America 2015: Day Thirty-Three (31 August 2015)

Kisses sweeter than Tupelo honey
Little bit crazy like New Orleans
Memphis blue and Daytona sunny
Soft as cotton in some cut-off jeans
Don't you know,
Ain't nothing in the whole wide world
Like a southern girl

                                                                                                  - Tim McGraw

Monday 31 August

Thankfully, the weather was much better this morning when I woke up. To be honest, it couldn’t have been much worse! We learnt that the worst of the tropical storm had broken up before hitting Florida with any sort of real malice, but North Charleston and Hilton Head Island were both featured on the news for having had huge dumps of rain overnight and into the early morning.

We’ve been here for one day and one month now, having arrived in Los Angeles on 30 July (and don’t remind me about the horrible red eye experience!) but it seems longer, simply because of all the things we’ve packed in since. Just thinking about Saturday’s on this trip, and there’s a pretty solid vacation contained within: Kenny Chesney on August 1; the #LoveMeLonghini Wedding on August 8; Nashville on August 15; the Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway on August 22; and, finally, a great day – well, before I got hellishly sick, anyway – in Charleston on August 29.

Today is our first full day of two in Hilton Head, and our fourth last day. After breakfast, we hopped on our bikes and, following the instructions from the guys who hired us the bikes yesterday, rode up the beach towards Mile Marker 38, before turning inland and following the trails through to Harbourtown, which is the most photographed part of the entire island, with the lighthouse and marina. Google Hilton Head Island and I’m reasonably certain that most of the photos you’ll see are of that area.

 

Riding along the beach is fantastic. It’s obviously flat and very wide. You just have to point your bike in the right direction and go for it. The views are pretty spectacular, too. Once you get off the sand, you don’t have to fight with traffic, because of the excellent network of pathways. It’s a really easy and pleasant ride, flat all the way, and because it’s after the peak season, there aren’t many people competing for space on the sometimes-narrow trails.

I ate an awesome burger at Harbourtown, and washed it down with a nice Bud Light. The humidity made it a pretty sweaty ride up from Coligny Beach where our accommodation is, but a nice one nonetheless. The stop for lunch came just at the right time. The views were very nice, despite the heavy cloud cover that seemed destined to hang around all day.

Except it didn’t. In the late afternoon, most of the clouds cleared away, the sun came out and it was a beautiful end to the day. I took the opportunity to go swimming, first in the hotel’s pool – they have a basketball net on the edge of one of the pool, and you can shoot hoops from the water – and then in the ocean, which was warm but not exactly a nice colour, after all the mess down south.

 

Nonetheless, I can see why people flock here in their thousands throughout the summer. It’s very beautiful, and the locals we’ve spoken to say that the weather is normally warm and dry throughout the peak months. I reckon it’d be hellishly crazy here though, when everyone comes in during school holidays. Thankfully, there’s plenty of beach space to go around.

The Beach House has a really good restaurant – and a nice bar, perched right on the edge of the sand, too – that specialises in southern food. Had some amazing buttermilk chicken with beans, carrots and homemade slaw last night. Perfect way to end a good day!