Day Three
I woke at 6:50 AM, ten minutes before the alarm. I packed the car and refilled the cooler with free hotel ice and hit the Hampton Inn’s free breakfast. I ate their imitation of a cheese omelet and my leftover pitas. The Hampton Inn in Suffolk had lemon waffle batter, and I should have tried it there because Sneed’s Ferry only had some nasty flavored batters.
I then headed towards my first stop, but I ignored the GPS and drove through North Topsail Beach and Surf City, NC. I stopped and took a 20-minute walk on the beach. Every house looked new and was laid out in rows of 4 or 5 identical designs. I was 15 miles away from Sneed’s Ferry before I realized I didn’t get an espresso. I looked up and saw a sign for a coffee shop while driving through Hampstead, NC. Desperate, I decided to take a chance and tried A Taste of Sunrise and got a nice pour at a very friendly café. On arriving at Sloop Point, I couldn’t locate the plantation; there was just a marina. It was time to move on to Myrtle Beach.
North Topsail Island, NC
In a word, I hated Myrtle Beach; in my opinion, it is a tourist trap. I explained it to Maureen this way: the first thing I saw coming into town was the high-rise resorts lining the beach. The next thing I noticed was every chain restaurant imaginable out on the main drag. Finally, there are the largest restaurants I’ve ever seen. When she heard this, she responded, “Oh boy, that’s not good!” I drove down to the beach, and since it was noon, I sat in a parking lot and ate my standard lunch, a cheese and tomato sandwich, an apple, a banana, and a handful of peanuts. This was followed by a 15-minute walk on the beach. It is a nice long beach, but I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.
My next stop was Charleston, SC, where I parked in a high-rise garage in the historic district. I was a block from Carmella’s Dessert and Coffee Bar, so I stopped in for an espresso and reconnoitered the desserts. I planned on returning after dinner. The espresso was excellent, and the desserts looked appetizing, but the portions were huge. Welcome to Dixie, the land of diabetes.
I had about two and a half hours before dinner, so I walked all around the waterfront and the historic district. I perused the Charleston City Market, but it was mostly full of kitschy souvenir stalls. The first booth I entered sold hats. I looked for one of those hats that someone’s Cuban grandfather in Miami would wear. I struck up a conversation with the Asian proprietor. When I asked if he was Vietnamese, he said I would never guess where he was from. It turned out he was from Taiwan. I found a hat that fit me, and we talked a little bit about China, and suddenly he started a MAGA rant. At this point I looked at myself in a mirror to realize I’m just not a hat guy. I told him, “Too bad you have this mirror because if I hadn’t seen myself in the hat, I would have bought it.” I handed him the, shook his hand, smiled, wished him luck, and high-tailed it out of there.
On my way to the restaurant I was going to eat at, I was reading the menu in the windows of Mason’s Famous Lobster Rolls, and sure enough, they serve a Connecticut-style lobster roll. A woman eating at a table saw me through the windows and waved for me to come in. When I got inside, she told me I had to eat there because it was so good. I explained that I was from Connecticut (and knew what a lobster roll should be) and that I had already made my mind up that I would be eating next door at Church and Union. I proceeded to walk the city for the next two hours. I took a bunch of pictures. Charleston reminds me of a European city.
At around 5:30 PM, as I walked into Church and Union, a woman was asking the hostess for a table, and the hostess responded there wouldn’t be a table available until 9:00 PM. I walked past them without a word, and as I sat down at the bar, the bartender handed me a menu. I asked if the calamari was good, and he confirmed that it was. I pointed at the braided ravioli on the menu, and he said it was the best thing on the menu. I was concerned about the portion size (after all, I was in the land of cotton), but I decided to throw caution to the wind and order both dishes. The calamari was fantastic; it might have been a calamari steak cut into strips, and I’m not sure. It had some kind of sauce, capers, vegetables, and chopped nuts on it. I never had calamari that tender before, not even in Italy. I ate it all, even the cauliflower florets. Fortunately for me, the portion wasn’t too big. Next I ate the ravioli; the bartender wasn’t lying, and it was great. They had added house-made sausage even though I didn’t ask for it. I guess I wasn’t a vegetarian that night because I ate it all. I came with what looked like toast but maybe deep-fried in garlic butter, which was quite good too.
A couple sat down next to me, and the first thing I said to them was, “Don’t order this,” while pointing at the ravioli. She asked, “Why not?” and I burst out laughing, and she figured out that I was full of shit and was very good. It turned out they were from Boston. They had a 41-foot sailboat that they were sailing down to Florida but had to delay in Charleston to wait out the storm. They said they also had three Border Collies with them on the boat. I mention that the only Border collie I knew was Krix, who is best described as a Tasmanian Devil. She said that theirs were very mellow and no trouble at all. We had a lot of laughs before I left and headed back to Carmella’s
Myrtle Beach, SC
Charleston, SC
10/09/2024
Sneads Ferry, NC to Okatie, SC
223 Miles
Church and Union, Charleston, SC
A Taste of Sunshine Hampstead, NC
I sat down at the bar next to a young man named Jaime (at least young by my standards) and a young couple. I ordered a double espresso and asked the bartender what was the best flavor of gelato they served. He listed off Blackberry, Espresso, and Salted Caramel. I said I couldn’t have espresso gelato with an espresso, so he suggested Mascarpone. The young woman to my left said, “Go with the mascarpone.” Then I decided to put it to a vote, so I asked her boyfriend, and he chose Blackberry. I turned and asked Jaime, and he said, “The mascarpone sounded interesting.” I said, “Great, now it is a tie.” At that point the bartender handed me a sample of each flavor. They both tasted good. I said, “That didn’t help; I like them both.” Finally, I ordered the smallest serving of the mascarpone. We all spent the next 45 minutes talking and laughing. It turned out that she worked in I.T., and Jaime wants to go into web programming.
I left the bar and found my car and drove as fast as I dared all the way to my brother’s house outside of Hilton Head, SC. I sat with him and watched the end of the Yankees’s game (they won) and called it a night. I planned on staying in the area the following day, and then I would figure out what to do next. It looked like the Kennedy Space Center might weather the hurricane without too much of an impact.
