Bug Smacker

We are currently up at the Little River Casino in Manistee, Michigan. We come up here more for a place to relax than a place to lose our cash. Don’t get me wrong I have been known to drop a bill or two into a slot machine on occasion. In fact I just walked out with $198.00 dollars that took me around ten minutes or so to coax out of the noisy video gambling box. After that we made our way over to the casino ticket counter to inquire about seats for a comedy show that we had heard about. The show was to be held tomorrow night and we figured it would be fun to check it out. While in line the lady behind me stated that she had a couple of tickets for the show that she could not use. When I asked how much she wanted for them she replied “nothing, she was unable to attend and just wanted to do something nice for someone else”. I thanked her and told her how much we appreciated her kindness.

Boy my luck was just pouring out all over the place!!!

On our way home we decided to make a stop back in the Pigeon Forge area. On our trip to Myrtle Beach last week we passed by Bush Brothers the place where Bush’s Beans are produced. We thought it would be nice to stop back and check it out on the way back through since we now had more time. We arrived literally 4 minutes after they closed.

Another good reason to spend the night in this area was so we could eat dinners at Tony Gore’s Smoky Mountain BBQ & Grill. This was undoubtedly the best meal we had on our trip (and believe me we had a lot of meals).

We spent the night at Two Rivers Landing RV Resort. This resort offers concrete pads with full hookups including 20/30/50 electric, water, sewer, cable TV and Wi-Fi. It is located close to I40 which made it a great choice for a 1 nighter.

Later that evening we headed into Pigeon Forge to check out their annual weekend car show. It was a huge event with hundreds of classic cars on display everywhere throughout town. It took us hours to just travel from one end of town to the other in the nonstop traffic entering Pigeon Forge. We then caught up with my brother, Todd who was in town with a car he brought to sell.

The next day our trip home was a long one. It was a real eye opener to see the gas prices in Michigan again. In Tennessee we filled up at $3.13 per gallon. In Michigan it was now $3.78 per gallon.

I am waking this morning to the rhythm of waves pounding onto the sands of Myrtle Beach. It is as spectacular as we had expected. The ocean breeze is whistling through the palm trees causing them to sway like a conductor would orchestrate to the approaching waves of the sea. The sun is glistening across the ripples in the water and reflecting disco ball patterns into the windows of our RV.

Last night the gentle breeze had kicked up a notch. With a storm approaching our RV was actually rocking back and forth as if we were aboard a cruise ship. The rain came down hard and the trees bent over and touched the ground. Today however, is going to be great.

I want to thank Maite at Ocean Lakes in Myrtle Beach for helping us find some great spots close to the ocean when we checked in. Even though we hadn’t made any reservation, she was able to provide us with a couple of front row ocean sites during our stay here. We had to relocate a couple of times, but it was well worth the hassle to be right on the oceanfront.

The campground at Ocean Lakes is just as nice as it was last time we were here. The sites all offer full hookups including: 23/30/50 electric, water, sewer, cable and wifi. This place is always exceptionally clean and well maintained. On this visit we found the golf cart activity to be much more acceptable. Last visit here there was a continuous parade of kids cruising up and down the road in front of us all hours of the day and night. This was most likely due to the time of year that we are here.

We went down the road to check out two nearby state parks. We found Myrtle Beach State Park to be congested with small sites and muddy. We had read in the brochure that you should not wear open toed shoes and to use a flashlight at night due to the possibility of Copperhead Snakes. When my wife saw one of these serpents cross the road right in front of us in broad daylight, I was instructed that we would not be staying here…EVER!

The other state park we saw was Huntington. This park was really nice. It has an abundance of wildlife. We saw birds, fish, deer and even alligators.  It is also located on the ocean. The sites are mostly large with electric and water. This would be a real nice place to stay if you can get a reservation. I see why they go so fast.

We took a drive down the boulevard downtown. We stopped in to visit with Cathy from the Sea Horn motel. Before we had our beloved BugSmacker RV, we would stay at the Sea Horn. This place is spectacular and the owners treat you like family. It was really great reminiscing about all the great times we had here.

We headed over to Murrells Inlet for dinner. Murrells Inlet is known as “a quiet little drinking village with a fishing problem”. Terri and I split a plate of Calabash-Style Fried Shrimp at the Dead Dog Saloon which was terrific. Afterward we took a stroll along the Marshwalk.

We returned a couple of days later to Murrells Inlet for dinner. This has become our favorite place to go while in the Myrtle Beach area. Judging by the crowds, we are not alone. We stopped to eat at Drunken Jacks. They had a 45 minute wait, so during our wait we headed over to Creek Ratz. Here we shared a Shrimp basket. As we finished our page came in for Drunken Jacks. We returned to honor our reservation and had a couple of (you guessed it) shrimp plates. This meal also included a salad bar and some of the best Hush Puppies you have ever eaten. We love the creek shrimp they serve in Murrells Inlet. Our favorite was at the Creek Rat, but if you want a complete dinner, you can’t go wrong at Drunken Jacks. Plus the people there were exceptional.

