Road Trippin – South Carolina “the Palmetto State”

Day 1 (May 13^th): It’s been a hectic three weeks with projects and finals as I completed my first year of a Masters in Applied Economics. I have been out of touch with nature, and I have been waiting to re-strengthen this relationship after my finals. But the weather forecast for next whole week wasn’t hiking friendly – rainy and scattered thunderstorm throughout the week. I just wanted to go somewhere for a drive, away from Blacksburg, so I decided on Myrtle Beach. I haven’t been to any beach for almost 6 months, and I heard a lot about this place. As I was looking at my Atlas road map, I found Congaree National Park which is just 2 hours from the beach. That’s perfect!! It’s like hitting two birds with one stone.

Congaree National Park is located about 5 hours from Blacksburg, so I started driving around 6:30 pm. I didn’t have any place to stay but had enough food packed for 3-4 days. As I started driving, there were interesting cloud formations in the sky. With newly learned tricks on my camera, I have been interested in taking picture of clouds, the sunset, and sunrise. These huge dark clouds were trying to take over the sky and the sun was doing its best to keep them away. This battle continued for another hour or so. In this battle, the sun was successful in stretching and scattering these clouds into a million pieces. As they got lost in the sky, I could finally see a blue sky. The dark clouds made a final attempt as they completely covered the sun. As everything turned dark and gloomy, sun rays pierced through the dark clouds. The clouds looked like they were getting rusted as it got scattered and turned the whole sky red. It looked like a blood bath. With this bright and vibrant color, the sun won this battle as it rested between the mountains.

My words cannot explain this dramatic sunset as I was driving on I-77S. I tried to stop a couple of times but wasn’t able to capture this panoramic view with my camera. The image still remains fresh in my memory. I know sunsets are not a rare commodity. They come and go every night, and I know I will see another spectacular sunset somewhere. Next time, I will be there ready with my camera.

After driving for 4 hours or so, I was getting tired so I decided to take a shelter at some rest area. So I got myself comfortable and slept in my car thinking about my destination, just 65 miles away from me.