The Windmill Posts

Today was the third longest day on the trip at 376 miles. The second longest was from Phoenix to Las Cruces and the third longest has yet to come… 

The text I send to family was “It took a lot of driving, but I found another ocean. I don’t think this one is as big.” And here I am, on the other side of the country, staring at a beautiful ocean that I had not previously appreciated. Every other time I saw the Atlantic I think it was with a caveat – usually that there was land in between the eternal ocean and where I was. Like Chesapeake Bay. Totally huge, amazing, made out of ocean. Not going to argue that. But on the other side of the water it isn’t Europe or Africa, it’s more United States. So when you look, it isn’t into the gaping maw of tide and time. Which I require. But Tybee Island provided what I needed tonight.

Tybee Island is quite nice. It’s a standard tourist zone, except I didn’t see any fudge. The gift shops were enormous. Like taking five Mackinac Island neon shirt shops and jamming them all together. The gift shops close early and some of the restaurants don’t even try.  It looks like mostly a family deal. Lots of kid safe locations and activities. But plenty of bars for Dad to sneak out to while the kids are on the beach with Mom.  Or for Mom to sneak out to. 

I knew Savannah was going to be on my wishlist, but I also knew I wouldn’t have a proper amount of time to explore the city. Also, had no idea where to get a hotel. So I thought I’d go with what I like, and find something near the ocean. I’m in a proper oceanside vacation hotel. It’s not new, it’s been refurbished and everything is just fine. But it’s worn. Worn in a way that you can tell even with 50 years of paint layers on it. But it’s better than bad. It just has a lot of other things in the area compete with. 

I can imagine (and I think have heard in real life once) the loud volume of childen in swimsuits thumping at a full run down the hall excited to get to the beach and find some water. A similar scenario has happened here so many times. The vast majority of them being following by the “aww mom”s and other noises the kids make when mom insists they put on sunscreen. Stop wiggling.

That leads me to the glorious feeling here. It’s not really even shoulder season anymore. There are Christmas decorations up. It’s like being on the set of Ruby in Paradise (good movie, watch it. Ashley Judd’s first, I think) But it’s like the carnival is mostly up and running, but no rubes for the carnies.

I think I’ve talked about ghosts here and there, and I need to make it very clear that I don’t really believe in ghosts, exactly. For me the idea of ghosts comes more from what used to be, rather than something coming back. One of my frustrations of living in the area I grew up in is all the ghosts. 10 year old me at the main library, 25 year old me downtown Minneapolis, two months ago me in the hospital. It’s your past and it comes with you, little reminders everywhere to let you know you can’t escape who you are or were.

In this cute little tourist town I can see everywhere the tourists would be, but aren’t. I am surrounded by the ghosts of people i would wish weren’t here if they were. (it makes sense to my brain!). Where I see a couple on the sidewalk, I also imagine a crowd on the sidewalk, everyone jockeying for position or rushing to a shop, or just standing blissfully unaware looking at a map right in the middle of everything. I know this is likely a treasured tradition – driving over from Atlanta in the second week of July to the hotel your family has stayed at for decades. Relationships beginning on the beach, growing to come back with kids, and eventually a single person watching the sun set. Kids who cannot stand the idea of coming back again but ten years down the road they’re convincing their new wife why they need to vacation here.

Just like hundreds of little cities and islands and beach communities (and lake resorts and mountain cabins) all over the country. All unique in their own way, except for the fact that there is one model of snow globe that exists in at least one gift shop in all of those places. And if you bought one of each, the universe would collapse under the nostalgic weight of it all.

On top of it all, I swore I heard my name three times, and then my own voice. Til I realized my own voice was just that, my voice recorded accidentally went into playback mode. Or was it an accident? Also, I got this weird anxious feeling for a brief bit on the beach, but I’m chalking that up to high power underground cables. They can do that, you know.

Ok, moving on. It’s not a huge tourist zone near my hotel, but it’s decent. The clerk at the desk told me how to get to ocean after I asked. There’s a public pier and everything. Walked for maybe 10 minutes and there I am. It’s a typical setup. Large pavilion with ice cream vendor, burger and hot dog place, and who knows what else. Oh and loud music blaring. On my way back out I thought it was annoying and why do they have to have it on so darn loud? And then heard myself and realized I was walking by an intentional older kid friendly zone. Nice. Wandered out to the end of the pier, good number of people fishing while I took one picture of the ocean.

