Spring 2010 - #3

Sunset: Looking toward Brunswick from Jekyll Is.

What's In a Name?
(2010/03/13)

How does one choose where to live? If you have a choice of location would you choose Bland, Virginia or Prosperity, West Virginia? There is also a Prosperity, PA, so that does give you more options. (Intercourse, PA has always been intriguing.) Maybe Asians have a good idea by using Feng Shui to determine home location as well as placement of furniture in the house.
In our town, some residents want to change their house number because the present one is not a symbol of Good Fortune. I think I would change mine to 444. When you press the Shift key, on the keyboard, 444 becomes $$$. This I like. Of course, our town, using what little wisdom it has, will be collecting a fee for number changes. For the town, Feng Shui could be the road to Prosperity.

And speaking of Town Councils. I love the one here in Brunswick, GA. For sometime they have been debating the placement of a jail expansion. Some councilors are guilty of hiding pertinent facts. Accusations have been hurled back and forth. The best is the names one counselor has given to three of his adversaries: Tweedledee, Tweedledum and Moron. Got to love it!

Magnolia: First of the Season, Blufton, SC

Names. I love names. Dickens and Trollope used definitive names for their novel characters: Bumble, Micawber, Skimpole and Pecksniff.
There are names that just sound so right. They roll off the tongue in such a way that they sound like music. One student, from my teaching career, was Julia Joyce VanWilligen. Say that over and over. It reminds me of “T'was brillig and the slithy tove did gyre and gimble in the wabe”. (Lewis Carroll)
I have just come across another name that I love. This belongs to a member of a church we visited on this trip: Joely Tweel. She is the Worship Associate at a church in SC. It just feels so good to say that name.

Marsh at Sunset

Hearing aids can be a delight sometimes. On a very cold morning in Morgantown, VA., we were seated at a local McDonald's having breakfast. Nearby, was a group of friends: the good old guys with lots of stories and lots of time to tell them.
I overheard one gentlemen assessing the opinions of another: “He says those kinds of things 'cause he's a Klu Klucker.”
Now that got me to thinking. (Always a dangerous hobby of mine.) There are certain areas in the South where I would consider opening an all-day breakfast chain of restaurants.
I'd call them:

Klapp's Klu Klucks & Ham - Start the Day with Attitude

Of course the addresses would be "444" some street or avenue.

A Nice Afternoon in Savannah

Not far back in our journey, Savannah, I think, a mobile home pulled into the campground. Lashed to the top of this vehicle were two kayaks. The ropes were 'firmly' tied to his refrigerator exhaust vent and his roof top TV antenna. Guess Tweedledee and Moron were out on vacation.

A Mermaid

Early March Trip2010 #2

Early March 2010 (Blog entry 2)

Blue... blue..... blue..... blue.... blue.... blue.... round and round the flashing light goes.

The light appeared one night after I entered a small South Carolina town.

The car, I had been patiently following for many miles, turned into a lane by the Chapel of Love. I pressed the pedal and swerved around him, increasing my speed from 40 mph to 45 mph.

Blue... blue...

I moved to the shoulder and took out my license. The officer looked at my license and asked my age.

“63”

“Hmmm... That is close to being a senior and I don't ticket seniors. Have a blessed evening.”

I wished him the same and drove off. Cathy just shook her head murmured something about horseshoes.

And, you know, it was actually on the tip of my tongue to argue with the officer. A voice in my head kept saying, “Shut your mouth, Fool”. I listened.

And, by the way, a neighbor in River Bottom Farm RV Park had the same experience with same officer.

Friday night in Galax, Virginia. For us that means going to the Smokehouse for supper. Ribs, fries, slaw and a draft. After wiping the sauce from my face, we make a thirty-second walk to the Rex Theater. Tonight it is Rich Tradition. Good singing and playing. Two hours of foot stomping music broadcast live over WBRF.

Most of the year I listen to the Friday concert at home in front of the fireplace but, once in a while we stop by the Rex on our way south. Next year, or in the Fall, we are going to catch the bluegrass jams in Floyd.

