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Our last day! Can’t believe it – it’s been such a wonderful adventure. It’s not over quite yet so here’s the gist of our final travel day.

Williamsburg

Costumed people abound and we are kind of fascinated with them. Do they do this as full-time work? We read that some of them live in the historic houses. How are those people chosen? Are they allowed to have televisions and dishwashers? Do they wash their own period clothes? Are they wearing wigs? Isn’t that uncomfortable? On and on…

We decide we can get our fill of the historic village just by strolling around the grounds. Wikipedia provides answers to questions on how the actual village came to be a “living museum” with help from one of the Rockefellers providing a bunch (practically all) of the financing. Interesting.

On the Road

To keep ourselves amused, we played – yep – travel Bingo. In fact, we’ve been playing it practically the entire trip. We never found a sign for a downhill truck grade or a cattle crossing but other than that, all the windows were closed. Yay!

New Jersey

We hit the road and decide to look for one more historic  spot to visit in our beloved Jers. Not finding a good one on the way we make it home in record time. Until the next adventure!!!

Ahhhh New Jersey. Home Sweet Home!

New Bern Bears

Bears are a thing here in New Bern.  The painted ones are placed around the city.  We have no idea why.  Here are some of them:

New Bern is not far from the ocean of North Carolina and sits on the Neuse river.  It is a really nice looking town with a “proper” downtown and all the boating and stuff that comes with river/ocean living.  It was worth a walk around in the morning before we get on the road again.  It is also the birthplace of Pepsi Cola which was invented by a local pharmacist as a sweet tasting aid for digestion.  We did not see Coke anywhere.

Here is Glenda’s retirement house she picked out.  Backs right to the river with gardens fully designed and running!!

Okay, the bad news is that there is a contract pending…

We are coming to the end of the trip and have reached the let’s wing it part.  We have some ground to cover to get back to Jers…So sticking with the educational/history theme we began with (think Gettysburg) we decide to aim for Jamestown/Williamsburg,VA.

The First U.S. Colony: J-town

We pick the road less traveled…no highways and off we go for the 4 hours or so to Jamestown.  Rural scenes along the way: the cotton fields; the shacks; the churches; the small towns; did we mention churches?  Yep lots and lots of churches down here.  We think we possibly should have made them a photo theme for the whole trip…but too late.  Never mind.

A word about our navigation…we did have a major meltdown on this leg of the trip.  We use the GPS Garmin unit on the windshield in addition to the GPS on the phone.  You know…belts and suspenders to avoid trouble.  Unfortunately, they almost NEVER agree with each other 100% or even 80%.  Why not?  No idea.  But this time it was the all time worst…the Garmin said go left, the phone said stay straight; Susan drove left.  Glenda screamed (editors note: only because Susan ignored my first request/suggestion/imperative) and we went 6 miles out of our way on the Garmin route before we turned around and got back on the straight and narrow aligned with the phone GPS.  Phew!!  Upon further analysis, it seemed that the Garmin route involved a FERRY.  When is getting on a ferry ever faster than a road under normal traffic conditions?  Like maybe…never??  Discuss amongst yourselves and please report in.

Back to reality.  We swoop in to Jamestown with about 30 minutes to spare.  Yes, people, another stamping!!!!

What they have here is a museum filled with info and artifacts from an ongoing archeological dig here from the original first settlement of 1607.  The dig started in 1994 and they have uncovered a remarkable amount of stuff over the years.  And it’s still going.  Our brains are filling up but we are both loving it.  Glenda, having lived in Bermuda for a few years, is particularly enthralled with the part about a Jamestown-bound ship full of supplies wrecking on Bermuda leaving the poor J-town people without fresh supplies.  By the time the wrecked ship and some of the people get it all sorted and make it to J-town, the town has been decimated by disease, famine, all of it.

We finish up at the Jamestown site and land in Williamsburg, VA for the night.  Colonial people abound. In costume. Fascinating.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gullah People

We leave all of our friends and guests behind and head north.  In her passenger seat, Glenda has previously called and spoken to the 80 year old gentleman proprietor of the Gullah Museum in Georgetown, SC and arranged for him to give us our own private “tour” of the museum.

