Nerve Conduction Test & a Trip to Wilmington 10/28-29/2008

Tuesday Mom had to go into Myrtle Beach for a nerve conduction test for her leg so the dogs and I went with her to give her some support. We dropped her off and went for a drive and then came back and waited in the parking lot. She got done about 11:45 and we drove back to the house. She said the test went well and they really didn't find anything that would indicate her problem was nerve related. So next is her MRI on Thusday morning. We spent the rest of the afternoon watching TV and I had a couple of fantasy basketball drafts. We had dinner and watch TV till it was time for bed.
Wednesday I went to Wilmington with Ed to set up a couple of new historically related puzzle caches we are putting out together. We left about 7:30 and when we got about 6.5 miles outside of Wilmington and traffic came to a dead stop. We heard on the radio that the lift bridge across the Cape Fear River had gone up to let a ship through and had gotten stuck in the up position and wouldn't come down. So we were stuck in a mess till about 9:00 till we finally got into the city. We went to all the locations we wanted to for a couple of puzzle caches we are going to place, took pictures, got the coords of each site, placed the final stage cache and even found a couple of caches and started back to MB. We stopped at a hamburger place called Andys for lunch, ate and drove back to MB. Mom had gone to lunch with Gina and then they went to Calabash to look around and she got home about 4:30. We had dinner and watched TV till it was time for bed. Well until next time we love and miss you all. Mom & Dad


OK Mary Lee here's some pictures for you.......your son mentioned it to me.....haha!!!!

Picture List:Most of these locations will be used in 2 caches that Ed and I are going to put out in Wilmington....1,2-The Cotton Exchange, 3-Atlantic Coast Line RR Museum, 4,5-Bellamy Mansion, 6,7,8,9,10,11-Homes in Wilmington that are on the National Register of Historic Homes, 12,13,14,15,16-Histroical markers along just one block of 3rd St. in Wilmington.

Sunday Football and Mom's Doctor's Appointment 10/26-27/2008

Well it is Sunday again and that means it's NFL football day......my day watching TV. We took our walk in the morning with the dogs and then it was set lineups for my fantasy teams, as if it does me any good, as things aren't going to good this year. I watched the early games and then it was the Giants-Steelers late game which was televised here for a change. Usually all the games we get are Washington & Carolina so I was please I got a chance to watch the G-Men. The game started off rather ugly as the Giants couldn't do anything and were behind most of the game until the Steelers snapped a ball over the punters head and the Giants got a safety to tie the game and then after the kickoff drove downfield and scored the winning TD. So it ended up great although the first 3 quarters were a bummer. We had dinner and took the dogs for there nightly walk and watched TV for awhile.
Monday Mom had a doctor's appointment to have her left leg checked so we were off early. While she was at her appointment I went and found a cache by the Carolina Opry that we have been looking for for awhile. After finding the cache I went back and waited till Mom was done. She made out good as they determined it wasn't arterial related and could be diabetic related or related to the back surgery she had a number of years ago. She has to go for a nerve induction test on Tuesday and a MRI on Thursday and after they get the results we shall see. We went back to the house and had lunch and watched some TV. We went to dinner with Gina, Steve and Ed to a new place that opened up on Sea Mountain Highway called Hamburger Heaven. The food was good as I had a cheeseburger, of course, as did Mom. We had fresh cut fries and fried mushrooms also. After dinner we sat and talked and then went back and watched TV. Well time to say till next time we love and miss you all. Mom & Dad


Picture List:1-Our new motorhome on the water Ed's Toy a yacht on the Intercoastal Waterway in back of Barefoot Landing.

A Little NCAA Football and a Foamy Beach 10/25/2008

When I got up Saturday morning the wind was just howling and when I took the dogs out I could hear the ocean crashing on the shore so after they peed I put them inside and took a walk to the beach. When I got there I was amazed as there was no beach to walk on as the waves were almost up to the dunes and what wasn't covered by water was covered by at least a foot of foam. There was absolutely no place to walk unless you wanted to walk in the foam. I took a few pictures and hope they come out and walked back to the house. We found out later that we had had 3" of rain and wind gusts up to 49 miles per hour and we can believe it as the waves this morning were huge, probably about 8-10 feet high. After Mom got up we walked to the beach and tried to take the dogs for their morning walk but there still was no place to walk so I took a few more pictures and we walked them on the street. The rest of the day was uneventful as we had to make a stop to pick up a couple of things at Office Max and Mom went grocery shopping at Lowe's and Kroger's. We did see quite a lot of flooding around the area especially around the homes in Cherry Grove. I watched a couple of NCAA football games, the Georgia-LSU game was especially good game, and we made steak sandwiches for dinner. I had a fantasy basketball draft and we watched TV in the evening. Well time to say until tomorrow we love and miss you all. Mom & Dad


Picture List:1,2,3-High waves about 7:30 AM, 4,5,6-Foam along the beach about 7:30 AM, 7,8,9,10,11,12-Foam and waves about 5:30 AM.

