rd Avenue North and the traffic was horrendous. Horrendous that is until we reached the turnoff to WalMart and Tanger Outlet which was causing the backup and slowdown in multiple lanes. We noticed the mostly northern states’ tags on cars waiting to make that turn and found ourselves wondering if people coming to Myrtle Beach really consider a visit to WalMart to be a vacation activity. What’s up with that? Anyway, once we were beyond that location it was reasonably smooth, less congested sailing.

With the preceding experience very much in mind, the following day we made inquiries seeking a better way of reaching the central part of Myrtle Beach where we would be dining that evening. The advice was upon leaving OD to turn right on US 17 North, take US 9 to SC 31 South and then the Grissom Parkway. So, that was the plan until later when Ed noticed a map in one of the publications in our suite. It looked like the recommended route could be modified to take SC 90 from US 17 over to SC 31 and cut out some of the driving. What he didn’t notice at the time was the tiny print indicating "No Access" where 31 crosses 90. Once upon SC 90 we drove and drove, and eventually became increasingly convinced something had to be wrong as we moved closer to Conway. That’s when we stopped and programmed our destination into the navigation system. After consulting with a satellite above, it quickly showed us we were way off course, but in no time it’s svelte feminine voice, without recrimination for not involving her earlier, was soon guiding us to where we wanted to be. In our little excursion we had the opportunity to experience the new to us SC 22 in addition to the Grissom Parkway and found them both to be quite nice.

The third evening found us on our way along Kings Highway to a restaurant in Barefoot Landing. We don’t know if it being a Saturday made a difference, but the northern WalMart aficionados didn’t seem to be causing quite as much congestion. Our biggest problem was, having never been to Barefoot Landing, we didn’t know there were multiple entrances and the signs for various establishments weren’t exactly clear on which ones should be utilized to reach them. After selecting the wrong one, or perhaps we should say one which didn’t provide direct access to our desired destination, we stopped and asked some security folk who were most helpful. We just needed to wind our way here, there and yon.

Since we made such a big deal about parking concerns, it’s only appropriate we tell you that we had no mishaps with the Escalade, even though every night the only available space was across the street from the hotel. Now having acknowledged we encountered no problems we have to be accurate about the situation and relate we saw instances of careless kids, whose clueless parents didn’t seem to care at all, banging doors against adjacent cars; people leaning against vehicles that were not theirs (don’t you just love the scratches brass rivets on jeans can cause?); and a couple of groups of obnoxious teenagers with non-local accents going through the parking area immediately adjacent to the hotel touching and tapping cars as they went along. Perhaps they were there and we just didn’t see them (usually we’re plenty alert to such things), but we never observed the promised security patrols for the parking areas. Retrospectively, we owe Bruce Hayes a huge "Thank you!".

Ending this section on a positive note, we want to remark on the electric golf type vehicles we saw being used throughout the residential and business areas of Ocean Drive. They’re a very sensible, ecologically sound method of transportation for such locations and we wish their use were more accepted and widespread. Obviously we wouldn’t want to see those particular type vehicles utilized where they would be in conflict with conventional traffic. We don’t know if the electric carts were being employed in a legal, approved fashion or if perhaps that’s not the case and the authorities were just concentrating, as they should, on more consequential matters warranting their attention.

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