Beaches

Garrison Keillor said that the Mid Westerners are the people that feel the need to travel. He said the Coastal people don't have to travel because they can just sit back and expect the rest of us to come to them. I just recently got to travel once again to the coast. I thought I might never again get the chance to go to the beach! I loved the whole trip and hope it will not be my last.

Growing up in the mid-west in the Depression years ruled out , pretty much, any chance of going to the ocean. I had to satisfy myself by reading all of the books that I could find that had to do with bodies of water larger than Indian Lake, Muzzy's Lake or Mad River. I did live in Cincinnati ,Ohio for three or four years but going to the Ohio River was not on our agenda.

In about 1953 Doc and I drove to Florida from Springfield, O. It took us two full days to drive it. There were no Interstates in those days and most of the trip was on two lane roads. The mountain roads were treacherous, but we made it. (Almost) Our battery was getting weaker and weaker when we were going through the Everglades. The lights were growing dimmer and dimmer and since we had seen a number of snakes and a few turtles crossing the road during the day light we were sure that if the battery gave up entirely we would have to stay in the car until daylight, no one in their right mind would get out of the car in the dark of night. No other traffic was on the road, no one ahead of us and no one behind us. We finally made out the lights of a city ahead and we coasted into a parking space on the down town street of the small town we had reached. We had to walk to the nearest filling station and ask for help. We rented a room for that night, one with a flashing sign right outside the window and a bathroom down the hall. The car was ready to go again the next morning and we drove on in to Coral Gables, where we were staying in a private home with rooms to rent, and then on to Miami where I finally saw the Ocean! What a marvel! It was instant love, truly, love at first sight! My first time ever to stand on the beach and feel the tide's pull and the sand rush out from beneath my feet. I felt the world move!

From that day forward I know that I can always find peace and reassurance at the ocean's edge. The edge of the world.About 16 years later, after Paul got home from the Viet Nam war, he was stationed in Charlotte, N.C. as an officer selection officer. Pat was just about nine or ten months old. We drove to Charlotte to visit with them and decided to go over to the beach that was just an hour and a half from their home. We went to Myrtle Beach. We stayed in a motel that was just about a block from the beach. We also explored the area and drove down Hw. 17 and found Garden City. The next year we rented a house on the beach at Garden City.

From that time on we went back year after year. We took a few years off now and then. One year we went to the Outer Banks and stayed at Kitty Hawk. Our house was about a block off the beach and the beach was full of jelly fish. Blech! We did travel down to Cape Hatteras, Coquina Beach and others. We climbed to the top of the tallest light house on the Atlantic Coast. That light house has since then been moved back further on the beach because of erosion in that area.

One year, Doc, Mickey and Warner and I went to New Hampshire for our vacation. We drove over to Bath, Maine to tour a boat builders shop and toured one of the tall boats that had taken part in the salute to the Statue of Liberty in New York's Harbor. The beaches on Maine's coast were not as wide as the beaches on the Strand, they were rather rocky too. However,we ate lobster on the dock where the lobstermen bring the day's catch in. Right out of the ocean and into the pot!

When Linda and I visited Scotland we sailed across the Irish Sea by ferry boat to get to Wales. We traveled up into the Highlands of Scotland and while there had a picnic lunch on the beach of the North Sea in St. Andrews, Scotland. ( We also had lunch and a cruise on Lock Lomand and visited Loch Ness the same day. (No sign of Nessie).

I am going to write more tomorrow on other ventures that I have enjoyed that I have stored in my memory. (As if you cared, huh?)












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