Halperin & Christ

¬†hank now has a new semi permanent flower in his bud vase. on the river front in savannah today we met jubalini, a gullah flower maker. he made us a palm frond rose in about 50 seconds. we asked if we could take his picture and he said of course, laughingly adding that his photo had been in more places than he had. he wasn’t too interested in flying but the idea of traveling around in a van was appealing. hank is very pleased.

historical downtown savannah is even more appealing than it¬†appears in the movie “midnight in the¬†garden of good and evil”. it is a beautiful city full of grand old houses on treelined streets interrupted by green city squares practically every two blocks. we walked and walked and visited the interior of one of the old mansions that had been built in 1816 with interior plumbing and structural steel, two very innovative additions to architecture at the time.

the walls of the owens-thomas house were built of “tabby”, a mixture of oyster shells, limestone, sand and water. it was a type of concrete used often at that time. it is very textural as all the little shells are exposed. the supply end of the plumbing system was¬†propelled by cysterns on the roof. our guide wasn’t too clear on where the sewage went when it left the building….which instigated a whole conversation about cities and sewage at that time in general….not too pleasant of a topic but what did they do???? apparently wealthy people paid to have their garbage removed and dumped (in the river?, in the surrounding swamp?) but the sewage question was left unclear.

we thoroughly enjoyed savannah, it is an inviting and mysterious city well worth visiting. there were a surprising amount of tourists fogging about, the tour busses were full, people with maps and cameras were everywhere. this was the first onslought of tourists we have seen in a long while. 

we also found out today that we are about to compete with all the snowbirds for campgrounds now that we are in warmer climate…..oh boy! this morning we chatted with a lovely couple and their feline and canine companions.¬†edie and phil¬†were from minnesota and had been traveling since october in an airstream. their “rig” seemed luxurious to us although they are thinking of upgrading from a 25′ to a 31′ rv.¬† they told us that in florida it is impossible to get campsites without reservations!¬†

we have yet to comment on this blog about xmas decorations. let’s just say this takes the cake…..unfortunately the picture does not do this justice but what you see is a single family residence.

in case anyone was worried, camping is alive and well in savannah, georgia. we arrived at skidaway state park last night at about 7:00 and probably got the last spot available. apparently they are completely full tonight. there are craft classes and nature walks being offered and a variety of campers inhabit the grounds. we still are the smallest kid on the block.

yesterday we sadly left our old friends billy and alicia and our new friends jimmy and linda as well as their daughter elise and son-in-law t.c.  jim and linda were incredibaly gracious hosts and immediately made us feel as if we were part of the family. after one week we feel as if we have known them forever.

the boys all got in a round of golf at the municipal course and alicia and fran took a very long walk to town, along the beach and back. the weather is getting warmer and the beach was full of people walking, playing and just hanging around. there always seems to be a calmness between christmas and new years that soothes us after the frenzy of christmas.

once again we find ourselves enveloped in a warm circle of new friends thanks to our fabulous friends alicia and billy.

it has been a non stop party here on tybee island…..food, friends, drink…..with long walks on the beach interspersed.

the majestic old oaks are all adorned with spanish moss and views of the water can be had from just about everywhere.  the island has not appeared to be crowded at all this holiday season although the campground was quite full. (no gnomes but two christmas lit plastic palm trees accompanied one campsite.)

we have peeked into savannah twice but have yet to really explore the city and all of its fabulous squares. apparently each “ward” or neighborhood was organized around a square in case of attack. the plan was to bring all the livestock into the square for protection. somehow those green spaces never were developed and form a wonderful patchwork in the downtown area…..more on savannah later.

for a few days we are suspending our exploration mode and just enjoying new and old friends, a new cat (gambini) and all the reflection that the upcoming new year inevitably brings.

yesterday after a morning of pouring rain (and breakfast in bed) we were rewarded with some clear (albeit windy) weather which enabled us to continue our charleston tour. we focussed on the grand old mansions of which there were plenty. not only are these beautiful old houses expensive to purchase, the upkeep must be astronomical. we noticed quite a bit of deferred maintenance.  we also noticed many for sale signs and quite a few construction trucks.

the details on the houses were exquisite and the descriptive plaques were all very interesting but one could not help thinking about the slave labor that made all this grand construction possible. that feeling is still strong in the minds of many people as was demonstrated by a brief encounter we had in front of the powder magazine, the oldest building in charleston. a dressed up caucasian guide was talking to us about the building when two african american men stopped to ask him who had built the building. his reply “the first settlers” was not satisfying to them. they reminded him that it was slaves that had built the building. he readily agreed. after they walked away he did tell us that the first settlers had brought slaves with them….and went on to say that out of a population of 1,000 settlers there were a total of¬† slaves. those percentages changed quickly and charleston became the largest port of entry for the slave trade. it’s a very unfortunate history for such a beautiful city.

