East Coast

Enough with this feud between East Coast and West Coast. Funny enough, we past a liquor store today called Tupacz. On the east coast. I know, right?! But I am getting ahead of myself.

The end of May, with all that has gone on, brought the first road trip since the days of Cartersville. But this was legit, a week. Starting off on an odd note, my desire to take some secondary roads through Tennessee are a bust, I say forget it, we'll just take I75 all the way down to Knoxville. But before we get back on the highway I decide to top up with gas and gee, the gas station suddenly is busy. Now you must realize, this is just days after the famous gas shortage of 4 days in May, 2021. Where idiots filled plastic bags with gas. So I wondered.... and kept my eye on the gauge, with a readiness to pull into any station if I saw a hint of trouble!

I've decided this blog has far too many exclamation points!

On the way to our first stop, Asheville, I fall in love with the romantic idea of secondary roads again later in rural Tennessee. No. Just annoying. Maybe later on the coast, but not here. On to Asheville, and wanting to meter our time together, kids get dinner and hang out at the hotel while I wail on a paper in one of the many establishments of one of the beer capitals of the world. 

The next day, Samantha decided her Wall Street man was more Main Street then... wait, this isn't Sex In The City. But seriously, the next day I handed down a road trip tradition, all the way back from Ottawa in the late 70s or Golden, BC in 1980 (I think). Rest stop lunches! 

And here we are in Charlston, SC. Ok, let's head into town and take it all in. Very charming, very full of tourists. Grab what turned out to be a wonderful place to have dinner, spent 40 bucks on a dozen oysters. The kind where you pick the specific location from which they were harvested. 6 Blue Points and 6 local from SC.

Kids wrestle. Not one drink was spilled in the making of these pics.

Eva finally got her bubble tea. Straight from Boba Blvd. But unexpectedly I found a cure, at least for a few days, for the bubble tea craze. First, feed a girl a bowl full of mussels at dinner. Then walk a half mile in the humidity to get bubble tea. 

 

Then walk for another mile and a bit toward the waterfront park, still in humidity, to allow for time for the bubble tea and mussels to mix. Or not. A nice walk, though, the residential part of downtown Charlston. Here's a famous church there.

The next the best parts of the drive kicked in. Slower roads, along the coast. BTW, I made it from Charlston to Jacksonville, NC in the van on 8 gallons of gas! Boom!

Along the way we indulge in seafood. The bucket, interesting not named a Low Country Boil on the menu even though we were in the low country (the radio ads told us so). No matter, we tucked in.

Levi, fresh off of braces, realized there were two pieces of corn on the cob in that pail. Oh my. He at it with gusto, you bet!

 

What a perfect stop, in a perfect spot, on this day. The road trip firmly settled in today. It was mostly road that was just like 317 from Tallahassee to Thomasville, and beyond to the north. It put me in mind of days when I'd drive up that road. Once dreaming of ways I could make Alexis my wife. Then days dedicated to time with the kids. Now here I was, driving what felt like the same roads, trading off songs on Spotify with the kids, banging my head as I drove. Our music styles are, ever so slowly, merging.

 

Then there we were in Jacksonville, NC, with enough masculinity to keep me fueled for weeks. Levi picks up his typing again, writing his own version of an anime feature.

Long time readers will know my fixation with ferries. Especially free ones! Reminds me of my interior BC days. Like it needed any help, but a picnic area while waiting at the end of a long road with nothing else around.

 

 On the ferry, we ride.

 

Next we find ourselves on the Outer Banks. OBX. They call it OBX. Like an anan-o-nanogram for Roblox. Boom. Eva uses the bag from the trail mix to catch water. Makes sense.

Here's a nice pose. Oh, how nice.

Whoa, that water is moving. It's coming close!

There are few people, maybe only one person, on this planet that can appreciate the next two pics. Look at the efficiency. Look at that DTE!

On to the hotel, the first time in 4 days we've had pools and/or ocean where this works. Nice. Swim racing.

Grilling that night Eva shows the value of a freezer in the hotel room.

Morning finds us walking along the beach. I see how the Wright's chose this spot for the wind/lift for the wings. Windy. Eva wrote about in her essay on the drive here, each kid wrote a short summary of the first motorized flight. But here is our friend crab. Those tube eyes, they're real!

Levi found him. Walking along the upper dunes. He is changing so much I can't even keep track.

And that hair. The wind makes it better, or worse, depending on your perspective.

Eva, like a fish, just loves the ocean. How many times have I taken pics of her walking along the water?

We get lucky and find a baby shrimp. No shrimp were harmed in this pic. He went back in the water right away.

News from the home front. Calli is being needy. So what else is new??

The penultimate day saw us near the DC area, so we stop. Going the length of the mall, we find a gorgeous spot right on Constitution Avenue (in the shade, $6.90 for three hours!) and start our walk down the length of it. We're going to march to down...to the CAPITOL!

Like any civilized mob, we stop for refreshments.

Along the way, down at the with the.. CAPITOL, we run into another parent with a couple kiddos in tow.

Wait, we're walking like suckers this whole time. Let's scoot it up.

All along the way, it's occurred to me that these United States have a penchant for remembering military heroes, or by association, police. Theoretically, those who have died. There are very few bridges, highways, overpasses, whatever, that aren't named for some person. On the last day, less than an hour left in West Virginia, I thought I saw a bridge named for someone named Rachel. Nope. I looked it up, turns out the dude's name was Rishel. Rishel! You can't see how I made the mistake, at 70 mph one doesn't process Rishel. For those who don't believe me, just go to bridge number 20-079/00-005.56 (NB) (20A500), (38.41964, -81.54456), locally known as I-79 Coopers Creek Overpass NB-SB, carrying I-79 over CR 41 in Kanawha County. Now I'm sure Rishel was a stand up guy (that is some sort of compliment I think), but that means that in the entire 7 days around a decent chunk of the country, every single thing was named for a man. But then I asked myself... is it better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all? That would be the part where Carrie's laptop is on the screen.

Seven days and six nights, almost 2,000 miles on the nose, 37,500 milligrams of sodium, 27 beers, and we are back. As an aptly named biography of Steve Jobs says, the journey is the reward.

On the home front, yoga.