During our recent perambulations around parts of the Civil War South, my wife and I enjoyed new scenery, new restaurants (hey, gotta sample the local cuisine to get the local "flavor"!), and new people. We also were reminded - forcibly - that our bodies are older than they were when we last did this sort of thing, and quite a bit more decrepit. I hadn't expected it to be so painful to spend so much time on foot. If this goes on, I'll be exploring in a mobility scooter!
Savannah, Georgia was a pleasant surprise in many ways, the first being the weather. Inland, Georgia was hot and muggy, very unpleasantly so, but on the coast it was a lot cooler and more pleasant. The Savannah River runs through town, just off the old business and now tourist district, which adds to the cooling. There are lots of old buildings, some almost as old as the American Revolution and many dating back to the Civil War period. They've been done up as shops, restaurants and artsy touristy places, leaving the exteriors unchanged but updating the interiors. Many of the streets are still cobbled rather than tarred, some of them very uncomfortable even in a modern SUV, forcing one to drive at little more than walking pace; and the traffic through the tourist areas is very heavy, again slowing one down a lot. On the other hand, the tourist zone is probably no more than a mile or two square, so everything is reasonably accessible. Those who have land available for parking are doing a land-office business, with everything being run by text messaging or QR codes and visitors' cellphones, so the overhead is minimal.
I was very glad to be able to see the Civil War side of Savannah for myself. It's all very well to read about what it was like, but to actually see the steps leading up from the river, and the buildings that housed ship chandleries and shops and warehouses dating back that far, and old Civil War forts and jetty pilings, and see old pictures of sailing ships lining the river bank to load and unload . . . it makes it much more real in my mind, and hence I can write about it much more realistically. It was a very worthwhile visit from that perspective.
The Interstates and regional roads were in pretty decent condition, but traffic was very heavy at times east of the Mississippi River. I didn't enjoy driving through it, particularly when traffic backed up near cities like Atlanta or Chattanooga. It confirmed me in my belief that we needed to live west of the Mississippi, where there's room to breathe and space to maneuver. We acted on that belief when we moved to Texas in 2016, and we were very happy to get back here when the journeying was done. How all those people will cope - let alone move - if a really bad disaster hits, such as struck North Carolina last year, I hate to think. (We wanted to visit North Carolina this trip, to see our friends at Killer Bees Honey, but so many of the roads, hotels, etc. in that area are still closed or heavily restricted due to hurricane damage that we gave up on that idea.)
Our cats, of course, were ecstatic to greet us . . . for about ten seconds. Then the guilt trip started. "You went away! Without us! Where were you? Why did you abandon us?" And so on, and so forth, ad nauseam - all while demanding, and getting, treats, petting and attention. Cats are very good like that. They forgave us in time to cuddle up with us that night, purring at us to reassure us that even though we didn't deserve it, they still love us. Sound familiar?
Now we settle back into our normal routine. I'll be preparing for surgery in a few weeks (of which more later), and must transcribe notes and observations from the trip into a usable format for writing. My wife went back to work today, and found plenty waiting for her. She has to get a root canal treatment do-over tomorrow, so she's not real happy about that - and who can blame her! Me, I'll try to get some more blogging done after I take her in and bring her home.
Thanks to everyone who prayed for traveling safety for us. Your prayers came in handy a couple of times, I can tell you - and they worked!
Peter