we walked through the market to see the gullah women weaving baskets.¬†we spoke with andrea brown a basket weaver who learned¬†the¬†art from her grandmother. at the time she was wasn’t that excited about learning to weave baskets but now she is appreciative that she has the skills. she told us that a 14″ - 16″ basket takes her about a week to weave. the baskets are beautiful and also very expensive. according to wikipedia:

“The Gullah are African Americans who live in the Low Country region of South Carolina and Georgia, which includes both the coastal plain and the Sea Islands. Historically, the Gullah region once extended north to the Cape Fear area on the coast of North Carolina and south to the vicinity of Jacksonville on the coast of Florida; but today the Gullah area is confined to the South Carolina and Georgia Low Country. The Gullah people are also called Geechee, especially in Georgia.

The Gullah are known for preserving more of their African linguistic and cultural heritage than any other African American community in the United States. They speak an English-based creole language containing many African loanwords and significant influences from African languages in grammar and sentence structure. The Gullah language is related to Jamaican Creole, Bahamian Dialect, and the Krio language of Sierra Leone in West Africa. Gullah storytelling, foodways, music, folk beliefs, crafts, farming and fishing traditions, etc. all exhibit strong influences from African cultures.”

after lunch we headed back to tybee island.

that evening we had a fabulous dinner at georges’ on the island which unfortunately will be closing at the end of the year. the owners, both georges serve fresh, flavorful, interesting food and have an excellent wine list to accompany their menu. our friends on tybee will be very sad when georges’ is no longer there.

today we took a bikeride all the way around the island. it was our first time ever actually riding on the sand. the wet sand was hard enough to support a decent pace. the wind was blowing and foam puffs skidded across the beach. flocks of birds were hunkered down on the shore, each in their respective clan. there was a light rain, nothing hard enough to dissuade us from our ride.

it’s pouring down rain. we are cozy observers in our 7th story corner room at the mills house. (we have upgraded our typical accomodations for one evening with our friends billy and alicia who have come from petaluma to spend a week traveling together.)

wednesday night after picking our friends up at the savannah airport we drove a short distance to tybee island. billy and alicia have close friends on the island who greeted us with food and drink. after a very late evening we awoke early and took a lovely walk on the beach during low tide. tybee island has big tide fluctuation and the beach practically disappears at high tide.¬† after our walk we had an excellent driving tour of the island. there is quite a variation in residences on tybee: small 1940’s bungalows and multimillion dollar mansions are within blocks of each other. local blue collar types as well as luminaries such as john mellancamp and sandra bullock own property on the island.¬† we visited the old fort with gun emplacements that is protected from being removed but not from being built upon. you can see wood clapboard condominiums sitting on old fort foundations. bizarre.

we had breakfast at the breakfast club purportedly the best restaurant on the island. we are back in the south, grits are the default accompaniment to eggs.

after breakfast we drove to charleston, settled into our (by our standard opulant) room and toured the city by foot. charleston boasts some of the oldest remaining buildings in the country. it also not so proudly is credited with being the largest importer of african slaves during that dark period of american history.

the city is beautiful, the old part of town is flanked on two sides by the ashley and cooper rivers. stately old mansions are discretely hidden from view by tall courtyard walls.  the streets and bars are full of well dressed young people gadding about.

we had a lovely dinner at FIG (food is good) whose slightly unusal approach to southern cuisine was quite tasty. (again a big upgrade from the previous evening’s fare.)

hank is happily parked in front of the hotel on meeting street. perhaps the management is proud to have him adorn their front entrance.

sitting at dinner tonight at the shellfish house we decided that the human race may indeed be doomed. the restaurant serves all sorts of shellfish: shrimp, oysters, crabs, clams, etc….all very tasty…all mostly local….usually a good sign.

the first indication of our general demise was the hole in the middle of the table with a¬†plastic lined 55 gallon trash can below. not a bad idea¬†we thought, easy to deal with shells, etc. but no…..every utensil, plate, and container of food was either plastic or styrofoam intended to be dumped in the¬†hole. what a brilliant business model: no need for dishwashing service or busboys! but what about all that trash? there were approximately 60 tables in the restaurant. multiply that¬†by at least¬†one 55 gallon¬†bag of trash and that amounts to tons of landfill. no way for the shellfish to naturally decompose amidst all those petroleum¬†products.

absolutely no awareness about waste, landfill, polution, etc…….it was a rather numbing experience for us bubbleheaded marinites.

we decided to stay another day…..we love it here! this morning on a two hour walk we passed 12 humans, 1,567 seagulls, 239 pigeons and 22 sandpipers.

there is something incredibly sobering about the ocean. maybe it is the trillion particles of sand, perhaps the relentless pounding of waves on the shore,¬†or the realization that we are just about as significant and lasting as the footprints we leave on the shore…..it’s positive, though the buildings look rather silly trying to proclaim their permanence against all the organic change surrounding them. it’s all about change and the ocean is very clear in making that truth obvious.

