Awakening on Hilton Head Island is not unlike any other day.  There are duties (real or imagined) to fulfill; there are projects (warranted or fanciful) to perform; there are penetrating routines to filter into the day; there is hope for a stream of profit and advantage. Certainly the prospect of favourable weather, a clear blue sky, tolerable temperatures and an appetite have something to do with it as well. But in general getting out of bed, withdrawing from the cocoon of the lair, is an assignment which confronts and enforces the identical and inescapable features of one’s mind no matter where you may be.

What I have said is perhaps only a variation of the more poetic theme that “There ain’t no ship to take you away from yourself; you travel the suburbs of your own mind.” It is after all an axiomatic truth. Nonetheless there are details here on Hilton Head Island which do indeed make a difference. It would be trite of me to attempt an identification of those particulars because the distinctions, like anything else, depend not upon the architect but upon the recipient, upon the interpreter, upon the digestion and once again upon the appetite.

While I have made it an effort of mine to adapt to and enlarge upon my environment no matter where my ship steers and no matter upon what seas I venture, I most certainly glean from Hilton Head Island especial stimuli. Inevitably those characteristics blend with my existing perspective notwithstanding any immediate alteration of the background depths.

This morning, after a breakfast of English muffin with butter and cashew butter and a bowl of steel cut oats with fruit, I undertook my habitual ride upon my trusty stead, my Cadillac XT4, to the car wash and back.  But before I returned home I stopped along S Sea Pines Drive at Tower Beach Club.

Tower Beach is located at 99 South Sea Pines Drive, underneath the big blue water tower at the southern tip of Sea Pines off of Sea Pines Drive. This facility is designated for the exclusive use of Sea Pines property owners and their accompanied guest. Completed in 2014, Tower Beach offers outdoor grills, picnic tables, a shaded pavilion, restrooms, water fountains, an outdoor shower and a boardwalk with direct beach access.

The walk from the parking lot onto the boardwalk was a moderate challenge.  But I was able to sit upon a bench and capture a view of the beach and ocean which I knew very well from past experiences. I resolved that a walk to the end of the boardwalk onto the beach was unnecessary to punctuate the event. The curious fact about the beach is that, once there, there is nothing to see but sea.  Reaching to the horizon is a more popular undertaking, always seeking to discover what is beyond. But with age I have learned that whatever discovery remains within my limited remaining time and scope is that which is devoted to the immediate present. This is not a pathetic confession; rather it is an admission of the deeper passage to unexplored territory.

When I returned to Lands End where we are staying, I planted myself upon the deck chair and fell asleep.