Today we drove across Alabama and into Georgia -- another 7-hour driving day. The highways from Texas to Savannah are amazingly unclogged with traffic and smoothly paved, with a 70 mph speed limit, flat and almost straight. It is difficult not to get sleepy so I spent my time either driving or looking up interesting things along the way and reading tidbits out loud. We passed by Dallas GA (something of a space warp since we left Dallas TX several days ago), and drove past Dublin, Eastaboga GA (what kind of name is that?), Bugtussle (need I say more?), Hogjaw (the names just keep getting better), and Vidalia (yes, the home of the Vidalia onion -- can you name the two other types of sweet onion?……..Maui and Walla Walla). It turns out that the sweetness of the onions is due to the low sulfur content in the soil. We passed up the opportunity to visit the Videlia onion gift shop.
We passed by the Ocmulgee National Monument -- yet another monument I’ve never heard of and also another site of earth mounds from a culture long ago -- approximately 12,000 years ago. The archeologists think these mounds are temple mounds, built originally by ice age hunters who migrated into the southeast. I was sorry that we didn’t have enough time to explore these sites. Other interesting southern sights: a couple of anti-abortion billboards, several large (very large) Christian churches and schools (in MS, AL, and GA), and a wonderful pink billboard in GA that said “Shared memories: prom and pageant gowns.” Yes, the south is the center of beauty pageants and if you ever have a need for a pageant gown, you know where to shop!
Great idea for a trip: fly to Savannah and then drive up the east coast. That would be great fun! Driving through GA, think thick, piney woods with spindly trees that are harvested for pulp..
Savannah is, indeed beautiful. We had a balmy 77F today, which was lovely. After checking into our hotel, we availed ourselves of the concierge service, who booked a reservation for us at a wonderful restaurant, The Chart House (yes, it is a chain but this particular restaurant was spectacular). Some of the southern specialties on the menu were (1) blackened shrimp over yellow stone-ground bacon garlic grits (oh my gawd!) and pontchartrain sauce with corn fritters (another oh my gawd) on a bed of tomato jam; (2) fried green tomatoes (best I’ve ever had, by far); (3) she-crab soup; and (4) carmelized catfish with jumbo lump crab and spinach served over the same bacon garlic grits and smoked tomato gravy. I, of course, ordered chicken, which wass fabulous. We began our meal with cocktails (manhattan for me, of course), ordered a bottle of pinot noir with dinner, and ended with a peach cobbler and a shot of chilled Southern Comfort. A perfect meal although I am still hoping to find hush puppies (how much more southern can you get?). Luckily, we only had to walk two blocks back to the hotel.
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