Month: May 2024

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

While staying at Myrtle Beach State Park, we went into Myrtle Beach proper a couple of times. Not the popular boardwalk and such, but along the endless strip of mini golf, beachwear, and pancake shops.

Myrtle Beach Welcomes You

Mini golf:

Mini golf

Mini golf

Rope course:

Rope course

Mini golf:

Mini golf

Park:

Park

Beachwear:

Beachwear

One excursion was to try Cook Out:

Cook Out

Cook Out menu:

Cook Out menu

Mini golf:

Mini golf

Beachwear:

Beachwear

Beachwear:

Beachwear

Beachwear:

Beachwear

Treats:

Treats

Mini golf:

Mini golf

Mini golf:

Mini golf

Beachwear:

Beachwear

Beachwear:

Beachwear

Pancakes:

Pancakes

Beachwear:

Beachwear

Pancakes:

Pancakes

Beachwear:

Beachwear

Beachwear:

Beachwear

Mini golf:

Mini golf

Beachwear:

Beachwear

Beachwear:

Beachwear

Pancakes:

Pancakes

Mini golf:

Mini golf

You get the idea. Not the most exciting part of town. I kinda wish we had checked out the boardwalk area, but it was probably more of the same.

Myrtle Beach Welcomes You

Myrtle Beach State Park beach

While staying at the Myrtle Beach State Park campground, we walked to the adjacent beach on several days. Nice to be able to walk to a beach:

Path to beach

Path to beach

Beach

Beach

A cannonball jelly; apparently harmless:

Cannonball jelly

Waves:

Waves

Waves

Waves

Waves

Waves

Waves

Pier:

Pier

Pier

Gift shop:

Pier

Gift store

Gift shop

Gift store

We walked out on the pier, while enjoying some very melty ice cream:

Pier and ice cream

Pier

Pier

Pier

View from pier

View from pier

A sign with info about jellies:

Sign

Boardwalk:

Boardwalk

Sign

Sign

Boardwalk

Sign

Picnic shelters:

Picnic shelters

Gaillardia flowers growing wild (we used to buy them at a garden center):

Flowers

Beach:

Beach

Beach

Pelicans:

Pelicans

Pelicans

Beach

Beach

Beach

We loaded our beach chairs, mini table, and cooler into our cart, to enjoy a picnic dinner on the beach:

Jenn, beach chairs, cart

Jenn, beach chairs, cart

Plane:

Plane

Beach

Myrtle Beach State Park

We stayed at Myrtle Beach State Park in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A nice state park in the tourist town of Myrtle Beach.

Dates:

  • Check in: 2024-04-28
  • Check out: 2024-05-12
  • 7 nights

Weather:

  • Partly cloudy, some rain
  • High temps 76-86°F, lows 60-72°F
  • Little wind, gusts to 24 MPH

Noise:

  • No road noise
  • No train noise
  • Regular airplane noise (in the flight path of Myrtle Beach International Airport)
  • Some neighbor noise (mostly yippy dogs)

Site:

  • #204, back in, dirt
  • Needed to disconnect toad, parked in front of coach
  • Rather unlevel, high on passenger side and back; used hydraulic leveling with blocks under the front (though not completely level)
  • Dirt driveway about 60 feet long by 18 feet wide
  • No neighbor on driver side, trees about 14 feet to 45 feet to road
  • About 35 feet to neighbor on passenger side, with tall trees and shrubs giving decent privacy
  • Picnic table
  • Fire pit
  • Tall trees
  • Clean site

Utilities:

  • 50 amp power, conveniently located
  • 60 PSI water, conveniently located
  • Loose sewer connection, conveniently located (2 10-foot pipes needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

  • T-Mobile: 28 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, 35 ms ping
  • Campground Wi-Fi: 25 Mbps down, 7 Mbps up, 5 ms ping
  • AT&T: 7-10 Mbps down, 1 Mbps up, 85-170 ms ping
  • Verizon: 1-17 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, 70-115 ms ping
  • Starlink: not used

Amenities:

  • Garbage dumpsters
  • Nearby beach

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Nice under the trees

This is one of the most expensive state parks we’ve ever stayed at, but considering the location and what it would’ve cost at one of the resorts in the area, it’s a good deal, especially with the proximity to the beach. It was nice and shady under the trees, but it got tight on some of the roads for our 40′ motorhome. We had site 204, which was large enough for our motorhome and tow vehicle but extremely sloped front-to-back, and we couldn’t get completely level. The other major drawback is that the park is directly under the airport’s flight path, so it can get a bit loud. Thankfully, they seem to not operate after 11pm. We camped at Myrtle Beach State Park in a Motorhome.

Campground map; a mix of sites with 30 or 50 amp power, and with or without sewer:

Park map

An interactive map:

Our site was quite nice, other than not being very level:

Our site

Our site

Our site

Our site

Utilities:

Utilities

Utilities

We enjoyed being surrounded by tall trees:

Trees

Birds:

Bird

Bird

A glimpse of a plane overhead through the trees:

Plane

Playground:

Playground

“Hover like a Hummingbird”:

Hover like a Hummingbird

Bathrooms:

Bathrooms

More bathrooms:

Bathrooms

Garbage and recycling:

Garbage and recycling

Circle entrance:

Circle entrance

Other sites:

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

We’d be happy to stay here again. Stay tuned tomorrow for some scenes of the beach by the park.

Travel from Columbia to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

We drove our coach 150 miles, about three hours of driving, from Columbia, South Carolina to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Reaching the East coast! (Other than Florida.)

