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MYRTLE MANOR

If you’ve ever been scrolling through the TLC channel, you have more than likely seen an advertisement for or even watched one of the newer reality shows called Myrtle Manor. When I first saw the previews for the show, I thought to myself -- seriously, a reality show about a trailer park? But the more I watched it, the more I got sucked in and realized it was a rather interesting and funny show. The craziest part about it all is that it is filmed on location at a place that our family frequently vacations – Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

We’ve vacationed off and on throughout the years at Myrtle Beach since I was a youngster, so it is always interesting to watch Myrtle Manor to try to catch a glimpse of some of the places we have visited while down in South Carolina. However, the funniest part about it is that I never really realized there was an actual (more like several) trailer park down in Myrtle Beach. When you are driving down Ocean Boulevard, you are surrounded by the high-rise hotels and resorts and the numerous t-shirt shops, clubs and restaurants that dot the Grand Strand. Even when you are cruising down Highway 17, you are still surrounded by restaurants, shops, golf courses and houses. There are plenty of RV Camping Resorts, but I had never honestly noticed any actual mobile home parks in existence. So, when Myrtle Manor made its debut, most all of us that are vacationers to the Grand Strand area immediately began to converse and try to figure out the locale of the Myrtle Manor trailer park. Before too long, we saw several people posting on Facebook and Twitter to inquire where the trailer park was and if it allowed for visitors. Surprisingly to us all, we found out that we could come and visit the Myrtle Manor trailer park, and if lucky, you might could meet some of the residents and stars of the reality show.

My curiosity was immediately piqued in finding the set of Myrtle Manor, so in September of 2013, my friend Tracey and I took a mini-weekend trip down to Myrtle Beach. Sure, we needed to have a break from our crazy workplace, but our ultimate intention was to find the set of Myrtle Manor and see what it actually looked like. I will admit when you see things on television and then see those same places in person they are usually not what you expect or not quite how you imagined them to be. I know that was the case for me when I first went to Times Square in New York City. It was not at all what I had imagined it to be. So, I really began to wonder what would Myrtle Manor be like…

Shortly after arriving at our hotel in North Myrtle Beach, Tracey and I had a slight hiccup in our adventure, as I managed to ram the right rear-bumper of my Explorer in to one of the large concrete columns within the parking garage. After a brief stop at Walmart for some lovely duct tape and red taillight tape, we were ready to hit the strand and find the trailer park – now we were really prepared to venture in to the trailer park with our duct taped car!! Fortunately, it was not that difficult to find Myrtle Manor, though if you are actually looking for a mobile home park named Myrtle Manor, you won’t find it as that is not the actual name of the park. We found our destination and ended up parking up at the souvenir trailer area that was all decorated in Myrtle Manor paraphernalia. The lady working the souvenir trailer was very nice and told us that if we wanted to walk down to the actual set of Myrtle Manor, we could but we would need to go soon because they were going to start filming again soon. So, off Tracey and I go trekking down the street of the Myrtle Manor trailer park. We encountered several residents of the park, however none were actual stars on the TV show, but they were all very friendly and had their homes very neat and clean (unlike some of the mobile home parks here in North Carolina!). Once we arrived on the set, it was much the same as you see on the show. It is not quite as big as you would expect, but when it is inside of an actual mobile home park, you don’t have much room to have a full-fledged set. But, everything appeared exactly as you see on the Myrtle Manor show – the sign, swimming pool, the infamous Tangulls’ salon, the silver bullet and countless other oddities. We met a security guard, though it was NOT Marvin, and he told us little tidbits about the show. Unfortunately because they were beginning to film the newest season, we really were not allowed to go on the set to have our photographs made or inside of Tangulls (I was a bit bummed about that!)

We eventually walked back up to the souvenir area and took some photos with The Weiner Girls’ infamous hot dog stand that is no longer being used on the show. They have now turned it into an area where fans can go and have their pictures made as if pretending to be a Weiner Girl themselves. Sadly, Tracey and I did not get to see any of the cast members to speak with them or have our picture made with. We did see Cecil, the owner of Myrtle Manor and more commonly known as Becky’s Dad, but unfortunately we missed seeing Amanda, Chelsea, Taylor, Jared, Marvin, Roy and all the others. But, we have already decided that we will definitely have to take another visit down to ‘ole Myrtle Manor and try to catch up with some of the stars of the show.

If you happen to go down to Myrtle Beach and get tired of the ocean (who could though!?) or tired of shopping, riding, eating and all the many other activities you can do down along the Grand Strand, you should take a few minutes to go visit Myrtle Manor. You will be absolutely amazed at how friendly the folks of the Myrtle Manor mobile home park are. They are genuine and truly do appreciate their fans. Take a visit to Myrtle Manor and always remember to Keep Calm and Trailer On!