South Carolina - Day 0 - Back at It

3/25/16, “Back at It”

LaGuardia Airport, New York (LGA)

It has been six weeks since I have last written here.  In that time, I have not left New York State.  In fact, I don’t believe I have been more than 50 miles from my apartment.  Not much has happened in the past six weeks, but so much has.  I suppose it would be more accurate to say that what has transpired over the past six weeks is merely the logical continuation of what I recounted in my entries from Peru.  The presidential race has played out exactly as would have been predicted based on its state and events that I recounted six weeks ago.  Whatever has occurred in my personal and work life could easily have been predicted from what I recounted six weeks ago.

I have seen a bunch of movies, stayed up late many (every?) Tuesday nights watching the election returns, and, other than last weekend, my weekends were spent much the same way as the weekend before I left for Florida.  I spent most weekends working, and I had breakfast at McDonald’s every weekend morning.  Last weekend, I finally saw my parents again upon their return from Florida.  It was the first time in over a month that I had slept somewhere other than my apartment.  That must have been a record.

Now, I’m back at it.  This weekend South Carolina, next weekend New Mexico, the weekend after Belgium.  Oh, yes, Belgium, the tragic events in Brussels of Tuesday.  I will address that from Antwerp.  Undeterred by terror, that trip will continue.  I have never cancelled a trip out of terror before, and I will not let those attacks deter me.  It was a very unadventurous Day 0.  I had gone to see the new DC movie last night.  For my non-comic fans, that does not mean a movie set in our nation’s capital.  It was as bad as the reviews promised, and it has the potential to tank the entire DC Cinematic Universe.  Besides, I’m not yet ready to forgive Ben Affleck, and he is not a good Batman, not at all.  Jesse Eisenberg, though, makes the perfect Lex Luthor.  He’s come a long way from playing Mark Zuckerberg.  However, it was a late showing, so it was about 3 AM by the time I finally got to sleep, and I hadn’t packed yet.

Pack.  By that I mean throw a few cigars and clothes into my computer bag and pack up my sleep machine.  This is a weekend in South Carolina, not a week in South America.  I lit up a cigar while I packed and would drop it off at the cigar store on my way to work.  I had a very productive day, and I was planning on doing my usual (well, not so usual anymore) pre-departure lunch at Hop Won.

One of the inspectors asked me what I was doing for lunch.  One thing led to another, and we wound up having a (dry) lunch at an Irish pub a block from the office.  That took up the whole hour, so I didn’t have time to finish my cigar.  I finished up at work and got ready to leave, only for the front zipper to break.  I would not have time to get a new bag.  I went to the cigar store to finish my cigar and caught a taxi to LGA.  I had the TSA PreCheck printed on my boarding pass, so I breezed through security.  I headed to my gate, reflecting on Donald Trump’s recent comments (similar to those previously made by Vice President Biden) that LGA resembled a third world airport.  I thought about all my trips to the third world.  They have many airports that are nicer than LGA.

I got to the gate and went to take a picture of the departure sign, only to be told by the gate agent, for the first time, in any airport, anywhere in the world, that I couldn’t take a picture of the sign.  I took the picture anyway and made a face that was more appropriate to an emoji than a human being.  I then set down across from the gate, where I proceeded to write this entry, which I will now close.  This will be my third trip to South Carolina, and I will reflect on the details of those previous trips tonight from the capital.

Columbia, South Carolina

Until today, I never quite realized that South Carolina is in the heart of the South.  Sure, I knew all the demographics, so much of which had been drilled into my head by CNN commentators last month.  Sure I knew the geography.  At least, in theory, I knew it was in the South, but my two previous trips had taken me to the touristy areas, the white, rich touristy areas along the coast: Hilton Head Island, Charleston, and Fort Sumter.  That is not representative of South Carolina.  Once I walked into the McDonald’s, I knew I was in the heart of the South.  When I asked the front desk clerk at hotel with a bit of a drawl, “Is the coffee still on?” I knew that not only was I in the South, but that the South was already in me.

It should be noted that I am not using this term as a euphemism for an area with a high population of black people.  The south has a demographic that represents, unlike the rest of the country, the descendants of slaves and slave owners.  You don’t see that demographic in New York or Detroit or Los Angeles.  It is unique to the South.  Here in the center of Columbia, I am near the big University, so the demographic is slightly skewed, but the point still stands, and it will stand when I walk into Waffle House tomorrow morning.

A year ago this month I had a similar experience in Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, I was at the fancy hotel with the tourists, the rich, white tourists, but the Waffle House had a demographic more representative of the state of Mississippi, which, again, was not the same as my previous experience in Biloxi.  I have been to Atlanta, to Jackson, to Baton Rouge, to Nashville, and now I am in Columbia.  I guess that just leaves Montgomery.  Over the next two Days, I will thoroughly and completely explore South Carolina, enjoying being inland in the state for the first time.

10 years ago, I came to South Carolina for the first time.  I was so excited, it would be the last state east of the Mississippi I needed to visit.  We went to Hilton Head Island.  We drank cold drinks by the pool.  I sat and smoked (?) and read Lord of the Rings on the balcony.  That was not South Carolina.  6 years later, when I set out to see the world, I drove from Orlando to Charleston, in one day.  The next morning, I went to Fort Sumter, and then I drove back to the Orlando, only stopping in Charleston and at some National Park Sites.  That was not South Carolina.  This trip, I will experience South Carolina for what it is, and I will understand why it is a state that chose Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump in its primary elections.  I will understand why it is as solid of a red state as it gets.  I will understand all of this, the same as I understood it in Mississippi this time last year.

After I closed, we soon boarded the flight, or, more accurately, we took a bus to the plane, and I will not get until the details, but it was a very cramped and uncomfortable, though thankfully short flight.  I worked on updating my travel spreadsheets, and we soon landed in Columbia, which had a much nicer airport than LaGuardia.  I got the car, which was extremely shiny and fancy, a Chrysler 300 that had to be a 2016 or 2015 model year.  At that point, I realized just how starving I was.

I wound up stopping at a McDonald’s, as described above.  The menu was a little different than New York, and I got a Southern Style Chicken meal and Sausage Biscuit.  It was delicious.  I then headed to the hotel, which, again, reminded me of the hotel in Jackson.  The woman at the front desk was very friendly (and pretty), and I’m not sure how I started talking with a touch of a Southern drawl.  She put me in a room with a view of the State House, gave me the address for a Waffle House on the way to Congaree National Park, and confirmed that the coffee was still on.

I went up to the room, changed into some casual clothes and put, what else, the UNC college basketball game.  It was halftime.  I charged my electronics up a bit and grabbed a Diamond Crown.  I headed down, refilled my coffee, and went outside.  The benches in front of the hotel did not have a view of the State House, which had its flags at half-mast.  I wondered if it was for Brussels.  I did, however, find a grassy ledge with a great view of the State House, where I lit up my cigar and proceeded to write this entry, which I will now close so that I can publish while I finish my cigar.  I suppose the UNC game will be over by the time I go back upstairs.