Tuesday, May 26, 2015

May 22, 2015 Myrtle Beach State Park "They Paved Paradise..."

I arrived at Myrtle Beach State Park on Highway 17 (it is known as Kings Highway) from the South, having gone through Georgetown and Pawley's Island.  It is 3 miles south of Myrtle Beach where 400,000 vacationers are visiting this weekend. It is Biker Week as well as Memorial Day Weekend.

Have I lost my mind?  I have been invited to join a friend at one of the South Carolina at the Riviera style resorts that have grown up like fire ant hills along this once beautiful and pristine coast.

Myrtle Beach State Park has attempted to capture and preserve something of the maritime forest that once flourished here.  The park is 326 acres, has a fishing pier, camping and even some cabins, a Nature Center and Activity Center.

There are but two short trails: Sculptured Oak and Yaupon.  For me, the map that I get from the Park Office is confusing, so I take the entrance to Yaupon which leads into the forest from behind Shelter B-6 which is the last picnic shelter on the road next to the pier and the ocean.  Go to the pier and turn right to find it.  The trail is a tiny refuge from the insanity of Myrtle Beach.  Underfoot is packed white sand and pine needles, good to walk on. Little sapsucker woodpeckers live here in the winter. They leave accurately straight lines of holes in the trees.  There are Yaupon Holley trees in this forest. Native Americans made a kind of tea from the little oval leaves which contain caffeine. I took just a few to make my own tea at home.

The forest is filled with the intoxicating fragrance of magnolia.  Yaupon connects with Sculptured Oak and passes a pond before it comes out again near the Park Office.

I have had the trail all to myself, a short , peaceful walk before what is to come:  the 400,000 people, the bikers zooming in and out on the highway, the endless outlets and souvenir stores, the buffets with snow crab legs, sea food, fried chicken and chocolate fountains.

Soon, I am in traffic jams and become enthralled with the bikers, especially the women with their own bikes, their long red hair flowing behind them in the wind, their 5 inch heels.

I am going to a resort in the North 80's, so I take a look down North 77th street where my father once bought a small one story house with two bedrooms, large living room and kitchen-dining area.  It had a
carport in the back with a one room bedroom attached.  It was on the last street where there were houses or other development back then.  Where there are now high rises, we roamed the sandy open space where we named our places "wood fort, thorn valley and thorn hill".  In my mind's eye, I can see it all, my mother, my father, my sister and brother, my cousins, "Nellie", my dog.

How it all has changed.

Big Yellow Taxi

They paved paradise
and put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
And a swinging hot spot.

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
'Til it's gone.

They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot......

Joni Mitchel

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