DAY TEN- DAY THIRTEEN Rain at the beach

We left the rain of the Smokeys and drove east into more non-stop rain. The drive was long but uneventful. Weeks ago when I was having daydreams of this trip, I saw myself sitting on Myrtle beach from 7 p.m. on Tursday until 7 p.m. Thursday, basking in the sun but staying cool because of the refreshing ocean breeze. The only other thing I planned was to go to Medieval Times, but more on that in a minute. Back to the soft waves rolling onto the even softer sand, where I sat with my legs just barely getting wet from the surf. Sun, sand, snacks, and swimming-four of my favorite things!!

Yeah. None of that happened. We set up in a torrential downpour. Then on Wednesday we played board games, scheduled our feast and decided to go to a movie to kill time. I would have rather killed the rain, but that did not appear to be an option.

Once loaded into the truckster (which autocorrect demands I change to trickster), we again struggled with directions to the theater. On the way the boys began to get more and more ridiculous, shouting, bickering, and touching each other to get the other in trouble. They didn't know where we were going, just that we were going to a specific place. Long story short, Jason and I lost our minds and yelled, "you don't deserve to go to the movies!," just as we pulled into the mall parking lot, just several hundred feet from the theater. Que the dramatics from the boys as they found out they were going to go to Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and just as quickly they WERENT. "Well if you would have told us we were going to the movie we would have behaved." What? I immediately pointed out that they should act like humans ALL the time, not just with the promise or expectation of doing something. Ugh. Kids.

Not having anything else to do, we decided to head to Barnes and Noble in the outdoor mall. In a downpour. By this point, I was already sick to death of being wet from head to toe on this trip, without ever having gone swimming, so I took a time out in bookstore wandering around by myself as my flip flops squished and squashed with each step.

Just as I was relaxing and coming to terms with being sopping wet again, a child approached me with a book and a giant smile. "Mom, this is what I'm going to get!"  Uh, no. Nope. We didn't just forfeit going to a movie because of your poor behavior to come to Barnes and Noble to buy you things. As you can imagine things spiraled swiftly downward from there. Jason ran and got the car and we loaded up and had a calm, heart to heart with the children. Well not exactly, but our point was made.

From time to time, the boys (and I) need to be reminded what a privilege our trips are. This was that moment. Jason had come to terms with not being able to hike the Smokeys, I needed to accept that I wouldn't be lying on the beach, and the boys, eventually came to the conclusion that good behavior was the way to go.

We decided to head to downtown Myrtle Beach to what was what, and maybe turn all our frowns upside down. They were setting up for what looked like would be some gigantic music festival. On the main drag we jumped in line at Ripleys Believe It Or Not Museum. After waiting a while, I began reading reviews and we decided to jump back out of line. We perused what was essentially the same shop, up and down both sides of the road and did a mirror maze. The only thing that set apart one shop from another was how many bongs and edibles each sold. Classy.

Thankfully, Medieval Times was a bright spot in a dreary week. We were front row for the action and the horse arena smelled only the tiniest bit like a barn. I got a princess hat and the boys all got swords. Our knight kind of stunk at knighting, but cheering was still fun. We all drank our weight in Pepsi and we ate with our hands. What more could you ask for!?

The next day was still rainy. We woke up late and decided it was the beach or bust. As soon as there was a break in the radar we trotted over with some chairs, snacks, and Anna Kendricks biography (that was me). It was cloudy, the water was murky, and there was a swift rip tide, but the Munschs swam in the Atlantic Ocean. Well, as much swimming as you can do in water up to your knees. Jason claims I didn't swim because my hair didn't get wet, but I maintain that wading counts.

After swimming, we watched Tommy Boy, which is relentlessly quoted by the boys, walked down the pier, had a fire, and played Ticket to Ride until everybody was angry with exhaustion. "Pay attention so we can finish this!" "Marcus, it's your turn! Go!" Good times!

Myrtle Beach Pictures

It's been a few days since we posted anything.  We've been in Disney and it's been non-stop and we're all exhausted.  We pull out of Disney tomorrow and I'm doing a little late night laundry so figured it's a good time to try to catch up a little bit.

After our soggy days in the Smokey's we were looking forward to fun in the sun at Myrtle Beach.  You know hang out all day at the beach get our garbage sacks full of wet clothes and gear dried out in the sun, that kind of thing.  Well Myrtle Beach would have none of it.  It continued to rain for another two days.  We pulled into a lake at our campground and campsite.  Water everywhere and coming down in buckets with no relief in sight to get the camper setup, more wet clothes.

So instead of the beach, the next day we hit the town while it rained and got tickets for Medieval Times for the evening.  We all had a blast at Medieval times so that raised our sprites a bit after a pretty gray and depressing day (week).  The next day was our last day at this site and it was dreary and cool, the red flags were out in force with alerts of a strong coastal current.  We waited out the morning around the camper and then figured if we want to get in the Atlantic this was our last chance so we decided to do a little swimming anyways with rules for the boys not go in below their knees (which switched to their waist after a few minutes, they're still short after all).  Everyone had a lot of fun but it was really murky water which freaked Becky and I out (sharks?!?).  After a hour or so everyone was getting pretty cold so we called it good.  Here are some pictures from our stay at Myrtle Beach State Park.

It was raining so hard a river ran through our campsite

Marcus checking out the waves when we ran down between storms to check out the Ocean

Of course a shark tooth necklace

Da-Dun-Dat-Da-Dum

Yellow Night rules...

Braving the water and taking a swim

Becky with all her friends

Kids had a blast playing in the rough surf

Becky wadded in a bit but otherwise again chose not to swim.

