America 2015: Day Twenty-Eight (26 August 2015)

Home is where my heart is still beating
And I don't know when I'll see her again
I hate to see her cry when I'm leaving
But now I'm a thousand miles away again

And she feels like Carolina
Looks like California
Shining like those New York lights on Broadway
When she looks back I'm behind her
I'll always be there for her
She makes me feel like home's not so far away
She feels like Carolina

                                                                                                                   - Parmalee

Wednesday 26 August

We’ve been here and on the road for nearly a month, and today was the first day that the weather really made it hard to do what we wanted to. After another mammoth sleep, I woke up at about 9:30am and found that it was raining, with a very black sky out over the Atlantic Ocean.

According to The Weather Channel, there’d been scattered thunderstorms through the night in the Myrtle Beach area, and the rain this morning soon became another thunderstorm. The forecast was a little dire: rain and thunderstorms on and off all day long and into the night. Not exactly the best weather for hanging out at the beach!

What’s the best thing to do when the weather is bad? Go to the movies, of course! Not far from the beach is Market Common, a giant place that has all sorts of restaurants, bars, shopping and entertainment. The cinema there charged bus $5 each for a ticket to see Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. Incredibly cheap!

Even if you don’t like Tom Cruise (and I don’t), it’s hard to not be impressed with the Mission: Impossible series. The latest one is probably the best, with some epic plot twists and jaw-dropping stunts. Cruise might be a nut job in real life, but he’s a pretty good action star, and gets great support in Rogue Nation from Simon Pegg (who I think is a brilliant and vastly underrated actor), Jeremy Renner and even Alec Baldwin. It’s a fun film, and I highly recommend it.

Unfortunately, the big news of the day in this country is the shocking shooting on camera of the reporter and cameraman in Virginia, the two killed live on television by a disgruntled former colleague. The gunman then posted his own video of the event before killing himself during pursuit by police. My stomach turns thinking about the families of the two innocent people killed today, and I wonder if this event could have been somehow avoided by tighter gun laws, like we have in Australia.

President Obama and presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton have both spoken out today about the incident and about gun control laws, but I really doubt anything is going to be seriously done. There’s too much pushback from people who believe more people carrying weapons is going to help the situation. As many pro-gun control supporters as there are on this issue, there are just as many who think nothing should change. I wonder exactly what sort of massacre it’s going to take for the hardliners to change their stance?

Not for the first time whilst observing America and the way things are done here, I’m glad to be an Australian. I enjoy coming here, but I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else by home.

Quiet dinner tonight at Applebee’s, and a good chance to catch up on my blogging and sort out all the photos I’ve taken in the last few days.