Usalola’s Weblog

I started to feel a little of that “southern vibe” through South Carolina – a thick heat in the air that makes you just want to slooooow down a little, and that slight drawl in the words…but it hit full force when we traveled into Georgia.

Our first stop was Savannah. We decided to take a short break from the Rv and spread out a little – 22 feet gets tight awfully quick- and rent a carriage house. That way we could really check out the city. Savannah has so much history, but also so much modernity due to SCAD (Savannah college of Art & Design). It’s a city with much to offer, although it is still a bit in “transition”. In the 80’s the Historic District was basically the slums until the Preservation Society stepped in right before many of these historic mansions were to be razed.The work on these homes and neighborhoods continues. We stayed in the Historic district, a great area to place ourselves and walk everywhere, literally. We didn’t move the RV the entire time. If you visit, and don’t happen to be staying in an RV, I would definitely recommend staying at The Mansion – an old building that has seen new life as a very hip hotel.

We settled in, and had our first dinner out in Savannah at the local hotspot, Local. I really can’t recommend the food, but the decor and drinks (Glenn vouches for the Manhattan) were cool. Our first full day we walked what seemed the entire city. There is so much to see – gorgeous mansions, quaint shops.. but I really loved the spanish moss hanging from the oak trees along the path by Forsyth Park – so “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.”

love that spanish moss

One of our many historic mansion tours

wonderful old mansions

Another wonderful mansion

fountain in Forsyth park

One of the highlights of our stay was taking the “foodie tour” with hollywood Ron. He got his name by working with the Hollywood studios when they come to town to film movies (Midnight in the Garden of good and evil, Forest Gump..) and has taken his very outgoing personality to carting tourists (like us) around to the local cool eateries. We stopped at seven different places, and my favorites were 1) Momma and Kikki’s Soul food: we tasted Georgia shrimp in a slightly spicy sauce served over grits (love ‘em!). 
“Momma” started the business back in the fifties, and her daughter runs it today. Momma still comes in every day, even though she lives an hour away. This was the real deal, y’all.

                   “Momma” and her baby grandchild.

My next favorite was 2) Corleone’s: now I’m not a big meat eater, but the homemade sausage was out of this world! It was so good, in fact, that the next day Glenn and I went back for lunch and ordered it again. Our last stop was the famous (although I hadn’t a clue who she was) Paula Deen’s restaurant “the Lady and Sons.” Glenn and I thought it was overrated, but by the lines out the door, it seemed we were in the minority. 

Another of the big highlights of the trip was meeting up with Glenn’s friends who happened to be traveling through the south. We all wanted to have a ‘true’ southern meal, so we headed out to Geneva Geneva’s Soul Food. I read about it on TripAdvisor and the revues were great, so off we went. It is located outside of the historic district and when we arrived the place was pretty empty. No biggy, but we wondered what was up, given the rave reviews. Turns out Geneva is waiting to get her liquor license back, luckily I called earlier to see if we could bring a special bottle- no problem. We sat and Geneva came up to us with her big smile and introduced herself. We all ordered something different so we could share, so here goes: southern-fried chicken, pot roast, georgia shrimp with grits, mac ‘n cheese, okra, black-eyed peas and her AMAZING corn bread ( I begged for the recipe, no luck, but just suffice it to say that it’s full of eggs and butter). She spent alot of time with us and as this was the day after the election, we had alot to talk about. We all had a great time – check her out when you’re in Savannah.

Hangin' with Geneva

We reluctantly said our good-byes to Savannah and made our way to Augusta – quickly went through there as we’re not at all golfers, and continued on to Athens- home of my fave bands R.E.M. and the B-52’s. This is a (wealthy) college town with lots of cool shops and cafes, interesting, but we’re looking for some history. Outside of Athens is a town called Madison, which in the early 19th century was called ” the most cultured and aristocratic town on the stagecoach route from Charleston to New Orleans.” There is an almost 1.5mile historic route filled with many historical and architectural structures. We walked around the town square and drove through the neighborhoods filled with Victorian, Antebellum and Greek Revival homes.

Heritage hall - built in 1811 by a doctor serving in the Confederacy

On our tour through Georgia, we loved all the small roads overflowing with fall colors and finding some interesting gems, such as an old covered bridge, an off-road bike trail with no one on it, or the town of Juliette where the movie “Fried Green Tomatoes” was shot.

Elder Mill Bridge - built in 1897

riding along..

