Test Driving the Blog

The end of the year, the beginning of the new, resolutions, etc. Seems to be the preferred season to pause and reflect... so upon what? This year certainly brought more changes than most - relocation from Greenville to Pawleys, sale of our old house, start of my new recruiting firm.

My wife and I have a running joke (for fifteen year or more) 'it looks like it's all finally starting to come together'. Somewhere along the way we realized it's about enjoying the journey and not so much reaching the destination.

What's this going to be about? I expect I'll cover recruiting, real estate, golf, dogs, ecology/conservationism, home projects, and general items. I expect that it will evolve.

A word or two on the title phrase:

Pawleys Island bills itself as the oldest seaside resort in the U.S. It also used to be a waypoint for the blues musicians traveling between N.Y. and Florida. Sandwiched between the Intracoastal Waterway/Waccamaw river on the inland side and the ocean on the other, it has become some pretty pricey real estate in the past few years. Myrtle Beach is about 10 miles north for those that prefer concrete, neon, putt-putt and wall to wall motels and condos.

Pawleys Island has been tagged in the past with the label 'arrogantly shabby', hence the title of this blog. It referred to the area's predominance of rustic single family vacation homes. There are some condos here, but no big box retailers, and hardly any high-rises. The homes used to be mostly kind of rustic, in-need-of-a-paint job type places. They are rapidly being replaced by million dollar plus humungous mine-is-bigger than yours type vacation homes.

There's a hundred or so golf courses between here and the Little River area of southeast North Carolina. True Blue and Caledonia are couple of the best in the whole region and right in my backyard. You'd think the prices and the 7000 yard, alligator, swamp and hazard infested layout would scare away the typical golfers, but the dents in condo siding prove that 40+ handicappers have no fear.

One somewhat distuburing trend of late: The area was a bit overbuilt with golf courses in the past 20 years or so. 120 or so and counting. But the available land of the size necessary has been pretty much snapped up anywhere near the coast. With land prices soaring, we're now starting to see courses sold and converted to residential properties.