And it's down to the Grand Finale with Golf Carts. . . .

Friday night, April 23, 2010 to be exact.  It's the last night that the entire gang is all together and armed with golf carts. . .

The flat people started it.  They commandeered the Margaritaville blender, much like terrorists would take control of our water supply . . .

Flat Kelly was the devil whispering in Missi and Beth's ears - "mudslides good, go forth in golf carts". .  They clearly agree. . .!

The boys got to talking - Bob Somers commented "what the heck can they do?"  This clearly amused Jim Moro but Bob Egan, Eric Mathieu and Jim Brawn look worried. . .

And look at this - it appears Missi has acquired a taste for being run down by golf carts - perhaps Beth wasn't at fault for the previous incident?  Gotta wonder. . .

Bob advises Riley - "After dark, don't get in the golf cart.  Crazy things happen then". . .

And then the sun set. . .

UH, OH. .

We've been Silly String'd!  Find the culprits!

C'mon Heather, you are missing all the action!  She wisely didn't bite. . .

We're on a mission to find those silly string suspects, they must PAY!  Is there silly string on this golf cart?

AH, HAH!

Silly String culprits identified!  Wait'll next year, boys. . . .  Revenge is best served cold. . .

BACK TO REALITY

Connecticut sucks.  It really does.  They have construction projects with signs warning of long waits but they don't have construction workers there, they just block off lanes and place lots of orange barrels around lots of construction equipment.  Granted this alone does seem to cause the traffic jams, I can't help but wonder what political pork product that practice was funded from? 

After an unfortunate incident in which Jim & Heather's rig blew a front driver side tire on Rt 91, my disenchantment with Connecticut continued as we watched CT Staties drive by without a glance, and the number of CT drivers that seemed to enjoy the sight, via leaning on their horns, of two MA 35' Class A's by the roadside with all of us, adults, kids and dogs waiting in the slopeside - what a treat it must've been to startle the puppies as you drove by, you idiots. . . 

But I digress - we arrived home safely, had an absolutely awesome week!  This year's commutes can be compared to the last decade of our travel south and I can state unequivicably that it's still not the worst travel plan we've followed.

Back to work tomorrow - sure glad I don't work with anyone from Connecticut as my rant could potentially piss people off! 

I'll be posting a full photo album from Myrtle 2010 but doubt I'll be getting to it soon.  Updated this blog, gotta update Riley's blog (I do have my priorities), a good friend has an IRS audit Thursday and I'm back to work tomorrow!

Farewell, Myrtle 2010 - you were absolutely worth the travel miseries!  Can't wait until Myrtle 2011. . .

It's all fun and games - until someone gets run over by a golf cart!

Golf carts are a lot of fun, although I suspect the security patrol at Pirateland may disagree with me on this point. . .

By day, golf carts are useful things.  They ferry us to the beach in the morning and then to the lazy river in the afternoon. 

They can also be useful for distributing cookies. .

Cookies and milk can be served in the back. . .

And I can't even BEGIN to explain this.  Really, Heather, a SNUGGIE?!?

But then, at night, golf carts become a completely different entity!  Let the golf cart races begin!

But sometimes things can go amusingly awry (gee, ya think?!).  I personally did not witness this as I was curled up on my couch, dozing in front of the TV as the ususal suspects were wreaking havoc and tormenting the security patrol, when my door burst open and in bounds Missi with an unbelieveable tale of my angelic sister, Beth, having run her over?  Unbelievable, say I - how can such a thing be?  Imagine my amusement (because Missi was clearly unharmed through the incident) when my fellow campers confirmed the event!

Anybody know a good exorcist?  Because I'm pretty sure these golf carts are POSSESSED!

Weather's been absolutely awesome, we've got some clouds and showers predicted for today so I'm off to Margaritaville for fruity drinks and volcano of nachos!  Later. . .

Been so busy, after all there are TWO Margaritaville Blenders in the group!

We all arrived safely - with travel tales to tell. . .  You know mine, the traffic snafus we ran into but Missi and Eric topped our tales of travel misery by running out of gas, just as they were pulling off the highway to GET gas!  I was kind enough to snap this picture of them as we passed them down the highway!  (Just kidding folks, by the time we caught up to them, Eric had gotten gas and was all set to head to the gas station with his brand new gas can and fill up so they could proceed with their journey.)  Just a cautionary note to all you folks that tow - when the odometer tells you you have 10 miles to empty, it's probably not taking in the fact that you are towing a trailer!

