Beaches and Caches and Sharks, Oh My!

Beaches and Caches and Sharks, Oh My!

The fog-choked fields of corn and soybeans flowed past the side windows of the dark blue car as it slid southward through the last hour before dawn. The two people in the car sipped coffee and munched bacon-and-egg sandwiches as they watched the beckoning white line of the roadway disappearing in front of them into the fog and mist. They chatted companionably about the vacation that lay before them and together watched the miles tick off on the GPS which glowed in the darkness of the car's cabin.

It was the beginning of my wife and my annual vacation.

We had left our small Ohio town that morning some time before six am. Since it was the middle of September, there wouldn't be much light before an hour or hour-and-a-half had passed. That was OK. We were at last on our way and the occasional ground fog and the darkness only seemed to welcome the beginning steps of our daylong drive south.

We were approaching central Ohio on the interstate before dawn at last overtook us. The fog remained our companion for another hundred miles or so before it began to burn off south of Charleston and by the time we took a break near Beckley, West Virginia, it was gone and the sun shone brightly from a robin's egg blue sky. We'd been on the road 3 or 4 hours, but it was still morning, so we grabbed another breakfast sandwich and some OJ to keep the fires burning and continued on our way. The heavily forested mountains of West Virginia and the slice of Virginia we had to bisect soon passed and before long the mountains were fading behind us. Very soon the last sentinel of Pilot Mountain shrank away to nothing in the rear-view mirror.

Lunch was an IHOP in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and the period of sitting still was relished along with the sandwiches and soup we ate. Soon we were back on the road and wending our way south by southeast, the blood-red dirt of North Carolina blending into the flat, sandy expanses of the tidewater region as we finally approached our destination. Soon the Honda pulled into the parking lot of our beachfront hotel in North Myrtle Beach and we were checking in.

My lifelong friend Chuck and his wife Pam had agreed to share this vacation with us and were waiting for our call after we checked in and had unloaded our luggage. We went to their suite and chit-chatted for an hour or two with them before adjourning to a Chinese/Seafood place for supper. After getting a bellyful of food we returned to the hotel and not long afterward hit the bed. The day had started early, the night before was short and we were asleep almost immediately.

We awoke on Sunday and at once went to our balcony to admire the gorgeous view of the blue Atlantic and the stretch of beach that was to be ours for the next week. The sun-worshipers, beach strollers, surf fishermen and sand castle manufacturers were already busy at their endeavors. We watched the activity a while then adjourned to the hotel's free buffet for breakfast. After eating we drove around and attempted to buy tickets for the shows we wanted to see that week but, as it was Sunday, most places were closed that morning. We hit a grocery store for food to make for some of our breakfasts and lunches in our rooms, then returned to the hotel. Judy and I went caching that afternoon and added 6 or 7 and a new state to our totals, then went to Walmart to buy a new camera to replace the one I thought I'd left at home. I'd have sworn I'd packed it, but we could not find it either in our room, our luggage or the car. Lunch was at Sonic, then back to the hotel for some pool and lazy river time. The weather was resort brochure perfect with sunny blue skies and warm sea breezes. Supper was at a Myrtle Beach tradition, the K & W cafeteria, and their quality was top-notch as usual. We then returned to Chuck and Pam's room and helped prepare fishing tackle for our next-day's pier fishing trip.

Monday I arose early. After a quick breakfast at the hotel buffet I went metal detecting on the beach. The day was warming quickly and soon I was wiping sweat and sand fleas from my brow. The detecting was sparse and only a small number of coins were found along with numerous trash targets. After a cleanup in the room, Chuck and I went to buy our tickets for the shows we wanted to see later in the week. After a leisurely dip in the hotel's pool we lunched at a local's BBQ place we'd discovered where the food was good and quite inexpensive. In the mid-afternoon Chuck and I drove to the Cherry Grove Pier for some fishing. Don't know exactly why, but we had very little luck. Possibly due to the squid we were using for bait? We returned later that evening and fished until 10:00 and still got bupkis. Supper that night was at Joe's Crab Shack at Barefoot Landing where I enjoyed coconut shrimp, one of my favorites.

On Tuesday we cooked in our kitchenette for breakfast. Afterward we rode with our friends to a local mall and shopped a bit. We then drove to downtown Myrtle Beach and shopped the Gay Dolphin, a Myrtle Beach landmark, for souvenirs. Lunch was on the lovely new boardwalk that Myrtle Beach has built downtown. Back to the hotel for more pool time. Hit the beach afterward for more detecting and got some more coins and a toy car. Talked to a husband and wife who were digging a large hole in the sand. They were hunting shark teeth and were apparently getting some too. Nice couple. Talked to another lady who was strolling by about metal detecting. She was from New York and was very interested in the hobby. Supper was at a North Myrtle Beach gem, Hoskin's Restaurant. There seems to ALWAYS be a line to get into this place and the food was exceptional. They had the BEST peanut butter pie I believe I've ever eaten. Superb! Judy and I played miniature golf that evening after supper as the Grand Strand is the mecca for the sport and has some extraordinary courses.

