Anywhere, like the beach
This is how you begin a vacation.
You wake at 5:30 and are out the door at 6:30. You make it from D.C. to the island side of the Wright Bridge in five hours. Your drive includes clear skies, the usual peach frozen yogurt by roadside, a talking Exxon gas pump, no real traffic, and few speed traps. The one pull-over you see on the highway involves a cop in an undercover black Challenger.
Arriving, you and your little brother get burgers at Five Guys, fast even. You find a quality bluesman playing outside K-Mart. You see The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, and you believe Denzel redeems it. You hear from the manager at your apartment building that crazy weather has attacked your windows, but they're having them replaced today. You hear from Comcast that they care about your appointment in a week. On the car radio, you find the island alternative station, the one that turned you on last year to that Wilco song you'd never before, and you hear the voice of that really amazing girl who lived in your dorm freshman year and who's famous now. You drive 30 down the beach road with the windows and roof open. You find the old go-kart place is still around.
Waiting for the rental keys, you park and walk through the wooden mall by the dunes, past the waveboards, past the badass kites and cheap flip-flops and branded island merchandise until you find the new store out back where you buy the shirt that says, "Optimism can take you anywhere," and the design is weirdly good enough to pull it off. You find your brother buying lemonade down the way at The Fudgery, and a kid hands you a sample. You take this as a sign to buy fudge.
You pull in the driveway at the house, unload bag after bag over the sand, greet the ocean on the porch, and alternate between drinking a Blue Moon and trying to capture the drive before you forget it.
July 3rd, 2009 at 9:41 PM
[...] said it before, but turning it on just once this week made me wish I'd driven more around the island [...]
August 30th, 2009 at 10:15 AM
[...] a terrific mood in late June, I went out of mind and said Denzel's performance in the remake of Taking of Pelham 123 saved the movie. Upon seeing the [...]