anyhow, myrtle beach is a great place to be in the off season, it is truly amazing that there are not more people around.

eric experimented with a more challenging golf course today. he could play for 3 months straight and never repeat courses. (if he died and went to heaven)

there is still a great race divide here. the managers are caucasion and the maids african american.¬†one maid travels 80 miles each way¬†to work…to make maybe $10 an hour?

it’s not a just world, several seagulls are hopping around on one good foot, the other is either missing or damaged. one bird today had only two stumps to stand on. most of the seagulls stand at the top of the tide, letting the water wash over their feet. some plunk themselves down in the sand.¬† balancing on one foot all the time must be exhausting…..none of them seem too fussed about their situation.

hank has new wheels! four of them…..turns out his tires were rather tired, ten years old to be exact. lucky our blow out was at the rear……we even replaced his hub caps (2 of them were missing). baby has new shoes.

thanks to our fabulous webmaster, michael of anamorphics www.anamorphics.com¬†,we now know how to wrap our images with text….see yesterdays reworked entry.

did you know that south carolina charges a $2 fee per tire which goes to recycling the tires into road bed, gym mats, etc….? pretty cool.

spoke with our hotel manager this evening. she didn’t seem particularly thrilled that the conventions were coming here.¬† she would “believe it when she saw it plus they are all a bunch of crackers including the one in the white house”. would have to agree with that assessment.

according to sharon, the manager, the big season here starts in may and ends in september. most people have to keep 2 jobs just to make it. they usually lose at least one in the winter, hopefully they have seniority at the other to get them through the lean months.

as we have driven through the country we have passed through many of these type of tourist locations that are only seasonal and wondered how everyone gets by.  not too well apparently.

the seagulls were no where to be seen this evening. we only ran across one other person on our evening walk.

eric was the only golfer on the course today.¬† the guy in the pro shop only charged him $12. probably thought he was some crazy person…….

we are pretty happy in our efficiency unit with the sound of waves lulling us to sleep. may stay another night. off season traveling is the way to go if you can do it!

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above is joel pett’s awesome full page cartoon about the iraq war.¬† we were in lexington as he was creating it so we feel particularly attached to this piece.

we semi-reluctantly left the comfortably cultural cocoon of asheville yesterday to explore new territory. southeastbound we headed after a quick visit downtown to the chocolate fetish http://www.chocolatefetish.com/¬†an award winning chocolate shop. we parked hank in front of an art fair and one of the gentlemen manning a booth had to come over and shake eric’s hand. he said he had to shake the hand of someone who carried their own firewood on top of their v.w. van……it’s definitely our kind of place.we are new converts to visitor’s centers so upon crossing the border into south carolina we beelined to the aforementioned oasis of information. maps, brochures, discount coupons, friendly and helpful employees are all at your beck and call. if you are traveling we highly recommend visitor’s centers.having spent 4 balmy, dry, comfortable nights indoors in a motel room we opted to spend this rainy, cold, windy night camping at sesquicentennial state park, in the outskirts of colombia. we were not the only crazy people camping that night. it felt good to once again sleep in hank and get our camping act back together. we cooked vegetable soup and corn cakes and watched two movies on our laptop. (not exactly roughing it)we awoke to sunshine ¬†and headed¬† south towards myrtle beach.¬†now some of you may be wondering why we would bother with such a touristy, hotel overrun town but we do have a golfer in our van and myrtle beach boast 90 golf courses, the highest concentration in the world, ¬†a golfer’s heaven . this is the off season so golf is cheap and accomodations are even cheaper. we opted for an ocean view efficiency unit with a full kitchen, on the 10th floor for $28 a night. that is less expensive than some of the campgrounds¬†we have stayed at.about 2 miles north of myrtle beach hank blew his left rear tire. as far as times and locations to choose, this was not a bad one but a bit too scary a location to change a tire. so we called triple a and waited for about half an hour on a freeway overpass. a rather chilly experience but again, not nearly as bad as it could have been…..even yesterday in the pouring rain.¬†after our tire issue was resolved we headed to our hotel, unloaded and took a lovely walk on the empty beach. not completely deserted, thousands of seagulls were lounging, taking in the last few minutes of daylight.¬†myrtle beach must be hideously crazy in the high season but at this time of year it is quite lovely, especially if you look out at the ocean and not the row of ugly, 70’s and 80’s hotel highrises lining the beach.the other reason we are here (besides golf) is that we are checking the location out for the upcoming presidential debates. both republican and democratic debate entourages will descend on this town in less than a month. should be crazy!we are in the south, several indicators have proved this to us: 1.the gas station mini mart was selling boiled peanuts, 2.we passed by strom thurman boulevard in colombia (would anyone in california name a street after that jerk?)¬†3. the accent is getting more and more of a lilt to it.