Jenny and I returned from the South Carolina coast with a much better understanding of 18th- and 19th-century U.S. history and lifestyles — which has come in handy now that we’re without electricity.
And since we were based in Murrells Inlet, “Seafood Capital of South Carolina,” and also had plenty of opportunities to explore lowcountry cooking, I came back with a few extra pounds (can’t speak for Jenny in that regard) in addition to even more knowledge about Francis Marion and rice and indigo cultivation.
(All our former history teachers will be happy to know, however, that we were discussing Marion — the Swamp Fox — even before taking several historical tours mentioning South Carolina’s most famous Revolutionary War guerilla).
The Revolutionary War came up a few times during the trip, but not really as ancient history. To say the South Carolina coast is steeped in history is like saying it has a few waterways. We saw dozens, maybe even hundreds of homes built in the 1730s; anything built after the Civil War is probably considered modern.
But we managed to avoid crashing banner planes, got out just ahead of tropical depression Cristobal (“It’s more than likely just going to be a rain event,” a weatherman was quoted. “Of course, sometimes they turn into hurricanes”) and generally had another wonderful time. Here are some highlights.
• On the road — Got some mixed messages from a Trinity Pentecostal Chapel van bearing hot-pink signs that we passed in Indiana; went through Cross Lanes, West Virginia for the first time in more than 20 years; discovered that the state of Virginia is vastly underrated in the list of states with the best scenery; and noticed a couple of franchised eateries we weren’t familiar with like Zaxby’s (“Real Chicken”) and Bojangles (chicken and biscuits). For my next money-making venture I plan to open a Myrtle Beach Welcome Center, because there actually are a few hundred square feet within a 60-mile radius of that city that don’t have one yet.
We also got a big laugh at our West Virginia motel along the way when it listed directions on how to use its shower. Then the next day I needed those directions.
• Seafood — We cheated for our first taste and stopped at Bonefish Grill, which immediately vaulted near the top of our favorite-franchises list. So Alaskan char (very tasty) and wolf fish aren’t really South Carolina products. Wolf fish is, however, the ugliest, scariest thing I’ve ever eaten (and one of the most delicious). Google it if you want to see for yourself.
More typical of the area was shrimp creole and flounder Roosevelt (stuffed with lobster) the following night. Locally harvested fish — lots of creek shrimp — were everywhere.
• Sightseeing — The best tourist bargain I’ve ever seen is a place called Brookgreen Gardens that was just a couple of miles from where we stayed. It’s a sculpture garden, had a nationally acclaimed exhibit of other sculpture while we were there, has a trekker tour of a couple of old plantations (good thing my back didn’t act up this trip), a boat tour of some of the old rice fields and a zoo. There are 9,100 acres in all, one ticket is good for a week, and we didn’t have time to see everything even in two stops there.
Also toured Georgetown, a little town of about 8,000 people that’s the third-oldest city in the U.S. During the height of indigo growing, it had more millionaires than the rest of the colonies combined; claims to have more ghosts per capita than any other city; has its own river walk (most towns there have one) along the nation’s shortest (7 miles) and one of its deepest (30 feet at the wharf) river, the Sampin, which is how it got to be a major colonial shipping port; and has a couple of fantastic little restaurants.
And in Georgetown we learned why the Carolina blue color is so popular. It wards off evil spirits (hain’ts and hexes) because its the color of the sky that keeps those spirits out of heaven, and it also repels mud daubers, flies, moths, spiders and other insects, which is why it’s the color of just about every porch ceiling in the Carolinas.
We also drove to Charleston for more history and more food. It will probably be our starting point if we get to South Carolina again. Jenny got a rose there made from palmetto leaves.
• Lowcountry cooking — When we went to Charleston we found a place I’d seen on the Food Channel, but got there between lunch and dinner hours (although we did see proof that its cantaloupe are fresh). That was OK, though, because we found the Hominy Grill instead and I had the best dish of the trip; it was called chicken country captain, chicken over rice in a tomato curry sauce with currants and almonds. Their buttermilk pie is pretty good too.
Lowcountry cooking also includes plenty of grits, which was OK with Jenny. She had plenty of vegetables (and remember, in the South macaroni and cheese is a vegetable) and I had some andouille sausage with red beans and rice at the Goat Island Grill in Georgetown that was great too. Also ate collard greens for the first time, and had some sweet corn muffins that really should have been dessert instead of bread.
• Other food — Had some good Carolina barbecue one night, which was also our first time enjoying an early-bird special (yes, we’re old). And Greg Jennings will be interested to know that the imitator (or predecessor) to In-N-Out Burger in the eastern U.S. is Five Guys Burgers and Fries — same simple menu, burgers not as good but hand-cut fries maybe a little better. The prices look high until you watch them load your bag.