Wednesday we breakfasted at the hotel's buffet again. Chuck and I strolled the beach afterward for a while looking for shells and shark teeth and, if truth be known, watching the latest bikini fashions as they strolled around. This day was also quite hot and there were LOTS of sun worshipers around. Judy and I went caching again later and found another 6-8. We ended up somewhere in the South Carolina hinterlands inland of the Inter-coastal Waterway for our last cache and had to use the GPS to head us back to the hotel. Ended up getting scratched up legs again from more briars searching for a cache. I MUST remember to wear long pants when doing this hobby no matter how hot it is! Relaxed a bit in our cool hotel room then dined again at K & W Cafeteria. We then went to the Carolina Opry. This was a high-energy show in a huge showroom showcasing mostly country music and corn-pone comedy. It was quite good and apparently quite a treat for those who appreciated country music more than I. They asked the veterans to stand in the audience and almost 80% of the men stood up. LOTS of vets there that night. A fun evening.

Thursday we had Chuck and Pam up to our room for some of my famous French Toast breakfast. We then split up where Judy and Pam went shopping and Chuck and I returned to the Cherry Grove Pier to again attempt to harvest some salt water fish. We used shrimp for bait this time and this seemed to be the ticket. We both got LOTS of bites and I was catching fish quite often albeit little guys. Mostly spots and one angel fish. I did catch an odd one toward the end, though. A longer, skinnier fish with an odd head. I, for some reason, identified it immediately as a Remora. These are the fishes that attach themselves to sharks and eat the scraps as the sharks feed. Shortly before landing the Remora I was glancing at the water below the pier and saw something that really excited me. I elbowed Chuck and pointed to the water. “Do you see what I see down there?” I asked him. He acknowledged that he did. Swimming right below us was, I swear, a shark that HAD to be 6 or 7 feet long! Two guys that were on the pier near us asked if we had seen the shark. They told us that was good news as the shark was there feeding and that meant there were lots of fish there! So the catching of the Remora was logical if there was a big shark nearby. It was chilling, however, to watch the big fish swimming within a hundred yards of the people frolicking in the water just off the beach.

That evening we went to the “Dino's TV Variety Show”. This was a show in a small venue that was a tribute to the old Dean Martin Golddiggers Show on TV back in the '60's. They had a number of performers who portrayed Dean and a number of his guests from the TV days, Sammy Davis Jr., Louis Armstrong, Phillis Diller, Carmen Miranda and Marilyn Monroe. The performers were all great and the show was amazing. A definite MUST SEE if you ever visit the area! We met the actors after the show and chatted with them on our way out of the lounge. Another fun evening for the folks from Ohio!

Friday was our only day of dismal weather for the week, being much colder with gray skies and spitting rain. Went to the Waffle House for breakfast to get a break from hotel food and stuff we'd cooked ourselves. Went coin-shooting on the nearly empty beach afterward and gleaned a few more coins. Only the hardy folk were seen inhabiting the strand that morning. Judy and I drove to the the big mall south of Myrtle Beach and walked around a bit. We lunched at the food court, then drove out to the site of the old Myrtle Beach Air Force Base. It closed many years ago but had a display of the airplanes that used to fly out of there and we walked around them and took some pictures. We fondly recalled our vacations of the past when we'd camped on the beach and watched those same planes flying in and out of the base over our heads. We returned to the hotel by driving through the downtown Myrtle Beach area and eyeballing all the changes that had taken place over the years since we'd started going there back in the early '70's. Much has changed but there is still the spot here and there that is still the same and they all brought back memories from years past. Supper that night was again at Hoskins Restaurant. I had an exceptional cream of crab soup, a fried oyster sandwich and another piece of that extraordinary peanut butter pie. I would soon pay for all the rich food I'd eaten that week. That evening and most of the following day I was “blessed” with a very queasy/aching stomach. But the meal was a good capper for the week. We returned to our rooms to pack and load the cars for our upcoming morning trip.

Saturday was again a trip began in the dark, driving the pre-dawn Carolina roads with a spitting rain; northbound this time. My stomach was VERY ouchy from my gustatory excesses and I placated it with Tums, Pepcid and very bland food. We grabbed another geocache on our way home near Fancy Gap, N.C. and another just over the border in Virginia giving us another 2 states to add to our caching statistics. Lunch was a Denny's in Wytheville, Virginia along with some much-cheaper-than-home gasoline. Arrived home at 6:15 pm and chatted with our son who'd stayed home this trip and watched the house and the dog in our absence. The missing camera we'd supposedly left at home was NOT there and we half-tore apart the house verifying that fact. We surmised that we'd possibly dropped it off the luggage trolley we'd used to ferry our bags to the room the previous Saturday when we'd arrived. Someone got an early Christmas present that day. Hit our own bed early that evening as I was exhausted.

So thus ends another excursion with yours truly and his better half. It was a good trip with good friends and, like most trips of that kind, it ended much too soon. I find I had grown inordinately fond of the sunshine, the sea breezes, the always friendly people of the South and the great food there. I loved waking to the sound of surf just outside our balcony door and enjoyed immensely sitting there and watching the squadrons of pelicans and sea gulls gliding through the warm air above the beaches and hotels. I enjoyed watching the antics of the sandpipers as they quested for tidbits in the surf and further enjoyed watching the bronzed sun-worshipers as they strolled the sandy beach.

Being where the land meets the sea and spending time there is both exhilarating and melancholy to me. Exhilarating because of all the reasons people throng to the shores and the mountains; to exhault in the holiday atmosphere that generally inhabits those areas and to lose some of the inhibitions that forever mark the everyday world. But also melancholy as this is the place where the land ends and the sea ends. It's a watery place and a windy place and it's a place for long views and long thoughts. It's the place that'll be there long, long after we're gone, where the waves will eternally crash against the land and will be eternally drawn back again. It's a place that suits me, I think. And it's a place that will call to me wherever I am and whatever I may be doing.

But if nothing else, it's a vacation place and it was great to see it again.