Off we go.  Little did we know how much we would learn during our time with Andrew Rodrigues, of the Gullah museum. He awaits us, sitting in a chair outside the door of the museum with his dog (he has put a sign on the corner of the road just for us! We know this as told us that was the case 🙂 ).

Mr. Rodrigues was a veritable encyclopedia of all things Gullah.  Our heads were spinning and seriously we did not get beyond 1712, but for a brief digression to Roxbury MA, his hometown, in 1940’s. What??  The digression included: stories of his Cape Verde textile worker father; Andrew’s shoe shining adventures as a kid; saying goodbye at the train station as Andrew went off to college on at track scholarship and his father accused him and his older brother of being “slick” which we gathered was a bad thing; and remarkably we then returned to 1692 and learned about African red rice cultivation.  No segues provided – we struggled to keep up.

He was an amazing, remarkably informed, lovely gentleman and barely took a breath during our 1.5 hours here.  He and his late wife returned to Georgetown, SC after spending their working years in the north after graduating from South Carolina State in the 50’s.  She was from Gullah territory and spoke fluent Gullah (a combination of English and multiple African dialects).

We spent a fair amount of time reviewing a handmade quilt made by his wife and friends for the 2nd Obama inauguration.  The quilt told the story of Michelle Obama’s ancestors who were found to be Gullah slaves on Friendfield, a SC rice plantation.  The quilt is now housed in the Smithsonian Institution’s permanent collection.  We both agreed that our man Rodrigues’s telling of the Michelle Obama ancestor story was very moving.

Our brains were full up with everything Gullah and when they were ready to explode, we made our excuses and slid on out.  It was a one of a kind experience.  Thank you Mr. Rodrigues. By the way our 80 year old host is in the South Carolina State Hall of Fame as a track athlete.  Impressive!!

Georgetown Wooden Boat Show

A festival was happening down the road from the museum.  It is the 28th annual Wooden Boat Show.  We don’t like to miss a Wooden Boat Show whenever possible, so we check it out.

Seafood and More Grits

We make a meal stop on our way to New Bern and, you guessed it, more grits. Beautiful marshes along the way and a big gorilla.

The end. Not the very end. Yet…

Separate but Equal

We left Savannah and made our way to Charleston, SC.  Seen along the way…

We arrive in Charleston and for the first time in 23 days, Glenda and Susan will be separated (as is turns out, for less than 24 hours). Glenda’s manfriend, Chris, arrives to spend the weekend in Charleston. Here are our separate accounts of our 20 hours apart:

Susan

I opt to explore the city on foot taking in the architecture, the bay, the people and the sights along the way. I notice that as a woman on my own, vendors and street kids approach often to solicit me. Sometimes for a purchase, sometimes to ask a question (not sure why) or sometimes just to annoy me! Definitely different.

It’s a beautiful city by the water – gorgeous with sailboats on the bay. The southern wrought iron gates. Lovely. I dropped in at Fleet Landing for a drink and dinner at the bar.

Glenda and Chris

We start off with the intention of exploring the “holy city”. Only a few blocks from our hotel, we espy a honey store offering mead tastings. Of course we have to go in and try it!

After meandering through some utterly charming neighborhoods, we are ready for a beer and some chow. We find a fab restaurant that somewhat self-deprecatingly professes to offer the “2nd best shrimp and grits in Charleston”. We give them a go and would definitely vote for them to be #1.

We Are Reunited

We all have tickets for a tour of houses sponsored by the Charleston Preservation Society – inside and out. We put on our walking shoes and head south to the battery on another gorgeous day. The houses run the gamut from the very old and sparsely decorated (quirky owners?) to genteel traditional to Yankee transplant/Pilates studio owner to modern industrial interior designer/transformer of a cotton warehouse. The owners of the latter were also docents and we got to chat with them about the space. We NYC types loved the cotton warehouse and would move in if we could! Photos were not allowed so sorry we can’t share!

 

Dinner with Friends!

