Frustration's a Beach

[kydocfrog]

Sigh.

Just got back from annual family beach trip to Murrells's Inlet/Garden City SC. Really a very nice place, near the intercoastal, etc etc. Home of Sam's World Famous Hot Dogs Corner and arcade and really a lot more authentic (despite huricane Hugo) than some of those NC big dollar condo villages with their no walking dogs no drinking beer no riding bicyles no wearing flipflops and certaintly no skeeball machines regulations. (The town of Little River, right on the border and Southport forgiven). There is a certain, undeniable virtue to authentic tacky. It's nice place. Even has a Jimmy Buffet Margaritaville up at Myrtle Beach where I spent too much money but got a really neat parrot. But it is 15 hours from here, way to far to trailer a small boat, and it is part of the land of huge fishing machine boats. Now as a one-time industrial designer I admit there is some interesting design work in some of those fishing machines, but they don't have sails.

Frustration is a week on the southern banks with all the inland sound and waterway and no small sailboat.

Couldn't take my dog either. I hope he forgives me tomorrow.

Back to it at the college tomorrow. The defense of the West is a never ending task.

Cheers.

Docfrog

[Frank Hagan]

My wife and I are planning on visiting that area of the country (we're formulating escape plans if California gets any wackier). I have a cousin in NC, and he loves the area he's in, but it does sound like yuppie-ville along some of the communities there.

[kydocfrog]

I really shouldn't be snippy, but I still remember just camping out on the beach with a sleeping bag and a campfire on the outer banks when I was in college. I mean really, no campfires no dogwalking no bicycles, no darn-near anything??? I almost expected a sign that said coat and tie required on one beach.

I'm not a big fan of too much ticky-tacky, but I'll have to say that all the big signs with local ordinances on the NC beaches and the fact that even Cape Fear seems to have been taken over by condos and a community that you have to make a reservation on the ferry to even go out to strikes me as a bit much compared to a honest old fishing pier and Sam's Famous Corner.

I guess I'm just a crumudgeon.

DocA

[Guest Oyster]

What I am reading is total nonsense. :wink: You did not visit the banks of the Carolinas, and you do not need to tow any boat to the region. And yes you can get away from the crowds. We specialize in afternoon and evening cruises, and this time of year, fishing trips with huge success rates. I am a mail away.

[Guest Oyster]

If you enjoy canoe trips, well we can arrange one to remote island with no condos.

[Brent]

Oyster,

I got some fantastic memories and a few good pictures of a lost weekend in your corner of paradise.

[Guest Oyster]

Nice to see you pop in, Brent. I have been very busy with boats and fish. This past weekend, there was about a dozen boats out and every one had plenty of room, and the cooler was filled to the maximum level with our quota for two species. And the freezer is beginning to fill up. Mamma was very happy, to say the least. With the new boat and enclosed quarters, out third season will not end with the frost, either. All it takes is a mail. :wink:

[Guest Oyster]

The no Condo zone

[Tom Lathrop]

Frog,

There are many miles of undeveloped beaches to be found there but not many between Murrells Inlet and the NC line. Close by Murrels, there is Hunington Beach SP with lots of camping and pristine beach. In NC there is the National Seashore with many totally preserved islands like the ones Oyster showed. Further north around Okracoke and Hatteras, there is more development but still many miles of beach where you will likely not see another soul. By the time you get to Nag's Head, complete privacy gets harder to find since this is the playgound of Virginians sneaking across the border.

Fifty some years ago, I tried to take a 12 foot Aristocraft runabout out through the inlet at Murells. Big mistake. What looked like a little white water from a mile away turned out to be a never ending series of breaking waves over the bar that tried to drown me. I kept my backside in front of the exposed carburetor to keep water out of the Wizard 10 while contemplating my likely fate. Finally got brave or desperate enough to slam the boat around between waves and slinked back in, thoroughly beaten but much wiser.