Everybody got settled in - Heather and I combined our pens around her tiki hut to make the "Brawn Bark Park" and it's worked out beautifully!  Leashing all our dogs on separate sites just made them keep barking at each other and people that walked by - now they get to all play together and dig, dig, dig.  Riley, Levi and Rusty dug so many holes that Chloe was actually able to escape out of one of them!  Imagine our surprise when we're all sitting around our golf carts and she came racing up to us!  And before you suggest it - yes, it did occur to us to put the water bowls IN the pen eventually!

You know, if you've read past blogs or camped with us before, there is a golf cart culture here. .So we had to introduce Riley to the golf cart. . Have to give him credit - I had his leash wrapped so tightly around my wrist that had he chosen to bail from the golf cart, I'd be sporting a major road rash instead of a sunburn right now!  Riley turned out to have a competitive side - when we took him on our golf cart "races", he'd actually help out by sitting on Bob's foot which was on the gas pedal!  Made it kinda difficult to brake but then again, who needs brakes in a golf cart RACE??!!

As usual, the weahter here has been gorgeous, but somewhat windy and coolish but that hasn't stopped us from hitting the beach.  Myrtle's beaches are what keeps us coming back year after year - clean, uncrowded and awesome!

We've made the golf cart trek to the Lazy River and it doesn't get any better than pulling up and hearing Jimmy Buffett on the loudspeakers over the pool complex!  Bob's cousin, Larry, has a cult following with a photo that was taken of him that people have been putting on a stick (Flat Larry) and taking it to all kinds of locales (Mexico, Europe) and we brought him along to Myrtle Beach.  As a matter of fact, I thought the idea of bringing someone along (besides Sock Puppet, who's a major party animal) was such a great idea that I made a "stick pic" of a good friend of ours that was unable to join us this year - Flat Kelly has been doing some really fun stuff with us this week!  Here's our "Flat" peoples, and this will explain all the weird photos I've been posting on facebook. . .

I have a ton more pictures to post ~ but ~ the Margaritaville blenders are calling! 

LATER!!!!!!!

The Myrtle Beach Adventure Has Begun!

It’s always so much fun – hitting the road, finding out immediately what you forgot, and dealing with the unknown. . .

We hit the road at 8AM Thursday and figured we’d have a comfortable 8 or so hour run. Bob and Jim were thinking that day travel would be preferable to our past night travel sessions but as we discovered today, nightmares can happen during the daytime. . .

Bridgeport, CT – WTF? They have all kinds of roadside warnings of a 17 mile “delay” – and, yeah, the delay was ALL OF THAT PLUS SOME but what was the reason? Closing right lanes and doing lane switches at random? Is this some sort of mad psychological test to drive in Connecticut? Like people from CT are ever going to be able to drive anywhere properly? Yeah, that’s a random hope. Thanks for the delay, Connecticut, you suck.

Miscellaneous construction that seemed to have right lanes closed for no apparent reason was rampant through our southward travels. I was encouraged at one point to see that the right lane closure that had so very many people zigging and zagging through the available open lanes had several workers doing what?

Then came the DC beltway. . . First it was a 6 mile jam – yup, unlike our civilized neighbors in Connecticut, this was no delay. DC’s cool as their roadway signs don’t sugarcoat the horror that you are about to encounter and if you are a motorhome towing a car, you have NO recourse. We cruised down 95 with a 6 mile backup that went postal. It turned into a 20 mile challenge that lasted several hours.

But we made our destination – KOA Ashland, VA. It was an 11 hour day.  I immediately hooked Bob up to a tanqueray IV and we called it a day.

Enroute to South Carolina, now.  More to follow. . .

One Week 'till Myrtle Beach!

Here it is, Myrtle Beach wannabes. . . Stay tuned to this blog for the adventures of Smores Campers - watch the golf cart races, see who tosses Beth, Bob or Aud from a golf cart. We'll have the additional twist of all the new dogs in the group, and their reaction to camping down south, the beach, salt water swimming and. . wait for it. . . Golf cart races!