Whistlestop Cafe of Fried Green Tomatoes fame

Our next stop was Macon. Now I can’t say the town was much to speak of, but we sure did have some fun along the way with the political signs of “Bubber Epps” and “Saxby Chambliss” – I swear these are real mens names. We also had some killer fried chicken in Cobbtown, Georgia.

One of the biggest surprises of this area was George Smith State Park which had the most amazing Cane Cypress trees. Ok, I know, how surprising can trees be? Well, take a look at the picture, you’ll feel like you’re in another dimension. And to add to it, think of all the alligators slithering around in the water. It was pretty dazzling.

Cane Cypress trees

Our last stop in Georgia was Jekyll Island. As it was our anniversary, we decided to treat ourselves and spend a night at the Jekyll Island Club hotel, the summer hangout of the Morgans, Astors and Vanderbilts back in the day.   Jekyll Island is very unique among the various islands off the coast of Georgia, in that the whole island is a National Park.  The government has designated that 35% of the island can be built up for commercial use and the rest must remain in a natural state. It was wonderful to cycle around the island with the warm breeze enveloping us, and no one else around.

Jekyll Island Club hotel

another view

fishing ship at the end of the day..

Keswick vineyards

One of the highlights of this trip for me was taking a step back in time in American history and going to Gettysburg, and I was looking forward to more history lessons as we continued to head south.

To get myself properly prepared for the task ahead, we stopped at a couple of local wineries in Virginia. Keswick was alot of fun. We were the only ones there, and we really enjoyed tasting through their native and vinifera grape wines. Wine tasted, it was back to history: in 1607, a group of adventurers left England and crossed an ocean to establish a colony at Jamestown – only a few miles from what would later become America’s most historic cities of Williamsburg and Yorktown.  This area today is know as America’s Historic Triangle. 

Williamsburg lady and slave

Williamsburg

“Colonial Williamsburg” is a self-guided village set up as it would have been back then, with men and women dressed and speaking in that period. The “townspeople” set up trade demonstrations and drama acts.

Williamsburg townsman

In Yorktown, we took a guided tour of the battlefield where the climatic military campaign of the American Revolution took place – the British surrendered and Independence was won. Before moving on, we made a stop at Williamsburg winery – Virginia’s largest winery producing over 70,000 cases. They make about 25 different wines, and we tasted 5. We really liked the Syrah – Susan Constant Red it’s called (yes, I immediately asked “who is Susan Constant?” and generated the immediate response of “you must not be from around here” – ok, then). Winemaking does have a long history in Virginia, and we heard more about it when we visited Thomas Jefferson’s house in Monticello.

Thomas Jefferson's home

Jefferson was quite an interesting and quirky fellow –  he was mostly a vegetarian- living off of his own garden, spoke 5 languages fluently, was against slavery yet had slaves of his own and is said to have fathered a child from a slave, took the outside temperature twice a day (what?), produced his own wine, and last, but not at all least, was the founder of the University of Virginia. Oh, and of course, there were those little side jobs of US Ambassador to France AND the frickin’ President of the Us of A! His property was truly self- contained, with all that he would need to live grown & produced right there.  It was where, and I quote from the man himself: “All my wishes end, I hope my days will end, at Monticello.”

Now, of course, Jefferson’s magnificent home could not have run without the help, well, of household help. And  help back then were slaves, and they were plenty in the South. Certainly some, the higher “echelon”, worked in their owner’s house, but the majority were field hands. We went to an old Plantation – Shirley Plantation, which sits on the James River. Unlike many Plantations, Shirley is still a working plantation.They open the Grand house for tours, but a descendant of the family still lives on the top floor (where we did not tour), and the property functions as a farm. Now, a quick note: a Plantation is a farm on steroids, with a Grand house for the owner flanked on both sides by a complex of buildings (stable,icehouse,laundry,slave quarters..) where the slaves performed chores that supported the plantation and the family that owned it.It was strange to walk these grounds and to imagine how life might have been for these scared people thrown into a new country, where they didn’t speak the language, and were forced to adapt under the worst of conditions.

Grand house - Shirley Plantation

We continued our journey south into North and South Carolina, passing many acres of cotton fields and beautiful Plantation-style homes dotting the small country roads. Where it may seem that there is so much grandeur in these areas, the reality is that the wealth of a former time is rare for many ancestoral families-these homes are expensive to maintain, and many families have sold them or left them to disrepair. While these families may have moved on, it seemed to me that the descendents of the slaves (or who seemed to me to be descendents) have not had that good fortune at all. I have never seen so many battered-looking single-wides or falling-down shacks in my life. These people still work the land and make and sell the sweetgrass baskets,the “slave baskets”, like their ancestors so many years ago. On one hand, it made me sad to see them struggle to get by, but on the other hand, I saw such pride in their work and a determination to continue their heritage for many generations to come. 

