October 16 - South Portland, Maine > Rangeley, Maine - Returning to Bruce's home town, visited Bud and Peggy Wilcox (Bud is his Dad's cousin and a well-known fly tying expert). Toured the renovations in progress at his parents' old house and picked up from a local artist a painting of the house as it was when Bruce was growing up.
October 17 - Rangeley > Waterville, Maine - Finished some business in Rangeley and had lunch at a friend's restaurant. (SHAMELESS PLUG: If you're ever in Rangeley, Maine, be sure to eat at Parkside and Main in the heart of town. Tell Steve that Bruce sent ya.) Drove to Waterville to visit with Bruce's sister Gaynor, his neice Briana and his grand-nephew Zeke. Zeke is 20 months old, smiles constantly and says "car" like a good Mainer - "CAH!". Watched the third presidential campain debate before calling it a night.
October 18 - Waterville > Brattleboro, Vermont - Heavy rain all day, but through the downpour beautiful mist draped some of the mountains. Crossed western Maine, and NH to enter southern Vermont. Two days in Maine yielded no interesting wildlife, but we finally saw a young bull moose with antlers a few inches long just a few yards from the New Hampsire border.
October 19 - Brattleboro > Harrisburg, Pennsylvania - General [looking for first name] Stark turned the tide of the Revolutionary War by winning a major battle in what is now Bennington, Vermont, and an impressive memorial to this battle is found in this archetypical New England town. Over breakfast, gazed at the vista from the "100 Mile View" pass in Vermont's Green mountains. Mounted an unsucessful search for Bruce's nephew in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania's funky capital.
The 100 Mile View, as seen from breakfast.
General Stark turns the tide of the Revolutionary War.
October 20 - Harrisburg > Falls Church, Virginia - "Hershey's is the Great American Chocolate Bar!", so we sang at the chocolate-making tour at Hershey World in Hershey, PA. Aside from the great chocolate (and overwhelming chocolate smell), we learned about Milton S. Hershey's creation of the town named for him, complete with a public trolly system and houses of varied design for his workers. The first Hershey Milk Chocolate Bars sold in 1900, and only eighteen years later he donated $60 million to a school for orphans which today serves 1100 students.
From Hershey we drove to Lancaster County, home to many Amish and Mennonite communities. Saw a comparison display of Amish and African American quilts at a quilt museum in Intercourse, PA (a must-see for Jennifer!). Horse-drawn buggies of old-order Amish and Mennonites were a common sight, and we enjoyed learning more about these gentle people. (Out of respect, we took no photos.)
After wandering the back roads of Pennsylvania and Maryland, we finally made it to Falls Church and the home of Jennifer's brother Eric and his wife Susan.
Jennifer perusing Amish quilts in Intercourse, PA.
October 21 - Falls Church - Hiked the ridge trails in Maryland's Catoctin Park with Eric. That evening, we attended a concert in Washington, D.C. by Cuban musicians, including a member of the Buena Vista Social Club. In line just in front of us at a D.C. tapas restaurent was Senator Patric Moynihan.
Hiking with Jennifer's brother Eric in Catoctin Park in Maryland, Hansen's Natural Soda in hand. The far horizon is Pennsylvania.
October 22 - Falls Church - A day of personal business, including filling out our Oregon absentee ballots.
October 23 - Falls Church > Sunbury, North Carolina - Toured a Usonian-design Frank Lloyd Wright house in Alexandria, VA before moving south. Took a ferry from Jamestown to Scotland, VA on the way to North Carolina and camped in the Merchant's Millpond State Park.
On the ferry from Jamestown to Scotland, Virginia. Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in North America.
October 24 - Sunbury > Croatan, North Carolina - Among the first things we noticed in North Carolina were cotton fields, and lots of them. Drove the length of the Outer Banks - scenic, we think, but the drive was a high-speed mad dash down the narrow islands in an attempt to catch ferries back to the mainland on the south end (not to incriminate ourselves, but speed limits were exceeded and adrenaline flowed freely). We made the ferries. A colony of pelicans was seen from one of them, prompting a recitation of the classic limerick:
What a wonderful bird is the pelican.
His beak can hold more than his belly can.
He can hold in his beak
Enough food for a week
I don't know how the hell-he-can.
