Freeloading at Mike and Ginny's

We left Myrtle Beach and headed up the road for Mike and Ginny's house where we driveway camped freeloaded at their place for a week. The laughter started almost immediately- I could see Mike's grin as he thought he was going to get a show to watch as we backed into the driveway. Fortunately for me, we didn't put much of one on! That said, the yard beside of the driveway is almost perfectly laid out for a camper.

We had a great first afternoon/night visit- one of those "no pictures" kind of times. We were all kinds of excited when we learned that the campground offered breakfast in the mornings.

I will say, this was one of the first bathhouses I had used in quite a while. Don't worry, it was nice and clean!

We had mail arrive on Friday and included in it was a big classroom kit from Matchbox. It had ramps and loops and whatnot. We got it as a homeschooling family. After work, I walked in to find a ramp running from one end of the house to the other and the kids (by which, I mean mostly Mike) were racing cars down it.

For dinner, Mandie cooked up the last of our farm-fresh meat into meatloaf in her InstantPot. For those who don't know, Mandie's a pot-head. In the Fulltime Families group, there is quite a cult-like following for an electric pressure cooker called an InstantPot. We drank the koolaid back in December and we love it. (So much so, we got rid of our crockpot a month ago and recently bought a second InstantPot!)

Randomly, here is a flip-book of of selfies that Logan took.

After dinner, more Matchbox track was setup:

Videos here and here and here.

Saturday found us boating and throwing crab traps in the water. According to Mike, this was officially the latest that they ever went. I'd also not be surprised if this was the most crap they ever took. We didn't catch anything, but it was a beautiful day. The kids petered out pretty quick and we headed back to the house.

More Matchboxing happened!

Complete with videos and all:

• Across kitchen and into living room
• It hit me!
• Slow motion - 3 cars on a loop
• Slow motion - 5 cars on a loop

On Sunday, we headed to the North Carolina Aquarium and Pine Knoll Shores. This was a really neat place. But what I loved most was watching the kids interacting with Mr. Mike and Ms. Ginny and the kindness that was reciprocated. (Thanks guys.)

A bonus for us is that it was on our reciprocal zoo membership and we got in free!

Headed back, we made a quick stop at Bed, Bath, and Beyond to sample their wares:

Much too quickly, it was time to say our goodbyes. We had a wonderful week with the Fentons and thank them greatly for their hospitality. Mandie and the kids literally invaded their house each day.

I'm pretty light on photos this week as we spent the time visiting with my phone tucked away. Even still, check Flickr, as there are a few more there.

A long weekend in Myrtle Beach

Back in the day (you know, January), driving 500 miles was no big thing for us. However, this time to drive from Orlando to Myrtle Beach we made it a 2 stop trip. The first stop was Pecan Park RV Resort in Jacksonville and the next stop was a farm in Johns Island, SC (part of the Harvest Hosts system). Overall, it was nice to break up the drive and the farm was pretty awesome.

The drive to the farm

Getting to Pecan Park was a little exciting. We left Thousand Trails Orlando after I worked and we had dinner. We figured that we would get a jump on the drive and had overnighted at Pecan Park before. First, my family was hungry for a "snacks" (aka, second dinner) and we stopped at Chick-fil-a. Pretty unusual for me, but I took a bite out of a curb pulling into the shopping center. No damage and slow speed, but I was still mad at myself for it.

But the real coup de grace came a little bit later. With Logan doing the potty training thing, when he announces that he has to pee- we rush to find somewhere to pull over. It's nice having the camper because there's always a bathroom 30' away, but I still have to find somewhere to park safely. I took an exit and pulled over on the entrance ramp. There was a big rig already parked like that and we pulled over ahead of it. To get off of the road, I had to get uncomfortably close to a line of reflectors (metal reflectors on metal posts). I took Logan back to do his thing, got us back in the truck, and started back onto the road. The problem is tail swing - when you turn left, the tail of your trailer goes to the right. And while I knew this and tried to gently pull onto the road, I was just too close to the reflectors. One caught my rear passenger-side slide. So now I have another war wound and a story to tell.

Tail Swing illustration from everywhereonce.com

The mark of a tailswing kiss

Oh well, stuff happens.

We continued the fun when we opened a slide and found that something gouged the floor. Better yet, that something was a screw. That screw was one that I added when I was fixing up some drawer hardware.

I love when it's my fault.

Oh well, stuff happens.

Pulling out of Pecan Park was surprisingly tricky with an ill-placed light pole. To get passed it, the tail swing would have put the back corner of the camper into the concrete bench at the concrete table at the site. The bench was a bear to move- heavy and it came apart on me! At least we knew to watch for it and didn't make contact.

Our site at Pecan Park

I'm betting I can go back through pictures
of past years and find the kids sitting
on this same "chair".

