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Long Beach Adventures: Day 2
Saturday was the total opposite of Friday. By dawn, the wind was kicking up and the peaceful coastal interlude that allowed us to enjoy the outdoors was over. By the time we were up and dressed to go clamming, the rain was beginning. We put on slickers, layers, and galoshes and joined Gerick's friends from work and drove several miles out to the area where we were going to do our thing.
After a half hour out on that longest of long beaches, 2 things soon became apparent to me: 1– that the weather was impossibly bad, and we were NOT dressed for it in head-to-toe rain gear and 2– that this 'clamming' thing was not for me.
The skies darkened to the point it seem like dusk out, and the rain poured so hard that it was filling our galoshes after running down our legs! The wind was whipping the rain sideways, along with considerable sand. I was often knocked over a little by strong gusts and I'm no frail waif as I was in my youth! I actually enjoyed being in the torrential rain for a short while, just taking in the experience of such weather. But cold soon overcame me, and I realized I had to get to shelter.
Meanwhile, I did my best to listen to instructions on how to find these elusive clams buried in the sand. One smacks the hollow clam-gun on the beach, searching for little dips to form from the clam reacting to the shock near it by retracting its digger or whatever. I watched Gerick's more experienced and dedicated friends do this a couple of times until I got the hang of how it worked. However, smacking something over and over again, sending slight shocks from impact up my arms and down my back is NOT a fun thing to do for a person with pain issues! I quickly realized this would never be a thing I could enjoy doing and at last sensibly surrendered to reality, crawling back into the truck we carpooled to the beach in, dripping abjectly…
It was another full hour before Gerick joined me, so soaked he had he had to dump his galoshes out and then just sit while water ran off him in streams.
Yeah, it was WET!
For his efforts, he was only able to find 1 single clam. Meanwhile, his friends were filling their limit of 15 each and also returned to the truck, soaking as well but triumphant! In the meantime, the beach had filled with hundreds of undaunted people, determined to get their clams! In weather so bad it could be considered a low-grade hurricane, waves crashing, in dim light, the cars and trucks poured in and people lined the beaches. I've never seen anything quite like it and I could only shake my head at both the numbers and the insanity of people who much REALLY love their clams!
We could have opted to stay another night and attend the festival, but things were not exactly off to a thrilling start. After jumping into the shower to warm up and wash off, we got dressed and packed to leave. We decided to go home and just rest up rather than pay for another night. I wasn't disappointed though. I just wanted to go home and curl up with a good book to read while this latest rain storm system passed over.
Which is just what I did when we returned. =^)
Source: http://lucretiasheart.livejournal.com/1032085.html
