Not sure I really clarified that instead of just a day trip, I did make it into an overnight trip. The original plan was to end yesterday with Nitro Circus Live that was in Charleston and then head back home afterwards. Until I changed my mind, that we should probably stay somewhere local overnight so that we weren't exhausted coming home. That was Monday, before the hurricane. So one nonrefundable room later, we were venturing into the eye of the storm to make the best of it since I had persuaded Stephen's boss to give him the day off and all.

So even though everything else pretty much went out the window, we did have the rental home.so even though TJ had to work today, he stayed pretty late last night watching the ending of Guardians of the Galaxy with us.

We stayed here...

This place had to of been redone just recently.

We woke up relatively late, headed out to a place called Corey's Grilled Cheese. Stephen undoubtly had his grilled cheese, and I their breakfast burger. Both excellent choices, although strangely odd at the same time--I mean the grilled cheese was served on raisin bread, but it worked!


Traveling onto Folly, no matter how grown up it has become (or I become), brings me back to being 8 years old. You see my babysitter--which that's not quite the right word, and she deserves her own back story. My babysitter, her name is Mamma June. You see she wasn't some 18 year old making a few bucks after school, she was my daycare, second mamma if you will, and her family was my family. Not by blood, but by love. She cared for me from the time I was an infant until I was about 15. I became best buds with her daughter (adopted granddaughter), and so I took summer vacations with them--to Folly Beach at their beach house.

Every summer, I'd spend at least one week with them. We'd lock ourselves up in the back bedroom. Steal her brother's Nintendo set to play Mario Kart till our eyes became sore. We'd walk the 4 blocks to the beach on our own, which to a 12 year old made me feel like I was 20 all of a sudden. We'd ride our bikes all up and down the back few roads of the island, the roads that sat quiet with no traffic because the tourists didn't venture that far. We'd ride our bikes over the satanic symbol in the middle of the road if we were daring enough, while we passed the barking German Shepard that was protecting his lot from children like us. We'd speed around the end of the island, and back up towards the Shull Shack beach house we stayed at, but we'd make a few pit stops before we got there. First at our friend Lauren's new beach house (she was also from Lexington, and Mamma June was her Mamma June too), and the next stop at this boy's house who lived off the marsh.

I can't even remember his name, but I remember I thought he was cute and rich. I mean he had a huge house, a pony, a Jacuzzi and a golf cart we'd ride around with him on. One afternoon, we went to his house and sat on the large porch that peeked through the trees overlooking the marsh, wading in the hot tub as we watched MTV music videos--including The Wild, Wild West by Will Smith. And somehow that insignificant moment is burned in my mind along with so many others from Folly.

So it's weird to go back to the place you once felt like you owned. It was your stomping ground, and no one knew that place as well as you did. So I come here now and I'm like a stranger visiting those feelings. It's nice though to keep going back, keep visiting those memories.

Back in it's heyday, before they decommissioned it