Looked down the beach (took picture) and figured I’d go walk down some sand. I cuffed my jeans twice and started smooshing through the sand until I realized there was a huge band of very packed sand which made strolling super comfortable. One or two small familiar, a good bunch of teens, and a few couples were out. Busy enough to feel busy but not touristed. Nice touch where the beach and pier meet the road/sidewalk: It looks like white gravel, but it’s actually a crap ton of seashells.

The sun was going down and I thought I’d watch the ocean and wait for sunset. Sat down and did just that. Eventually the sun turned red and it looked like there were other who had been waiting for this moment. Take a picture and all done. I actually took about 20, but weeded out the good one. On my way back to the hotel I stopped at a restaurant for dinner. Google reviews said reservations were all but required. I had no trouble, and I don’t think the other guy had reservations either. Mediocre burger that will prevent me from going out and getting bar burgers for another three weeks. Great Ginger Ale though!

Story Time – Hurricanes, Hot Dogs, HBO

Hurricane Iniki (/iːˈniːkiː/ ee-NEE-kee; Hawaiian: ʻiniki meaning “strong and piercing wind”) was a hurricane that struck the island of Kauaʻi on September 11, 1992. It was the most powerful hurricane to strike Hawaiʻi in recorded history. Iniki caused around $3.1 billion (1992 USD) in damage and seven deaths. This made Iniki, at the time, the costliest natural disaster on record in the state, as well as the third-costliest to hit the U.S.

In regards to the “Hurricane evacuation route” sign, it reminded me that we didn’t have an evacuation ability in Hawaii. In 1992 I was stationed on Oahu, working in the training office with a handful of other Marines. One of whom had a wife who was 14 or 15 months pregnant. He was Matt. When the hurricane warning came to Battalion, there were disaster plans taken out of dusty binders and put into effect. We had a really cool gunny in charge of us, and Matt asked if he could take off right away to board up the windows on his condo. This was the same gunny that put me in for a Naval Achievement Medal at a time when there was no way the command was going to allow that, but he did it just to stick his thumb in their eye. He did think I deserved one for my work though.

As Matt is grabbing his cover (hat) I gave him a look and he asked gunny if I could come along and help, especially since his wife couldn’t. Gunny wasn’t buying it, but I guess he rented it – he said that was fine if we come right back home after the hurricane. Matt and I were smoking buddies, he was from Milwaukee and I was from Minnesota, so we were darn near related. We hopped into his souped up whatevercar he had and made our way across the island. He made what was a 30-45 minute drive into about 20 minutes. I think everyone else was running around panicking so we could get away with it.

Conveniently, the hurricane showed up on a Friday. When we came back to base on Monday, the story we got was hilarious. Apparently they cut power to the barracks in a preparatory move. That meant the air conditioning was out. I remember something about everyone being told to store water by filling their bathtubs, but we had showers, so.. Not sure. There was something about the mess hall, too, so food was scarce, I guess.

Matt and I arrived at his condo midday on Friday. It was a nice two story thing right on the edge of a golf course, so they had a pretty view of large lawns and palm trees. We thought maybe we would hold off on plywood for the windows just yet. Also, we didn’t get any plywood. We did, however, go to their complexes pool. If you’ve never seen a woman from the air force who’s 15 or 16 months pregnant do a cannonball in a pool, you are sorely missing out. We had a lot of fun. It was getting cloudy but the wind wasn’t bad or anything.

That weekend was awesome! We had hot dogs – in fact they taught me how to microwave a hot dog and bun without making the bun gross. We watched endless movies on HBO, swam, enjoyed the air conditioning, and I think we might have had a barbecue, too. There was a point in there somewhere that it rained, and there was a good bit of wind. One of the branches of a tree on the gold course fell off. It was a lovely weekend. Sorry we missed the hurricane.

