Packing Up

I was up early, hoping for a spectacular sunrise, but that was not to be. Instead, the forecast was for rain and we were under a tornado watch, which did not bode well for the Heart Association Horseback Ride on the Beach. Vicki and I wandered out to the beach at about 8AM as that was when the horses were due to leave Lakeswood to walk north past our campground and on up into Myrtle Beach proper. We saw a group of four horses already north of us and then nothing. The beach was hazy with fog and mist but still we figured we should see SOMETHING! Nope, no horses anywhere. I waited for almost an hour before the lone rider above approached me and then stopped. Since I was sitting quietly in my chair, it seems that I frightened the lady's horse. Yep,that's right, sitting quietly scared the horse. I could have been up, moving around, waving my arms and that would have been fine, but sitting there holding a camera to my face to take a picture scared him. That just tickled me. Obviously his rider was used to it, as she explained that butterflies could scare him too. She questioned whether I had seen any other riders and I told her she was the first since 8 o'clock. Since it's dark here at 5 o'clock in the evening and that's also when high tide would be back, it didn't bode well for all the riders who had not yet left the campground. The state park pier pilings can be a problem to negotiate at high tide, as well as the storm runoff channels that cut across the beach all the way up the coastline. It was another hour before any other riders came by. I think the tornado watch might have bothered them. I think that a lot of the riders will have to cut their ride short this year.

Anyway, some of the day was spent taking pictures (today's are on Webshots)and starting to put away our "briar" toys (outside decorations), patio mats, chairs, fire pits and other outside "stuff". Most of that will stay in the bins when we arrive back in Ohio because we certainly won't be sitting outside enjoying the nice weather up there because there won't be any! We'll share one last meal with Don and Vicki as they too are leaving tomorrow, although they'll be heading south while we head north.

We probably won't bother to put up the satellite dish for the Internet over the next two days of travel so there will be no Lazy Sunday post this week. Actually, it's been a very lazy three weeks and we've enjoyed every minute of it. Having Don and Vicki here with us was icing on the cake, and we all enjoyed it so much that we're thinking of coming back and doing it again next year. Sounds like a plan.

In the meantime, start thinking "spring" for us, would you?