Savannah

I wrote the blog Saturday night but was too tired to complete & now it's disappeared. The photo above is the grave stone of the song writer Johnny Mercers mother, Lillian, who died a year
after he did. The inscription from one of his many famous songs is "My mama don tol me". We visited here at Bonaventure Cemetery during the last part of our 37 mile final ride of the bike tour. We also rode the impressive live oak tree canapé draped with Spanish moss, a plant in the pineapple family, which enters the areas oldest plantation, Wormsloe. Friday no rides were scheduled but we walked our legs off touring historical Savannah and stuffing ourselves at Mrs. Wilkes Boarding House for lunch. All we could manage to eat that evening was a double dip of ice cream at Leopolds on Broughten St. near our hotel The Marshall. Our final feast Saturday night was a private dining room at The Pink House. There is no doubt we eat and sleep well on these trips. The leaders Abby and Luther have been fantastic and the rides interesting and enjoyable. The weather was cooler than expected but I still managed to work up a sweat each day. I leave with the pledge to ride more and the hope of another bike tour in 2011.

Bicycling the islands

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We go to Savannah tomorrow after 2 nights in Beaufort SC. Our accommodations at the Beaufort Inn have been very special in 1/2 a cottage with 2 bedrooms. The Inn has a variety of rooms but we drew one of the best. Our last day in Charleston was a 28 mile bike ride mostly on Edisto Island with overcast skies and occasional downpours. It was really my first experience riding in rain but aside from squishy shoes it went ok. I feathered my brakes to keep them somewhat dry. Highlights of the day included a home cooked Gullah lunch in a small cafe with delicious gumbo tomato pie and collard greens. My idea of a great meal. We toured the Edisto Enviromental Center and wound our way through a jungle like landscape bike path. Today our 34 mile ride was on St Helens Island which at one time was the area growing sea island cotton. The remains of a 1740 chapel shown in the photo was one of the remnants of the early days. We saw school buses cut down to serve as delivery trucks for the present crop of watermelons. A picnic lunch was furnished on the grounds is Penn school which was established to educate the freed slaves.
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Bike trip

Our first day was great. The photo shows unloading the bikes and preparing to begin the 23 mile ride on Sullivans island and Isle of Palms near Charleston SC. The heavy rain from the day before left some puddles but no problems.

Jekyll Island

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Trying to blog again from the IPhone. Good trip up I95 to Brunswick Ga and then over the long causeway to the island. For many years it was only accessible by boat. The campground on the north end is very large with lots of trees. Unfortunately I came a little to close to one while backing in and the result is a jammed front brake on my bike. It was stupid and careless on my part. The bicycle trails are the main reason I came. After trying unsuccessfully to repair it, I ended the afternoon with a long walk to the beach and back which I needed after 6 hours of driving. Today I also walked to the nearby remains of one of the first plantations on the island. Then I rented one of the campground pedal one speed "fits all" bikes. It took awhile to stop reaching for hand brakes but I was going slowly and that helped. Hopefully tomorrow I won't back pedal when I need to stop on the tour bikes. For the most part I had the bike path to myself as you can see from the photo. Part of the path is along the ocean front with cooling breezes and inviting benches to stop for a while. The historic areas are well marked with excellent explanatory signs. I managed to find the small Sweet Shop where I treated myself to ice cream. I've been trying to eat up all my refrigerator food since I'll shut it off for the week of the bike tour. As I write this I am baking the left over tortillas to make chips for my return. Aside from pesky bugs (no seeums mostly) this is a great place to visit and I would like to return. The business tycoons of the turn of the century as well as the modern day preservationists have created a special place for all to access with a $5 fee.

Bicycling Trip on the Horizon

Early morning overlooking the Intracoastal

Last Sunday morning I was off on my bike shortly after 7 a.m. on a beautiful peaceful morning.  I rode about 12 miles and enjoyed seeing the pink early morning sky and hearing the birds sing.  My purpose though was to get ready for this year's bike excursion which will begin next week.  This year Judy and I are trying a US ride from Charleston to Savannah.  It's an area I know well both by boat and by car.  Les and I seriously considered buying in Beaufort SC which will be one of our overnight stops.  Our first nights are at the Middleton Inn which looks like a beautiful facility, a former rice plantation.  There we will leave our vehicles for the week.  Judy is driving from Maryland and I am bringing Big Mama and plan to camp at Jekyll Island GA enroute.  Following the bike adventure I hope to do some South Carolina family history research in Charleston and Edgefield before heading home.  So the Old Lady hits the road once again!



