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what we did on our vacation part 2
Aug. 14th, 2010 01:22 pmWhere was I? Oh yeah, South Of The Border.
The drive from there to the beach was dark, muggy, and hot. We stopped in Conway because we were absolutely starving, got Wendys takeout and ate it in the parking lot of a gas station somewhere on 501. Eventually we made it to Garden City and the rental house which was occupied by my parents, my brother, my sister and her husband and their baby, and my aunt and uncle. Apparently we'd missed the big rain that had doused the beach earlier.
Monday we got up, went down the street to visit more relatives, went swimming and got some sun. The decree was that we'd all take turns cooking, and that didn't turn out to be too much of a hardship as we found a Weber grill downstairs. We did some shopping in town, hit the local antique malls, ate at all the chains we can't eat at up north, walked on the beach at night with flashlights disturbing the crabs, and generally took it easy. The Garden City pier is even more crowded and live-musicy than ever. The arcade has both Skee-Ball and Sno-Ball (the latter using a plastic ball that provides an inferior playing substrate) and classic arcade games upstairs including a Galaga with a fire button that only works half the time. And quizzical off-model paintings of cartoon characters lining the walls that sadly I did not photograph.
We did get to the Gay Dolphin, situated a block down from the giant vacant lot where the Pavilion used to be. Seriously, getting rid of the Pavilion was an incredibly stupid move - if you're going to knock it down, at least replace it with a parking lot or a park or a minature golf course or something useful, not a giant hole in the center of Myrtle Beach. Anyway the Gay Dolphin isn't letting people up in the observation deck and while there is a charming handpainted Huckleberry Hound display (being used to sell non-cartoon related merchandise) there wasn't a lot else that we were interested in. I guess we have all the shark teeth, dribble glasses, snow globes, saucy magnets, and nautical-themed nick-nacks we need.
On Friday we took the day and drove up to Wilmington to see![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lucifera_shadow. Plenty of interesting stuff to see and do in North Myrtle Beach and on the stretch of 17 we took, and we saw and did almost none of it because of the amazing rain storm we drove through. It cleared up enough by the time we got to Leland where we were to meet. I hadn't seen her in what, 12 years? and Shain had never met her so we had lunch, talked, got coffee, talked, went to a very good used bookstore, talked, and finally wandered around the Wal-Mart and talked. Eventually we had to get back to Garden City and Lucifera had to get to another social engagement (involving fire!) so we hit the road again. Great to see you again, Lauren!!
Saturday we had to be out of the house by 10am, and indeed we were. After saying goodbye to everybody we got in the car and battled the beach-leaving traffic, which was heavy until we detoured off the main route and into the hinterlands. Our destination was Athens GA where we were going to see Devlin and Mandy andhipsterdad and lyneidas and the boychild and the girlchild. But first there was a couple hundred miles of swampland and scrub brush to conquer! A lot of swampy South Carolina later, we found ourselves in Columbia, which looks a lot nicer than it did the last time I was there which was about 15-20 years ago. We passed the Savannah River and suddenly we were in Elberton, the Granite Capital Of The World. We stopped in Carlton at a stretch of junk shops and I bought some old linotype art blocks for cheap. And then suddenly there we were in Athens. Bizarro Wuxtry's maze of merchandise has been straightened out somewhat and as always is the greatest place to shop, the Grill's malteds are still wonderful, and after a meal and a good visit we were back on the road again out 441 towards Commerce. We got all the way to Anderson SC and stopped for the night in the Days Inn.
The next morning I got up to avail myself of the free continental breakfast, wandered behind the hotel to watch the turtles swimming in the lake, and marvelled at just how hot it was getting at 10 in the morning. Hah! Little did I know that soon we'd be baking our brains out at the Jockey Lot, poring through piles of 25 cent children's books, marvelling at livestock, bad art and legions of bootleg DVDs, and buying a big pile of comics from the guy with all the records and toys in the shed.
True overheard conversation - talky, non-buying customer was a big fan of "Um... Jive... Master-mixing... rabbit... something." Owner: "Jive Bunny And The Mixmasters?" Customer: "Yeah, that's him!"
