Bug Smacker

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.

Due to the fact that Monday was the very last episode of “House” EVER and we only got Canadian TV channels up in the Soo, we had no choice but to hitch up and go.

We moved on to Traverse City. We have reservations at Holiday Park for the weekend but since our favorite place is the state park we decided to stay there for a few days first. As soon as we pulled in we raised our TV antenna, plugged in the power and ordered a pizza to be delivered from G’s next door. I love it when things come together like this.

The park is quiet now, but we are told that it is a sold out show here for Saturday. The weather is great and the bugs are gone.

We went into town this morning for breakfast at the Omelette Shoppe. We have been here before and really liked it. That was before. Today we waited for over 40 minutes while we watched other people who arrived after us were served. That was enough, we asked to see a manager who made a bunch of excuses and then left the place.

We next headed over to Ham-Bonz. Here we both enjoyed a breakfast made with some of the best smoked pit ham you will find anywhere. Why did we not think of this place earlier?

While talking with some of the local people in the restaurant we heard them make mention of a place called “The Underground Cheese Company”.

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Woodland Park in Burt Township near Grand Marais, Michigan is a simply remarkable place. We arrived to find more than we ever expected here. We knew in a moment that this was going to be more than just a stopover for us. The sites are on a first come first serve basis. We booked 3 nights knowing very well that we would most likely extend the stay for the rest of our vacation.

The campground is tucked away along the southern shore of Lake Superior. The sites have electric, water and even cable TV. The sites are large considering that you are directly on the water. We stayed in a site one row back from the water and since the sites are so large our view of the lake was mostly unobstructed by the rigs in the first row. The sites in the front row have a better view of the lake, but the wind is also much stronger than even just a row or two back.

The bathhouse is very clean and well maintained. I could not figure out why you had to pay 50 cents to take a shower when the rest of the water hookups in the park were included in the site fee. While we are on the subject of the bathhouse let me heed a word of advice. The restrooms have a motion sensor to turn the lights on and unless you are dancing on the toilet they will shut off on you leaving you in the dark with your pants down.

There is WiFi throughout the park, although we were unable to connect to it due to the security settings they were using. Even with the password they provided the WiFi still did not work. The people here are exceptionally kind and helpful. The price for all of this is very reasonable as well.

The church across the street has bells that chime on the hour with a special little tune at noon. Several people in the park would go down to the lake shore and search for agate rocks and stones. The downtown area is within walking distance from the campground. There is also a public beach near the downtown area.

We discovered a small diner downtown. I doesn’t look like much, but the place had some really good food. Our favorite was their Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich which consisted of Shaved Rib-eye and Garlic Seasoned Skirt Steak cooked with real Bacon. Then they add Onion, Fresh Mushrooms, Green Pepper, Red Pepper and Orange Pepper. Topped with Cheddar, Provolone and Mozzarella Cheese. All on a Homemade Hoagie Bun. My mouth waters just writing the about this sandwich.

After dinner we stopped by a local farmer selling fresh vegetables along side the road. We got some fresh sweet corn, a very large muskmelon and some ripe peaches. I know the peaches were ripe because when I asked the farmer he said ” here take the rest of this peach I’ve been eating off of and see how ripe it is”. It is so refreshing to see people as kind as this still exist.

We met some new friends during our stay here.Earl & Claudia and Harold & Sally were camping between us and the lakefront. They had been camping to several of the same places as us. They were from downstate around the Detroit area. We also met Harry & Mary Smith from Negaunee, Michigan here in the Upper Peninsula. We hope to meet up with all of our new friends on a return trip sometime.

I also got a chance to tow a 5th Wheel belonging to George and Johna McLaughlin. It was much larger than our own trailer.  It had gotten stuck in the sand.   My wife” eyes lit up when she saw that her truck could actually pull something so big. There will be no stopping her from shopping for a new RV now.

Next to us was a group of people that would sit around the campfire and carve walking-sticks out of tree limbs. Some of them look quite nice. They were just a bunch of busy little beavers whittling away at those sticks.

I called back to that diner to get one of those Philly sandwiches to-go. They explained that they do not do takeout orders. This, along with the fact that they only accept cash and the orders take forever to be served, I begin to wonder if the food being so good will be enough.

Woodland Park is certainly a place that we will be returning to in the future. It is one of the best places we have been camping.

Here is the view from my windows right now as I write this.

We are returning once again this year to Saginaw Bay Resort in Standish. This time we had very little choice in the selection of sites upon our arrival. We wanted a full hookup spot since we didn’t empty our tanks yet from our trip to Clare. After riding around the park a few times we ended up in what we have heard referred as “Geritol Alley”. This is due to the average age of the  campers that migrate to this area of the park. We actually heard one older lady riding around in a red hardtop golf cart “buggy” make some snide remarks about a younger family with small children who were camping next to us. This was a bit shocking to me since most people here tend to be very friendly.

After we finished setting up camp, we sat down to enjoy the Tony’s tacos that we picked up on the way in. I went to turn on our entertainment system only to find out it was broken. We have a LG LHT754 receiver that is the center of our entertainment system and really like it. The thing was locked on DVD mode and had no sound. I discovered that if you hold the (#2 button) down on the remote while simultaneously pressing the (stop button) on the receiver, it will reset the receiver. This saved an otherwise useless piece of hardware. For more information see my article about RV Theater Entertainment Systems.

The heat during our stay was very nasty. Temperatures were over 100 degrees and extremely muggy. We were lucky enough to have a 50 amp outlet at our site. I used a 50 to 30 amp adapter so that we would have plenty of power during our stay.

We had plenty of good places to eat during our stay. Tuesday was all you can eat broasted chicken at Linwood Corners. Wedneday we had to choose between the pizza and pasta buffet at H&H in Au Gres, all you can eat fish at Linwood Corners or $1.00 off wings at Sportys Wing Shack in Pinconning. Thursday we stopped at the Turkey Roost for their turkey plate. We also found Ashby Sterling ice cream at a Shell gas station just around the corner from our campground.

Retraction: Sadly we no longer support Sporty’s Wing Shack & Smokehouse in Pinconning. The quality of the food is not what it had been in the past and the service has been slow.