Georgetown to the Beach

It is still August 13. Leaving the basket weaver outside of Charleston South Carolina, I continue North on Highway 17. A long, straight drive between the managed pine plantations that seem to make up so much of the southland that I have driven through.

Of course there is another bridge and on the other side of the bridge there are a duo of delightful manufacturing plants. One is a paper mill all grey, smoky and smelly. The other is a steel mill. This is the first steel mill I have seen. My first view from the height of the bridge is one of black mystery. Buildings and gigantic ducting all black licorice in the distant haze. So much a contrast to every kind of manufactory or milling plant I've seen I can't look away. At the moment, I didn't know it was a steel mill. I had no idea. When my truck was passing the mill I found I could not drive beyond, I had to get a close up look. I turned immediately and circled the streets that encompassed the mill. Fences, frustrating fences that I couldn’t' see through. Then I turn the last street down to the river. Ah, a six-foot cyclone fence topped with barbed wire. This I can handle. I'm an old hand at standing on my truck to get a better picture. Up close the colors of the structures clarified.

It was Iron Oxide. Yeah, that's right, rust. One of my favorite things. This is the place where they make it. Sure, they think they are making steel beams and other ferrous items that are integral to every thing we know and see about us. But ultimately they are making rust. Everything shipped is bright and strong. But, given time unlimited, it all eventually returns to iron oxide... Rust, lovely rust. In the manufacturing of the beams and whatnot a fine ferrous flour is raised and dusts everything around and about the factory. Probably the lungs of the workers as well. This fine dust quickly oxidizes resulting in buildings that have the appearance of being made of chocolate. Dark and creamy, waiting for someone to take that first bite.

Oh and how lovely it was. Even in the harsh light of midday it was captivating. Imagine how it would look in a long light slanting in from the East or West. It would be nice to go back to Georgetown and spend a week taking pictures of the chocolate plant in every kind of light. Imagine the shots one could with permission to shoot inside the plant grounds with a rented cherry-picker! Now that's something to put a tingle in your jingle!

It was getting past noon. I had it in mind originally to end my day in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. All I knew about Myrtle Beach was there was 'Beach' in the name and that implied that I would have another opportunity to swim in the ocean. Beach... ocean... swim... logical conclusion, right? Yikes! Little did I know that it was a mega-resort town. They don't have those things on the Northern California coast. Mile after mile of high rise condo/hotels backed up by dozens of miniature golf courses, "resort wear" stores, and a multitude of restaurants.

I suppose Myrtle Beach might have been acceptable if I were expecting it ...or wasn't hoping for a tiny beach town that no one knew of. Myrtle Beach would be great as a destination where you were going to stay for a few days, but I was in a "passing through" mode... I was trying not to let myself to stay for more than a day in any one place until my car was registered again.

Myrtle Beach is a place you go to and stay. Bring your kids, it's a kid friendly place. Once you are there you travel perpendicular to the ocean, from lodging to beach to restaurant to miniature golf. You don't need a car for that. There is no need to wallow along the length of the beach as I was doing. I finally extricated myself from the horrid traffic. It was akin to walking out of a vat of molasses, brutal to move through and once you are out it still glooping to your legs. But I managed it somehow, I was out of the morass. The road ahead was clear and I had to find a new destination for the night.

Quick as a blink I was out of South Carolina and into North Carolina. I passed through Calabash and drove along until I was in Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina. Not crazy and built up in the same way Myrtle Beach was. I found a hotel. Jumped into my swim suit and headed for the beach.