Saturday, 9-22-18
Woodstock, GA to Myrtle Beach, SC
Jackie has his alarm set for 6:45, I woke up at 6:30. I want to make up that we are up and out and not lallygagging and not get on the road until noon! But he was up on time. And we got it together. Again the routine is, he brings the stuff out and I pack the car.
It’s never the same. But it all gets in. I should have taken a picture. It was neater and more organized this time. Let’s see, this is the fourth time in 37 days that I had to do this. LOL!! I should be getting better!
By 8:30, we are on the road again. It was hard leaving Katryna. She was the greatest hostess. Opening her home to us in a time of need! Thank you my sweet daughter! We enjoyed every minute of it! We’ll see you again in December!
The nonstop drive to Myrtle Beach will take us 6h 15m. And we should arrive about 2:45pm. But, the operative word is nonstop. Remember my mantra; we are retired, we are on vacation. No road-trip for us is NEVER nonstop!
We were barely on the expressway, I was driving, when we came to a COMPLETE STOP!!! I remember passing a traffic monitor that talked about pacing between 8 and 10. What the heck is packing? Well, I looked it up: Weather permitting, Georgia Department of Transportation construction partners will close multiple lanes and shift traffic on SR 400. Crews will pace traffic for controlled blasting, set temporary barriers on I-285, and close and flag local roads for utility activities on the Transform 285/400 project.
So there we sat for about 15 minutes. It’s a good thing we weren’t headed to the airport or something!!!
I drove until we were ready for breakfast. It’s 10:30. Yep. Two hours was long enough.
My healthy breakfast. Turkey sausage, egg whites, fruit cup and grits. Mmm! Mmm!
When we got back on the road, I continued to drive. It was perfect driving conditions. This sun was bright. No road construction. The radio was playing all the old songs that I knew from the 70s so I was singing my heart out! We had the windows down enjoying the breeze! It was great! I probably drove about about four hours before I turned the wheel over to Jackie.
Then we started approaching the areas affected by flooding from Hurricane Florence. Our route was detoured. We saw some billboards where the signs were missing or tattered. Then we got stuck in a traffic jam trying to make it across the bridge over Lake Busbee in Conway.
Under the tarp are sandbags! I was in disbelief. All the way up here on the bridge. Wow! Then we saw a home that probably used to be in a field but was now in a lake-like area, surrounded by 3-5 yachts. This sombered our moods. Here were people devastated by flooding. Some losing all their property. Some even losing their lives. Lord Jesus!!! What can we do to help?!
We were quieter as Jackie drove the rest of the way into Myrtle Beach. Thank the Lord, we made it safely.
There was no damage that we could see in the area where we are staying. Businesses still had huge glass windows intact. There were no boarded or shuttered windows. And where we are on the main street is just about a mile from the ocean. Strange…
We stopped at Burger King to get something to eat.
And yes, that’s my Whopper!
I can’t remember the last time I had one. But I was craving beef, so I ate it. It was OK. Not like the Whoppers that first came out in the early 70s. Those burgers were huge. True to their lingo, it did take two hands to hold them. They were so big, I could never eat a whole one…Well, times have changed. But the fries were really good. In fact to me, they rivaled McDonald’s. In the past, I’d get a burger from Burger King, because they put tomatoes on their sandwiches and McDonald’s didn’t. Then go to McDonald’s get their fries which were thin and crispy. BKs were thicker and soft. But the fries today were really good. Of course, because I am watching my carbs, potatoes and white hamburger buns, this is not something I will be doing again.
When we were leaving the restaurant, Jackie asked me how did I feel. I told him that I felt like I was home….sigh….
We know this area. It is very drive-able, except when tourist are here. There’s a lot a do. And then there’s the ocean! Yep, I could live here.
We got back to our complex and didn’t see any damage. Jackie was told that one building had a window blown out. OK, out of about 30 buildings with 12 units each. I think that’s pretty good, considering we are about 1/3 of a mile from the beach. I’ll have to ask somebody how it was during the storm.
We check out our unit before we brought up our bags. In the second bedroom was dead Monster Bug #7. Jackie scooped it up and flushed it down toilet. Welcome home…
We didn’t see any damage. It was dusty and the floors a little trashy. But that was about it. I thought that I had cleared out the refrigerator before we left. But no, there was still stuff in it.
After we brought up all our bags, we were tired, but we wanted to go to the beach to make sure it was still there.
Now, this is Welcome Home!
mybucketlisttravels 