Am I the only one who immediately thinks of the line, “He’s on vacation.” from Forrest Gump whenever I say I’m going on a vacation? I can’t help it all of a sudden southern Sally Fields’ voice is in my head. Or in this case when I say I’m coming back from a vacation. Which I am. My unintentional vacation from writing is over. It’s been an interesting summer so far full of spontaneous trips, new friends, and a lot of trying to figure out a road map for my next few years. If you’re reading this you already know, and if you don’t know you’re about to quickly learn, my life never follows a map and from month to month things can change quite a bit. When you run head first into things without taking time for second thoughts or doubt, what other outcome could you even expect? So far this life of unpredictability has worked out alright. If you keep reading these blogs your will keep hearing about me swan diving into the unknown. Which means things will continue to change faster than a time lapse video of a rose bud and that is okay with me. In fact I hope it does, change tends to make for great stories.
Most recently, for example, in what was either a lapse of judgement or a leap of faith I went on a 2 and a half day trip to North Carolina (again) with someone who by most people’s standards was a stranger. In fact for the purposes of this story we will call him Stranger. It started late on a thursday night when we met and went for a walk. A large portion of our conversation was talk about traveling and needing to see the ocean. It became clear quickly that I had met a fellow gypsy spirited Eleutheromaniac. As the night got later we joked about taking off to North Carolina together since I had already been planning on going to the ocean that Sunday anyways. Cut to Friday mid-morning. I was standing at work deciding on if I would really make that 14 hour drive again to feel the salt water on my face. I sent a light hearted message to Stranger, “Were you serious about wanting to go to North Carolina? I leave sunday and will be home late Tuesday…” Cue a whirlwind of events. Stranger checked with his boss and got the time off within half an hour. Holy crap I’m taking Stranger to NC with me in two days. That night a group of my friends got together and they all met Stranger. Not surprisingly none of them were the least bit shocked when we announced we were going on an out of state trip together. Saturday was a lot of time to over think the whole thing, but ultimately we agreed that this trip would do us both good as long as neither of us turned out to be ax murderers. Sunday at 5pm we’re on our way south. The hours slipped by as we wound our way through the highways and back roads of Ohio. There’s quite a lot to talk about when you hardly know someone. Well into the night we cross the bridge to West Virginia, and I assure him the rest will fly by just three toll booths between us and the virginia state line, and then an hour or so until we’re at the NC border. The plan was to sleep at the welcome center, then drive the rest in the morning. Well somewhere between great conversation, doing 95 mph down the mountains, and being more tired than we realized we didn’t notice when we got to Virginia, nor at any point did we realize when we were in Virginia. We stopped for gas around 3am and I was wondering how I messed up my timing so badly. I had planned that we would be to the NC state line around 2am now here it was 3 and we were not even out of WV?! So I took a peek at the map and began laughing my ass off. Stranger looking kind of concerned, “How far out of our way did we go?”. I caught my breath long enough to explain that not only were we not in WV anymore we were about an hour into NC. We spent the next hour trying to figure out how in the Hell we missed crossing into two states. Finally we agreed that we had no idea how we managed that and that it was probably time to sleep for the night. So we pulled into a nice Comfort Inn ready for a good morning’s sleep…. in my car in the parking lot, because spontaneous trips are usually not well funded trips. The only downside to sleeping in the car was waking up feeling like microwaved frozen broccoli AKA soggy. The humidity in North Carolina makes Michigan’s weather feel like dry heat.
We rolled into Carolina Beach State Park around 10 am Monday morning. For those keeping track at home yes this is the park the Mom and I got lost in a few years ago. It was as beautifully peaceful as I remembered it. I could feel stress melting away while I was sitting at the picnic table supervising Stranger setting the tent up. This tranquil moment was short lived though when I heard my dog, Hollie, rustling in the leaves on the edge of the campsite. Of course within 5 minutes of being there my dumb dog had found a snake to chase. With me being her dumb human I immediately assumed the thing was venomous and freaked out a little bit. Upon further research when I got home it was actually just a harmless Common King Snake. Thankfully that’s the only snake she pursued, but apparently to her the Racerback Lizards were fair game.
We found our way to Kure Beach in the early afternoon and enjoyed some much needed sunshine, sand, and salt water. Hollie, who is normally a huge fan of swimming, wasn’t too sure about the waves and for the most part enjoyed her time on land while Stranger and I took turns jumping in to cool off. All was going well until a few local dogs came to enjoy their day on the beach. The problem with Hollie and other dogs is that Hollie has zero problems with other dogs. To the point where a dog can be biting her and she is still in play mode. For this reason I try to keep her away from dogs if I don’t know them (helicopter dog mom much?). However, Hollie doesn’t give up easily and trying to convince 45lbs of dog to not run after the ball being thrown for the other dogs quickly turns relaxation into a workout. When a third dog showed up in the area we were at we decided it was time for an early dinner. Luckily Hollie is quite content to be left alone as long as there isn’t a door handle to open and she spent dinner recouping in the tent.
Being the lover of food that I am it should come as no surprise that one of my favorite parts of being by the ocean is the fresh seafood. Stranger and I went to Michael’s seafood restaurant since I knew the food was amazing there from when my Mom and I had gone. True to memory the food was incredible. From the crab dip to the shrimp everything was melt in your mouth good. Sitting out on the patio sipping my sweet tea with a sea breeze in the air perfectly completed the dining experience. I could feel my smile easily spreading across my face while I enjoyed the picture perfect moment.
After checking and double checking on the pup we went back to the beach for one more dip in the ocean while the sun was going down. Despite the fact that I had a brush with a jellyfish this was still a great end to the day. If you’re looking for good ways to get your heart rate up just have something bump into your legs while you’re standing chest deep in the ocean. I still don’t know how I managed to not get stung, but I do know I’ve never moved that fast in the water in my life. After the jellyfish I decided to stick to walking the beach for seashells and to give the sea creatures their space for the night. After we each had found handfuls of seashells we said our goodbye to the ocean and made our way back to the car. The drive from the beach to the campground is short, but full of colorful houses and boardwalk shops that make you feeling like you’re cruising a movie set. At this point I’d say we were already much closer friends than at the start of the trip, but late talks while you watch logs burn to embers in the woods of North Carolina is a quick way to turn strangers into family.
After a good night’s rest we used the morning to enjoy sitting around the campsite. By 1pm Tuesday we were back on the road for home. The drive home was a lot of reflecting on how crazy the last few days had been and how much you learn about someone on camping trips. I can’t say I recommend taking out of state trips with someone you met only days before, but in our case it worked out quite well. A spontaneous trip to the ocean definitely has set an interesting stage for the rest of our friendship.
And for the rest of us 
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