Myrtle Beach, SC

October 31 - November 9, 2007

Willow Tree RV Resort

We feel like we're home. This is our second visit to Willow Tree near North Myrtle Beach and it's as quiet and lovely as we remember. You can see from the edge of the lake in the picture that the area is suffering from a severe draught. The lake is down a good four feet. The sites here are about 75 feet wide; you have a concrete pad (which makes it very clean) with picnic table, grill and fire pit. There is a pool (still open but kind of cold to take a dip), workout room, and mile track around the lake. I'm glad this is the place we're spending our month.

Myrtle Beach is, of course, Myrtle Beach...golf course, restaurant, Wings or Bargain t-shirts and souvenir stores, golf course, restaurant......... We arrived here when the Hopedale guys were here for their annual golf trip. Ken was able to join Walt, Fran, David, Mike and Gene to play golf Friday at Heather Glen Golf Course (Lenny, Mark, John D and Bobby Fig left earlier that day--we missed seeing them). After their round they all came here for hamburgs and hotdogs (that's all I can say about their visit...what happens in Myrtle Beach stays in Myrtle Beach!!!) I can tell you we were feeling the effects of Hurricane Noel and it was very windy so we had to eat inside. I have to say the motor home did pretty well giving all seven of us (plus Barney) a place to sit and eat!!

We got off easy with just wind from the hurricane. The kids at home were without electricity for a couple of days and had a lot of downed trees and branches. However, all made it through okay.

We played golf at Crown Park on Monday. This course must have been built on a swamp because, for an area in a definite draught, this was a very, very muddy course. Neither of us started out well...Ken came back, but Linda continued on her bad golf ways. It didn't help that the course put a busload of golfers off both tees shortly after we teed off. The front nine went as usual, but the back nine just crawled. After 3 hours on the back nine we called it a day after finishing only 6 holes. Tuesday morning I went to a golf clinic where I was the only one there (some of the perks of visiting off-season) and, of course, was told I was doing everything wrong. My golf swing has got to change. I can't play a round until I'm a little more comfortable with the new swing (want to make sure I can at least make contact with the ball)!

You know you're retired when you have time to go to one of those timeshare presentations in order to get free tickets to a show!! We did that yesterday! (Hey, Walt and Alice, you may like this timeshare--Wyndham International--the suites were beautiful!) Last night we went to The Christmas Show at the Alabama Theater (why is a theater in South Carolina called "Alabama"?) It was well worth prostituting ourselves to see the show!

This is one of they ways Barney keeps track of what's going on outside. He really has adapted well to our retirement lifestyle.

I'm off to see Margot in Charleston this weekend and Susan and Bob are joining us next Wednesday. We think about our family and friends a lot...wish you could be here to share this time with us.