Loris, South Carolina

Today was our last day in Myrtle Beach. It startedout like this …

Pretty nice, huh?

We’ve been here for two weeks and it’s been terrific. Apparently we visited at the proper time of the year because it was just great. I say that even though we’ve made attempts to visit this time of year for the last five years but little things, like hurricanes, prevented us from making the trip. Until now. And, we’re really happy about that.

Because of this successful trip, we both feel that visiting Myrtle Beach is preferable to visiting Hawaii. The weather is pretty much the same, the people here are super nice everywhere we’ve been, it’s not expensive, cheaper to get to, lodging is reasonable, and gas costs about $2.30 a gallon. It was only $2.19 when we got here but then came the weekend when gas prices magically increase. Still, compared to Oregon, $2.30 is acceptable.

This morning we got out of bed early (me at 0530 and Diane at 0730), had a bit of breakfast, then hit the road for Loris to check on the 37th annual Chicken Bog-off. Diane came across an advertisement for this and it caused her to go, “Hmmmm.”

What the heck is a bog-off? Sounds a lot like something that takes place in a swamp, doesn’t it? With motorized vehicles that have really big tires. After a little research we discovered Chicken Bog is simply a kind of food. Like calabash is a kind of food. Look it up. The reason we didn’t know about it is because we’re from Oregon and those things just don’t show up on menus there. Nope. It doesn’t.

Only in South Carolina, apparently. Loris took it one step further when the mayor decreed that each restaurant in town will serve Chicken Bog one day a week as it’s main dish.

While making our way to the massive crowds we passed the Backstreet Cafe where management had a table set up outside to sell chicken bog in addition to many other food choices. A young man standing there offered us some bog stating it’s the best in town. We begged off, wanting to see what was going on, and stated we’d be back.

The booths were simple, everyone was friendly, and there was a school choir performing.

Small town stuff and just plain fun.

We didn’t stay long before heading back to the car, stopping by the Backstreet Cafe on the way. We got one order of chicken bog and this is what it looks like …

It’s rice, chicken, and sausage in a very tasty mixture. It came with enormous green beans and coleslaw. It was pretty awesome, all of it. Diane is going to find a recipe and make it when we get home and force all the Littles to eat it. We’re betting they will eat it voluntarily because it’s just plain good. I suspect there are a lot of versions of chicken bog so she will have to search for the right one.

We left Loris after that brief visit then headed for Conway to see what their River Walk is like. We were going to do that when we visited Conway a few days ago, but forgot. Since Conway is on the way to/from Loris we took advantage and stopped to check it out.

It’s not a big river walk, but it’s nice. We met a nice guy on the visit who gave us a little history about the area. My question was what makes the water black? He told us it’s the leaves from the various trees that fall in the water.

From Conway we returned to our temporary home on Ocean Blvd, Myrtle Beach.

I wanted a nap but Diane insisted that I eat something, so I ate the two remaining chicken thighs from last night and Dane ate the remaining tuna salad. I only had an hour because we had tickets to attend Pirates Voyage Dinner & Show.

We had absolutely no idea what to expect at this venue. It was intriguing, though.

When we left our hotel it was raining. The first rain we’ve experienced during this entire trip. The cause is the tropical storm Nestor in the Gulf of Mexico. It wasn’t bad and we actually didn’t mind since were very good Oregonians.

Turns out the Pirates Voyage is quite an elaborate venue. They have a pre-show for a couple of hours before people are seated for dinner. The crowd was enormous and we thought we were going to wind up standing for the entire event. But, the pre-show was just that. All hundreds of us were shortly ushered into the next room of the venue where we were fed while watching a very elaborate pirate show consisting of very talented young people who danced, sane, dove, and tumbled. It was very much like a Cirque du Soleil show.

While the show was going on each section of about 20 people was being served their meal, one piece at a time. First there was a biscuit, then a cream of vegetable soup, half a small chicken, corn on the cob, pulled pork, and an apple turnover for dessert. Due to the ongoing show, we were eating in the dark quite a lot.

To start the show two very large yellow and blue parrots were release and they flew all around the set numerous times before swooping down to land on their handler’s shoulder and arm. That was followed by two red and black parrots that did the same thing. I tried to get photos of them but none turned out. Trust me when I say they were quite magnificent to watch.