But sadly we had to leave Anderson behind and it was up 85 for us. Past Lake Hartwell, past Gafney and its Giant Peach and its amazingly crowded outlet mall, we hit Charlotte NC and made a hard left northwards onto I-79. We stopped in one antique mall in northern NC that had some startling (if overpriced)stuff (Dennis The Menace and Alice Mitchell hand puppets, anyone?). We hit another one in Virginia, Wycheville VA, the Snooper's Antique Mall, where we found the Captain Future mess kit and a lot of comics and a big dancin-teens Keanesque painting (for $3!!!)
Best of all the place was open until 7pm on a Sunday, and lemme tell you we closed that place down. And there is ANOTHER antique mall NEXT DOOR that we didn't even get to go in. I guess we have to go back to Wycheville VA.
We got to Charleston and checked into the same place we slept at the last time we were in town. We were too late to eat at the Outback, but we were in time for that night's MAD MEN. Was everybody else as knocked out by the kaiju cameo as I was? Monday morning we got up. Last leg of the trip. We hit some antique malls in South Charleston on the way out - 3 floors of cool stuff, including some pretty awesome signed and first edition books - and then we were back on the road up and down and across the twisty mountains of West Virginia that look so much better in the summer than they do in the winter. Eventually we crossed the PA border - we passed a lot of antique malls but we wanted to get home, dammit! We stopped for gas somewhere in the middle-south of the state. Noticed a lot of... what are they? Hippies? Deadheads? Is there a Renfest somewhere around? Got back on the highway and off to the left in a field was a sea of tents, followed by a sea of cars and camper trailers. I believe we'd just brushed up against the big SCA event, Pennsic. Hey guys if you want to live the medieval life 24-7, there are plenty of Amish in the area who would love to have you.
We made it to I-90 and swung right just in time to stop for dinner and shopping in lovely Erie PA. I say "lovely" because it is likely the closest place to Toronto where you can get Chick-Fil-A and Steak N Shake. Seriously - one strip has the Chick-Fil-A, a Tim Hortons, a Target,a geographic nexus of all the chain stuff my inner suburban craves. I guess we'll be visiting Erie again some time. As we approached Buffalo the weather closed in and we had intermittent rain and mist. At the border things cleared up and it was merely incredibly humid. We crossed back into Canada without our kitsch being confiscated and before you know it, there we are, back in the Toy Factory with the cat. Cat took about an hour to quit hiding and has not left us alone ever since. And that's our trip! More information about the Gay Dolphin, Jive Bunny, and the SCA can be found on... the internet.
The drive from there to the beach was dark, muggy, and hot. We stopped in Conway because we were absolutely starving, got Wendys takeout and ate it in the parking lot of a gas station somewhere on 501. Eventually we made it to Garden City and the rental house which was occupied by my parents, my brother, my sister and her husband and their baby, and my aunt and uncle. Apparently we'd missed the big rain that had doused the beach earlier.
Monday we got up, went down the street to visit more relatives, went swimming and got some sun. The decree was that we'd all take turns cooking, and that didn't turn out to be too much of a hardship as we found a Weber grill downstairs. We did some shopping in town, hit the local antique malls, ate at all the chains we can't eat at up north, walked on the beach at night with flashlights disturbing the crabs, and generally took it easy. The Garden City pier is even more crowded and live-musicy than ever. The arcade has both Skee-Ball and Sno-Ball (the latter using a plastic ball that provides an inferior playing substrate) and classic arcade games upstairs including a Galaga with a fire button that only works half the time. And quizzical off-model paintings of cartoon characters lining the walls that sadly I did not photograph.
We did get to the Gay Dolphin, situated a block down from the giant vacant lot where the Pavilion used to be. Seriously, getting rid of the Pavilion was an incredibly stupid move - if you're going to knock it down, at least replace it with a parking lot or a park or a minature golf course or something useful, not a giant hole in the center of Myrtle Beach. Anyway the Gay Dolphin isn't letting people up in the observation deck and while there is a charming handpainted Huckleberry Hound display (being used to sell non-cartoon related merchandise) there wasn't a lot else that we were interested in. I guess we have all the shark teeth, dribble glasses, snow globes, saucy magnets, and nautical-themed nick-nacks we need.
