Blogging Blahs

I was tempted to entitle this post "Nothing Amiss, Simply Remiss" but I may have used that one already.  Certainly I was a bit surprised and also a bit appalled to see that I hadn't posted anything since we left Wilmington, Ohio around the 27th of September.  I guess it's simply a case of the blogging blahs.  I am nearing 2,000 posts and it's been seven and a half years that I've been posting here and I think I just got a little burned out.

It certainly doesn't help that we have been maintaining a lower profile because my back hasn't gotten any better since my slip and fall and quite honestly that is beginning to concern me.  If nothing else, it's keeping me from playing golf and that, to quote my mother, "p*sses me off".  Kind of a private joke and it needs to be said with extreme emphasis on the "P".

Since Denny and I pulled out of the Thousand Trails park in Wilmington we have visited with our youngest son Darby and his wife in central Ohio where we celebrated Net's birthday along with her parents.

Next we headed up into New York where we visited with our oldest son, his wife and our granddaughters.  I make sure the girls help out with whatever meal I cook there, simply to teach them how to read and follow recipes.  Despite the faces I think they enjoy it.

Of course there has to be a little goofiness and showing off for the camera by the youngest granddaughter.

Upon leaving Denny and I took the red road route down to Myrtle Beach, staying one night in a beautiful campground in Bedford, Pennsylvania.  We agreed that we'll have to come back here when we can stay longer to do some exploring and just kick back and enjoy the scenery.

Once we arrived in Myrtle Beach we had just the one day to get set up and the chairs pulled out before Darb and Net arrived to stay a week in Myrtle Beach with us.  Of course we yanked out the hide-a-bed sofa soon after we purchased The Beast, so Denny and I rented a park model trailer for the kids.  Since I'm a "get up at the crack of dawn or earlier" kind of person and the kids....well, not so much, this works out better.

Fortunately we had good weather for the most part while they were here so campfires were enjoyed, along with the occasional adult beverage.

For physical therapy purposes I talked Denny into allowing me to buy a folding bicycle.  There are one thousand campsites in this campground so a bike makes it easier to get to the office, the camp store and the indoor swimming pool.  I love this little thing, and we also picked up a carrying case for it so we can put the bicycle in the back of the truck or inside the trailer when we move and not worry about scratching anything up.

There haven't been a lot of spectacular sunrises this year, although I've taken several shots of the state park pier/south Myrtle Beach skyline under a variety of weather conditions and at different hours that could be an entire series of photographs on their own.  When we first arrived there were a lot of military planes including cargo planes and fighter jets that were practicing "touch and go" landings and take offs from the airport just up the road from us so we've been seeing a lot of planes up close and personal here.

This year I managed to take over a thousand photographs of the American Heart Association Heart Ride on the Beach that occurs at the end of October/first of November.  This year there were 1,200 horses from 22 states and even a few from Canada.  There were supposed to be horses from 34 states but apparently a lot of folks cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy.  Not surprising although it didn't hit us here. 

I have taken a lot of photographs of the brown pelicans here, trying to get the perfect shot of a group of them skimming the waves like flying surfers.  I'm still working on it.

And of course, I spend a lot of time walking Patches, or rather I spend a lot of time standing around while she investigates every bush, hole and waving stand of grass.  And yes, I'm as bored as I look.  Denny caught me.  I'm also trying to be good about going to water aerobics for the stretching it provides my back.  If nothing else, it feels good to be in the warm water on cool mornings (it's an indoor pool because nights get much too cool here to keep the outdoor pool open). 

So we've pretty much been living on beach time; not doing much of anything and enjoying that just fine.  My back still isn't up to playing golf so we just do a little walking around the campground.  I did ride along with Denny when he played golf this week and it made me a bit anxious to get back out on the golf course but I'm just not ready yet.  The back still grabs me if I move to quickly or twist suddenly so winding up to swing a golf club just doesn't get it yet.  

Tomorrow our RVing friends Don and Vicki arrive.  They will be staying a couple-three months so we'll overlap a month if all goes as planned.  Plenty of time for some fun.  And maybe a blog post or two.

Down Time

I realize I've been AWOL for several days.  That will probably continue as the RV Vagabonds are spending the next five weeks here at Myrtle Beach.  That means a lot of walking the beach looking for beach glass and sharks' teeth with the main destination being the state park pier where there is an ice cream freezer.  The park staff is very generous when they make ice cream cones and the mile long walk back to the campground helps remove a few of the calories said ice cream cone adds to our bodies.

We have a couple of repairs to be made to the rig, which will be worked on here on our campsite this morning.  Gotta love mobile RV repair service.  It's raining so I didn't make it to the beach for the sunrise but there will be other days.  After the repairmen leave I might work on replacing the wallpaper border in the bathroom, or read a book, or update my journal.  That's how life goes on the beach--there's a lot of quiet time.  If I need activity, there's the Wii Fit or Just Dance 2 or Walk with Leslie or even some Sweatin' with the Oldies and Richard Simmons.

What there probably won't be are a lot of blog posts.  You may find some photographs on my Facebook or Webshots page but that will be about it.  MB for us is a place to kick back, socialize with the neighbors at happy hour, get maintenance done and breathe deeply.  None of which makes fascinating blog fodder, although you never know what might pop up.

Until then, I'll be on the beach--see ya around.

H is for Horses--2010 Heart Ride on the Beach

This weekend is the annual Jack Monroe Heart Ride on the Beach for the American Heart Association. I have always loved horses so for a few hours over a period of three or four days I stand on the beach and take pictures of horses and their riders. It's a labor of love for me and I think the riders should be acknowledged for what they do to support the fight against heart disease.

Because Bl*gger limits me as to the amount of pictures I can post, I will be uploading the photographs to my album on Webshots, where I have also posted the Heart Ride photos from 2009 and 2008 in separate albums. You will find the photos here. I have taken about 400 photographs, so it will take me a while to edit them and get them all uploaded so if you are interested, keep checking back okay?

Island Green Golf Course

I'm a little late with this one, but last week Don, Gary, Denny and I played the Island Green Golf Course. They had a special rate of $28 to play 18 holes with a riding cart that also included lunch and a beer/fountain drink (more on that later.) We were able to get a late morning tee time, the weather was ideal and our playing? Well, some of it was good, some not so much.

The course plays 6043 yards from the white tees with a slope/rating of 69.1/120. From the red tees the course is 4656 yards long with a course rating of 63.6/108. There are some houses along the course, there are a lot of old growth pines and waste bunkers as well as some deep lipped sand bunkers around the greens. The greens themselves are incredibly fast--none of us ever really adjusted to the speed of the greens and so our putting was rather abysmal.

This is a pretty golf course and the rate of play isn't too bad. When Denny and I played here in the past, you would sometimes see an alligator sunning himself on the island green at hole eighteen. This year he was nowhere to be found. Be advised that you are NOT supposed to stop and eat your free lunch at the turn--it messes up their timing or something. The four of us did stop for lunch and were chastised by the starter when we came out of the clubhouse. Lesson learned. Eat after play.

A Quick Peek at Our Week

Today was a lazy day. Well, lazy in the sense that we didn't do anything special, although I did manage to wash a couple of loads of laundry and make a chocolate cake (with caramel icing, or frosting for those of you not from the Midwest.) We're meeting the group for dinner over at Gary's place tonight (although it still feels weird to see our old rig next to us instead of us living in it!)

So quickly, a picture a day for this week.

Monday.
Tuesday.
Wednesday.
Thursday.
Friday.
Saturday.
Sunday.