adventures


16
Dec 22

And so it begins, travel day

An easy morning at the office, then back to the house to rapidly finish packing things up. And then into the car. We got out late in the mid-day, which means we only drove all afternoon and into the evening. And the evening part was, mostly, on interstates and roads I’ve ridden and driven on my whole, entire, life.

So there was a lot of this today.

And some of this.

The darkness caught up to us in Nashville, or so. Later, you turn right off that interstate then wind through some four lane roads of questionable purpose, and then into the hills and hollers on a two lane county road. Eventually you hit the state line, and then it’s a straight shot on those stretches of asphalt that are more than familiar. You keep going until you hit the “big” intersection that marks a small town’s crossroads, just up the street from the historic ferry spot that made the small town possible. You take a right, cross two more creeks and then hang a right in the darkness.

A moment later, in a finely lit and well-manicured neighborhood, this seven-hour drive is over. Hugs for Mom. Dinner, and the holidays are now underway.


6
Dec 22

Travel day photos

This is a filler post, as we spent most of the day traveling today. We woke up in Savannah, picked up our last little shopping treats, had breakfast, sat in the park and then got an Uber to the airport. It was after 9 p.m. when we got back to the house in Indiana. So, you can imagine.

I don’t know if Tom Hanks or David Moscow is still looking, but I found the Zoltar machine.

No one was as excited about seeing this banner as I was. Most things that interest me don’t seem to appeal to anyone else, which is weird. I’m sure it’s them, and not at all me. Anyway, Repurpose Savannah “is a women+ led 501(c)3 nonprofit establishing a sustainable future through the deconstruction and reuse of historic buildings.”

This is a movie prop poster. It is currently displayed in the window of an appliance story that’s set up to look like a 1960s retail shop. I want the actual poster, and some of the bakelite that was inside.

On the same block, the SCAD theater is also going to be a part of that movie. The parking spaces are also currently filled with period cars. For a time, this part of Savannah is pretending to be Cocoa Beach, Florida.

This is the Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist, home of the Diocese of Savannah, which covers 90 counties.

The bumpy, yet smooth, bricked road that is River Street, the primary tourist trap of Savannah.

Another version of this will become a banner on the blog.

If you go down there, though, you get great views of the vessels moving up and down the river.

I don’t care that there’s a tugboat in the foreground for scale, there’s not really a way to accurately convey the size of this thing, which started its voyage in Japan, made ports of call in Tacoma and Long Beach, then crossed the Panama Canal to visit Savannah. Four years ago, that ship rescued 11 Tunisian fishermen who were victims of a hit and run by another large vessel.

Here’s one more shot of our tree at Forsyth Park. Just on the other side, and trending a bit to the right of the trunk, 14 years ago, almost to the day.

Finally, here’s The Yankee, who planned this trip — which is why it was excellent — hanging out with Santa Claus. (She planned a really nice trip. She should have just made it longer.)

Another picture of her with a slight less authentic, but more lifelike, Santa is going on the Christmas cards this year.


5
Dec 22

Conquered the bridge again, celebrated in Savannah style

We did the 10K Saturday, “The South’s Toughest Bridge Run.” Here’s that bridge, the unfortunately named Talmadge Memorial Bridge. That’s 185 feet of vertical navigational clearance for ships, and a horizontal clearance is 1,023 feet. The total length is 1.9 miles, so the over-and-back was 3.8 miles or 6.2 kilometers, of the run. This is the most imposing view on foot.

The view up top is pretty grand. Looking to the east, the Atlantic Ocean is about 15 miles downstream.

And if you look upriver to the west, the shipping port goes farther than your eye can see. This is, after all, the largest single ocean container terminal on the U.S. eastern seaboard, and the nation’s fourth-busiest seaport. Odds are some of your Christmas presents slipped through these waters.

Here’s a nice casual view of the cable stays. The shots we take mid-jog:

The run goes over to Hutchinson Island, which is in the river, but still in Georgia. (One year I’ll just go all the way over the line into South Carolina.) It’s an industrial, convention, resort-based island, but there is a struggling residential project underway, The Reserve at Savannah Harbor. Everything down here is turning into a neighborhood or a shopping district.

If you lived out on “The Reserve” — they should rethink that name — and drove into Savannah for work, you’d look down off the bridge and see the signs of a booming industry.

There are acres and acres of heavy industry, waiting to be deployed and put into service.

I ran this 10K at almost an identical time to last year’s 10K. Next year, the goal is to get to the bridge run while not recovering from a surgery — anybody’s surgery, and any surgery.

After a hearty lunch we spent the afternoon at Forsyth Park. This was my view.

We are familiar with this spot. This is the spot The Yankee and I picked to spend an afternoon on our first visit to Savannah, almost 17 years ago, in April 2005. This, then, is our tree.

Click the above image to embiggen.

This is also the spot where we got engaged 14 years ago, in December of 2008.

I sit on her left, and if I look further to the left, this is the view.

Nice and peaceful.

We got married at the Mansion on Forsyth, in June of 2009. Some of our pictures were taken right here.

At the center of Forsyth Park — which has tennis and basketball courts, is the home of the local rugby squad and also boasts a great playground and fragrant garden, but was upon a time the drilling grounds for the local militia and guard, including the legendary Georgia Hussars paraded here — you’ll find the fountain.

Installed in 1858, the fountain was manufactured by a Bronx foundry. I did not know about that New York connection until just now. In fact, that foundry also produced work for the dome of the U.S. Capitol building, and railings on the Brooklyn Bridge. Small world, metallurgically speaking.

On Saturday evening we went out to The Crab Shack. We dined under the oak trees.

We ate delicious crab.

And now I want more delicious crab.

Tomorrow … we’ll continue to play catchup. More stuff from a Sunday and Monday in Savannah.


2
Dec 22

Did you figure it out?

I told you yesterday, dear reader, that we were taking a trip. I left it to you to guess where we were. Are. We are there now. Here. We are here now. Where is here?

Here’s a hint.

We were on a run around the fountain, just a little two-mile shakeout. And I found this in the cement. Seemed a good bit of advice. I’m glad someone put it somewhere with a bit of semi-permanence.

This sidewalk could persist for 80 years, which is a nice long time to leave a message. I wonder how long it has been there already.

We stopped in a pub for a snack, and we found some very good shaker glasses.

Might need to get a set of those. (I had the Swedish meat balls. They were tasty.)

Also, we spent part of the afternoon with our old friend, Andre, who has come over for a mini-vacation of his own. But, first, he had to finish up his week, hard-working, persevering sort that he is.

There are other friends, not pictured, here as well. But where are we?

There’s two hints in the images above, and this is your final hint. Tomorrow we’re running what is billed as “The South’s Toughest Bridge Run.” so this is your last chance.

Got it yet?

We’re in Savannah, where we took our first trip, where we got married, where we return to as often as we can. Where, tomorrow, we have that run.

(Omelette for breakfast, calzone for dinner, walked seven miles today before a sunny 10K tomorrow. What could go wrong?)


1
Dec 22

Guess where we are

On the one hand, it takes all day to get some places. On the other hand, we made it a quarter of the way across the country today.

We’re taking a few days for a low-key pre-holiday vacation. But now you have to guess where we are. Otherwise, you won’t win the prize.