In my mind I'm gone to Carolina
In my mind I'm gone to Carolina Can't you see the sunshine Can't you just feel the moonshine
Everyone has places that make us feel good. Some love the mountains. Others the desert. For me, it's always been about water.
When I need to find some peace, I'm looking for a large body of water. In Chicago, there's Lake Michigan. I have a couple of spots where I can sit on a bench and look at the Lake. It's pretty chill. Then there's California. I know it's touristy but I love to go to the end of the pier at Santa Monica and look at the Pacific. The water is so blue that I just sit and stare. Transfixed on the entire scene. Sometimes I read, sometimes I listen to music but it's all about the water. Peaceful.
I didn't have these feelings about the Atlantic Ocean. I've been to Florida maybe ten times and have been up the coastline to Maine but I've never felt at one with it. So when I had a chance to combine a little business with a touristy day in two states I've never been to, it was off to the Carolina's.
Day one is in North Carolina. A little beach town just over the North/South Carolina border. I'm meeting someone who may be helping me with a book I've been working on for months. I walk into the restaurant and this Hall and Oates song is playing. When I first started writing this book almost a year ago, I worked in a small coffee shop near the lake. My first day there, the same song, "You Make My Dreams Come True", was playing when I walked in the place.
Should I have taken this as a sign?
It was a nice night. We had some fish, did some book chat and made plans to talk again the next week. No dreams were coming true, at least not that night.
Day two. South Carolina. Myrtle Beach. I'm going to be a tourist. I need to buy a hat... actually two. One to keep from getting sunburned and another for a friend. Myrtle Beach has one sports team. The minor league Pelicans. They're a farm team of the Cubs. As you walk along the main drag of MB, there are at least fifty stores where you can buy souvenirs. Not one of them has a hat of the Pelicans...their team. Yeah, you can find a hat with a pic of boobs on it but their baseball team is nowhere to be found.
One other thing that you can find easily. The flag in the above photo. Yanno...the confederate flag. That you can find in every store. DUDES!!!!! The Civil War is over...well at least the real Civil War. It was more than 150 years ago. You lost! Get over it! A word of advice...get rid of the flags and get some Pelican hats.
I do like how there's a pot flag under it. Makes sense. Do a little lynching, smoke a little weed and head to the Atlantic. It's a very full day. As for me, I bought a hat. No Pelicans, no boobs, it just said Myrtle Beach. Sigh. No lynchings or pot. Off to the Ocean. I need some peace.
I'm at the pier at the end of the touristy Boardwalk and there's the Atlantic. Not as blue as in Santa Monica but it's still water as far as you can see. People fishing, people swimming and a ferris wheel in the background. I find a bench, grab my book and I'm going to read while looking at the Ocean. Doesn't get any more mellow than that, does it? But then....
RAIN!!!
NOOOOOOOOO!!!
First no caps, then confederate flags, finally rain? HAT TRICK! Fuck you South Carolina!
I now have four hours to kill before I head home. I'm just going to grab a cab and head to the airport. I have to walk through a restaurant to get off the pier. Guess what song is playing there? No, really guess? Yeah...Hall and Oates...again. Seriously, you can't make this shit up. It really is a sign. A sign it's time to go home.
That's the end of my trip to the Carolina's. I'm pretty sure I won't be going back...actually more than pretty sure. I did pick up two new states in the hunt to get all fifty. Ten more to go. I'm thinking Arkansas may be next. Little Rock. They have a baseball team there, too. Do you think I can find a Traveler's cap?
*The song lyrics at the top are from James Taylor's "Carolina In My Mind" You can see him along with Bonnie Raitt at Wrigley Field on July 17.
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