TravelStream™ news feed for member speedylth on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/speedylth en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 13 Nov 2007 23:01:15 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/speedylth/southeast2007/1194780600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/speedylth/southeast2007/1194780600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/speedylth/southeast2007/1194780600/tpod.html Tue, 13 Nov 2007 23:01:15 -0500 Carbon Footprints in the Sand ...the ocean, the Avetts, and a lot of petro...

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St. Augustine Beach, Florida, United States

6:30am. Riled myself from dreams and groggily stumbled down to the beach to see the sun rise from behind the Atlantic. It was windy but the air was warming. I felt so incredibly fortunate to be on such a beautiful beach with so few people. There were the walkers, the photographers, the coffee-drinkers...sharing the edge of the sea with speedy shorebirds and drifting pelicans. It felt like the first moment of stillness on my little journey, as I watched the sky change colors and lift the sun from behind the waves. The color of the sun had the intensity of embers in a fire, reflecting on its watery, salty stage, as it slipped behind thin layers of blue-gray clouds and back out again, and I marveled how this grand event repeats every morning, and yet I rarely slow down long enough to watch.

This morning feels like vacation.


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Augusta, Georgia, United States

As my nature walk concluded around 2pm, for a fleeting moment my deep love of the Avetts came into question, but before a rooster could crow I got BACK into the car for the long haul BACK to Augusta (driven through yesterday) and stayed true to the "big fan" category. More cotton, more bible-belt radio stations, more roadside boiled-peanut stands. Showtime was at 8pm and I arrived at the Queene Anne Inn in downtown Augusta with two hours to spare. The innkeeper explained that the heat wasn't working in the B&B proper, so I was switched to a room in their adjacent inn. Not exactly what I had selected...antique, four-poster bed with canopy and LOTS of red velvet pillows, red wallpaper with peacocks, heart-shaped tub with draped netting and bubblebath...I expected Barry White to walk in any moment. Nonetheless it was a beautiful room in an old Victorian, and close enough to the Imperial Theater.

The innkeeper gave me a great recommendation for a tapas restaurant called "The Bees Knees." I met some friendly Augusta folks and had a yummy salad, homemade sangria, and a HEAVENLY dish called the 'avocado chop chop' (avocado-half meets crabmeat meets some sort of divine sauce -- all baked together to sheer and utter perfection.)

I hurried back the three long blocks to the theatre, just in time to get a rye and ginger, take a red velvety seat, and meet John and Tiffany, a friendly local couple sitting next to me. The old theatre was beautiful, but not full of stuffy formality. It was general admission, people were milling about, and drinks were allowed in the theatre. I love Augusta! I was pleasantly surprised by The Shaun Piazza Band, a local act that opened, and then saw what might be my best Avett Brothers show to date.

Here's a clip taken with a digital camera from at least 15 rows back, so don't expect Scorsese.

After the show I returned to the canopy bed, slept too late thanks to too much rye whiskey, and then cashed in my Queene Anne complimentary breakfast card at the Whistle Stop Cafe. To get a true taste of Augusta (and a dose of culture shock after the ultra-urban tapas bar), I indulged in the greasy spoon's breakfast special: one egg, two slices of bacon, raisin toast, and grits. Fully enjoyed, but my appetite was even more satiated after I inquired about the row of trophies atopped with silver gleaming pigs. "The owner, she done won the hog-calling state championship three years in a row." Well, suuuweeeeeeee! Time to get me to Florida.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/speedylth/southeast2007/1194726000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/speedylth/southeast2007/1194726000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/speedylth/southeast2007/1194726000/tpod.html Sun, 11 Nov 2007 08:58:28 -0500 Carbon Footprints in the Sand ...the ocean, the Avetts, and a lot of petro...

