Leaving it ALL Behind EARLY

The biggest smiles on the faces of people we see here in the lobby, the only place the Wi-Fi works, is on the faces of people checking out. As for those checking in, well it is just a matter of a short period of time before they wonder what they got themselves into. Those that arrive to enjoy a week or more at the Westgate Condo Time Share, soon find out they are in a place still under construction after three years, and most of it is still the old Holiday Inn that they started out with. All the promo photos they show - are of what is in some bodies dreams, a nice picture but not the real thing by any means.

The top photo is much closer to what is really here than the photo below it. When people are planning their trip and checking on the place, they see the dream photo, on-line or on printed promo pieces. When you get here, the dream fads fast as what is real presents itself. This morning there were five armed policemen in the lobby in response to something nobody wanted to talk about. Yesterday in the building we are in, the only part of the new compound, still being built, only one of the two elevators was working and it got stuck between floors for a half hour with guests in it.

This would be a great place for lawyers to hang out in the lobby handing out business cards to people checking out early. Our place is for a full week but we will be joining the ranks of the early leavers in the morning. We have decided to head north and stay at a Marriott hotel for the last of our week and pay extra money, rather than stay here. We both feel we will never be back to this so called resort and trade off our condo week here for someplace else. Almost anyplace else will do.

So what we have decided to do, is check out the Outer Banks, take a few car ferries, and hope we can get a smile back on our face with new surroundings. We think we were just at the wrong place at the wrong time.

The Other Bike Week in Myrtle Beach

We are here in Myrtle Beach, SC, a week late for the Big Bike Week we normally attend, but we have a front row seat for the other Bike Week. It is only Tuesday of the week ahead of the scheduled event but the bikers for this gathering are starting to be seen in packs riding all about the area. Just about every bike we have seen cruising Ocean Drive, is a Crotch Rocket.

New laws in Myrtle Beach are changing the look of things this year. A new helmet law with eye protection has been put into place and electric flashing signs greet the riders as they come into town. Oh yea, and don't make to much noise either because the police are listening and ready to ticket those that can't meet the new noise law.

There was almost one less bike rider already as we were waiting at a traffic light, in the left turn only lane, waiting for the green arrow. A helmeted crotch rocket rider slid along side, of our driver's side, in the turn lane. When the light turned green and we also got the green arrow to turn, he popped the clutch and raced straight ahead as we were ready to turn left into him. The idiot bikes are already here and showing all their moves and their pants are on the ground.

The last couple of days it has been rainy, off and on, and temps reaching the low 80's. Windy, off and on as well, as storm fronts come in with choppy seas. The weather man says this kind of weather could last until the weekend before things get better. That is still better than the snow we heard about in the hills of New Mexico. Effects of Global Warming we are sure.

Stay tuned to this channel for more updates from Myrtle Beach as we will be keeping an eye out until we leave Sunday morning, heading north to the NC Outer Banks.

Westgate in Myrtle Beach SC not a Marriott

It has been a few years since we purchased a place at this Westgate Time Share Condos in Myrtle Beach, SC. The artist conception is a paradise dream that I am sure will never come close to being true. What has been built so far would never fly in a Marriott inspection.

What has been built appears to be under repair as people are trying to stay here, like us. Many of the promised things are not here or on a much smaller scale than in the dream photos. Of course all the things we were told when we first bought are explained as the reason the salesman we had is no longer here. Ocean Front has some how become Ocean View and when the place gets around to building the next phase, the units would become No View other than the building next door. The multi story parking garage is now only one level, actually ground level, with floor drains higher than the poured cement floor. Went it rains, this parking lot can be used as a wading pool. It appears that they stopped right there, hopefully by the order of some inspector, before the next many layers are allowed to be built.

To handle the fact that we had purchased a Ocean Front one bedroom place and there are no one bedroom places, we have been upgraded to a two bedroom place. Everybody is so sorry for the misunderstanding they are calling it, that they are bending over backwards to solve our problems. Our new contact spells out that we now own a four bedroom condo, which is the whole front of the building on one floor, available every other year - OR - we can use just half of it as a two bedroom unit every year. My first thought was that I would never use any of the place on any year. But it is such a great deal, we were told buy our better than a used car salesman, that we caved it and signed the new papers and planted new dreams in our heads as to how great it is going to be.

