We got back from a week at the beach yesterday. I've rarely been so glad to walk into our little house. It was nice to have peace and quiet after a week with Frankenstein's little brother, Timenstein (think Phil Hartman playing Frankenstein on SNL). I swear, my sister-in-law's fiance should have bolts in his neck. Now I realize I'm not the easiest person to get along with, but I have SOME common sense.
Case in point...
Edisto Island did a beach reclamation project and inadvertently created a sand bar about 400 yards off shore. This funnels the water down and creates a constant current that runs about 45 degrees to the beach. Out near the sand bar, it's almost a riptide. What does Timenstein decide to do? Yep, you guessed it, swim to the sand bar. He gets out there and starts waving his arms. Yep, you guessed it again, he can't get back!!! Am I going to swim out to save him? Hells no! I have a 1 year old sitting beside me on the beach. Did I mention that Edisto doesn't have lifeguards? Long story short, 911 gets called and they send a boat to pick up our bolt neck friend.
Between that and stomping up and down the stairs, dropping the toilet seat, slamming doors and tormenting my 14 year old dog with a laser pointer, he came close to getting smacked in the mouth.
But I digress...
I had a great time, Timenstein not withstanding. I took my cross bike and rode 5 mornings for between 90 minutes and 2 hours. The island is small, (maybe 1 km by 8km) but there a myriad of old country roads off island. 50% of them are groomed dirt. There are also a few miles of semi-groomed trails through the State park. I had a bunch of good rides, saw a bunch a wild animals (turkeys, fox squirrels, owls, redtail hawks and a water moccasin as big as my...arm), and destroyed a 10 speed Shimano chain in the process. It's so powdered with fine, silty dirt that I'm not even going to attempt to clean it.
Pushing around 700x40c knobbies will, in fact, make you strong. The road ride this morning felt very easy.
Jake wasn't too sure of the ocean at first, but by week's end, he was sitting in the surf getting hit by wave after wave and loving it.
If you are looking for a place to go on vacation that is inexpensive, very mellow and quiet and will allow you to just BE, Edisto might be the place. It's about 45 minutes south of Charleston, SC. There are also a bunch of pre-Civil War era plantation houses scattered around down there. It's pretty cool to see the grounds and imagine how brutally hard life must have been 150 years ago. And if you can't find something to do in Charleston, you just aren't trying...
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