On Friday we took the day and drove up to Wilmington to see
lucifera_shadow. Plenty of interesting stuff to see and do in North Myrtle Beach and on the stretch of 17 we took, and we saw and did almost none of it because of the amazing rain storm we drove through. It cleared up enough by the time we got to Leland where we were to meet. I hadn't seen her in what, 12 years? and Shain had never met her so we had lunch, talked, got coffee, talked, went to a very good used bookstore, talked, and finally wandered around the Wal-Mart and talked. Eventually we had to get back to Garden City and Lucifera had to get to another social engagement (involving fire!) so we hit the road again. Great to see you again, Lauren!!Saturday we had to be out of the house by 10am, and indeed we were. After saying goodbye to everybody we got in the car and battled the beach-leaving traffic, which was heavy until we detoured off the main route and into the hinterlands. Our destination was Athens GA where we were going to see Devlin and Mandy and
hipsterdad and lyneidas and the boychild and the girlchild. But first there was a couple hundred miles of swampland and scrub brush to conquer! A lot of swampy South Carolina later, we found ourselves in Columbia, which looks a lot nicer than it did the last time I was there which was about 15-20 years ago. We passed the Savannah River and suddenly we were in Elberton, the Granite Capital Of The World. We stopped in Carlton at a stretch of junk shops and I bought some old linotype art blocks for cheap. And then suddenly there we were in Athens. Bizarro Wuxtry's maze of merchandise has been straightened out somewhat and as always is the greatest place to shop, the Grill's malteds are still wonderful, and after a meal and a good visit we were back on the road again out 441 towards Commerce. We got all the way to Anderson SC and stopped for the night in the Days Inn.The next morning I got up to avail myself of the free continental breakfast, wandered behind the hotel to watch the turtles swimming in the lake, and marvelled at just how hot it was getting at 10 in the morning. Hah! Little did I know that soon we'd be baking our brains out at the Jockey Lot, poring through piles of 25 cent children's books, marvelling at livestock, bad art and legions of bootleg DVDs, and buying a big pile of comics from the guy with all the records and toys in the shed.
True overheard conversation - talky, non-buying customer was a big fan of "Um... Jive... Master-mixing... rabbit... something." Owner: "Jive Bunny And The Mixmasters?" Customer: "Yeah, that's him!"
But sadly we had to leave Anderson behind and it was up 85 for us. Past Lake Hartwell, past Gafney and its Giant Peach and its amazingly crowded outlet mall, we hit Charlotte NC and made a hard left northwards onto I-79. We stopped in one antique mall in northern NC that had some startling (if overpriced)stuff (Dennis The Menace and Alice Mitchell hand puppets, anyone?). We hit another one in Virginia, Wycheville VA, the Snooper's Antique Mall, where we found the Captain Future mess kit and a lot of comics and a big dancin-teens Keanesque painting (for $3!!!)
Best of all the place was open until 7pm on a Sunday, and lemme tell you we closed that place down. And there is ANOTHER antique mall NEXT DOOR that we didn't even get to go in. I guess we have to go back to Wycheville VA.
We got to Charleston and checked into the same place we slept at the last time we were in town. We were too late to eat at the Outback, but we were in time for that night's MAD MEN. Was everybody else as knocked out by the kaiju cameo as I was? Monday morning we got up. Last leg of the trip. We hit some antique malls in South Charleston on the way out - 3 floors of cool stuff, including some pretty awesome signed and first edition books - and then we were back on the road up and down and across the twisty mountains of West Virginia that look so much better in the summer than they do in the winter. Eventually we crossed the PA border - we passed a lot of antique malls but we wanted to get home, dammit! We stopped for gas somewhere in the middle-south of the state. Noticed a lot of... what are they? Hippies? Deadheads? Is there a Renfest somewhere around? Got back on the highway and off to the left in a field was a sea of tents, followed by a sea of cars and camper trailers. I believe we'd just brushed up against the big SCA event, Pennsic. Hey guys if you want to live the medieval life 24-7, there are plenty of Amish in the area who would love to have you.
We made it to I-90 and swung right just in time to stop for dinner and shopping in lovely Erie PA. I say "lovely" because it is likely the closest place to Toronto where you can get Chick-Fil-A and Steak N Shake. Seriously - one strip has the Chick-Fil-A, a Tim Hortons, a Target,a geographic nexus of all the chain stuff my inner suburban craves. I guess we'll be visiting Erie again some time. As we approached Buffalo the weather closed in and we had intermittent rain and mist. At the border things cleared up and it was merely incredibly humid. We crossed back into Canada without our kitsch being confiscated and before you know it, there we are, back in the Toy Factory with the cat. Cat took about an hour to quit hiding and has not left us alone ever since. And that's our trip! More information about the Gay Dolphin, Jive Bunny, and the SCA can be found on... the internet.