Here’s a map showing our route, heading east:

Route map

An interactive map:

Leaving the state park:

Leaving state park

A line for the dump station; we didn’t need to dump, but had to wait for a bit to get past:

Line for dump station

The dump station:

Dump station

I-20 East:

I-20 East

Fun with zoom:

Fun with zoom

Iron Skillet Restaurant at a Petro truck stop:

Iron Skillet Restaurant

We like Petro, as not only do we get fuel discounts there, but they are often very large, with lots of parking spaces and uncrowded fuel lanes:

Petro fuel stop

Our fuel fill; as usual, we paid less than the pump price thanks to our fuel discount card; we paid $204.71, a saving of $27.47:

Fuel fill

Easy parking:

Parked

Petro has laundry and showers facilities, and even a hair salon:

Laundry and showers

And the aforementioned Iron Skillet Restaurant, where we had breakfast for lunch:

Iron Skillet Restaurant

Menu

Breakfast for lunch

Back at our coach, Paladin asleep on the dash:

Paladin

Paladin

I-95 North:

I-95 North

Route 76 East:

Route 76 East

Crossing over a portion of the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW), an inland water route near the coast that runs almost all the way down the East coast from Massachusetts to Florida and across the Gulf to Texas:

Intracoastal Waterway

Arriving at Myrtle Beach State Park:

Myrtle Beach State Park

Myrtle Beach State Park

Myrtle Beach State Park

Myrtle Beach State Park

Myrtle Beach State Park

Myrtle Beach State Park

Camper check-in:

Myrtle Beach State Park

Following the coach to our site:

Myrtle Beach State Park

Barrier cushions

There are a bunch of wires and stuff under the dash in our coach, which are too tempting for Paladin to play with when he’s in a bratty mood:

Under dash area

So while at Red Bay we got Lindsey & Winchester Drapery to make a custom barrier cushion for that space (something they do for many owners with pets).

Here’s a rough cut of foam for the shape:

Foam

And the final product, delivered later that week:

Barrier cushion

In place:

Barrier cushion

We also got them to make a small barrier for under the bedroom slide-out, to prevent Paladin from pushing things under there:

Barrier cushion

And a block for a larger gap in the corner:

Barrier cushion

These work great. Of course, we remove them for travel days.

Replaced SeeLeveL II panel

In the wet bay of our coach is a SeeLeveL II tank monitor panel, that shows the battery, fresh tank, grey tank, and black tank levels:

SeeLeveL II panel

The panel stopped working, and I had it replaced less than a year ago, but it got wet and stopped working again when doing recent wet bay mods, so I needed to replace it again. Rather than paying the inflated price the service place charged me, I ordered the panel from RVupgrades.com, and replaced it myself. I also ordered the correct panel for my coach — notice that the above picture has a button for LPG level too, but my coach doesn’t have any propane.

Here’s the back of the old panel, showing the connectors; power and tank level on the left, and the RVC network port on the right:

Connectors

The replacement panel, model 709RVC-NLP (RVC for that port, and NLP for no-LP):

SeeLeveL II panel

I also got a gasket to hopefully protect it from water intrusion a bit:

SeeLeveL II panel

The new panel installed:

SeeLeveL II panel

Easy.

Easy reach awning opener

A nice tweak: I found this easy reach awning opener at the Tiffin parts store, and bought two of them. Our coach came with a long pole to reach the window awnings, but it’s a bit of a pain to pull it out of the basement bay, and possibly go around to the other side to get it. With two of these compact extendable tools, we can more easily open the awnings. Handy!

Here’s an Amazon link for the product (probably way cheaper than whatever I paid at Tiffin).

Easy reach awning opener

Tiffin parts store

While at 1st Class Glass I wandered across the road to the Bob Tiffin Service Center, where new owners of Tiffin motorhomes can get servicing done. (We are not eligible, since our coach is a 2017 model; we use third-party vendors instead.)

Bob Tiffin Service Center

Bob Tiffin Service Center

I wanted to visit the parts store to pick up some items. It’s a huge area; I wasn’t sure where to go (and they don’t have great signage). I stopped by the Tiffin Allegro Club office, and they pointed me in the right direction:

Bob Tiffin Service Center

Bob Tiffin Service Center

The service center customer entrance is hidden halfway down this building:

Bob Tiffin Service Center

Bob Tiffin Service Center

Inside, they directed me to the customer parts area, though I had to ask again to find it. It’s a small caged area with a few parts on display, and a counter where one can ask for other parts:

Parts shop

Parts shop

Apparently it used to be much nicer, where people could browse the shelves for parts; now you have to request them. I could find all sorts of goodies if I could explore, but alas, this area beyond the gate is off limits:

Parts shop

Just a few items available within the cage:

Parts shop

Parts shop

Parts shop

Stay tuned for one bonus find, though, coming on tomorrow’s Tweak Thursday.

Windshield leak repair

Today would normally be a travel post, but we’re almost real-time, and it’s my birthday week, so I thought I’d do a week of modification posts instead, as my gift to you. Enjoy!

Another repair item. Our windshield started to leak a little in one spot when it rained, dripping down inside:

Leak

Leak

Obviously not ideal. While in Red Bay, we had an appointment with 1st Class Glass to fix that:

1st Class Glass

They also have an adjacent full-hookup campground for customers, though we didn’t use it:

Campground

They hooked up the power, and encouraged us to put out our slides and relax in our coach, which was nice:

1st Class Glass

They have a nifty platform that can be raised or lowered to let them conveniently work on the windshield without needing ladders:

1st Class Glass

1st Class Glass

1st Class Glass

A glimpse in the background of a windshield being re-attached to a motorhome:

1st Class Glass

They replaced the seal all across the top of our windshield, which does seem to have fixed the leak (it was possible the leak was actually coming from the marker light, but they found moisture inside the windshield seal, so were fairly confident that the problem was the windshield seal):

Re-sealed windshield

Re-sealed windshield

Yay for not leaking!