The first operational test of our Sienna happens today when we load ‘er up for the annual pilgrimage to the land of surf and sand (and surf and turf come to think of it!). Yep, it’s time for us to head back to Ocean Isle Beach to the beach house for a week of fun in the sun!
The nice thing about giving the Sienna a shakedown cruise is the main reason we got her in the first place…CARGO ROOM! As a veteran cargo loader of the Escape, I can tell you that we took more stuff with us this year than we did last year…and had plenty of space to pile in more if we needed to! All it took was dropping the larger of the two rear seats into the cargo well and filling up the resulting space which was easily twice the cargo volume of the Escape. We still had a couple of seats available for additional cargo that we needed readily at hand. And there is the all-important DVD player hanging from the Sienna’s ceiling…always good on a long trip!
Minivans rock…and they roll! And so we were off on I-40 for the beach in a mini caravan. Pat’s friend Linda from Wisconsin was joining us on this trip after having flown into RDU a couple of days earlier (and boy were her arms tired…hey…PUT DOWN THE TOMATO NOW!). We made decent time down to Ocean Isle by completing the journey in a little under two and a half hours.
We were warned that there were some changes courtesy of Hurricane Charley the year before. You remember Charley, right? That’s the one that decided that passing awfully close to my father’s house in Port Orange wasn’t enough…no, it had to chase us from the beach half a day early last year. Mind you, compared to what the people are having to contend with in the aftermath of Katrina, we were quite fortunate.
The houses across the street? Not so much in the old fortune department. The house directly across from us was gutted and only the frame was still standing. Anything on that side of the street to the east toward Holden’s Beach? Swimming with the fishes, my friends! As we’re rolling in, there are crews working on building a sand bag levee under the house immediately to the west of Gutted Landing. Yeah, I’m thinking that’s probably not a bad idea but probably ultimately futile. By the time Charley got to us, he wasn’t a really powerful storm as a minimal hurricane but if you remembered what the street looked like last year, that was still plenty impressive.
Anyway, one quick unload later, it’s time for a quick stroll on the beach. Unfortunately, the really convenient beach access points are closed so it’s a bit of a hike in either direction to get on the beach. But that’s OK…we’re on beach time now!
