Our College Reunion – Day 13, 4/18/15 - Home Bound

Our College Reunion – Day 13 (4/18/15)

Home Bound From Hilton Head Island, S. Carolina

The road trip will be about 650 miles from the Villa to DC.  We left 8:00 a.m. pulling into the gas station for a full tank.  The whole Island looks misty at this time of the hour – tropically humid and Island’s lush green vegetation in early summer not late spring from where I am from - Maryland.  It’s rather early for the vacation revelers still hiding in the bed and reeling from the memory of the once in a lifetime bonding vacation like us.  I assume.

No Pinky Finger Pledge

We bid our farewell to this Island where we had the fantastic start of beach walk to the spectacular finish of open-air relaxation in the Jacuzzi and the heated outdoor pool.  The whole 7 days will be special for us.  We did not have another pinky finger pledge like we did at Cape May, New Jersey in October 2012.  Something unspoken passed between us that we probably wouldn’t have another trip like this anymore.  There are many factors involved – old age, physical strains and my own struggles with the notion that I am obligated to my grandson, Forest, not to my own children per se.

Best Friends Forever

With the brief moments of reality kicked in, my reverie was cut short.  I suddenly have the fleeting memory of how we, Hsia, Shinyee and I were assigned in the same 12^th girls’ dorm in National Cheng Kung University the first day.   LJ was put in the other side of the eighth girls’ dorm, but eventually became the buddies with both Hsia-Hwei and Shinyee after the first year.  I was alone mingling with other girls from different departments in the 12^th Girls’ dorm for my whole college 4 years. 
  

Despite the differences of our personalities and social backgrounds, we are able to accept and tolerate our ideas and behaviors all these years.  What we shared at Cheng Kung University and love of Literature carried us well into our later lives.  And 44 years after college, we are still the best friends forever.  

It’s a really amazing story to see the life travels like the arc of the trajectory for these four college roommates.  There were long curves of teaching career, graduate schools jumping into brand-new computer technology, grueling hours of an air-traffic controller; marriages, becoming the mother, and grandmother; and finally the three golden women – the old senior retirees happily shared their good times.  The fragments of our trials and tribulations that weaved into our personal journeys through life, we either laughed or cried over the years, eventually, it all worked out.

We know the only way to have a friend is to be one.  Luckily, we are all one!

Stories and Movies Retold

We discussed the story lines again from “Gone with the Wind”,  “Rhett Butler’s People” and “Scarlett” by three different authors.  After visiting almost every corner from the backdrops the books covered, the myth in the South and all the characters became so real.  We were able to relate some of the characters to someone we knew in college or our lives.

No Photos Only the Memories

My travel note for today I wrote on the scraped paper:

         1. McDonald late Breakfast & Lunch at Myrtle Beach road sign, N. Carolina

         2. Shinyee’s searching in vain for her daughter’s series of collectible Starbuck Coffee Mug South Carolina.  Is this mother’s unconditional love?

Just for curiosity, I found S. Carolina mug at E-Bay from “Coffee Runs on Dunkin.”  There’s nowhere to be found on-line for S. Carolina Starbuck Coffee Mug.  Those folks in the shop were not kidding.
 

S. Carolina – Collectable Coffee Mug From Dunkin

The South Carolina Dunkin Coffee Mug has the places we visited:

1.  Charleston’s famous church where the Butler’s family visited every Sunday back in the Civil War era and the cannons still left on the battlefield

2. The South of the Border - big Mexican hat, sombrero and kids’ ferries wheel.  The signs were visibly seen on I-95.  But, we did not stop by as I promised in the trip planning e-mail to you folks a year ago.  Hsia-Hwei, it’s too tacky for our age – my opinion. 

3. The Hilton Head beaches with umbrellas

4. The suspension bridge over the Charleston Harbor.  We travelled through it on the way to Charleston.  Just imagine Rhett Butler nearly kills Scarlet who begs him to take her sailing on this harbor.  Unfortunately, the boat capsizes in a storm.  – It’s from Alexandra Ripley’s Scarlett – a sequel to Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind.

There were no pictures to show our road trip home because Ben, my husband accidently deleted everything from all our two cameras. 

Home at Last

I only remember the early spring flowers and tree buds finally showed some colors along the highway when we reached Maryland.   Yes, We brought the warm breeze and explosion of spring colors from S. Carolina to Maryland. 

We were finally home at 7:00 p.m. after 11 hours’ drive.  We had our dinner at Taipei Café down by Rockville Pike.  We were very hungry.