Hunting Island State Park
The beach along Hunting Island State Park stretches on for 5 miles, a fine grained sand that, where it has been saturated by a receding tide, becomes so compact that it’s bikeable. After I arrived and set up camp at about 3 p.m., I walked a couple miles of it. The wind was gusting 25+ mph, creating patterns and sculptures among the dunes. Everywhere that a shell, or a tuft of grass, or a piece of wood lay, the sand and wind crafted something around it. Footprints disappeared in short order as the shifting surface constantly reinvented itself. The husks of horseshoe crabs dotted an area beyond the beach among the dunes.
On my walk I found a perfect sand dollar with a star in the middle. Then I found two more, one with a little fuzz from the creature who had constructed this home, now dying inside after washing ashore. I tossed it back into the sea in case he was still ticking. I wish sand dollars were legal currency on the beach. I also found a kind of shell I hadn’t seen on Edisto Island, which seems odd given I’m only 15 miles from Edisto by sea. I think it’s called a shark’s eye.
Hunting Island State Park is beautiful. I think it’s the best one yet. I can’t believe my luck.
On the drive here today, I saw a sign heading into a small town that read in huge letters, “Stump Man.” And below that in smaller print, “You find ‘em I’ll grind ‘em!”
Are people just out finding stumps and thinking, “This thing has got to go! But I wonder who I can call?”
I read some news today. The Super Bowl is happening, but I’ll miss it this year. I don’t love football (it’s ok), but I love a spectacle, and I enjoy creative advertising, and the Super Bowl is the crown jewel of that. Sometimes I think I would have made a good advertising copywriter. I do some of that in my job, and always seem to enjoy it, but back when I was in school I felt like working in advertising would be akin to joining the dark side. Fading idealism aside, though, I don’t think I would have lasted long. Those people seem to work excess hours and I would have burned out fast.
Also in the news was the trial of Alex Murdaugh, a lawyer from a prominent southern family who murdered (presumably) his wife and son, then later paid someone to assassinate him in a botched attempt. The BBC reported that people have come from all over the country to watch this trial in the small town of Walterboro, SC, in the county of Colleton. Wait a minute… I’m in Colleton county. The trial was happening just 40 miles away.
A witness testified that his wife, Maggie, had been at their beach home on Edisto Island the night she was murdered. Her husband had asked her to come home so that he could kill her, apparently. His reasoning was that he had been embezzling millions from his family’s law firm and was about to be found out, and he figured the death of his wife and son would take the focus off him. That doesn’t seem like very good logic coming from a prominent lawyer. No doubt that if there isn’t a podcast yet, it’s coming soon. What a monster.
A New Yorker feature on the trial, “The Corrupt World Behind the Murdaugh Murders,” details an interesting history of the region, showing how slavery eventually led to its downfall, making it one of the poorest counties in the nation:
“Rice plantations, dependent on slave labor, had given way to cotton, corn, and soy—crops that depleted the soil. The land, further leached of nutrients by chemical fertilizers, was eventually too poor for much besides the loblolly pines, clusters of which stood on the flat scrub, awaiting the chainsaw. With the loss of agricultural jobs, local lawmakers struggled to attract other industries. Medical-waste disposal, tire grinding, and other grim occupations joined the logging and pulping trades…“
It’s a strange coincidence to be in close proximity to two major headlines of the week—the Chinese spy balloon shot down practically over my head, and a double murder trial in the same county.
Issue: I really did pull something behind my knee the other night at 5 in the morning while trying to jack up the camper in the rain. I was squatting down, I stood up, and something felt like it tore. It was a quick, sharp pain, and now it’s a dull one, and my leg feels weaker. It’s just incredible. Standing up is now a hazard. The thing is, I go to the gym 4 days a week. I stretch every time I’m there. I can touch beyond my toes, bike 25 miles, and hike a dozen more. My thought about this injury is that if standing up is what did it, whatever that was in my body that broke can find a way to heal itself or stay broken. I’m done thinking about it. If it’s going to act like that, I don’t need it. Bad attitudes like that just won’t be tolerated, leg.
Note: If you camp at Hunting Island, sites 128-147 are your best bet with an RV for Starlink. If you’re purely here for vacation, any site will do.
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