The hostess with the mostest…
Southern Hospitality
We had planned on visiting one of Jimmies work colleagues and friends who moved from Napa to Beaufort South Carolina. The minute I heard Renas voice on the phone conversing with Jimmie I knew I liked her. She was raised in Kentucky and has the cutest southern accent. Her and her husband Tom rolled out the red carpet for us. They insisted we sleep in the guest room which I must say felt like a luxurious hotel. We are used to sleeping in the parking lots of luxurious hotels but it has been a long time since I slept in a king size bed. Reinas hospitality was just so heart warming. She put waters by the bed for us. She had it set up so we could have coffee in bed, even snuck up there and closed the shades for us. I usually protest having to stay with people I don’t know well, but I felt instantly welcomed and warm and cozy with Rena and Tom.
Beaufort is one of the prettiest places I have ever been. I can definitely see why people leave California and come here. You can get a larger home for half the price and are surrounded by the ocean, ponds, warm and friendly people, beautiful architecture and great food, but my favorite thing is the giant live oak trees that are full of Spanish moss which hangs from them both eerily and elegantly at the same time. The towns are quaint and clean and diverse. Its a lovely place all around.
Our friends took us to a very interesting place called the bone yard. It was a area of the beach that a hurricane had hit at some point. It was a fascinating walk along the beach. There was clearly once land here where now the ocean has risen and conquered the land turning it into a graveyard for trees. A broken and crushed old road was no match for the power of the wind and water. The boneyard of ghostly trees was so intriguing. The strength of the trees was seen because many of the lifeless ones still stand strong and tall. The toppled ones were ripped and thrown to the ground leaving their vast root system naked and exposed. The immense power it took to knock even one of these monstrous trees down was unfathomable to me. A reminder of how small we are against the forces of nature.
Next we were off to Savannah. I have been wanting to visit Savanah for as long as I can remember. We rode bikes all over the city. I was surprised by how big of a city Savannah is. I had imagined a much quieter small town vibe. To be honest I was a little disappointed but that is probably only because my expectations were so high. I found it to be more commercial than I had hoped for. On a positive note the parks were beautiful. The town is built in squares and each square has these very beautiful parks with live oak trees, benches and bronze statues. We saw both confederate statues and statues of Indian chiefs. These statues live together more peacefully than people do as a whole today. We rode bikes again and were able to cover everything on our list of things to see in one day.
As we rode through one park (the park that was in Forrest Gump) at dark the roaches came out and took over, It was disgusting. I was screaming trying to dodge them on my bike. It was time to go.
We ended up sleeping in a rest stop that night like two little hibernating bears. I dreamt of roaches. Jimmie woke up and drove us to Jekyll Island and we watched the sunrise. The air was a little crisp that morning and as I watched the sun slowly rise above the ocean, the first time I had felt a chill in a while and I missed home.
Off to Florida…