We took a side-trip to Kitty Hawk, NC, home of the Wright brothers famous flight in 1903. The flight lasted for 12 seconds, and they actually made four flights total that day – truly amazing to think that less than 67 years later we sent a man to the moon. There is an exact replica of their flying machine as well as the original markers of their four flights on the property. Definitely worth the stop.

Wright bros. plaque

Charleston, South Carolina was especially charming with all of it’s restored Plantation mansions and cobblestone alleys. Many of these were owned by the wealthy Plantation owners who would flee to the coast in the summer months, being deathly afraid of getting malaria, of which they didn’t know the cause. They would bring with then their most needed slaves, who lived on the top floor of the mansion, while the family occupied the first two floors.

Plantation mansion, Charleston, SC

We took some time from wandering the mansion-lined streets and stopped for lunch at one of the south’s most famous restaurants, Magnolias. It was very busy and the food looked great – immediately I was caught up in the south – fried green tomatoes, grits, cornbread and fried chicken. Yes! this is what I was looking for. The waitress guided us to a locals dish: “southern cavier” – homemade cheeses mixed with pimentos and a touch of mayonnaise. sounds a little strange, but it was excellent. The restaurant was elegant, yet relaxed, kind of like Charleston itself. We spent a little time outside of Charleston at Boone Plantation, famous for the 3/4-mile long spanish moss-lined driveway seen in various movies and tv shows.

Boone plantation driveway

Boone plantation "Grand House"

So many of the Plantations have gone through many different owners and remodels over the years, and much of what is left inside are reproductions, and outside are just bit and pieces. So when we went to Boone Plantation and saw the original slave “houses” still standing, it was amazing, and eerie. We walked where they walked, and could only imagine their lives- 12-14ppl crammed into basically one room with no running water or electricity. Many didn’t even speak the same language among themselves, so they created the “gullah” language to communicate – and it continues to be spoken today amongst their ancestors.   

Slave street - Boone Plantation

Slave "houses" - Boone Plantation

Returning from Greece, we stayed at Glenn’s brother, Brian, and his wife, Karen’s house outside of Baltimore for 5 days. The fall colors were brilliant – bright orange, red and yellow leaves were in abundance everywhere.

fall colors in maryland

We spent one afternoon riding a 40-mile rail trail through a most brilliantly-colored forest, and another morning riding (in the very brisk weather) the farm-country backroads around the area.  All that exercise made us thirsty (!) so we spent a little time checking out the local wineries along the Mason-Dixon wine trail.  Our first stop was the family-owned Basignani winery. Started in the early ’80’s, they produce small amounts of alot of different wines – some vinifera, some not. Very rustic overall.

We next stopped at Woodhall Wine Cellars, where all the grapes for their wines come from Maryland. Although I really appreciated that they’re working with what their area gives them, the wines overall had a musty, earthy, slightly “foxy” nose and taste. Interesting none the less. Staying with the local theme – we stopped at a market and picked up some local bison burgers.  The days were busy – we also went to the Baltimore Art Museum and a great farmer’s market on Saturday – and the time went fast. We packed up the Rv and the cats and said our good-byes – thanks you two for all your hospitality and for watching the “kids”.

hangin' out with Brian and Karen

At Gettysburg, we started out with a visit to the Museum and an informative video, and then it was on to the Battlefield.  We decided to ride our bikes around the 24-mile park, carrying a map depicting all the battlefield tour stops.

Gettysburg

It was really amazing to see and be on the site where for 3 days in July 1863 more men died than in any other battle in North America before or since (they say that total casualties for the Union Army was 23,000 men, and 28,000 for the Confederate army), and where Lincoln gave his infamous Gettysburg Address.

Valley of death

Devil's den

The next day we made our way to Lancaster – an area best known for its Amish community.  I loved all the rich farmland dotted with grain silos, and the constant click-clack of the horses pulling a buggy. It is an area that thrives on selling the fruits of its labor – literally. We stopped at a roadside stand and bought some homemade cheese from a farmer. It was luscious – creamy, but with a slight tangy bite. Loved it!

Amish boy working the field

It seems like a wonderful life – working the land in the clean air with no real outside-world distractions, but it is a hard life, although I’m sure very rewarding in many ways.  We lingered around the town a while, and then slowly worked our way back to town- strip-malls, beeping car horns and all.