Day 10

Our first full day in Georgia started with our old friends Joy and Paul who we joined for breakfast at B Mathews Eatery in historic Savanah. Joy and Paul, live in Boone, NC, but they are renovating a vacation home in Savanah.  

After cleaning our plates we headed for the Mercer-Williams home where we were treated to a guided tour.  This home was made famous by the novel and movie Evil in the Garden of Good and Evil.  The house was built by General Hugh W. Mercer, great-grandfather of celebrated songwriter Johnny Mercer.  General Mercer never lived in the home and after changing hands several times it, it was purchased in 1969 by James Williams, one of Savannah’s earliest and most dedicated private preservationists, who bought the vacant property and began a two-year restoration of the house that would become his permanent residence. Mr. Williams restored more than 50 buildings during his 30-year career in historic preservation in Savannah and the Low-country. 

Leaving the Mercer-Williams house we moved on to check out Paul and Joy project they started earlier this year. Paul still has a lot of work to do, but based on his previous renovations that we've seen, we know he'll do a great job.

Leaving them, we drove to the Bonaventure Cemetery where Johnny Mercer is buried. It took us a while to find his grave, but when we did, we were treated to a conversation a man whose deceased wife was Mercer's nice and god daughter, who was watering the flowers at the site.

Mercer's childhood home.

Johnny Mercer

After stopping for a light lunch of ice cream sundaes, we returned to our campsite and napped for several hours before going out to dinner at a nearby restaurant, the nearby Driftaway Cafe. Joni had scallops and I had tuna.  Both were exceptionally tasty.

Diver Scallops:  Three Jumbo Diver Scallops (harvested by divers not by dredge) Pan Seared and served on a bed of Capellini Pasta with Spinach and Sweet Potato 

Tybee Tuna : Sesame Encrusted Center Cut Tuna Seared Rare on Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
with Mixed Greens, Sushi Ginger, and Finished with Cucumber Wasabi Cream and Sesame Ginger Sauce

Day 8 & 9

Friday  started off with Mila's incredible eggs benedict!  They were absolutely marvelous.

We spent the rest of the morning running errands and visiting Ocean Isle Beach, which is the barrier island just north of Sunset Beach.  

Returning to Bill & Mila's, we had a late lunch of curried chicken and rice.  I forgot to take a photo, but  it was certainly blog worthy.  Mila's curry is as good as any restaurant I've visited.

We all had two helpings,  so we needed to walk off our meal by visiting a park  along the Intracostal Waterway in nearby South Carolina where we were treated to a continuous parade of boats.

On the way home we stopped at local art collector's studio/home where we enjoyed a variety of original works from all over the world.

Sadly our wonderful visit with the Millmans had to come to an end.  We wanted to hit the road early on Sunday, so after watching an excellent Israeli film, Sand Storm, we headed to bed around 10 pm.

We got off to an early start on Sunday and after posing for some goodbye pix, we were heading south through beautiful Myrtle Beach and all its kitsch to Charleston for lunch, and then onto Skidaway State Park, just south of Savanah.

Yes, that's King Kong!

Charleston, maybe the most beautiful city in America

Buffalo fried golden shrimp, smoked gouda fondue, jalapeño-chedar golden grits, southern stewed French pole beans=THE BEST SHRIMP & GRITS I'VE EVER TASTED!

Our campsite for the next three nights.  We must be in Georgia because the trees are covered in Spanish moss.

Day 6-7

I think we're finally escaping winter; it was 42° this morning, and sunny too.

We were on the road by 9 AM, heading to Sunset Beach, NC, where our friends Bill and Mila live, but stopping for lunch in Greenville, NC, where we were meeting our good friends Paul and Pam who live in nearby Grimesland, NC.  

For lunch we had our first barbecue of the trip, and it couldn't have been more authentic.  In North Carolina barbecue means pork and that's all that as offered on the menu.  The only decision was what size plate did you want?   Served with a side of boiled potatoes and cornbread sticks, it made a delicious lunch and our bill for the two of us, which included a soft drink, was only $16.  

Our visit with Paul and Pam was too brief, but we will be seeing them in June at our college reunion, and in July when they join us in the Pyrenees for the Tour de France.

We arrived at Bill & Mila's home in Sunset Beach, NC around 5 PM.  Their home is located right on a fresh water lake, adjacent to a golf course, and in the center of the bird Atlantic Migratory Flyway.  Accordingly their back yard is continually filled with a variety of birds including owls.  They live in a golfers and bird watchers paradise.  We spent the first few hours just sitting on their deck, catching up, and sipping wine.  Mila prepared a delicious filet mignon dinner with asparagus.  Life is good.

Bill and Mila's home.

Mila and Joni 

View from Bill & Mila's back deck

On Friday we awoke to a beautiful morning with clear skies and temps in the 70°s.  After a leisurely breakfast and took a three mile walk along sunset beach.  The beach is very flat, and the sand is very firm, so walking is very easy. Non-fat tire bikes are common here, and the waves look very good for surfing.