50th reunion

Touring Rock City's Rock Run Peddler Garden

"Potluck Group" Dona, Jill, Karen, Marlette, Jane, and Gwen

I’ve just returned from my third trip to Illinois this year. The purpose of this visit was my high school reunion. I had not attended one since the 20th and it wasn’t any easier to recognize people this time. The shock is how many of our classmates have passed away, 110 of the 770+. I had been campaigning for 2 of my friends with whom I shared both high school and college to join me. Fortunately they made the trip, one from Texas and one from Colorado. It was so good to see them again and renew old memories and catch up on all that happened in the intervening years. It was wonderful to also visit the three that had remained in Rockford and one from Madison Wisconsin. We totaled seven of our original 10 “Potluck” (social groups for Rockford girls during our school years) for dinner at Jane’s beautiful house on Friday night and were so busy enjoying our selves, the evening quickly slipped by and the opportunity to attend a 250 person class gathering was not an option. Some of us did attend the breakfast the next morning at the Stockholm Inn (great Swedish Pancakes) and proceeded to tour our old high school. This was a real kick as current seniors toured us around the hallways, classrooms, pool, locker rooms, gym and auditorium, all of which looked in great shape. We compared notes on our experiences, the most amusing of which was the answer to my question about the Home Ec rooms. The student hesitantly asked, “What is Home Ec?” Our class had been the last one before 2 new high schools opened and we had split shifts as well as one way stairs. That seemed amazing to the seniors who shared the school with 1500 students compared to our almost 3000. Saturday afternoon we had another small group reunion with classmates who’d worked on the many theatrical productions during our high school years. That didn’t leave much time to change and get to the class dinner at the country club. There it was difficult to circulate and find people but our small group enjoyed just being together again.

Front row: Dona, Janet, and Barbara

Back Row:  Sandy, Karin, Gordan, and Burns

About a year ago 2 classmates who were active with our church youth group and I decided to try to find some members of that group who were in other classes and schools and see if we could reunite at the same time. It turned out to be more difficult than expected but we did have a few that gathered for an early breakfast on Sunday morning. We looked over old photos and talked about the good times we had experienced. There was enough enthusiasm to try to do it again with more people doing the searching.

At this point in life, it seems important to reconnect with those who remember us from the past. Perhaps it is a desire to remind ourselves of what our lives were like and how far we’ve come today. Part is nostalgia and part is sense that some of these people shared a special time with us and it is worth reliving through the stories of those days.

Traveling South

Cabins at Nesoba County Fair

(Monday, July 26, 2010)Driving through the hills of Mississippi with the straight tall pines on either side of the road, I feel at home again. The roads are well paved for the most part and not well traveled. The towns seem few and far between and sleepy little villages would be the best description. This is the first time I’ve been here with Big Mama and she seems to take the roads ok with only occasional qualms of the driver when the road seems elevated from surrounding marsh lands and no shoulder exists for escape. I even passed other vehicles a few times on some two lane stretches.

The clay soil is a rich orange but everything growing is very green including the kudzu that seems to swallow all in its path including abandoned homes. The heat and humidity I’m told are worse than usual for July. I try to remember my life here in the 40’s and 50’s without air conditioning. I know we went to the “picture show” a lot. “It’s cool inside” the sign in the window said.

My first Mississippi camp ground was Turkey Creek Water Park. I envisioned curly, twisty large slides and screaming children. Apparently what they call a water park is more of a recreation area, fishing, and swimming, boating and camping around a water management area, this one the Chunky River Watershed. The campground was small but with nice paved sites, good electric (much better than the previous KOA) and very quiet. Not many sites were occupied but I was told it would be busy on the weekend. No alcohol and no firearms signs abound. I received a senior discount paying about $17. It was only about 10 minutes from the town of Decatur but very remote along a narrow curvy road.

(Tuesday, July 27, 2010) Tonight I am at a Corps of Engineers park, again a water management area, Okatibbee Lake created in the early 60’s. They do allow hunting here during the fall and winter. This could have been an area where my grandfather hunted and is in the general direction of his farm. The near by town is Collinsville, the campground is Twiltley Branch and the area is part of the Pascagoula River Basin which ends in the Gulf of Mexico.

I have a great site overlooking the water with lots of pine trees. I went for a bike ride before rain kept me inside. I did have a lot of computer entry work as the result of my morning spent at the Newton County Historical Archives in Decatur, where I researched family members who had been in the area since the 1850’s.

I’ll stay here again Wednesday night and head south on Thursday. This will give me a chance to try the Nesoba County Fair. It is known for family gatherings so I may meet up with some kinfolks. I hope I also find some southern cooking. So far on this leg all my meals have been at home. I’m not complaining but some local cuisine would be welcome.

(Wednesday, July 28, 2010) This turned out to be a very interesting day. I’ve always wanted to attend the Neshoba County Fai r. http://www.neshobacountyfair.org/ It began in 1889 and I know my grandmother attended it and perhaps my mother too who was born not far from the location. The uniqueness, to my mind, are the family cabins spread around the fair grounds. Two story attached buildings feature front porches for visiting and colorfully painted and decorated. Some are very simple structures and some very finished and modern. I visit 3 which were all owned by family members some of whom I was meeting for the first time. I enjoyed getting to know them and learning more about our family connections. I came away feeling I had made many new friends and saw a small part of the fair’s activity including carnival ride and harness racing. Motor homes were stacked in so close together that you could have reached out and borrowed a cup of coffee. I was happy to return to my campground in the woods. I’m told the waiting time to get a campsite at the fair is 5 years.