Yay more guests!!  We meet up for dinner with our return guests, Gerry and Sonya, and now add Gerry’s cousin Lorraine into the mix.  Lorraine lives in Mt. Pleasant, SC and suggests a great restaurant Hominy Grill, for dinner.  Hominy Grill gives us a new opportunity to eat more grits!! Gerry opts for the Nasty Biscuit with fried chicken on top and shockingly consumes the whole thing!!!  Lordy!!

Another great day in the South!!  Good night!!  Tomorrow, it’s back to the Glenda and Susan show..onward to New Bern, NC.

 

Savannah

We have booked a Savannah architecture tour for this morning at 10.  We meet our fellow tourists, 13 women and 1 man, and our guide at Oglethorpe Square.  10 of the women are traveling in a pack.  They are grads of Goucher college and friends still, gathering from all over the country to explore Savannah.  We are impressed.  Our gray hairs fit right in.

Our guide Jonathan is spectacular as an architecture guide.  He is originally from Iowa, came to Savannah College of Art and Design as an architecture student and has stayed starting these tours and doing who knows what else.  He is very knowledgeable, and keeps us all moving along and takes us through the many styles that are Savannah: from the original colonial days of thatched roof cottages (palm fronds) through Georgian, Greek Revival, Federalist, Romanesque, Regency, Art Deco, 1940’s we don’t remember the style name and into the 2000’s, Jonathan fit it all in.  We got a good dose of history on the side.  Fantastic!!   https://architecturalsavannah.com/

An aside here….whenever we are listening to a ranger or a tour guide or information provider, in general, one of us tunes out at any random time.  We figure maybe together we get about half of what is said.  If each of us takes in a different 1/4 of the information we are golden for a good half of what is rendered!!  We think with Jonathan, together, we may have exceeded our normal 1/2 retention!

The Tour

 

Shopping and Walking Around

After a stop for lunch, we did a bit more of a walk around down by the river, and popped into a bunch of the shops.  We found a Prohibition Museum which apparently highlighted the way the Savannahans (is that what we call them?) ignored the alcohol ban and carried on in the fun way as they do.

So much walking today.  We soldier on for a house tour.  The Owens-Thomas house.  Built in 1816 for a very wealthy banker/slave trader it was sold several years later to Mr. Owens an attorney, plantation owner and politician.  The Owenses hosted Lafayette in 1825 and the house is restored to that period.  We got to hold the very handrail that Lafayette held when he visited there.  Another great guide who offers us a superb history lesson along with the tour of the house.

We feel very smart for the 5 minutes or so that we retain all of the information.  This only partially makes up for the fiasco of LOST on the beach yesterday!

We walk back to the hotel for a coffee.  The hotel is on Forsyth Park which is full of activity at 5:00 or so when we walk back.  Sights seen along the way:

 

We meet up with our friends Gerry and Sonya who arrive in Savannah this evening and will spend a couple days here and then on to Charleston where we hope to meet up with them again.  We have company!!!!!  Wooooo!!

 

Good night Savannah!!! Off to Charleston tomorrow.

 

Morning in Macon

We promised we would get up at the crack to stroll the streets of Macon and take in the giant antebellum houses before we left for Savannah.  Since we rarely get going before the crack of 11, we actually set the alarm for 6:00 am so we could really get a jump on the day.  We awake.  It is pitch black outside.  The sun will not rise until 7:45. This is a problem.  We go back to sleep.

But we do get up again and eventually get out and drive by a few of the big ones.  So many of Macon’s houses are HUGE.

Going to Savannah

We got some good scoop from a fellow “Jumbo” (Go Tufts!!!) who grew up there about things to do in Savannah.  We were aiming to get to Savannah and hop right on the line for Mrs. Wilkes Boarding House lunch.  No reservations, no credit cards, no choices..they cook up southern food, put it on tables for 10 and guests eat family style.  Doors open at 11 for lunch, first come first served.  We left at 8 meaning we might get there at 10:30ish but a truck accident on the westbound side of the highway closed those lanes and caused a delay on our side.

No problem, we arrive at 11:10 and join the line down the sidewalk.  About and hour later, we are in and sitting with 4 German women and 2 older couples from Ohio.  The bowls of food spread out all over and we pass the food around and around.  Glenda speaks to the Germans in German.  Wie geht’s!!

