Day 92. November 6, 2013. Rural Georgia

At the motel's breakfast bar, we met a group of tourists from Australia.  (The jars of Vegemite were a hint).  I helped one lady figure out biscuits and gravy, as she was quite puzzled.  Before  leaving Savannah, we went to a local seafood shop to buy some shrimp to take back to our cousin's house.  The shop was really authentic....bars on the outside, freshly-arrived shrimp, and lots of local customers.  Fish, shrimp, conch and crabs.  

Felt like we were in a different country.

On the way back, we went through several scrappy towns.  We found a local "local home-cooking" place for lunch.  It was sort of a buffet....fried chicken, fried pork chops, Jo Jo's, lots of different vegetables.  Customers select whatever they want, and the servers dish and tally it up.  We opted for the healthiest item we could find...pulled pork and broccoli with cheese.  The server assumed we wanted it to go.  We found a side road to have a picnic.  We had just stopped and opened a beer when the local sheriff came by.  Gave us a scare, but he was just making sure we were ok

Spent the PM working on the camper and car.  We ate dinner with our cousins, including mustard and turnip greens from their garden.  All for now, y'all

Day 91. November 5, 2023...,.sophisticated Charleston, SC

We stayed overnight in Savannah and made a day trip to  Charleston.  Charleston is so beautiful.  For some reason, it seems more refined than Savannah.  We walked around the old downtown area.  The homes are beautiful.  Everything seems so old and historic.  We had lunch in a craft beer restaurant that was upscale gourmet.  As an appetizer, we had boiled peanuts, with an interesting twist ....boiled in vinegar and beer.  Delish!  We had some clams with house-smoked  bacon bits on top.  

Back in Savannah, we went downtown to a nice bistro for dinner.  We split a charcuterie platter.  The owner was there ...all very Southern

Day 90. November 4, 2013. Beautiful Savannah!

We use a mail-forwarding service and arrange for our mail to be delivered with friends/family as we travel.  A big package arrived here, so we spent time going through everything this AM

We left the camper at our cousin's house and headed for Savannah.  We found a motel in the outskirts of town that has a shuttle to downtown.  Savannah reminds us of a cleaner New Orleans....lots of bars, great Southern restaurants, tourists, and ships on the downtown waterfront.  We found a brewpub for lunch and walked around the city all afternoon.  The city is laid out beautifully.....historical squares every few blocks.  

Back to the motel for the evening.  We had planned to eat at Ms. Etta's restaurant  next door, but it is closed.  We found a local, authentic BBQ shack and bought Brunswick stew and red rice to eat in the  room.  Watched HGTV....a nice treat!

Day 89. November 3, 2013

Beautiful morning.....the steam rising from the lake.  We went to visit another one of George's cousins, also in rural Georgia.  We drove through miles of Georgia farms.....cotton fields, pecan plantations, pine trees for logging.  Most of the towns seem really poor.  The cotton is beautiful....looks like snow.  

For dinner, we had venison burgers.  George's cousin is an avid hunter.  

Day 88. November 2, 2013. Hog jowls and pigtails!

We went with our cousins to a nearby park.  It has an old gristmill, and was quite lovely. 

 We decided to camp there.  All the sites face the lake.  It is called Hamburg State Park so we obviously had to have hamburgers for dinner. We stopped in the town's grocery to buy provisions.  Wow....we are definitely in rural Georgia!  The store had a huge display of country-smoked hog jowls and pigtails.  We passed on them and just bought our hamburger and a sweet potato to throw on the campfire coals wrapped in aluminum foil with butter, salt and pepper.  

George's cousin gave us a great Coleman cook stove...see photo.  It will be so nice to have 2 burners to cook on and not have  to depend on the campfire for cooking.  

Beautiful night....sky full  of stars

Day 87. November 1, 2013. Visiting Augusta where we used to live

We closed up our camper, after our second night near Columbia, SC.  We drove to Augusta, GA where we lived from 1993 to 1999.  We had lunch with one of my former co-workers and her husband.  So nice to reconnect.  We drove through our old neighborhood. The area has really grown up, and I was totally lost.  We drove by our old house..see photo.  Looks about the same.  Then drove on to central Georgia where we are spending the night with some of George's cousins.  Nice to be in a home again!  

Day 86. October 31, 2013. Columbia, SC

Since we have electricity at this site, George made grits for breakfast.  He cooked them in the rice cooker.  We added some leftover pimiento cheese spread (a Southern favorite) to the grits, and they really turned out well.  See picture of our egg poacher.  We bought this years ago for $.50, and it has been terrific.  No mess in the microwave.

We took a long bike ride around the park.  Some of the roads were too sandy, and I fell off!

We unhooked the camper and drove into Columbia for the day.  It is nice not having the camper when driving through cities.  We went in search of brewpubs, but struck out.  Two were out of business and one was only open in the evening.  We did find a neat restaurant for lunch.  We had a bowl of She-Crab Low Country soup.  Really traditional and richly good.  George also had some collard greens.  We had some good SC and NC craft beers.

Did some shopping and came back to site for restful evening.  I'm reading lots of books on the iPad, that I can still check-out from  Rochester digital library..  I also have a few paper-backs that I trade at some campsites and with friends/family as we travel.  

We had meatball sandwiches for dinner.  Meatballs leftover from last night on a baguette.  Trying to use up leftovers as we won't be camping/cooking for a few nights.  

A nice couple came by to chat.  They have a tiny camper, too.  Small world, she stayed at Hope Lodge where I volunteered in Rochester while her father was at Mayo.  We hope to meet more folks like that on our travels.