The Windmill Posts

Today’s post header image is from my first night, in South Dakota. That was an awful long time ago.

If Tybee island was the middle class ocean dream holiday, then Wrightsville Beach Island is the upper classes stuffy ocean dream holiday. Honestly I haven’t seen a ton of it, so I can’t really judge it. But that’s the vibe I got. Also, the hotel room has little cards all over telling you how much the lamps cost if you want to buy one. Or the robe. Or almost anything. Feels tacky.

I was surprised to find the noise from other rooms. I was sitting on the bed writing this and other things, and I could hear the next door TV really well. I couldn’t make out the show, but there was music, and lots of talking. I was getting pretty irritated, especially given the snoot level of the hotel. I was surprised they could have such thin walls. I was about to go complain, when I tried to triangulate the sound. Which side was it coming from? Which part of the wall. The window side of the beds was pretty quiet, actually. Between the beds I could definitely hear it. And the other side of the second bed? Oh My God it was horrible. I could hear their TV as clearly as if there was a.. radio.. on the sidetable. Ok. So the room has this bluetooth speaker / radio thing, and I guess they thought it would be good vibes to have it on when I get to the room. They were wrong. Of course the upside was not having loud neighbors. I surely feel silly now!

Today’s drive was the last of the boring stretches – every stop from here on out is interesting, at least to me. It was one of the longest driving days of the trip, and honestly I worried that I was chasing miles. And chasing time. Two things in the “rules of the trip” that I have yet to publish. The state and interstate highways were fine. Not very pretty, not too busy, not too full of trucks, not too different from any other highway in any other state.

Got to have the top down for a couple hours. I have a feeling that may be the last topless time until April. We’ll see. Maybe I’ll put on the leather and fleece earflap had in Michigan and come up with my own windchill.

I am feeling the post-halfway blues a bit. Excited to see much of my family for Thanksgiving. Concerned for the remaining sections of the trip. Weather is likely to become something of an issue somewhere. I have planned everything so I can remove or swap stops on the trip, either extending or shortening the total days. I have multiple routes for most every section, and a week before the trip I got some crazy awesome tires suitable for rain, snow, heat, and maybe even gravel. I have plenty of winter clothing which I will swap out of the backseat bins when I get to my brother’s, I also have winter jacket(s) of varying intensities, and things like food and a blanket. Heck, the left bin is focused on winter gear and car safety and emergency gear. And souvenir magnets.

I will be detailing the outfitting of the car some time next weekend as I’ll have plenty of non-driving days. The magnet thing is part of my directive of souvenirs and any purchase, really. Keep it small and keep it relevant. I broke the rule twice. Once when I got the baby blue cable knit sweater at Target, since that’s a moderately large item to be adding to packing. And another time when I purchased two books in the Castro. But those go in the backpack, so they had a bit of room to spare. The books were Hemingway’s short stories, and Pink Marine. The latter is the source material for the Netflix show “boots” and it might as well be my story in the Marines, though the book focuses on the boot camp portion, and mine would focus on the end bit.

I’ve missed getting magnets for a few states, like New Mexico and Florida. If I just bolted through a state and didn’t interact with anything unique to the state, I am okay skipping. I do know that my fridge is going to be absolutely covered in magnets when I get home! At the beginning of the trip, when I was at Wall Drug which is arguably the biggest tourist souvenir mall anywhere, I looked at the shot glasses. I don’t drink, so it’s a little pointless to add to my existing collection. However, I thought it would be fun to get the same souvenir in multiple places. Visiting my sister on Mackinac Island, we see all the tourist stuff. But on the way home there’s a gigantic souvenir store, and it has many of the same things, but with just “Michigan” written on them, instead of “Mackinac Island.” Clearly the same plant in China can crank out snowglobes for anywhere. So looking at the shot glasses I found a simple metal (tin? aluminum?) model that I was sure would be everywhere else. I was only half right. I’ve found it a few times, but it’s not as ubiquitous as I had hoped. Should have gone for a snowglobe.

Tomorrow: Kitty Hawk and Roanoke Island after just a 4 hour drive. The following two days are even shorter. Love it!

Deets

• License Plates: Nova Scotia, Quebec
• States: SC, NC
• Departed: 7:36 am EST, 65 degrees
• Original ETA 4:11 pm EST
• Arrival: 2:45 pm EST (not sure why the disparity)
• Warmest/Coldest: Death Valley 90°, Wallace ID 22°
• Weather: Gray then drizzly and intense fog, then warmer and sunny
• Music:
  • Pop Will Eat Itself – This is the day..
  • Pop Will Eat Itself – Cure for Sanity
  • Pop Will Eat Itself – The Looks or the Lifestyle
  • Pop Will Eat Itself – Dos Dedos Mis Amigos
  • Pop Will Eat Itself – New Noise Designed by a Sadist
  • Extraordinary playlist, music from the BBC show
  • Lady Gaga – Mayhem
  • Depeche Mode – Music for the Masses

Observations

• When there are three lanes, they don’t use the rightmost lane. The slow traffic is in the middle and faster slow traffic is in the left.

Pictures

Sorry, nothing today! (Weird, huh?)