• Other stuff — The SBB Lounge joins Jenny’s list of favorite unprintable names; would have enjoyed our trip to Comedy Cabana a little more if it weren’t for the two-bad-drinks minimum; and thankfully had no kids with us and thus avoided arguments about why we couldn’t get a free hermit crab or a live turtle at the souvenir shops.
I never did figure out shag dancing (it’s the state dance) or why the area is called the Grand Strand, which leaves us unfinished business for a later trip. I do know why the town is called Myrtle Beach, however.
And those banner planes (the ones that pull advertising banners behind them above the beaches)? The one that landed upside down in a guy’s yard while we were there was the third one this summer that had crashed, and if you’ve been to Myrtle Beach you’ll no doubt have the same question that I asked myself: there’s a guy near the beach who has a yard big enough for a plane to fall into?
Andy Amey can be reached after 4 p.m. for comments or news items at (812) 231-4277 or at 1-800-783-8742; by e-mail at andy.amey@tribstar.com; by mail at P.O. Box 149, Terre Haute, 47808; or by fax at (812) 231-4321.
Amey Takes Aim
Amey Takes Aim: Feelin’ great in the Palmetto state
- Amey Takes Aim
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Amey Takes Aim: NHL playoffs to put TVs to good use
If Jenny had known, she probably wouldn’t have bought that TV.
But four or five years ago, my Fathers Day present — for those unfamiliar with Amey family traditions, the Fathers Day one is “let’s get something we all really want and pretend it’s a gift for Dad” — was a 42-inch Vizio. It’s been used even more than the cell phone I never would have bought for myself, or the TomTom that disappeared since Jenny’s smartphone arrived.
And it came with high-def.
I’m not going to insult you by telling you how great high-def is, because to do so would be to imply that you are even farther behind the technological curve than I am. I’m guessing, however, that not all of you have yet discovered what it does for hockey. -
Amey Takes Aim: Can’t bottle the joy of Amey vacations
The first bad sign was the Gatorade bottle.
In the Bataan-Death-March drive to Orlando that got the Amey family spring break vacation off to a bad start, seeing it between lanes of I-24 — as we zipped along at a 100-miles-in-five-hours clip — filled with an ominous yellow liquid was a little bit scary. And although we didn't stop to check for sure, I'm fairly certain I knew about its contents.
And the person stuck in the same traffic jam with us, the one with the existential license plate YMIHR4, couldn’t have asked a more pertinent question.
But, after seeing a lot more of Oak Grove, Ky., than we’d planned, and after enduring more traffic slowdowns in Nashville, we were on our way. Even some rain in the dark in the Smokies didn’t slow us down much, so you would think our first-day troubles were over.
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ANDY AMEY: Farewell to basketball
I believe you’ve heard me say before — just about a year ago, perhaps — that a boys high school basketball season that ends with the Tribune-Star in Bankers Life Fieldhouse can’t be considered a bad one, which is why we have a little celebrating to do thanks to the Linton Miners.
Lover of irony that I am, I’ve also got to point out that this season was another branch sprouting from the Wabash Valley’s most legendary coaching tree, that of Joe Hart.
Joe never got much credit for his work at Dugger, but he took Brody Boyd, Clark Golish and the Bulldogs to a state championship game in 2000, and since then three of his former players — Joe Pigg, Clint Swan and now Joey Hart, his son — also have coached teams in the final game of the season.
Joe probably wishes he could take credit for Doc Nash, another down-home type who gave a banjo lesson earlier Saturday in leading Borden past a bigger, more athletic Triton team (banjo lesson is a Howard Sharpism, for you younger readers), but his lineage is still the best I can think of around here. -
AMEY TAKES AIM: Maroons, Rox final a true Classic
I don’t make predictions nearly as often as I used to, but I had one several months ago that was proven correct last week.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Nitpicking aside, West Vigo Hall of Fame selections spot on
I can’t imagine a better first class of inductees into the West Vigo High School Athletics Hall of Fame than the one that was feted Saturday night in the Jim Mann Green Dome.
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Tough bunch of people
I’m getting my warm clothes ready for a trip to Linton this week, and if a few thrills from the Miners, Casey or North Vermillion happen the next couple of weeks, I hope I get to see them.
But high school football is over in Vigo County for the season — as coach Chris Barrett of Terre Haute North said, prematurely — and I’m sadder to see it go than usual.
Walking the sidelines and doing midweek or postgame interviews enables me to meet quite a few of the guys whose names you are about to read, and haven’t been more impressed than I was this fall. What outstanding groups of young men. What a tough, tough bunch of people.
