I hadn't intended to spend time at the shore until I reached Florida but I met a nice older couple from Massachusetts at South of the Border who convinced me to change my plans. They had just come from Myrtle Beach and the water temperature, they said, was 70 degrees. This was quite welcome news to me; the water at the Long Island beaches that I usually visit a couple of times a summer isn't that warm in August and here it was, only mid-May.

So, I crossed a stay in Charleston, S.C. off my list, left South of the Border behind me and made straight for the beach. I spent Sunday night at Myrtle Beach and on Monday, I traveled further south to Hunting Island. Myrtle Beach is beautiful, if a little over-developed; the campgrounds have names like Pirateland and Apache Cove and thousands of spaces and high nightly fees. I opted to travel away from the glitz a couple of miles south to Myrtle Beach State Park. It was only 15 dollars a night and every bit as nice as the commercial parks up the road. And the state park was right on the water; I could hear the waves crashing on the shore from my tent that night. I walked out on the long fishing pier and marveled at the full moon. It really was quite an inspiring sight. I haven't spent much time at the ocean in my lifetime, growing up, as I did, in land-locked Oklahoma City, and I can spend hours just gazing out from shore. A few miles to my left were the lights of the Myrtle Beach hotels, but here, it was just the moon, a cool ocean breeze, a couple of fisherman and me.

As much as I enjoyed my stay at Myrtle Beach, Hunting Island was near paradise. I tented at the state park there as well; it was just as nice, just as reasonably priced and much more remote than Myrtle Beach. I sat on the beach in the evening, around 9:30 or 10, and it was as beautiful as anything I ever hope to see. The moon, just a sliver short of full, was rising, brilliant orange, on the horizon; just above it, a tinge of purple was splashed across the sky. The heavens were ablaze with a million stars, such as I haven't seen since summer nights back in Oklahoma (no place, I'm convinced, has more stars than Oklahoma). The lights of Myrtle Beach had overwhelmed many of the stars, keeping them from view, but Hunting Island is more remote, so that the stars shine in all their glory. I fear, though, that my words are sorely insufficient to capture the scene; it was truly breathtaking, something I'll remember all my days. After awhile, I began to converse with a couple in their early 60s who had already been sitting on the boardwalk when I arrived. They make regular visits from their home in Michigan to this beautiful spot and were, I think, pleased and somewhat amused at my enthusiastic reaction to the scene spread before us. At one point, three animals came running across the beach right in front of us; in the dark, I first assumed they were dogs, but no, in the light of the woman's flashlight, I saw they were deer. It's funny; I never expected to see deer at the shore, but what a delightful surprise.

There's something about the ocean at night that I find terribly romantic, especially on such a moonlit night as this one. One could see every wave as it crashed on the shore and the miles and miles out to the horizon, too. It made me think about the men who lived their lives on the sea in centuries past, who gazed out at these same waves and that same moon, dreaming of being home, snug in their beds, nestled in the warmth of their wives' embrace, always fearful that they had stood on solid ground for the last time.

I found Hunting Island to be a truly magical place; I could easily have stayed another week or two. I heartily recommend it to anyone who desires to get away from it all for a few days. Mention my name after sundown; you'll get a good seat on the beach.

Continue on the American Odyssey.
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