I should have mentioned in the previous installment that we had Darth Vader giving us directions on the GPS the whole way down. He even tried to warn us about South of the Border. When we took the exit, we were deviating from the route that was planned on the GPS. So Darth said, “Turn around when possible. I find your lack of faith disturbing.”
Duly chastised, we headed further south on I-95. To this point, the drive had been very easy. We’d beaten the traffic around D.C. and encountered no problems on the way. Then we took the exit for Myrtle Beach and got on Rt. 501. We drove for about 5 minutes and then hit this:
My GPS has a live traffic update component. A few minutes after we hit this jam, the GPS informed me that there was a traffic delay on my route. You have failed me for the last time, Darth.
We crawled along. 5 minutes turned to 10. 10 turned to 20. We kept traveling over every rise, hoping to find whatever it was that was causing the jam and finally get past it. But it kept on going…
…for 20 miles.
There was no accident, it was just beach traffic on a Saturday afternoon. We finally passed through the town of Aynor, SC and started moving again. The volumes had been bad enough that the 2 traffic lights in Aynor had backed up traffic for the previous 20 miles.
It was now getting past 6:00 p.m. Our friends were already at the beach house and awaiting our arrival. Traffic was heavy from here all the way down to Pawleys Island, but at least we kept moving. Finally, around 6:30 or so, we drove across the causeway onto the island and found the rental house.
Remember, my kids had no idea that their friends would be here. As we pulled up, we saw our friends’ minivan parked next to the house, with the back gate open for unloading. So we quickly stopped and backed up a bit in order to put the other van out of sight behind a tree. As we would learn later, one of our friends was busy unloading the van at that moment and had heard us coming up the drive and immediately taken cover behind the van (we have that effect on a lot of people). As we backed up, she took the opportunity to race back upstairs and get ready to greet us. We parked, hustled the kids out of the van and took them up the stairs to the front door in order to get ready to spring the surprise.
We told the kids to knock on the door. Nobody moved. Then we told them to try and open it. Nobody moved. Obviously, our kids have a lot of trust in their parents.
Finally, one of us opened the door. We stepped into the room, and our friends burst out from behind a wall, saying, “Surprise!”
Our kids all just kind of stood there. They were basically trying to process the sudden appearance of extra people in the house. Sarah later said she was just thinking, “Why are my friends here?”
Eventually, they realized that we would be spending the week at the beach with our good friends, and the excitement started to pour out. But Julie and I were a little disappointed at the anti-climactic reveal of the surprise. We hoped Disney would bring out a better reaction later.
I unpacked the bags, and
Julie unpacked the cooler so she could make dinner. Pretty awesome spread, too: roast beef, potatoes, carrots...partially hydrogenated vegetable oil...polysorbate 60...yellow dye No. 5. Everything a growing boy needs. Then, as evening approached, we decided it was as good a time as any to check out the beach. Nighttime swimming, anyone?
It was getting dark, so it was a little hard to check out the scenery, but the water was amazing. I’d guess it was in the upper 70’s in temperature, close to 80. Cool enough that it felt good against the outside heat, but warm enough that you were immediately comfortable in it. As you can see, the kids thought vacation was off to a great start.
Coming Up Next: A full day at the beach! And we re-learn that some of us only come in two colors.
. 
on your way down. No beach for us tomorrow, but there may be some peach ice cream in our future.