Such fun!  Such tasty food.  The whole experience is happy!!  The granddaughter of Mrs. Wilkes is on hand and chats with us.  Susan puts a push pin for where we are from on the map for Castleton, VT (too many pins for Jersey and NYC so she opts for the more exotic VT where there were only a pin or 2).  Turns out the granddaughter’s good friends from Savannah moved to Middlebury, VT 30 years ago and stayed there loving it.  We bond….obviously!!  Great way to start off our time in beautiful Savannah.

Savannah has a beach and…..a national historic site

Lordy is Glenda excited again.  And we promised you pictures of her in stamping heaven!

Fort Pulaski, out on the way to Tybee Island and beach, is a national site as a civil war fort.  Stamps!!

A Beach Walk

We decide to carry on all the way out to the beach.  It’s a beautiful day and worth a day at the beach, right?  We park on one of the roads that leads to the beach and take the walkway over the dunes and down by the water.  Beautiful.  The water isn’t even that cold for us yanks.  Fun walk on the beach.

And then it occurs to us as we are walking back…where are we and where did we come in?  All the people have changed being replaced by new fishermen or beachwalkers.  All the entrances look the same from here….sand, a little swing, water, beach grass, you get the idea.

We are idiots!!!  You would think we would learn from our previous forest walking troubles…leave a trail of breadcrumbs, or remember where you are…. Clearly we can only function where there is a grid system.

We exit off the beach and have to walk several blocks along the road weaving in and out, up and down all the little streets before we spy the sweet Subaru with the Jersey plates.  That’s it….we will close our ears to all the “I told you so’s”…We do not learn.  There is something wrong with us…….  But Susan’s fitbit registers 18,000 steps!

Beautiful scenes on the drive back.  We are staying in a great Marriott on a park.  We eat at another recommended place: Crystal Beer Parlor.  They comp us drinks.  Fantastic.  We love Savannah!!!

 

 

 

 

Hello Sweet Home Alabama!

We have just the morning here in B’ham (our abbreviation as fitting the A. HAMILTON craze).  We put on the sneakers and head out for a walkabout.  We start off heading out of the downtown area to the five points section of town but find a detour to the historic district.  We are again in the civil rights area of the south.  Very interesting and moving as earlier in Memphis and Arkansas.  Birmingham was also the site of several marches and protests and the historic 4th Avenue district has markers along the various routes.   We see the Baptist church where the marches were organized and where they started.  An informative morning walk.

Plus we saw Birmingham’s sales pitch to Amazon to build HQ2 there.  We will not submit our photo as instructed…we Yankees would prefer HQ2 be in Newark please!

So next stop Macon, GA.  After the usual car reorg and stuffing, we find ourselves on an interstate and are randomly drawn south….off piste and we end up in Plains, GA.  Yes, the birthplace and current home of Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn too.

Seen along the road to Plains:

 

Plains, Georgia

We make it with a half hour to spare to closing time at the National Historic site of all things Jimmy Carter.  Glenda is sooooo happy to be getting another stamp…another unexpected stamp surprise!!!  We were short on time so, unfortunately, we did not get time to stage a photo with Glenda enjoying her stamp opportunity.  We will hopefully have a photo for you all to enjoy soon.

The National Historic Site and the park rangers are situated in the former Plains High School, which was the whole school K-11 (no 12th grade…apparently you were done with school in Georgia by 11th grade when Jimmy was a student there).

The town is literally a dot….it features, Billy’s gas station; a tiny downtown; and a couple of churches. We’re surprised that there are so many lovely homes in peanut-ville. His boyhood home is about a mile down the road from the downtown and pretty near his current compound.  Amazing…life in a small town.  We wonder about the Secret Service people who are assigned to him.  Do they also live there? Do they rotate that duty or has one guy or family been there for a long time….just curious….please let us know if anyone has answers.