Aside from the Jimmy Buffett-style restaurants, we noticed two other hallmarks of southeastern U.S. coastal/fishing culture: the majority of the houses are on stilts (to provide ocean views) and racks of tubes mounted on the front of pickup trucks. The latter confused us until we saw them in use, transporting immense fishing rods like huge antennae preceeding the trucks. Away from the water, Baptist Churches are almost as numerous as filling stations on business stretches of the highway, with United Methodist almost as common. Camped in the Croatan National Forest.
No, we didn't sleep in a balloon - just hanging our tent to dry in the Croatan National Forest.
"Oh, I wish I was in the land of cotton..." Wait, we WERE in the land of cotton. Fields of it were seen all over North Carolina.
October 25 - Croatan > Honey Hill, South Carolina - Passing the Marine Corps base at Camp LeJune, we continued down the North Carolina coast. The ferry ride from Fort Fisher to Southport in Cape Fear passes the only area in the U.S. where three lighthouses can be seen at the same time. Crossed into South Carolina and drove through tacky (our apologies to fans) Myrtle Beach on our way to the Francis Marion National Forest. Of its three campites, the one on the water was full (and full of RVs). Pressing on after sunset, we found the second site half-full of tents and ghostly fires, but no facilities, so we decided to risk the third site. Miles down a dirt road, the third site was pitch black and also facilities-free, but only one other family was present. Jennifer's expert abilities in setting up our tent in the dark (no tongue-in-cheek here - she's really good at it) got us settled in no time.
October 26 - Honey Hill > Savannah, Georgia - Roadside vendors selling Sweetgrass baskets dot Highway 17 leading into Charleston, South Carolina. West African slaves brought this craft to the Charleston area three hundred years ago, and their descendents still make these by hand today and sell them by the roads and in the City Market. Tall, thin church spires pepper city skylines in the South and Charleston is no exception - our favorite edifice was the stately German Lutheran Church. We were aware of the formality of Southern culture, but were still surprised to see the sign outside the Charleston Visitors Center stating "Proper Dress Required".
Made a side trip to Canadys, SC to search for Brother R.G. Stair whose radio broadcasts we had heard on several religious radio stations in the East. His residence had "No Trespassing" signs posted, so we left a note in his mailbox requesting his publication on "The Black Pope".
Arrived in Savannah later in the day and had time for dinner in a British pub (built in Britain in the 1800s and moved to Savannah in 1920) and a late-night ghost tour of the Historic District. Several hotel rooms in Savannah are haunted, but not, alas, ours.
Locally-made sweetgrass baskets in the City Market in Charleston, South Carolina.
October 27 - Savannah - Savannah sometimes seems dominated by "The Book", John Berendt's "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil". We started the day with breakfast at Clary's cafe, an important site for the author and a location featured in the film (John Cusak's character meets Luthor with his bottle of poison here). Armed with a map procured at "The Shop", a tiny emporium crammed with "Midnight"-related items, we located former residences of Jim Williams (Kevin Spacey's character) and the Lady Chablis, as well as the small and forlorn grave marker of Danny Hansford, Williams' paramour, killed by Williams in alledged self-defence.
Between scouting sites from "The Book", we found a bit of time to take in other sites as well, including Temple Mickve Israel. This 1800s temple is home to the third oldest Jewish congregation in the U.S., established in 1733. Its museum displays a deerskin torah from 1733, the oldest torah in the country. Walks by some of Savannah's remarkable houses and drives to Bonaventure Cemetary and Tybee Island rounded out our day here.
Standard Georgia questions, at least according to a Savannah t-shirt -
Atlanta: What do you do for a living?
Augusta: What's your grandmother's maiden name?
Macon: Where do you go to church?
Savannah: What would you like to drink?
The Mercer House in Savannah, residence of Jim Williams, the central figure of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" (portrayed by Kevin Spacey in the film).
October 28 - Savannah > Aiken, South Carolina - Took the wooded route from Savannah to Beaufort, South Carolina (unlike other "Beaufort"s in the region, this one's pronounced "bew-fort". Had a picnic breakfast in a cemetary before strolling the town's quaint streets and waterfront. Camped in South Carolina's Aiken State Park, not far from Augusta, Georgia.
Palm trees and huge porches abound in Beaufort, SC.
