Crawl Home

Well, we're back in Beverly and as much fun as we had down in Hilton Head, it's good to be back. Not sure if I'll be saying that tomorrow at work, but that's okay. The drive back was definitely tougher than the drive down. Here's a quick summary of the week:

• Lots of pool and beach time. Our resort had a nice little pool and the kids had a blast in it. We hit it almost every day we were there. We traveled 10 minutes across the island to the Monarch Resort to go to the beach. I was surprised that the waves weren't as strong as at Brigantine Beach near Atlantic City. Still, it was a nice beach and we had fun boogie boarding and just hanging out. We went yesterday and the lifeguards were keeping folks out of the water because an alligator was sighted. They had a guy come to try and catch it, but he didn't have any luck. We were allowed to swim further down the beach, but later they made everyone get out because a big storm was on the horizon.
• Holy sweltering humidity. We took full advantage of the AC because it was super muggy down there, as you would expect. I went for a 9-mile run yesterday and felt like I was wading through soup. Tough stuff. Kudos to bro-in-law Matt, who did a 16-miler and looked none the worse for wear afterwards. He's training for a 50k trail run (approx. 31 miles) in October, so he's in good shape already.
• Snuck in some golf. Matt and I played 18 at Planters Row, one of three Port Royal courses. It wasn't very busy because this was the last week before school starts down there. We weren't complaining. We were paired up with a couple of guys from Indy and got through our round in 4 hours. Matt hadn't played in three years and I hadn't played in six weeks, so neither of us was very sharp, but we had fun. We spotted several gators in the various water hazards, plus a family of raccoons running across the fairway on one hole. I had one interesting shot with my 6 iron when the club head snapped off and went half as far as the ball. Guess I'll finally have to buy a set of clubs; I've been using my dad's old set from 1990.
• Field recording. I managed to find some time Thursday night to record a conversation with Matt for the podcast. We talked about how he has a Red Sox fan married a Yankees fan and all the friendly rivalry that ensued. I plan to put the show together tomorrow or Tuesday.
• Endless driving. As I noted earlier, it was a tough ride home. Unlike our trip down South, we both struggled a bit with the whole staying awake thing. We left at 4:30 p.m. yesterday and hit some serious traffic as we were leaving HH because of an accident, but that was it. Deb drove until 10:30 and I took over near the NC line, driving us into Maryland. We switched again at 3 and Deb could only last about an hour before turning it back to me. And we kinda went back and forth the rest of the way, getting home at 11 a.m. Fueled by my first iced coffee ever, I drove the last stretch from past Hartford to Beverly. Crashed upstairs for several hours this afternoon. Tomorrow should be interesting.