Ok, so what really happened? The hurricane hit Kauaʻi really hard, and it was a bad scene. Not trying to make like of that. Oahu really didn’t get hit hard, there were some strong winds (85mph) in some places, and the shore got beat up in a few areas. We were appreciative of the fact that it wasn’t worse.

The very next day on Waikiki they were selling “I survived Hurricane Iniki” t-shirts.

Deets

• License Plates: None
• States: FL, GA
• Departed: 7:15 am CST, 75 degrees
• Original ETA 2:15 pm EST
• Arrival: 4:15 pm EST
• Warmest/Coldest: Death Valley 90°, Wallace ID 22°
• Weather: More clouds than blue sky, some light rain, then warm (75-80) and sunnier
• Music: (as you can see, it was a long driving day)
  • BT – ESCM
  • DJ Shadow – The Private Press
  • Steve Miller – Best of Steve Miller
  • Pat Benatar – Get Nervous
  • Everclear – So much for the afterglow
  • REM – Automatic for the people
  • Pink Floyd – a momentary lapse of reason
  • Fleetwood Mac – Rumours
  • Public Image Limited – Public Image Limited
  • Soundtrack to the British TV Series Extraordinary

Observations

• Interesting signs of the day
  • “amish stuff”
  • Hurricane evacuation route – I think that made me feel safer than the Tsunami signs
  • Speed Checked By Detection Devices – This just sounds like they’re making it up. “Yeah, we have uh, devices, that will, um, detect if you’re speeding. Yeah. Yeah those.”
  • Water may cover road during high tide – Some people are delayed by train crossings, others by deep snow. Ferry timing, bridges being raised, heat so hot it melts tires – these are all different reasons people are late for work. But tides? That’s a new one to me, and I think it might be my favorite, except the wise boss can tell you to find the tide tables and deal with it.
• The downside to state highways: many have no rest stops, so if you have to use the restroom you’re either going to have to risk an empty field, try a church, or stop somewhere and buy something. Usually junk food and pop. (I have worked hard not to use the word “pop” or “soda” or “coke” on this trip, because I don’t want to stand out as a weirdo with pop.
• That the interstate was not too bad. Fewer trucks by a long shot, and the cars were (for the most part) driven by drivers who understand the road. Except the guy in the little picking driving 40 in a 75. Yes, technically that’s legal. But not wise.
• Saw my first dead armadillo, expected to see armadillos in Texas, alive or dead
• Saw a dead boar or black pig, not near a pig farm as far as I could tell. I like wild boar, sounds cooler. Have not been keeping track of roadkill because I haven’t seen much exotic roadkill. Had I come across an Elk or a Dolphin or an Axolotl I would have noted it.
• “Thank you farmers” sign. Like “Thank you for your service.” Is this a way to look supportive without actually doing anything? See also Disabled Veteran’s needs.
• Bopping along a country road, like Fozzie and Kermit in a Studebaker, and a massive gigantic black SUV went blowing past me like they didn’t just own the road, but like their papa had bought it for them and they didn’t know how to responsibly take care of it. And what do we find two hills down the road? Bright flashing lights. And a massive gigantic black SUV pulled over. Maybe for speeding. And that is speedtrap justice.
• Passed 7,000 miles.
• At 81 degrees and sunny, the outskirts of Savannah smelled like pine, hot sand, and dead pine needles. It’s one of my favorite smells. It reminds me of the resorts we used to go to as a family. We had one vacation per year and that was it, and it was great intense fun for a week. At the first resort I can remember, there was a concrete tile sidewalk (narrow) going along the shore of the lake for all cabin folks to be able to come and go to the main lodge. I was so little I didn’t even know to hate myself yet, and my grandma and I were walking to the lodge/beach. I stubbed my toe and it was the most pain I think I had experienced so far in my life. I bled, even! And that’s where it smelled like pine, sand, and needles.
• Savannah seemed cute. I blew through it pretty quickly. Small streets, boulevards, lots of trees and the trees had that creepy southern moss on them.
• Savannah also had complicated one way streets and many traffic directions that I couldn’t read all of and I think I mostly ignored them.
• Cotton is so white
• The cotton is baled into gigantic truck sized toilet paper rolls with likely plastic around the outside. But when they’re in transit little bits of cotton get blown off, and they end up on the side of the road.

Pictures