Pictures of Plains:

Finally we head northeast to Macon.  Along the way there we see some more interesting sights….Mennonites or plain people are here…The Yoders seem to own most of the farms here…and a most interesting incongruity….a Yoder girl in her plain, Mennonite dress and head bonnet racing around on a ATV, kicking up dust.  Hmmmmmm…We are sorry we missed that photo op.  It was a good one.

Finally we arrive in Macon.  An amazing Antebellum town left unscathed by Civil War fighting with 5,500 buildings on the National Historic register.  We got in late and walked downtown and it really is amazing. Our B&B is a giant old house too and has hosted many celebs including one of our faves…Oprah!!!!  Gloria, at the desk when we arrived, says Oprah is soooo nice.  We are glad. http://www.1842inn.com/

Before we went downtown we had a nice chat with an older woman who used to work here.  A southerner through and through, she had stories!!  There were a lot of musicians who got their start here and/or performed here regularly and she got to see them all! Her fave?  Elvis and James Brown…and a dash of Little Richard.

We will get up at the crack…really… tomorrow to see more big houses in the daylight.

Good night!!!

 

OK.  So Susan has an issue with her hair in most of today’s pictures and yesterday’s for that matter.  There is something about the Mississippi water….the post shampoo leaves….crazy hair.  Just sayin’….

Oxford

Took a walk around the campus of Ole Miss, a big beautiful campus and then back to the square for breakfast at Billups, a cool diner.  Serving up a bowl of cheesy grits, eggs, and bacon!!

Take a Hike!

After a major repacking and reorganizing of the car and our bags (photos to come), we hit the road en route to Birmingham, AL.  But first we notice that Glenda missed a National Park opportunity so off we go to Tupelo, MS to the Natchez Trace Parkway.  Cool name but no idea what a trace might be…but we think it might just be a path.

We ask the ranger about a short walk somewhere along the Trace and she suggests the most popular walk by the area of the old Chickasaw Village.  Little did our ranger know that Susan and Glenda simply cannot read a trail map.  We are both so literal!!  If the map does not depict the trail along with markers and direction pointers and all the details, we are lost.

So this map shows a loop…looks good.  Looks easy!!  We head out on the trail.  A short distance later we arrive on the highway.  Oops!!!  Luckily, knowing our shortcomings, we left a pile of stones on a stump to mark our way back.  Phew!!!

We find our way back to the parking lot and try again…now heading out on the horse trail.  We come to a 4 way intersection…wait!!  No 4 way intersection on the map…just a fork.  Again with the fork.  We take it…sort of.  We wander along…leaving our breadcrumbs and after 3/4 mile end up back at the parking lot.  Enough!

“The Magic City” (aka Birmingham, AL)

We arrive in Birmingham, AL at our hotel, the Redmont.  When we come to a city hotel, there is a lot involved!  We generally need to valet the car but we also need to rearrange our bags …you know, only bring in things for the night, not the big bag.  Anyway, this all takes time and involves valet people standing around waiting for us to finish our long process.  Today was no exception but also a gust of wind kicked up and sent the valet’s hat into the street just shy of the oncoming traffic.  A rescue mission ensued and added time, of course, to our “process”.

Once we get settled in the hotel, we are both delighted and confused by a random church bell concert of “O Little Town of Bethlehem”..wait…is it O Little Town of Birmingham?  Or have we been on the road much longer than we thought??  Please weigh in…

We check out the rooftop bar ..beautiful views…

Next Up: We’re off to Macon, Georgia!

P.S. We changed the format of the blog to make posting comments easier. You can “leave a reply” for a photo or “comment” about the day. We love hearing from you!!!

At the Crossroads

Before leaving Clarksdale, we felt compelled to visit “the crossroads” – the intersection of routes 49 and 61 where, so the story goes, Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil in return for exceptional guitar skills. While snapping photos we met a couple from St. Louis on a blues pilgrimage, basically doing a good portion of our trip, in reverse. We’re not on a pilgrimage but we sure do have an appreciation of the amazing music and the rough lifestyle that is at its core.

