If you didn’t recognize the reference, it’s South Carolina’s tourism slogan. Saturday, the family and I left for a quick mini vacation before school starts. While I am a Virginian first and always, my heart’s second spot will always be South Carolina. It’s my exotic dangerous sinful Virginia.

     Let’s start with the exotic part. While the palmetto might be the state tree, I love the live oak especially when it’s dripping with spanish moss. While you might find a few live oaks in southern coastal North Carolina, it’s not until semi-tropical South Carolina that the live oak thrives. Can you imagine what the early explorers must have thought encountering these willowy limbed monsters with their Halloween adornments?

     Danger. South Carolina’s history is one filled with firebrands. Never forget South Carolina wanted to secede from the Union as early as 1832. Fort Sumter launched the Civil War. Nowadays, I can’t tell you how many times I have hit an approach shot a little long only to crest a green and find a sunning alligator near my ball. Play it where it lies has a whole new meaning in South Carolina.

     And sinful. Let’s just say I wish I could recover half of the braincells I have lost in South Carolina over the years. In my teens, it was after school week at Ocean Drive. In college, the gated private police communities of Hilton Head were just being developed. After college, Kiawah replaced Hilton Head. Even staid Charleston with its fine restaurants SOB (South of Broad) is an invitation to gluttony.

     If I don’t misbehave too bad, I hope to file a few dispatches. Wish me luck!