Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

This decrepit trailer is on the south side of US-76 (the right side if you are heading to the beach) somewhere in the area of Marion not too far past the intersection with US-301. I found it on Google Maps, and set the map icon below with lat/lon coordinates. I never stopped here when it was in business, which it has not been for some years now, but always wondered what services they offered.

Normally, in this sort of situation, I might get up on the deck and try to get some pictures of the interior, but there was no way I was going to have anything to do with *that* deck. It does appear that people have probably been going in from the back, so I suppose it is all stripped.

Looking at Google Streetview suggests that this trailer replaced a small building hosting a fireworks stand around 2008, and shut down sometime after 2012.

The question of what replaced this location is not entirely clear. It could be here:

here:

or even here:

The first option has a similar "I" logo, but the second location has the "gator" character from the sign in the trailer parking lot. The third option looks a bit more upscale.

When the Myrtle Beach Pavilion closed on 30 September 2006, it ripped the beating heart of out the city, and Myrtle Beach has never recovered. The site, once a people magnet, sat vacant for several years but was finally leased by Burroughs & Chapin to this zipline operation. I understand the difference between a property bringing in no money vs some money, but as a draw, from a civic standpoint it was not really a replacement.

In January of 2024, B & C declined to renew the lease, and the attraction shut down, with the pieces now being disassembled and the lot cleared. The story, as reported by The Sun News, doesn't make complete sense. The main mystery is why the zipline operator wanted to stay on when he claims the operation was never profitable. A subsidiary mystery is why B & C chose now:

He confirmed that the lease for Myrtle Beach Zipline Adventures contained language that allowed Burroughs & Chapin to remove the zip line if the company ever chose to build something else on the former Pavilion land.

That would imply that something new is in the works for the site, but aside from that bit of leading language, there are no details.

The only zip I have been on was The Canyons in Florida, which I quite enjoyed, so I thought I might get around to this one some year, but in the event I guess not.

Here is WPDE on the teardown, and here is WBTW.

Finally, here is a promotional video for the site:

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To my memory, I only ate at Scatori's once, probably about five years ago, and it was fine, though not any better than my normal Strand pizza venues. I did think whenever I heard of it that the name was a bit unfortunate.

The Sun News says that the place had been open 15 years, which would have made it an early storefront in this shopping center, which I still think of as 'new' itself. The chef, who featured on TV's Cutthroat Kitchen has gone on to West Virgina to run a food truck which seems like an odd progression, but I guess that's what he wanted to do.

Both news articles say that Scatori's was sold in January (though it did not close then), but it appears that as of yet, the new owners have not done anything to the interior setup or furnishings.

(Hat tip to commenter Dan R)

I'm not a golfer, though some of my friends are very into the game. That said, I always thought it would be neat to ride the cable-car gondola across the waterway here at the Waterway Hills Golf Club.

This article on the closing of the club says it was designed by Robert Trent Jones and opened in 1975. As it closed in 2015, that's a 40 year run, which is not bad given the pace of change on the Grand Strand. The course was purchased by the company owning the adjacent Grande Dunes, but it appears to me that as of yet, nothing has been built on the former course.

You can see a picture taken from a gondola here. Also, I am going to try something new (for me) here. Google Streeview often has images I am unable to match, as they preserve things that have been long torn down in their year-by-year views of the same spot. My assumption had been that I could link to those, but not embed them, but in looking at the actual terms of use, it appears that embedding is OK. So, below I am embedding an image from June of 2013, which shows the course in operation, and a gondola en-route. You can click on the embiggen square to get fullscreen.

Looking at other Streetview images, I can say that the cable car infrastructure was torn down sometime between January and July of 2019.

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Ultimate California Pizza is one of the Grand Strand based Divine Dining Group's many concepts, and it's a good one. Their pizza is excellent, and they brew the iced-tea strong. I usually go to the one in Surfside Beach, but in the past I used to hit the ones in Murrells Inlet, or at Market Common fairly frequently. Unfortunely, those later two may feature here at some point as they are now gone.

I never made it to this one, in the Kroger-anchored Galleria plaza in North Myrtle Beach, though I kind of wish I had now, as it appears to have been their Chuck E. Cheese concept, except with more to offer adults. There are some quite nice pictures of the place on website, which is still up. I quite like this one. You can see the place in the daytime with the branding still up on the real estate listing. I find it quite amazing the the whole building is pegged at $11,250. Perhaps it's a typo.

As far as I can tell, it was COVID-19 that did them in. The last post on their blog is from March of 2020, and their last Facebook posts are from April of 2020, where at some point they mention combing operations with the Barefoot Landing location. The real estate listing apparently went up in mid July of 2020.

UPDATE 25 June 2023: There seems to be a consensus that this is a former Showbiz Pizza location as well, so I'm adding that to the post title. I barely ever got up here during the period mentioned, so I don't believe I ever saw it then.

I guess you could say PMJ has a gimmick, but it's a pretty good one, and expertly executed. They brought their retro stylings of modern tunes to Myrtle Beach Easter Weekend, and it was a fun way to start off the holiday.

The only thing I don't like about the House Of Blues as a venue, is the lack of seats, so I sprung a bit extra to get a table stool this time around. Still not exactly comfortable, but better than being on my feet for two hours. There were times when the house sound was a bit mushy, but the band was sharp, the singers delivered the goods, and the tap-dancer was unbelievably energetic -- I recommend you catch them next time around.

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I was somewhat suprised when I ate at Abuelo's at Coastal Grand Mall over the holidays to see that Sears was closing. Well, not that it was closing, but that it had still been open. In more halcyon days, I visited this branch many times before it moved from the demolished Myrtle Square for various Kenmore parts and other items that were light on the ground in the south strand in the days before Wal-Mart and big boxes.

Since it moved to the new Coastal Grand mall, I think I was only in once or twice, and never since the big drop-off started for the chain.

The Sun News has the story, along with an update that is even more dire than I had expected:

There are now less than 100 Kmart and Sears stores in the U.S., Forbes said earlier this year.

Wow!

I'm not sure what the final date is, but according to their Facebook page they were still open as of 8 January.

I enjoy goofy tourist attractions (one reason I like Florida so much) and had been marginally aware of Snake River over the years but it was too far North to be a mini-golf destination for us, and I had never stopped by. Last time I was in the area, I noticed it had shut down, and got these pictures.

Judging by the Google reviews, this place was already on its last legs when it closed sometime around last August and the course as decribed doesn't actually sound much different from the state I found it in! Interestingly, none of the reviews I saw mentioned anything about the gem & fossil mining side of the attraction.

There is more to the course, but while I was walking around, I noticed a car parked in the main building area, and decided to not go over there.

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Burro Loco is a restaurant that has always interested me, because it seemed like it should be good, but never was. I have long had this place on an informal timeline where I would stop by about every five years to see if it was there yet, and it was due probably this year, but now it looks as though I will not get the opportunity.

The closing message on the restaurant site is pretty bland and noncommital (though it is nice that the staff were relocated). The Sun News essentially printed the same press release with no further information.

I find several things a bit curious however. First, there is no signage at the restaurant itself. Not your typical Closed for Renovations much less a more informative See us this fall! or whatever. Second, there is no indication at all that any work whatsoever has taken place here, despite four months having passed, and third, the door marquee indicates they were open until 10pm 7 days, not the 11pm weekend closing I would expect for a bar based hot-spot. I'm moved to suspect that the chain acted to stop the bleeding, but doesn't yet really have an idea what to do with the place. We'll see, and I hope I'm wrong as I would like to see this place finally get good.

UPDATE 7 December 2018: The Sun News reports the building is for sale.