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Saint Augustine Beach, Florida, United States

Digestion barely kicked in before I kissed my Augusta grits farewell and got back in the Sonata to head to the Sunshine State. As I drove south and east toward the coast, the cotton and farm fields were replaced by expansive marshes and the promise of my final destination: St. Augustine Beach. Every leg of this trip has taken longer than anticipated, and by the time I got to La Fiesta Inn, I was ready for a siesta--not a fiesta! I checked in, then quickly grabbed my towel, book, and camera and walked to the beach. Despite my plan to let the sound of ocean waves lull me to sleep, the white, hard-packed sand and shorebirds were too beautiful to resist. I closed my book, left my towel behind, and just walked and walked until sunset. Tonight I'll lay low so I can get out for sunrise, have a full day at the beach, and make it to the Avetts in Gainesville!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/speedylth/southeast2007/1194667200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/speedylth/southeast2007/1194667200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/speedylth/southeast2007/1194667200/tpod.html Sat, 10 Nov 2007 23:11:34 -0500 Carbon Footprints in the Sand ...the ocean, the Avetts, and a lot of petro...

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Georgetown, South Carolina, United States

Last night, after about 13 hours of traveling and feeling like I was a character in "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles," I finally made it to my hotel in Georgetown, SC. (Via the Charleston airport, where I dropped off the Cruiser, picked up the black Sonata (which rides smooth as a gravy sandwich), and jumped for joy when my luggage was ACTUALLY WAITING FOR ME at the AirTran counter. Hooray!! Yet one more reason to believe in miracles.)

I awoke this morning to another gorgeous day, and took a stroll along Front Street on the Georgetown Harbor. Georgetown, which sits on a peninsula, is South Carolina's third oldest city and is rumored to be the probable site of the first European settlement in North America in 1526. There's a 1,500 foot long "Harborwalk" along the Sampit River, which made me think about more gentle, people-friendly possibilities for riverfront revitalization in the Hudson Valley (i.e., no shoreline gated communities!). It was tres quaint, even with a view of the large steel factory across the harbor.

Back in the car to return south, but first a stop along the way at the Sewee Visitor & Environmental Education Center, a joint USFWS and Forest Service endeavor. Took a quick walk on their 1-mile loop, which included a stop at the red wolf enclosure. (The red wolf is an endangered species, and was reintroduced into North Carolina in 1987, and elsewhere in the Southeast since then. The two in the enclosure appeared pretty down about the whole situation.) The rest of the walk was quiet, under the tall pines and oaks. I saw a lone pied-billed grebe on a pond, and then an unusual pair of buckeyes on the path. They remained together the entire time I photographed, even when the bottom butterfly would take short flights. I was baffled. Buckeye Susie, Buckeye Sam, doing the jitterbug in Buckeye land...

There was no time to search for muskrats before heading back in the car, with Georgia on my mind.
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Newburgh, New York, United States

Flight out of Newburgh at 6am. Ultimate destination: Charleston, SC via Atlanta, GA.
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Atlanta, Georgia, United States

Left New Paltz this morning at 4am to make a 6am flight out of Stewart. Yeeha--five days of sunshine, rest, roadtripping, Avett shows, and the beach! Or so I thought. The AirTran flight out of Newburgh was delayed over an hour, and arrived in Atlanta too late for many passengers to make connections to their "final destination." My flight to Charleston had already left, and my plans of spending the afternoon at the beach in South Carolina also slipped away as the AirTran representative outlined my options, one of which required waiting six hours for the next flight to Charleston. I was still weary from the 3:30am wake-up, so it took about 8 minutes for this new information to sink in. All I knew was that the first day of my vacation was about to get trashed, and being caged up in the Atlanta airport for six hours was more than I could handle. So I came up with my own plan: drive the five hours to Charleston and let AirTran pick up the rental tab. I picked up the yellow PT Cruiser, got some coffee, and hit the road under a bright blue sky. This had to beat sitting in an airport for six hours, plus another hour in the connecting flight, right? It all seemed like a really good idea until about an hour into the drive, when my face started to hurt from lack of sleep, I had to take micro-naps at every rest-stop, and I realized I forgot to pack any CDs. And while loving the bright sunshine, I had to wear my sunglasses over my eyeglasses (since my contact lenses were in my my luggage, which was checked at Stewart and hopefully going to meet me in Charleston). This wasn't quite what six-eyes had expected.

To salvage the day, I left the highway for part of the drive, and got to see some of the Georgia and South Carolina landscape, which was interesting, and much like the feeling in my brain, full of cotton.
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