Shacking Up With Lucious

One last stop before leaving Clarksdale was at the “Shack Up Inn” https://www.shackupinn.com/ .  It’s an old plantation with sharecropper shacks and grain silos that have been converted into rooms. We had hoped to be able to stay there overnight but since the “Deep Blues” festival was happening, we were out of luck. Happily, though, there was a live performance at the Shack and we were there to enjoy it. We are now devoted fans of Lucious Spiller – he’s fantastic!!!

Lucious Plays the Blues

Ole Miss

Home of Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winner William Faulkner who was born in Oxford and lived here for 40 of his 64 years.  He never graduated from high school but managed to attend 3 semesters at Ole Miss because his daddy worked there. He went on to write a bunch of novels and short stories and reach the highest level of literary success.  Susan’s mother, the English major, remembers studying his work in college.  She is 86 years old.  Glenda and Susan do not remember anything.

Here is his house, Rowan Oak, http://www.rowanoak.com/ and grounds:

The square here in Oxford is lovely.  Looks like a great college town.  What better place to find the Mississippi staple we have been missing…fried chicken!!  We found it!  Some pretty good fried fare!!!!     http://gusfriedchicken.com/oxford-mississippi-location/

Looking forward to a stroll around campus tomorrow!

 

Stamping Galore!!

This was a day of multiple stamping opportunities…aka stamportunities and a surprise stamping late in the day.  Glenda was beside herself!!

First up the William Johnson house in Natchez.  Johnson, a free black man, became a successful businessman in town and kept extensive diaries about life in Natchez.  The museum gave us a glimpse into life leading up to the Civil War.  We also learned about a Rosa Parks-like woman in NYC, Elizabeth Jennings,  who successfully sued a NYC railroad for not allowing her on the streetcar.  This happened 100 years before Rosa Parks.  Her lawyer, Chester A. Arthur, eventually became U.S. president.

A quick stop at the Melrose plantation for a tour of the grounds and cabins and then we hit the road en route to Clarksdale.

On The Road

We sped, sort of, (behind a tractor for 30 or 40 miles) along route 61-N to make it to the Delta Blues Museum before it closed.  Passing through tiny towns and mostly cotton fields and farms, we come to the big (ish) town of Clarksdale.

We are having a bit of trouble describing our entry into Clarksdale…it looked like a movie set for a deserted town.  Stores seemed to be be shuttered and run down.  The streets were wide and welcoming on the one hand but had definitely seen better days.  In other words….where ARE we??? And whose idea was this??

Delta Blues

After driving around the block 3 times trying to find the museum entrance and parking lot, we left the car across the street in what in our land would be a no parking, highly priced ticket zone, but here was a ok.  We had an hour to tour the small museum and made the most of it.  The museum is all about the blues, with stories, quotes, outfits , guitars and videos about the great Mississippi Delta musicians.  Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Sam Cooke, John Lee Hooker were featured.  The museum, for some reason, had a National Park Service stamp!!!  Glenda ran back to the car to retrieve the sheets and get another stamp.  Yay!!!  http://www.deltabluesmuseum.org/

The Deep Blues festival is on this weekend here in Clarksdale and that seems to mean that blues people are playing in all kinds of venues around.  We can hear music coming from random storefronts and we pop in to check it out.

We finally end up in Morgan Freeman’s Ground Zero Blues Club.  It ain’t much to look at from the outside (like all the places here) but inside is festive and funky and fun!  We decide to come back here for dinner and more music. http://www.groundzerobluesclub.com/

We come back for dinner.  We just sat down at the bar, the music just started when a gentleman came up to us, introduced himself and gave us his card.  He is the co-owner of the club with Morgan Freeman.  A fellow Wahoo like Glenda, go UVA!!, he chatted and thanked us for being there.

Later conversations made us think that he is looking for investors and was hosting some candidates right there.  It seems we made a good impression for the prospective investors…see??? New Yorkers come here all the time!!! He thanked us again after we had spoken for a bit to the possible investors.

Here are some clips of music from the day:

We didn’t get in to our first hotel of choice Shack up Inn where the rooms are converted sharecropper houses on an old plantation…sold out maybe because of the festival…but we are in the Bohemian Guest House behind an old B& B.  A nice 2 bedroom house.  Good night!!!   https://www.deltabohemianguesthouse.com/