On the way down to Galax, we stopped for a night in Morgantown, West Virginia. They were totally buried in snow. A week later it was continuing to snow so they closed the schools for two weeks.

Watching the 2010 Winter Olympics on US TV has been somewhat of a challenge over the past two weeks. Last night's coverage of the Closing Ceremonies was basically a long commercial interspersed by shots of the ceremonies. However, the commentators were worth a listen. As the large animal balloons entered the stadium, I heard the announcer proclaim that here come the quintessential inflatable Canadian beavers! There was a pregnant, embarrassed pause, followed by: “.. and moose, too!”

I tried watching Olympic clips on on the internet. NBC kept asking for the name of the company that provides my computer service and the Canadian CTV network kept telling me I couldn't watch because I wasn't in Canada. Unfortunately, my HOTSPOT program does not work on Canadian locations. Oh, well, such are the trials and tribulations of traveling.

Too cold for yachting at Hilton Head

I have been rather lax with my Blog responsibilities this trip; there just seems to be so much else to do. We are not basking in the warmth of the sun. Basking in cold air is not very appealing.

Man-Chairs @ Hilton Head

(And speaking of weather – here in Savannah there is a possibility of snow on Tuesday night. Yes, that is a prediction of white fluffy stuff for March 2. We heard that prediction last year, as well. Last night the temperature was only supposed to go down to 34 degrees F. Not all prognostications are correct. The water was very, very slow coming out of the tap this morning – a good indication of ice in the hose.)

Savannah Nature Preserve - View of the Ship Yards

The weather affected what we saw, or didn't see, during our picnic/drive through the Savannah Nature Preserve. The reptiles were not sunning on mud banks. The cold air was propelled over the wetlands by strong winds. The gators found it warmer to stay buried in the mud.

Cathy in the Spanish Moss BUT not touching her hair!

We know what is in the moss! :o)

The SNP is well worth the visit anyway. It is a four mile, one way drive through the wetlands with places to stop, read markers, or walk. A couple of sections are narrow roads overhung by moss-covered live oaks. Even on cold days, it is a good place for birding.

More moss in the SNP and a Flap Gate.

Flap gates were designed to be use with the cycle of tides to flood and drain rice fields.

And speaking of live oak alley ways; Bluffton, SC is a good place to visit. It is a small village on the outskirts of Hilton Head. It has some nice camera-ready streets over arched by live oaks. Once again, I wonder why towns don't plant live oaks. The trees seem to last forever, but they don't. We are viewing the results of thoughtful ancestors. We need to plant for the future.

We were in Bluffton to find the Low Country Unitarian Universalist Church. Notice that I said “find”. “Find” always precedes our “attendance” at church. More and more it seems that my map programs only guess where places are. I use Google Maps and I use Streets and Trips. They both contain elements of truth but never the whole truth. (We always give ourselves an extra margin of seeking-time.)

We did locate the very nice looking building.

Friendly and welcoming. A large congregation – more than the “90 members” listed on the internet – a good number of children and young teens. There were a large crop of visitors plus a lot of retirees from northern climes. We had many conversations with ex-northerners.

A lot of the churches we visit introduce their hymn singing with an apology for the lack of quality. UUs have to stop doing that. Enjoy the moment! There were some 'characters' amongst the children and they were giving the songs their full energy. No embarrassment! Come on adults!

During the announcements we were encouraged to keep on eye on the children during coffee time just to make sure they didn't wander back to the pond. This provokes some interest. Myself and a visitor from Maine made a futile search for the pond. She remarked how UUs would like to become more well-known but they always are hard to find. I surmised that she uses the same map programs that I do.

I must not forget to say that we wore our Aiken UU t-shirts to church. We will do the same in Brunswick next Sunday. It is a bit of a lark. Friendly Southern rivalry.

A trailer from PA pulled in yesterday. I think it was white when he bought it. Now it is a sickly gray color. That is another reason we leave our RV down south. Removing the stain of winter is a nuisance.

(2010/03/01)