Myrtle Beach, SC
2:22 AM
There have been numerous times on the journey where I was in awe at where I was and what I was doing. I had that feeling when I walked into NASA, when I spent the day at the Arkansas Supreme Court, when I bunked at the Fairfax Count Fire House, and many more. In Myrtle Beach I had another awe moment, on a different scale.
I drove in from Wilmington on Friday and headed down to Pawley’s Island for a prewedding thing on the beach. It turned most of the people had not arrived yet, so I get to spend a lot of time with Scott, the groom, and his inner circle. He and I had gone to grad school, but I had never met his family. It is always a good thing when you get to meet those closest to people. They were all very nice. His older brothers reminded me of mine.
They had 2 houses on the ocean. We hung out on the beach and I met a lot of new people. I stayed there from 2 until about 5, when they had to get ready for the rehearsal dinner. I made my way north to Myrtle so I could meet up with my host, Tony, a friend of my sister and her fiancée from Rochester. He had just moved down to go to grad school. I had met him on numerous occasions, but Bryan set up me crashing there.
Tony was out, so I did some typing for a while and we met up at his apartment at about 7. His roommates were there. Nice guys, Steve and Tyler were also generous in letting a stranger take over their living room floor. They were a lot like me, into golf and sports. The Boston-Yankees series was on.
As I was driving from Pawley’s to Myrtle, I passed and was next do a ton of Harley’s. At a gas station I asked about it and they told me, “It’s bike week.” I may have a Harley T-shirt that my brother gave me after he went to a conference, but I don’t epitomize the stereotypical Harley man. I prepared for bikers and biker chicks.
I threw my stuff at Tony’s and he and I left to hit the town. He seemed to be well adjusted in just a short time. We went over and picked up Aaron, and headed over to Broadway at the Beach. They had a Stool Pigeon’s there and we went in. We had a beer and I was starving. I had a philly cheese steak. The Yanks and Sox finished up with the Sox winning a close one. Aaron seemed like the mayor. Numerous people gave him a wave, a fist bump or a hug.
We met up with some guys from Pittsburgh who were in town for some sports radio stuff. It sounded like they were having a great time.
My awe moment came at about midnight, as I stood in the House of Blues, surrounded by bikers and staring on stage up at the Metal Legends. In long hair and streamer like things was David Lee Roth and the Van Halen boys, belting out their hits. Following them was the intense music and voice of AC/DC. They rocked it hard and the leather vests on the floor bobbed and weaved. My jeans and button down shirt did not fit in, but we were into the music and it was awesome. TNT, Noise Pollution, Hells Bells, they played them all. And I rocked it out. The beer may have affected me, or it could have been the music, but I was ready to get out, hop on my Harley and go cruising.
The music died down and there was some talk of a ballet club, but I did my part to nix that, and we headed to another Stool Pigeon’s. There was some girl talk, but mainly it was sports and golf. Tony and I got home not too long ago. My breath reeks of Miller Lite, but I type.
I learned that people want to have a good time. It doesn’t matter if you are a biker or a rapper or a button down wearer, we all want to relax, kick back and get lost in the moment. I never expected to be hanging with the boys at Bike Week, but we did it and it was awesome.
Time for bed and some golf tomorrow.