Hard to imagine sitting here in the high traffic lobby trying to use my lap top to post this item. This is the only spot that we can use our computers right now. They say that the company that built our building is being sued for all the poor workmanship including the no wiring for the internet. The Starbucks is still only a sign on the door where it is planned to be . . . maybe. At High Tide the massive beach in the photo is all but under water and the pool is only four foot deep on the deepest end. There is more pools to be built, we are told and shown pictures of. We just hope we live long enough to see this happen.

Today we are heading out of this construction zone and see some of the area. Tuesday we had lunch at a great place, we will be writing about for the next print issue, and then got lost in a big Tanger mall.

DIVORCE AGREEMENT

THIS IS SO INCREDIBLY WELL PUT AND I CAN
HARDLY BELIEVE IT'S BY A YOUNG PERSON, A
STUDENT!!! WHATEVER HE RUNS FOR, I'LL
VOTE FOR HIM.

American liberals, leftists, social
progressives, socialists, Marxists
and Obama supporters, et al:

We have stuck together since the late
1950's, but the whole of this latest
election process has made me realize that
I want a divorce..... I know we tolerated
each other for many years for the sake of
future generations, but sadly, this
relationship has run its course.
Our two ideological sides of America
cannot and will not ever agree on what is
right so let's just end it on friendly
terms. We can smile and chalk it up to
irreconcilable differences and go our own
way.

Here is a model separation agreement:

Our two groups can equitably divide up the
country by landmass each taking a portion.
That will be the difficult part, but I am
sure our two sides can come to a
friendly agreement. After that, it should
be relatively easy! Our respective
representatives can effortlessly divide
other assets since both sides have such
distinct and disparate tastes.

We don't like redistributive taxes so you
can keep them. You are welcome to the
liberal judges and the ACLU. Since you
hate guns and war, we'll take our
firearms, the cops, the NRA and the
military.

You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore and
Rosie O'Donnell (You are, however,
responsible for finding a bio-diesel
vehicle big enough to move all three of
them).

We'll keep the capitalism, greedy
corporations, pharmaceutical companies,
Wal-Mart and Wall Street. You can have
your beloved homeless, homeboys, hippies
and illegal aliens. We'll keep the hot
Alaskan hockey moms, greedy CEO's and
rednecks. We'll keep the Bibles and give
you NBC and Hollywood ..

You can make nice with Iran and Palestine
and we'll retain the right to invade and
hammer places that threaten us.. You can
have the peaceniks and war protesters.
When our allies or our way of life are
under assault, we'll help provide them
security.

We'll keep our Judeo-Christian values...
You are welcome to Islam, Scientology,
Humanism and Shirley McClain. You can also
have the U.N.. but we will no longer be
paying the bill.

We'll keep the SUVs, pickup trucks and
oversized luxury cars. You can take every
Subaru station wagon you can find.

You can give everyone healthcare if you
can find any practicing doctors. We'll
continue to believe healthcare is a luxury
and not a right. We'll keep The Battle
Hymn of the Republic and the National
Anthem. I'm sure you'll be happy to
substitute Imagine, I'd Like to Teach the
World to Sing, Kum Ba Ya or We Are the
World.

We'll practice trickle down economics and
you can give trickle up poverty your best
shot. Since it often so offends you, we'll
keep our history, our name and our flag.

Would you agree to this? If so, please
pass it along to other like minded liberal
and conservative patriots and if you do
not agree, just hit delete. In the spirit
of friendly parting, I'll bet you Answer
which one of us will need whose help in 15
years.

Sincerely,
John J. Wall
Law Student and an American

P.S. Also, please take Ted Turner, Sean
Penn, Martin Sheen, Barbara Streisand, &
Jane Fonda with you..

P. P. S. And we won't have to press 1 for English.