1 May 2015

In the morning we left with the rising tide and followed Roundabout out the river. Another day of quiet rides and moving along at 9 kts with the help of the tidal flow.

About 10 AM we came across friends on “Debt Finder” and we chatted with them for a few minutes with them on the radio. It was nice catching up with them. That’s one of the nice things about the Loop is that you meet and then remeet people as you travel along.

We got to our dock early because of the extra speed of the current. The marina is very nice, brand new floating docks and it was very inexpensive at $1 per foot.

We did lunch on the boat and called a taxi about 3PM to take us into Myrtle Beach. There is an entertainment complex about 20 minutes away that Susan had scoped out. Lots of kid things to do as far as rides and arcades, lots of shopping for the parents. There is also about a dozen places to eat. With it being off season the place was pretty empty so we had our run of the place.

The complex is set up around a huge lagoon. Running across the center is a double zip line (over and then back). Susan had gone ziplining in Mexico and really liked it, so we decided to give this one a try. My last time on a zip line was in the back yard when I was a kid, it was one of those rigs where you hung on with your hands. Here it was a full seat harness like you would wear as a construction worker. They strap you in and send you up the tower to the top to clip into the rollers that will take you across.

The ride was pretty cool, having a little more mass than your average person I accelerated pretty quickly. Being slightly unbalanced in the harness gave me a slow spin so I got a good 360 view. I soon landed at the other side. Up a few more steps to the top of the tower and we were both on our way across.

There is a bridge that goes across the lagoon, we crossed it. On the way we marveled at the giant carp, they lay in wait in the water with their half dollar sized mouths gaping on the surface begging for food. There was a ride there where you climb inside an inflatable tube and you can crawl inside and then float across the water. It looked perfect for little kids.

We hit a few of the shops, picked up some new salsa’s for docktails, marveled at kids clothing that was $65 per outfit, etc. We did go to the MR Ducks store and he had a left over 2014 shirt in my size, and a 2015 in a color that I liked. We also went to Kligs Kites, a mecca for kiteflyers. I picked up two really unusual kites to try out. One is a very interesting kite that has a carbon fiber tension system.

Dinner was at the Liberty Brewing Company. We ordered the “Pint-o-Bacon” just to see what it was. It’s 6 strips of bacon in a pint glass with a maple/hot pepper sauce to dip them in. It was weird but fun just eating bacon. Susan had a steak and I had prime rib. And of course I had a flight of 5 different beers to try. One was a Maibock, a new term to me that I’ll need to go research.

After dinner we went to the Palace Theatre to watch a show. A family friend, Russell, is a BMX bike rider in the show. He is part of a three man group that does a 10 minute act on two side by side pipes. When Dave was younger he was into BMX and we went to see him and the other riders perform. Russell and the other riders were way over the top doing jumps, twists and loops. I wouldn’t think that a bike could put up with all that abuse.

There was also a magician that had some good tricks. He had an assistant that was very flexible so he was able to do a number of variations of the “saw the girl in half trick”. The best tricks were the ones where he had children from the audience participate.

The other big act was Christian Soninev and his dog Scooby doing acrobatics. He was very good, and the dog would climb on him as he move upside down.

We met up with Russell after the show, they will be in Myrtle Beach through Labor Day, so if you get a chance go see the show. He said that the cast (magician, dancers, bikers, etc) were set up in condos that are close to the beach and to the theater. A pretty good summer gig.

In the morning we will be heading out with three other Loopers that are in the marina. We’ll have a chance to sleep in since low tide is at 7, we won’t be leaving until 8:30.