We headed on towards Mrytle Beach and stopped the night at a farm. The farm participates in the Harvest Hosts program (which we love). Because of that, I can't tell you the name. Rules are for losers. What I can tell you is that it is a farm in Johns Island, SC. We sat and talked with sisters who are some of the family who run the farm for quite a while. They had a little playground and the parking area was a nice wide open field/space. They do a rent-a-chick exchange program where people can rent a baby chicken for 2 weeks. This lets people see them in their cute and cuddly state before they turn into big ugly chickens. In exchange, they get a voucher for a free dozen eggs in the fall once the hens grow up. The sisters told us that a lot of teachers get them, but so do many families. We got to see the transformation that the chicks make in 2 weeks - it's pretty remarkable!

Their first looks at the chicks

He loved the little playground

Logan did good, nice and gentle

Paige wanted one, of course

They were so fluffy!

Very nice, level and quiet at night

While we were there, the alone-ness and curiosity got the best of us. We tried some emergency exits from the camper. What we found is pretty alarming- it's WAY harder to exit than we ever would have guessed. We have lots of work ahead of us there AND need to get a better setup/handle on smoke alarms, fire extinguishers, and whatnot. Videos: Kid #1, Kid #2, Me #1, Me #2, Me #3

The next morning, we said goodbye to our new friends and headed for Ocean Lakes in Mrytle Beach. We stayed for a long weekend, getting there on Saturday and heading out on Tuesday. The weather was cool but not incredibly cold. While we were only there for a short time, we packed a lot of stuff in.

First, parking. All of the spots are pull throughs, but the roads are snug and the spots aren't super deep. Our site was right about 45' long- which meant the camper fit tip to tail and the truck had to be parked in the grass. Fortunately our site was pretty wide. It's a beach campground, what can you do?

Our site

It's nice having a helper with my stabilizers. The kids are starting to learn the steps to setting up.

She does good!

A walk on the beach found a crap-ton of jellyfish washed up. But it was windy and the sand stingy, so our total beach time lasted about 20 minutes for our days there.  Funny because I picked a site that was as close as possible to the beach!

Such a cutie

Not many people were out

Nasty foot for size reference

Seeing them triggered his, "poke it with a stick" response

It was THAT windy

Being cheap, we opted not to pay for mini-golf, but we did go for a walk through the arcade and on the mini-golf course.

Preparing for the Ride For Kids since we'll be in Baltimore for it

Lots of water hazards

This boy takes the difficult, but fun, path

We might even have turned the machine on

The campground cleared out a LOT on Sunday and by Monday morning, we actually had an ocean view site.. but only for a short while.

And then a little later, someone pulled in and blocked most of it again

Breakfast was farm fresh meat and eggs from Johns Island. We coupled it with the homemade jam from the Grandma at Clerbrook.

Farm fresh!

And then we went exploring. Our first stop was Myrtle Beach State Park. It's a really nice park with a campground feel to it. After driving the campground, we did some geocaching and found 2 caches near the store there.

We way over thought one and ended up checking
under the pier.

It ended up being out front and "easy" to find.

OMG! It's a shark!

Next up was one of those "we have everything" gift shops. We don't ever buy much of anything at these and they're all alike, but I do enjoy wandering through them. Here we checked out some of the wares:

He's ready to shred some waves!

No?

Sexy girl!

She's still a Maryland Girl.

We ended our day walking around at Broadway At The Beach which is a shopping plaza around a lake. We were mostly just window shopping and going for a walk. They did have a Ridemakerz store - which is much like Build-a-bear, only with R/C cars. You spend a whole lot of money, but you get to build a car. We first found Ridemakerz in Branson and now have been to all 3 locations (Branson, Disneyland, and this one in MB). We didn't get anything, though the kids REALLY tried! We did learn some tips to keep our car in it tip-top shape.

What can I say? They're strict on the rules
and we're a couple of badasses.

We saw one fish and thought it was weird that it bobbed
with its head above the water.

And then we got to the feeder. So eww.
HERE! Look at the video of us feeding them!

My little shopper.

Our last day there was a work day for me. It was chilly, but I made use of this pavilion that overlooked the beach. Pretty uncomfortable, but quite beautiful to work and look out over the ocean.

#DatView

I won't lie, it was fairly uncomfortable. But worth it.

It was cut short by a call from Mandie telling me that something was wrong with Logan and I needed to come back right away. Turns out, he caused himself nursemaid's elbow. We headed for an Urgent Care just down the street. We experienced nursemaid's elbow with Paige and were sort of familiar with it. We also knew that the moment it popped back into place, they're instantly pain free and there's nothing else to be done. Fortunately, as I was getting Logan out of his carseat at the urgent care, it popped back into place. We didn't realize it until after we signed in but fortunately did before registering and giving insurance information. Once we knew it was back into place, we rolled out of there and celebrated with some McDonald's.

We ended the night with me taking the kids to the arcade at the campground while Momma did laundry. I spent way too much money on some Army men and random other trinkets of junk. But, the kids and I had fun. And... Mom, well, I like to believe she got some peace and quiet to herself. That's a thing, right? That's good enough to not have help for laundry, right?

Flying ping pong balls of glory

Maybe it was a little big for him

Whack a shark!

The next morning, we got up and made our way up the road to Mike and Ginny's house. I'll cover that next time. (cough) hopefully not in 2 months (cough)

As usual, Flickr is filled with these photos and more.