After we went back to the camper and warmed up, we checked out the pier and had some ice cream

The fishing Pier

This guy was hanging out begging for bait

And we're done, Myrtle Beach is in the books

DAY TEN Bears everywhere.

DAY TEN Bears everywhere.

Monday was another rainy day. It drizzled off and on all morning as we played board and card games, but it seemed to be clearing up, and Jason was hankering for a hike. At least this time we could leave from the camper and didn’t have to drive on anymore spinning roads. I was especially thankful for this fact as I almost fell twice from vertigo as I tried to get on my super awesome KEEN hiking boots.

Jason got us all into our backpacks and was super stoked. The boys did not share his enthusiasm. I’m not sure what they wanted to do, but it was never what we wanted to do. Only a couple of minutes into the hike, I had another close fall. This time though I was walking across a fallen tree about four feet above a stream. That could have ended very badly, but it did not.

As we started ascending, it started spitting again. As it grew more intense, we stopped to put on our rain gear, but by the time we had successfully dug out our gear and got it on we were pretty much soaked. Still, we persevered walking steadily on. Too bad the boys and I couldn’t see anything through our fogged over, rain-dappled glasses. Finally, the sky just opened up, and the rain came down in buckets. The boys started to get nervous about being trapped in a thunderstorm, so we turned around and headed back to camp.

As we walked back the trail quickly became unrecognizable. Now it was a path for all the rain to drain into the stream. We weren’t traversing a trail but a tributary. Once back at the stream, it too had taken on a new look. Now it was menacing and swollen. I resisted the mention of walking across the stream in its current state back to our campsite, citing the multiple books I’d read as evidence that we could literally die. It happens. Yet the prospect of walking an additional ½ mile to the road that crossed the river canceled all those fears out, and we held hands as we crossed right through the middle.

Up to this point, my super awesome KEEN hiking boots had kept my feet perfectly dry due to their miraculous waterproofing. But they were no match for a knee-deep stream crossing. I ceremoniously dumped the water out of each boot when we got back to camp.

That was it. The mountains did not want Jason to hike. He finally accepted that his dreams were not going to come true and we watched a movie. Later in the afternoon, we chatted with our neighbors for a bit. They were locals and took it somewhat personally that we had yet to see a bear. So at 7:50 p.m. we loaded into the truckster and followed them around the wildlife loop one last time. And guess what?

WE SAW BEARS! Real, live, wild bears, just being bears! In the wild! Our no bear streak had finally fallen after being in bear country for the majority of last year’s trip and a large portion of our first trip. We saw one just lumbering through a meadow and tree grove. Then we saw a momma and her cub in another meadow. The momma kept standing up to survey the area before leading the cubs a little further.

Needless to say, we went to bed happy. For me the happiness was equal parts seeing a bear and heading for the beach the following day.

Great Smokey Mountains Pictures

We left the Land between the lakes bright and early to head farther east.  We had tickets to Mammoth Cave at 11:30 so wanted to make sure we had some buffer for the unexpected.  The trip went fine and we arrived an hour early.  Mammoth Cave was very cool, it's way bigger than I was expecting (yeah, yeah I know it's called Mammoth Cave but I figured on a standard marketing ploy) and being a dry cave was different than other caves we've been in.  After Mammoth we still had about 7 hours yet to reach our campsite at Cades Cove. We pulled in late, in the dark and it took the entire campground to help me get backed in.  It was terribly humiliating but I was thankful for the help and to be done with the day. 

This was one of my most looked forward to stops, I had read up on a lot of trails and even tried to talk the family into planning for an all day 11 mile hike (which was shot down but we had agreed to do some of the shorter hikes) but alas the Smokey's didn't want me hiking at all and every, I mean every attempt was stopped by the majestic mountains. We did make it to Clingmans Dome but I don't really consider it's paved path a hike.  From there you could step onto the application trail so that was cool but I was really hoping to hike a few miles on it.

Our very intense but excellent tour guide Jerry (aka Vicki)

Walking down into Mammoth Cave

In the cave

Shot of the family in the cave

Large tower we had to ascend to get out of the cave

Walking up and out of the cave the same way we came in

John Oliver's cabin

Working mill in the Cades cove loop

River by our campsite that the boys loved to play in when they had a chance

The token laundry shot.  Nothing like eating McD's in a laundry mat. Sanitary.

Weather held off for us to make it up Cligmans Dome, family pick from the parking lot

Heading up it was a pretty steep 1/2 mile walk.

That's Marcus in the middle he couldn't wait for us and was running ahead, he was pushing it but we could still see him so technically he was following the rules

Becky at the Newfound Gap we stopped at after Clingmans Dome

At the Newfound Gap you can walk onto the Appalachian Trail, I so wanted to hike for a while but at Clingmans Dome a Ranger we had asked about the Andrews Bald trail had said another strong cell was going to hit the area and it was getting late.  :-(

Getting ready to hike a leg of the Anthony River Trail which we could get to from our campsite.  It was our last day and I was determined to hike somewhere. It had been raining off and on the whole morning but not to hard so we went for it. We all got our packs on and headed out. 

On the trail

We were on the trail maybe 10 minutes and it down poured on us. 

We went another few minutes and it kept raining harder and thunder started rolling over head so we called it off.

Back at the camper Samus had fun.  Everyone and everything was soaked.

That evening it stopped raining and the kids played in the now swollen river

Our first bear sighting.  We've traveled to a lot of areas with bears and had yet to see one.  On our last night we went on the Cades Cove loop again and finally had our first bear encounter.  We were super excited.

Farther on the loop we saw our second and final bear of the drive.