Bill and Joni on Sunset Beach

Mila campaigning for mayor of Sunset Beach

Actually Mila is a member of a neighborhood conservation group that is raising funds to protect the lake that is addict to their home.  So she spent the morning at an Earth Day fair sharing info about their organization.

For dinner we drove to the neighboring town of Calabashand dined at the Oyster Rock, a riverfront seafood restaurant with shrimp boats docked in front of us.   The place was packed, but fortunately we had a reservation so we were immediately seated at our table.  Our dinners of grouper, oysters, flounder, and tuna perfectly complimented the beautiful setting.

Tuna with a crab and shrimp cream sauce.

Day 5-Richmond

Woke up to another another cold morning, 32°, in Pocahontas State Park...but it's sunny and temps in the 60°s were  predicted.   The chilly temps kept us in the van while we ate our OJ, cereal, and coffee and by  9 AM we were on our way to Richmond, just 21 miles to the north of our campground.

After stopping at a local French bakery to pick up some delicious pastries, (sorry forgot the photos, we stopped at the American Civil War Museum whose mission is to offer multiple perspectives:  Union, Confederate, enslaved, and free African Americans.  It was truly fascinating, enlightening, thought provoking, and a must see for all Americans.

The museum is located on the grounds of the Tredegar Iron Works which produced most of the cannons and cannon balls for the Confederacy.  It is adjacent to the Richmond Civil War battleground.

In addition to being the capitol of the Confederacy, Richmond is still today a major railroad hub for the South, so long freight trains continually passed by as we toured the grounds of the museum and adjacent battlefield.

Leaving the Tredegar area, we took a lunch break at a Greek restaurant called Stella's.  It was rated as #3 out of 1087 restaurants in the Richmond area!  This was our big meal of the day and it was worth every calorie.  We started with a humus and eggplant spread for the home made pita bread, then we both had a lamb gyro...but this wasn't the lamb gyro that you had anywhere else.  It was spectacular. Since it was a greek restaurant we couldn't leave without sampling Stella's baklava...it too was spectacular!

MELITZANOSALATA:  SMASHED GRILLED EGGPLANT DIP, GARLIC, ONION, LEMON, EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL, GRILLED PITA

One of the leafy streets in Stella's neighbor

LAMB GYRO:  OPEN FACED SANDWICH WITH SLICED LEG OF LAMB, TOMATO, ONION, TZATZIKI, GRILLED PITA

Leaving Stella's we then took a guided tour of the White House of the Confederacy, the home of Jefferson Davis.  Our tour guide was very informative and the home, where President Davis lived with his wife and four children. was well restored to replicate how it looked while he lived there.  Two days after Davis and family abandoned their home, President Lincoln visited the residence.

We then moved the clock further back in time and visited the Saint John's Episcopal Church where Patrick Henry delivered his famous "Give me liberty or give me death" speech.  Henry made his plea to the second Virginia Revolutionary conference to join the New England States in forming a new nation.  George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were among the Virginians in the audience.

We ended our day in Richmond at the Chimborazo Hospital which was a complex of hospital tents created to attend the extraordinary numbers of casualties that the Confederacy was encountering during the war.  The model of triage created by this hospital is still used by the US military.

Created with funds raised by the Boy Scouts in 1950 to demonstrate their loyalty to our country.  Shades of McCarthy?

Returning to Pocahontas around 6 pm, we had our first campfire of this trip.  

What a great way to end our day; a campfire as we listened to the Celtics win against the Nets Game 2!

Day 4

 

We woke to a snow covered, 30° campsite, but like the previous night, our down sleeping bags and van heater kept us warm.

Our campground is in the Pine Grove Furnace State Park which is about 20 miles north of Gettysburg.  Located on the mid point of the Appalachian Trail, its elevation is much higher elevation than Gettysburg, so rain in Gettysburg, often turns to snow in Pine Grove Furnace State Park.

The roads back into Gettysburg are surrounded by fruit orchards whose trees are just starting to blossom.

In Gettysburg we picked up coffee, pastries, and sandwiches at the Gettysburg Baking Company, and then headed to the the National Battlefield Park where we followed the Auto Tour.  Although we’ve visited this battlefield many times, we always enjoy re-turning to it.  It has become a required pilgrimage for us.

The Virginia memorial including the equestrian statue of Robert E. Lee

Little Roundtop

The Monocacy National Battlefield Park commemorates the July 9, 1864 "battle that saved Washington".  On this farmland along the Monocacy River 15,000 Confederate soldiers fought a much smaller Union force of 6,600 soldiers.  The Confederates did not anticipate that they would encounter any resistance on their march to capture the Union capitol, so although they won the battle, they were prevented from capturing Washington.

The Worthington farm

The Thomas farm.

Leaving Monacacy, we continued south to Richmond where we took a self guided driving tour of the state capitol building, the White House of the Confederacy, and several of sites that we'll visit tomorrow.

Our dinner destination, Mama J's Kitchen

Mama Joni enjoying Papa's Punch:  spiced rum, blue curaco, grenadine, pineapple, cranberry and orange juice

Southern Comfort Food:  fried chicken, string beans, cornbread, and mashed potatoes