We aren’t much for buffets, but tonight we took the advise from a group of really nice people we met on  the beach and tried one. We headed to what is refered to as restaurant row in North Myrle Beach to a place called The Original Benjamin’s Calabash Seafood Buffet. This place had more food than china. The selection was enormous. It wasn’t just the volume that impressed us, the food was delicious. I want to thank our waitress, Catie for making sure we had anything we may desire and making us feel so welcome.

Following dinner had us stop into a shop called “Purpleologist”. It was filled with all things purple. She fell in love with the place.

As always, Myrtle Beach is going to be hard to leave.

We made it to Pigeon Forge and the first place we parked the RV was at the local Wal-Mart. We did this so that we could check out a couple of different campgrounds without hauling the trailer around. We met my parents in the parking lot at Wal-Mart and rode with them a bit. Before we left Terri and I ran into the store to purchase something that is not available in Michigan…BBQ Fritos.

After checking out several campgrounds in the area we settled on Twin Mountain RV Park. The park is located right on the bank of the Little Pigeon River in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. All sites include water, electric, sewer and cable. This is a very nice campground and we will be returning here sometime soon, I’m sure.

The site we chose was right on the river. The area of the river where we were located had several rocks which created a small rapids and the sound was quite soothing. This was a popular spot for fishing (for both people and birds alike).

On our second day we headed over to Dollywood with my parents. My mother, bless her heart, was like a kid in a candy store. She was so excited. We had a hard time just keeping up with her. She asked us if we were interested in seeing the Kingdom Heirs show. No sooner than we could spit the word “yes” out and she was off like a race horse just launching out of the starting gate.

We were at Dollywood during the Festival of Nations. This festival brings in talent from all over the world. After the Kingdom Heirs we headed over to the Cirque Shanghai show. Then we saw the Wings of America Show Birds just before my dad talked me into going on the Tennessee Tornado rollercoaster ride. Next we took a train ride on the Dollywood Express. Finally we mounted a couple of horses on the Village Carousel.

On the way home we stopped at Big Daddy’s Pizza for dinner. This and the BBQ brisket sandwich we purchased from Tony Gore’s place were the two best meals we had. The latter being the best!

Following our excitement at Dollywood, the next day we took a leisurely scenic drive through Cades Cove. While in the National Park we saw lots of deer, birds and even a couple of bear cubs which had just emerged from their den.

One day we hopped a trolley (which conveniently runs right by our campsite every 15 minutes) and headed to Gatlinburg. We strolled through town and checked out the various shops. We stopped into Ole Smoky Moonshine to sample their beverages. GOOD STUFF! Next we went to Dicks Last Resort for lunch. We met some people who were also from Michigan.

The weather while in Pigeon Forge was great. The temperatures got up into the mid 90’s. This was a far cry from the 30’s we had back home in Michigan when we left the other day.

We are off to start this camping season with our new Jayco 5th Wheel. We have several places to go in mind as we pull out of our driveway. New Orleans, Disney World, St. Louis, Pigeon Forge and Myrtle Beach all are on our short list. The deciding factor will be on how well our truck pulls this big ol’ Bug Smacker. This new trailer weighs in at almost 10,000 lbs. and the weight is very noticeable when compared to our old trailer.

A couple of days ago on my way back from the dealership with the RV I got 6.3 mpg on the expressway. That day the wind was quite strong, so I knew my calculations were not very accurate, but at this rate it would cost us a small fortune in gas going all the way down to the gulf coast for vacation. Today with a very slight breeze I got an average of 9.1 mpg. I was very impressed. This was going to make our trip much more affordable.

About an hour into our trip we decided that Pigeon Forge would make more sense due to recent weather patterns and the fact that it was closer for our first road trip. We agreed that if the truck did well on the trip down to Tennessee, we may even set our sights on Myrtle Beach after that.

We started our trip around 3:30 PM and around Midnight we arrived at the Kentucky Horse Park Campground. We had never been here before and found navigating the campground a bit confusing especially at night. We knew the office was closed so we ignored the sign that said “check-in”. Glad we did because there is no room for maneuvering around the office parking lot with a rig.

We drove through the campground until we found an empty site. We chose the first one we saw to set up camp. We were just here for an over niter, so we weren’t very picky. The site was a little tight and VERY unlevel. We were very tired at this point so we just slept upside-down in the bed.

The campground has 260 sites. Each offers 50/30/20 amp electric and water. All sites are 55′ paved back-ins with fire rings and picnic tables. There are 2 dump stations and a small store. The campground is conveniently located next to the Kentucky Horse Park.