h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

J&J, my room mates, have some family in town for the weekend. They decided to go to the beach at Wilmington, NC for the afternoon. As I had to work this put me in something of a quandry: do I go alone and hope to catch up to them, or do I not go at all and wait for another day? I decide to go ahead and go to the beach after I get off of shift.

As I head toward the freeway I call J and ask him they are still there. Apparently they are still there and can't find anywhere to park. I decide to head on out there and hopefully meet them there. Keep in mind that this is a long way away from Cary, something like 150 miles...

So I get on the road and then I get another call. J is on the phone and says that they hate it there because the parkign and traffic suck and they are on their way back. This is another quandry for me. I can go ahead and go and have some fun and take some pictures (My primary reason for wanting to go in the first place) or I can turn around and head home.

I decide to forge ahead. I drive along, stopping for gas at a small town somewhere between Raleigh and Wilmington. I've a couple of hamburgers and some water along for travel food. I listen to my radio (XM Satelite radio is the bomb for road trips) and just haul on down the highway. I get down to Wilmington where I have to stop for emergency batteries for my mobile, as it's charge is dead by the time I get there. I get the batteries and keep heading toward the beaches. I get to Carolina Beach and find a place to park near a public beach access path. I walk out on to the beach and hang out looking at the ocean. The Atlantic is a somewhat different puddle than the Pacific that I know. The beaches are different too. Different shells in teh sand, different sand altogether, and somehow a different atmosphere than I usually equate to the sea.

I walk in the surf for a while and then head back to my car, damp and sandy. I get in my car and keep heading down the beach. I get to Fort Fisher, where I stop to take some pictures and walk around a bit more. I then turn around and start heading back. Along the way I spotted a couple of places to eat, so I decide to try one of them. The first place I stop at has no parking and I did not feel like walking more. I head back down to the firt place I saw, a small Mom and Pop cafe just off the beach. I sit down to a Southern dinner of chicken and dumplins (sic), hushpuppys and stewed potatos. I finished off with a sundae made with home made ice cream.

Then I start heading back to Raleigh.

Just in Wilmington I call J again to see if they made it home. Turns out they are still miles away from home. They got stuck in a traffic jam of people leaving the beach for a couple of hours. I very well could have passed them on the street and just missed them. They are adamant that they will never go back there again. I think that their timing was the problem. I can't wait to go back.

The drive home is fairly uneventful. I stopped off again to top off my gas tank and rolled on down the freeway.

Timing does make a difference in things like this. And attitude. Thank your lucky stars you didn't go with them.

Yes, the Atlantic is different. Not that I've had a lot of experience with either. I've only seen the Pacific in Mexico and was just thinking that it is the Pacific that is different.

A great experiment for observing the difference between coasts is to go to Florida. The Gulf coast is like being on the edge of a puddle, very pretty but a puddle nonetheless. The Atlantic coast, on the other hand, just feels more "real." And they are within a half-day's drive of each other.

Except on holidays. Holidays are best for staying home, if you live there, while the tourists and their innumerable children clog the highways.

Sounds like you had a cool trip there Marv.
Of big ocean waters I've only seen the atlantic mostly from the Eastern side (UK/Ireland) and once from the Western edge (somewhere in Maine when I was in the US doing the work on a summer camp thing).

The Maine coast is an ocean experience all its own, Phil -- were you up in the northern part, where the glaciation effects are so striking, and the tides are huge?

My trip might have been better had I had someone to spend the time with. But as it was, I was happy just to have some time alone with my thoughts.

I can't remember where exactly in Maine we went. It was a long time ago now
Come to think of it I'm not sure at all where the photos of that trip are these days. Somewhere at my parents place I guess, better look harder next time.

You can experience a few very different ocean types just on the ferry ride from Long Beach to Catalina Island, with barely enough time to get properly seasick. It's one of the ocean's charms that it is constantly changing.

Probably the most surprising thing I learned in all my oceanic adventures came when I went scuba diving off of Mauritius. In discussing the amount of weight I might need to dive with, the dive master pointed out that the local salinity was far lighter than I was familiar with, so I would be less buoyant. That was indeed the case, and lightly-salted seawater is a strange experience.

BtM, I will be in Irvine next weekend. Let me know if you are able to hook up for dinner or something.

I am on a short range for the next few weeks while the wife recovers from surgery. But she has already proven herself up for a meal out, so if you can come to my neighborhood, it should be workable. Maybe you could even talk a certain Irvine-ish researcher to join us.

Being that that is who I am staying with, and that I am at the mercy of her for transport...

Do me a favour and email me your numbers again. marv white gmail com. I am not sure that I still have them due to a change of mobile phones.

Well I've only been to the Pacific. Some good beaches and some that sucked heavilly. I do however want to see the Atlantic and learn the dif.

Are you going to post those pics.? I'd like to see life through you lenses.

Cyde

I am going to have to have them scanned. They are real pics.. I will get them online sooner or later.

Yo Marv... your phone message was unintelligible. Your cell was breaking up.

Ah, I forget exactly what I was saying other than to see what your schedule was like. I'll call you sometime tomorrow once I am in Kommifornia.