Busy Day in the Nursery and Quiet at Home 10/24/2008

Friday was Mom's weekly visit to the hospital to volunteer in the nursery and she really had a great time as they were swamped. There were 4 or 5 new babies born while she was there so she was able to do lots of bathing and feeding. They had one really sick baby as when he was born his blood sugar was only 16. The put an IV in him but still had a problem getting his sugar count up to normal, no thanks to the parents as they kept doing what the doctors and nurses told them not to do. She had a great time though and really enjoyed it as she always does when they are busy. Mom had to make a doctor's appointment for Monday as the nurses noticed a problem with her left leg as she was flopping as she walked. She didn't get home until almost 4:30 and was exhausted. While Mom was at the hospital I hung around the house and worked on the blog and put our pictures onto it. I also did a little housework and worked on my cross stitch. When Mom got home she showered and we had dinner and watched TV for awhile. The weather went downhill about 6:00 as it started to rain heavily and the wind was blowing at gale force. Well it's time to say until tomorrow and we love and miss you all. Mom & Dad

NFL Football, Caching & Not Much Else 10/19-23/2008

Well it has been awhile since I did the blog so here goes. Sunday was of course NFL football day as I set the lineups for my fantasy teams in the morning and then watched the games in the afternoon. Mom went to Wal-Mart for some groceries and other than that there wasn't a lot going on.
Monday was another day of not much going on as we stayed around the house and cleaned, worked on our crafts and watched TV.
Tuesday we went caching in and around Myrtle Beach. Our first cache was at a Kangaroo gas station in a bush, second was in the woods near the future site of a new church, third was in a new housing development on a dirt road back of the houses in the woods (take a look at the pictures of the small lake we found as we were turning around at the end of the road), fourth was in Myrtle Beach at the former site of Chapin's Department Store in a bush along the road. Chapins was an interesting art deco department store that opened in 1928 and was noted for extending credit to local customers during the Great Depression and other hard times. The department store was owned by the Burroughs and Chapin Company, which owns numerous properties around Myrtle Beach today. Among other businesses occupying spaces in the building was Delta Drug Company, which sold a series of Myrtle Beach postcards by the famous photographer Bayard Wootten. Chapins finally closed its doors in 1992. Fifth cache was at a Baptist church behind a fence, sixth was at the former site of Myrtle Beach Skateland which was open from the 1950s until the 1980s. It was a popular location that featured good clean fun for area children and teenagers. Events that were scheduled every night were couples dances (on skates), the Hokey Pokey, skating clockwise, among other things. This rink closed in the mid-1980s and was re-opened by a country bar. Seventh cache was along Grand Dunes Blvd behind a large electric box and out eighth and final cache was behind NASCAR Park way up on top of a ridge in the woods under a huge grass pampas. After we finished caching we stopped at Sonic for lunch and drove back to the house and Mom did our logs and I watched TV which was the extent of the day.
Wednesday was another hang around and piddle around the house day working on crafts, cleaning and watching TV.
Thursday we went caching again in and around Myrtle Beach. Our first cache was close to home and was a multi cache where the final stage was hidden in a beach access, second was a puzzle cache hidden in the woods off of 76th Ave, third was a light post cache in a small shopping center out past, now defunct, Hard Rock Park, fourth was a cache in a tree at a busy intersection also near Hard Rock Park, fifth was in a tree adjacent to Hard Rock Park, sixth was in a palm tree at the Visitor's Center put up to accommodate Hard Rock Park, seventh cache was down on the old Air Force Base, which has now been turned into Market Commons an upscale shopping and condo development, and the cache was back in the woods in a very unique container (see picture), eighth was acache outside a Starbucks Coffee Shop, ninth was a cache in the parking garage for Market Commons, tenth was a puzzle cache, which had to do with cereals that are no longer made and that cache was in a sign post on a dead end road, eleventh was a cache under a bush at the former location of Haunted Harbor. "Haunted Harbor" a.k.a. Pirateland. This park is commonly referred by locals as "Haunted Harbor" here's a brief history why. The park originated as a pirate/swashbuckler theme park. It had pirates with sword fights in the streets,
carriages, a steam locomotive ride, and many other rides and attractions. This was back in the early-mid 1960s. There were several deaths at the amusement park when one of the rides overturned and it closed soon after that because of bad publicity. Another business group bought the park and turned it into a more traditional type of
amusement area with classic rides. This too turned to tragedy as a worker at the park, broke into the park managers office shooting him with a gun while robbing that day's money take. Again, the park changed hands and the company that owned "Blackpool Pleasure Beach"bought into the park. A lot of money was spent turning the
old grounds into a Great, New European Themed British Amusement Park. One of the biggest Ferris Wheel's in the world was added as well as a Log-Flume, Teacups, a steel Roller-Coaster called the "Black Witch" while all new buildings and midways were created. It was truly a beautiful place as it was located above a lake with a
campground (still in use) on the other side of the lake. The grounds were thickly wooded and the grounds had several man-made lakes centered around a games area. A Sky-Ride carried park patrons to and from an island located on the lake. Once again, a dark cloud appeared as a young women stood-up on the "Black Witch" coaster and
was nearly decapitated, she died. The park had struggled to make it and this only caused more people to refrain from visiting. Blackpool wanted to pull out and again, the park grounds and buildings were put up for sale, the rides removed and sold off. The grounds began to take on a sinister look for several years. Senior Citizens from the local RV park used several walkways in the park to exercise while the water slides in the parking lot were operated by a local person as a separate attraction. But the grounds looked just like a Haunted Town. In the mid 1990's, a Carnival Ride Company took lease of the park grounds. They put in several portable rides like a Sky Diver, Sooper Loop, Himalaya while the buildings and grounds were spruced up and given a new coat of paint. The former Pretzel ride building was converted into an
Arcade though. The "New" park opened to great fanfare and fireworks on Memorial Day Weekend, but without Major Theme Park type rides, attendance soon went downhill. After two months, several rides were taken away to go to a large State Fair up North, by the end of the season, all the rides were gone, the lights turned out for the last time. The city, realizing that the buildings were a fire hazard, bulldozed everything the following year. "Family Kingdom", in Myrtle Beach now has the top of the famous Lighthouse Steeple that used to grace the parks parking lot. The grounds still remain vacant, awaiting a new beginning or another use possibility? Or yet
another tragedy? It's no wonder while locals refer to the park as "Haunted Harbor". Our last cache for the day was at the Welcome to Myrtle Beach sign on the south end of the beach and was under the I-Beam that holds the sign up. Then it was off back to the house and we had lunch and again Mom did our logs and I worked on my cross stitch and watched TV.
We have been taking 2-3 walks on the beach a day with Muffy and Raggs and really aren't bored at all as we are working on some new caches that we are going to put out in conjunction with another cacher here in Myrtle Beach and are staying quite busy. Well time to say until next time and we love and miss you all. Mom & Dad