Many know that one of my favorite athletic adjectives appeared consecutively in the previous sentence. -
AMEY TAKES AIM: A weekend to remember with ISU’s ’72 football team
They’re all still pretty hale and hearty, the boys of the fall of 1972 who returned to campus over the weekend to honor their former football coach.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: ISU reunion raises more questions than answers
One of the wrestlers I used to hang out with occasionally claimed to be a pretty good second-story man — although he may have just been talking, since I never saw any of the goods — and it was with him in mind that I was able to get access to the Indiana State Wrestling Alumni Reunion late Saturday night.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Deciding not to ‘vacate’ during ‘vacation’ – & other ventures
Flaunting the law, setting a bad example for the kids in other ways, grooming and acquiring dogs … not a typical Amey family vacation, but an appreciated one just the same.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Huntsville’s Stars, Havoc take back seat to GGS
The second-best thing about the Amey family’s spring-break trip to Huntsville, Ala., is that we left a lot of things on the table to do the next time we’re down there.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Rox well represented on Amey teams
If having the state finals in town makes it a successful girls high school basketball season, then certainly having a team to follow at the state finals makes it a very successful boys high school basketball season . . .
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AMEY TAKES AIM: A feeling of pride, not disappointment, comes from watching Rox play
It’s not going to come as a startling admission that I — once the rest of the local opposition has been eliminated from consideration — am an unabashed fan of whatever team the Wabash Valley sends onward in postseason high school sports competition.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: This private school plays basketball the right way
Any girls high school basketball season that ends with state championship games in Hulman Center is a pretty good one — even though I wished I’d seen Riverton Parke and Seeger knock off a couple of private schools the week before to even the public school-private school battle a little bit.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Even 2 of state’s best once had doubts
Look at them now.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Getting ready for the dance
Terre Haute North got the good news Sunday night — or did it?
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Harrowing path for state hopefuls
The bad news is that the winner of Class 4A Sectional 13 in boys basketball heads northeast instead of southeast for regional play in March — to Hinkle Fieldhouse instead of Seymour as a result of Indiana High School Athletic Association’s changes.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: A superior all-star arrangement
I don’t work on Wednesdays, so I wasn’t able to attend the first Wabash Valley Football Coaches Association draft last week to set up the annual all-star game that will be June 23 this year.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: The biggest & baddest of a holiday classic
There are more things to love about the Pizza Hut Wabash Valley Classic than could fit in this newspaper, but one of this year’s best things was that for an hour or so on Wednesday, it was Justin Paddock’s world and we were just living in it.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Taking note of ISU’s latest football win
The biggest difference I’ve noticed, as I transition from the high school football beat to quasi-official status as the Indiana State football beat writer for a few weeks, is the length of the games.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: IHSAA playoff draw not as bad as it could have been
First reaction to the Indiana sectional football pairings drawn late Sunday by the Indiana High School Athletic Association? It could have been a lot worse.
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ANDY AMEY: Between the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame & a hard place
Just in case any of you noticed — with some anticipation — the recent lack of my bylines, I can tell you that your wish (and mine) did come true. It was vacation week for the Amey family.
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Amey Takes Aim: UFC fighter’s bloodines traced back to ISU brothers
As a mild-mannered reporter from a great metropolitan newspaper — or thereabouts — I admit I haven’t paid much attention to the burgeoning mixed martial arts scene.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Predators’ win is music to new fan’s ears
For many, many years, the number of live games televised on WGN has been cited as perhaps the main reason for the popularity of the Chicago Cubs (it’s got to be something besides masochism, right?).
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AMEY TAKES AIM: You’ll be having a good ol’ time on vacation with the Ameys
When one of the first people you meet is Tammy Wynette’s stepdaughter, when you’ve stepped on the feet of people you haven’t met while trying to navigate Ernest Tubbs’ old Silver Eagle tour bus, and when the activities director of your resort is, well, Elvis, you might be vacationing in Nashville.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: The Annual All-Amey basketball teams close out the prep season
The most encouraging boys high school basketball event I’ve attended so far in 2011 has been the Lafayette Semistate a couple of weeks ago.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Family remembers Cheryl Weatherman as caring grandmother
As far as Riley and Keely Davis are concerned, Cheryl Weatherman was simply their grandmother, and a pretty darn good one at that.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Honor to see Turkey Run girls close out memorable career
I don’t know if anyone in this part of the state could actually say they enjoy going to Fort Wayne and back, but I was glad to see the Turkey Run Warriors play one last time during the girls basketball state finals Saturday.
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So many matches, so many favorites
Go ahead, ask me anything about the 224 wrestlers who competed last week at the Indiana state finals — or at least about the 112 wrestlers who survived Saturday’s first round.
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ANDY TAKES AIM: A sportwriters’s lament: Oh, the games we missed
I was already tired of winter by the time that first bitterly cold snap passed through in mid-December, so it’s safe to say the season hasn’t grown on me.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Time of the season for teams to tough it out
In the last month or so I figure I’ve seen at least four boys high school basketball teams with legitimate state-championship dreams as the season heads into its dog days.
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