Your inrepid correspondents will go to (almost) any lengths to record THE TRIP, even to the point of web site editing among kamikaze mosquitos in the wilds of the deep south. (OK, OK, the camp site was gorgeous.)
October 29 - Aiken > Winder, Georgia - Gazed at the Georgia Guidestones, a group of monolithic stones outside of Elberton, GA, the granite caqpital of the world. These huge standing stones, commissioned in 1980 by an anonymous group of "Americans who seek the age of reason", list a set of guidelines for civilization in English, Russian, Chinese, Hebrew, Swahili, Greek, Spanish and one other (we forgot). The headstones display "Let These be Guidestones" in Babylonian cuniform, classical Greek, Sanskrit and Egyptian heiroglyphics. A bit more sedate but still "out there" for Georgia is Athens, hometown to R.E.M. and the B52s. We strolled the downtown, had burritos and beer with Grateful Dead music in the backround and drove by the club where R.E.M. got its start. Camped that night on a site with water on three sides in bustling Fort Yargo State Park.
The Georgia Guidestones.
The guidelines expressed in eight languages on the Georgia Guidestones.
October 30 - Winder > Blue Springs, Alabama - Survived the fast and agressive drivers in Atlanta (thought we were back in Boston!). Stocked up on supplies before arriving in Phenix (sic) City, Alabama and enjoying ribs and an amazing Birmingham Stew (corn, butter beans and other good stuff in a spicy tomato base). Camped at Blue Springs State Park.
All Hallows Eve, October 31 - Blue Springs > Mobile, Alabama - In the center of the town of Enterprise, Alabama sits the only public memorial in the world dedicated to a pest - the Boll Weevil. We wondered why this troublesome insect should be memorialized until it was explained to us that the weevils' decimation of cotton crops in the early 20th Century forced farmers to diversify, essentially saving agriculture in the South. We found a close examination of the memorial hazardous, as it is in the middle of a busy intersection without pedestrian accommodation, but braved the traffic to inspect the statue of a woman holding a mammoth weevil toward the heavens.
Passed through the towns of Opp and Ino - love the three-letter names.
Just shy of the Florida Border in Alabama in the town of Florala (FLORida/ALAbama - get it?) is a marvelous wetlands park with elevated wooden walkways through Spanish moss-laden trees and loads of informational plaques. Did you know that Alabama is 75% forested and has the second largest level of commercial forestry in the U.S.? We didn't, either.
A quick jaunt through the Florida panhandle brought us to Pensacola and the Pensacola Christian College, a sunny, modern Christian fundamemtalist school which had been considered by Bruce in a former life. This bastion of conservative theology offers only King James Version Bibles in its bookstore and devotes an entire bookstore section to scholarly discourses on the deficiencies of other biblical translations. Noticing the general dress and appearance of the students, Bruce made the foray into the bookstore in jeans and beard with great trepidation. Jennifer, however, felt her jean shorts a bit much compared to the PCC womens' long skirts and changed into a skirt and sweater in the car.
The great length of this day's section is to partially make up for Bruce's accidental loss of the day's pictures from the digital camera. You'll just have to imagine the Boll Weevil monument.
The 100 Mile View, as seen from breakfast.
General Stark turns the tide of the Revolutionary War.
Jennifer perusing Amish quilts in Intercourse, PA.
Hiking with Jennifer's brother Eric in Catoctin Park in Maryland, Hansen's Natural Soda in hand. The far horizon is Pennsylvania.
On the ferry from Jamestown to Scotland, Virginia. Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in North America.
No, we didn't sleep in a balloon - just hanging our tent to dry in the Croatan National Forest.
"Oh, I wish I was in the land of cotton..." Wait, we WERE in the land of cotton. Fields of it were seen all over North Carolina.
Locally-made sweetgrass baskets in the City Market in Charleston, South Carolina.
The Mercer House in Savannah, residence of Jim Williams, the central figure of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" (portrayed by Kevin Spacey in the film).
Palm trees and huge porches abound in Beaufort, SC.
Your inrepid correspondents will go to (almost) any lengths to record THE TRIP, even to the point of web site editing among kamikaze mosquitos in the wilds of the deep south. (OK, OK, the camp site was gorgeous.)
The Georgia Guidestones.
The guidelines expressed in eight languages on the Georgia Guidestones.