Picture List: 1,2-Small lake at the end of a dead end road where we found our "Blue Lagoon" cache, 3,4-"Geronimo" cache and the cache container, 5-Old water tower, 6,7,8,9-The roller coaster at the now defunct Hard Rock Park.

Baby Day on Friday and Oyster Festival on Saturday 10/17-18/2008

Friday is Mom's day to volunteer in the nursery at the Grand Strand Hospital so off she went about 8:30. Her day went well as she bathed and fed a few babbies and was fairly busy until she left about 3:00. I stayed home of course and watched some TV, did the blog, loaded some pictures on the PC, did a little housework and worked on my cross stitch. That was really about all that was going on here for the day except for the most beautiful sunrise we have ever seen here that happened on Friday morning as you can see by the pictures.
Saturday was a drizzly rainy morning and we had planned to go to the Ocean Isle Beach Oyster Festival so we decided we would drive up there and then decide whether we wanted to go or not. We left about 8:30 and got up there and it was kind of just a light mist so we found a place to park and walked over to where they had all the tents set up. Well, because of the rain, nobody was ready yet so we walked back and stopped in a small restaurant and got a breakfast sandwich and coffee and waited till they were ready. About 945 we walked back and everything was set up so we paid our 5.00 admission and went in. We walked around and looked at all the creaft vendors, of which there was about 100 or so. We really didn't see anything exceptional so we walked over to where they were serving the foods and looked around. They had a bucket of steamed oysters and orders of fried oysters but they were both 15.00 per order and a slab ob BBQ ribs was 30.00 and we thought they were all kind of pricey so we begged off. Mom wanted to take another quick look around the crafts and make sure she didn't miss anything so I went over and got and order of fresh cut fries and sat and waited for her. By the time she got back it was starting to rain pretty good so we headed back to the car and the drive home. This was one of the better festivals we have been to but we kind of thought the food was a little expensive. We drove home and I watched college football for awhile and Mom read. We had dinner and I worked on my cross stitch and Mom watched TV till bed time. Well time to say until next time we love you ALL and miss you ALL. Mom & Dad


Picture List:1-Mom enjoying our fries on a cool rainy day at the Ocean Isle Beach Oyster Festival, 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11-Ocean Isle Beach Oyster festival craft tents and food booths, 12,13,14,15,16-Sunrise in Myrtle Beach on Friday 10/17/08