Savannah, GA - Danielsville, GA - Lake Oconee, GA - Nashville, TE - Natchez Trace
Miles: -2400
Day 10. After breakfast and saying goodbye to our hosts we headed to the historic area of Savannah for one last glance. We drove around and made a brief stop at the English Gardens of the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum.
Have I mentioned I am the official driver of the trip? Proudly so! As our little Sonic accumulates miles I feel more conformable with the roads and have learned to enjoy it. While I sit behind the wheel Sebas books, researches and guides. This dynamic has worked really well because Sebas is wonderful with the logistics of the trip. Contrastingly, I have come to realize that I am a terrible co-pilot: having two smart phones and an iPad shouting different directions at me is really not my thing. Once I managed to get ourselves lost that way. Sebas knows how to tame those... demons and have them work to our advantage. So yeah... I drive and Sebas plays.
Since I am doing most of the driving I can't help but notice the bumper stikers with statements that we've never considered possible living in our New England bubble. My favorites so far: "Guns save lives", "Yes I am a hunter. And no! This is not my husband's truck" and... "I trade wife for truck". Sebas finds the latter particularly appealing...
I mentioned our next stop was uncertain. We only knew that eventually we had to get to Nashville and that we would have to spend the night somewhere in between.
Day 10. After breakfast and saying goodbye to our hosts we headed to the historic area of Savannah for one last glance. We drove around and made a brief stop at the English Gardens of the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum.
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| Good bye Richard, Robert and Gordy |
Have I mentioned I am the official driver of the trip? Proudly so! As our little Sonic accumulates miles I feel more conformable with the roads and have learned to enjoy it. While I sit behind the wheel Sebas books, researches and guides. This dynamic has worked really well because Sebas is wonderful with the logistics of the trip. Contrastingly, I have come to realize that I am a terrible co-pilot: having two smart phones and an iPad shouting different directions at me is really not my thing. Once I managed to get ourselves lost that way. Sebas knows how to tame those... demons and have them work to our advantage. So yeah... I drive and Sebas plays.
Since I am doing most of the driving I can't help but notice the bumper stikers with statements that we've never considered possible living in our New England bubble. My favorites so far: "Guns save lives", "Yes I am a hunter. And no! This is not my husband's truck" and... "I trade wife for truck". Sebas finds the latter particularly appealing...
I mentioned our next stop was uncertain. We only knew that eventually we had to get to Nashville and that we would have to spend the night somewhere in between.
Before making up our minds on where to stay, we looked up a place to have lunch on the road (thanks Anne & Tommy for the PDF). We stopped at the Blue Willow Inn restaurant in Social Circle, GA, located in a former plantation mansion. Their specialty: fried green tomatoes, the dish that made them famous in the 90s. We could say wonderful things about this place but we'll let Lisa explain y'all the delicious southern all-you-can-eat menu.
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| At Blue Willow's Inn Porche |
As the sun was setting Sebas found this amazing camping spot by Georgia's Broad River where, if you rent a kayak for the day, you may camp for free:Broad River Outpost.
Day 11: We had breakfast, took our kayaks and into the river! It was a beautiful ride, mostly calm with some rapid sections. We spotted a variety of turtles and birds (sorry Mark A. that I can't be more specific-I am gonna venture and say we saw several blue herons....?)
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| Broad River Outpost, near Athens, GA |
Day 11: We had breakfast, took our kayaks and into the river! It was a beautiful ride, mostly calm with some rapid sections. We spotted a variety of turtles and birds (sorry Mark A. that I can't be more specific-I am gonna venture and say we saw several blue herons....?)
At 5pm we came back to the camp, took it down and drove towards Nashville. Along the way we stopped for a true southern Appalachian BBQ at Jim's Smokin Que for sweet pulled pork, sweet baked beans, sweet cole slaw, sweet bbq sauce, sweet tea... we arrived to the conclusion that people here like their BBQ sweet! I'm not saying its bad, it's not at all. It's just different... And sweet.
We entered the southern edge of the Appalachians and drove along rivers and lakes. When night fell we stopped at a ols woden motel by Lake Oconee where spend the night.
Anyway, back to how amazing the city sounds. The music festival at the park was incredible. If you care to listen to our two favorites of the afternoon they were Ben Sollee and Humming House.
Day 13: In a last-minute change of plans we decided not to go to Memphis and instead drive along the 440 miles of the Natchez Trace. It is a beautiful parkway, once an old trade route that was first used by native tribes and then by the French and English. We drove and drove and camped at Lake Davis at mile 220.
Day 14 was all about driving, eventually arriving to Natchez, MS the next day. We'll leave that and our future stops for another posting.
Day 12: We began the day with a hearty southern breakfast at Oconee Lake and continued our way.
We arrived to Nashville around noon to the Music City Hostel, 1.2 miles from the downtown area.
Nashville is not a city whose beauty is apparent at a first glance. As we were walking from our hostel to the park, between endless rows of buildings (and very, very few trees) Sebas rightly expressed that "this city better sound pretty cause it sure is ugly". And despite nashvileans preference for parking lots over trees, it did sound pretty amazing. We arrived to the shaded Centennial Park where we found ourselves immersed in a music festival.
We were extremely surprised to see a full-scale replica of the Parthenon in the park! You would think that if you wanted to see the Parthenon you'd have to go to Athens or to the British museum at least. Noup! Nashville Tennessee is the place to see it.
The "Parthenon" was built for the 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exhibition. It seems that they were not satisfied by having only the building because in 1990 they commissioned a 42-feet high Athena Parthenos to complete the set. The only thing really missing in this picture is a scaled country outfit for the lady! I'll leave it to your judgement.
The "Parthenon" was built for the 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exhibition. It seems that they were not satisfied by having only the building because in 1990 they commissioned a 42-feet high Athena Parthenos to complete the set. The only thing really missing in this picture is a scaled country outfit for the lady! I'll leave it to your judgement.
Anyway, back to how amazing the city sounds. The music festival at the park was incredible. If you care to listen to our two favorites of the afternoon they were Ben Sollee and Humming House.
Afterwards we headed to the downtown area. We stopped for dinner at Puckett's, where Derek St. Holmes Blues Band was playing. Then we walked through the Second and Broadway streets where most of the live music bars are. The majority were crammed with tourists: Germans with overdone country outfits; bachelorette parties playing drinking games in the middle of the street; and Baby Boomers with their Harley's. The atmosphere had a hint (or stench) of a Spring Breaker vibe we didn't quite enjoy, but maybe we just weren't drunk enough to play along.
Day 13: In a last-minute change of plans we decided not to go to Memphis and instead drive along the 440 miles of the Natchez Trace. It is a beautiful parkway, once an old trade route that was first used by native tribes and then by the French and English. We drove and drove and camped at Lake Davis at mile 220.
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| Natchez Old Trace |
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| Davis Lake |
Day 14 was all about driving, eventually arriving to Natchez, MS the next day. We'll leave that and our future stops for another posting.
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