Kacey and I left for Wildwood at around 9am after I lost two hours of my life crossing Philadelphia. We talked during the ride out as we always seem to in a combination of catching up and diving into the question of “how are you?”. At Wildwood, we parked and popped enough quarters in the meter to give us 90 minutes of time or so and we went up and down the boardwalk. 11am struck and the National Anthem started playing where upon everyone stopped except us and we kept walking. We noticed everyone had stopped walking and felt like we should have too, but, having already broken the apparent reverence of the moment, continued.

We went to the beach and I failed to fly my kite and Kacey kicked at the ocean. We got boardwalk food and returned to Philadelphia.

There is a world-passed quality to Wildwood after Labor day as the piers are closed during the week days, 1/2 the shops are boarded up and the demographics skew decidedly older. Kacey and I were rare chunks of youth but there was a dignity present that isn’t always there such as the day after Christmas in some retail places or an area where the carnival has just passed. Wildwood knew that it was done for the season and it faced it gracefully.

What wasn’t graceful? Me on the ride home. While I was off low carb I figured I’d indulge a bit and purchased fried Oreos, something I never had and consumed four of them. About 20 minutes into the car ride back I felt nappy and my breath stank of fry oil. My head bobbed and I hit the good morning strips on the side of the road. I did this again a few minutes later and let Kacey have the wheel. Friends don’t let friends eat fried Oreos.