A Girls Weekend in Atlanta

After too many years of talking about a girls weekend with Shelley, it was finally time. My Mom and I were going to have 2 days to spend with Shelley and her mom, Elaine, at their new house in Atlanta. We headed out at 7:30 AM from Florida with a 7 hour drive ahead of us. After the first hour, the weather turned from cloudy and rainy to bright and sunny and the drive was relatively painless. About half way through the drive, we took our first rest stop- at the Georgia information center on the border with Florida. They were having a “Discover Southern Georgia” fair – with vendors from all the local towns – offering free pens, water bottle holders – and free food! We tried our first grilled PB&J sandwich (once is probably enough), a hot dog and cookie. Lunch and a rest stop all in one place!
We had to make a stop at Adcock Pecans in Tifton, Georgia. They make the most amazing peanut brittle- so we grabbed a few boxes and continued our drive. We took 285 (the bypass) around downtown Atlanta. Since we were arriving about 3 PM on Friday, we weren’t sure what the traffic situation would be like going through downtown. 285 was a breeze and with the help of our handy GPS, we found Shelley and Frankie’s new house without a problem.
We got the tour of the new house –it’s absolutely beautiful—and HUGE!

The lot alone would take a day to mow and the puppies have a huge fenced-in back yard to romp. We found our way to our bedrooms, settled in and then opened a bottle of wine and started to catch up. What a great night!

The next day, we stopped by Shell’s old house- on the market now. It was a little sad to see the house empty – we had so many good memories there…. But- no time for nostalgia—there was shopping to be done. The 4 of us hit the stores in Alpharetta.
On Sunday, Frankie played chef and made an amazing porkloin. How nice to have a man cooking! Then, the girls took out the Scrabble board. With Elaine, the queen of crosswords, we had some tough competition. She, of course, won, but we had a great time.

All too soon, the weekend was over and we were back on the road to Florida….with plans for an annual event!

Time to head South

Time to head south—the weather was getting just toooo chilly. We opted not to take the coastal route. That stop gave us the “opportunity” to re-visit Hazelton and get a final look at the Turner gravestones. Not wanting to cook, we stopped at “Speck’s Tavern”, a local spot claiming home-cooked food. We parked our little Jetta next to a few large trucks that looked like they’d just come out of the woods loaded with dead animals. We walked in to a very dark, almost empty bar. A few patrons were sitting in front of those little card gaming machines – drinking beer with cigarettes dangling from their mouths. The bartender got us our beers and we took a better look around. The woman next to us, drinking something that looked like straight whiskey with a beer chaser, was talking to anyone who would listen. Her story of multiple marriages and hard luck life kept us entertained. In between, we took a look at the wall covered with 9/11 commentary—lots of “kill the muslims” and military slogans. We drank our beer and opted to make the best of leftovers in our own refrigerator.

Our mountain route south took us through Ashville, NC. After all of the endorsements of this funky, arts-fartsy town (Everyone has said, “You two would just LOVE it!”), we had high expectations. We took the trolley tour of the town—a two hour drive through no-where! The first hour was spent driving through their “Historic District” – which looked like a middle class 1930’s neighborhood. Then, it was off to see the big “downtown”….. a few blocks, a few restaurants and some boutique shops. What a yawn!

So, rather than spend any more time in the Carolina mountains (evenings were very chilly!), we made our way to Atlanta. We hit the infamous Atlanta traffic on the far side of I-285 and had the joy of driving through Atlanta with their less than friendly drivers. No one seemed particularly happy to see our 70 feet driving down their roads. We got to the Cummins dealership, just south of the airport, checked in and settled in for the evening.

The next day, we were hoping to get our jacks fixed (they were sporting a slow leak), but by day’s end, it was obvious that we wouldn’t be able to get the part for at least a week. So, we decided to spend the weekend and head out on Sunday. On Saturday, John dropped me off at the airport Marta station and I took the train up to Dunwoody. Shell met me at the station- how great to see her again! We did a few hours of shopping – it was like old times! Then, we picked up some pulled pork and sides for dinner, stopped to say hi to Elaine and met the boys for dinner at Shell and Frankie’s. It had been so long since I’d seen the house, it was like a whole new place. And, the dogs….the only dog I knew anymore was Chrissie! We finally met Callie and Hooch. Great dinner, lots of wine –it was a great evening.

The Brits in Florida and the Old South

While we were in Baton Rouge, we got a call from Jean and Gordon- they had a few weeks and wanted to meet us in the States! So, we beat feet back to Titusville and TGO to get ready for a British adventure!

Jean and Gordon arrived and we got them settled into their “guest suite” at TGO. The house actually worked quite well with guests – quite a change from the close quarters in Boston. We did face the challenge of how to make this trip memorable. After all, their first two visits to the States had been NYC, Boston and New Orleans. Here we were in Florida- home to Mickey and Minnie – with explicit instructions that Disney was not to be a part of our itinerary! No worries- we managed to pack the two weeks with Florida sights and a road trip. While we didn’t make the Mickey pilgrimage, we did spend a day at Universal Studios in Orlando. We had to make the Brits experience at least one theme park in Florida.

We explored the Titusville area- having some up-close and personal looks at the manatees and a day at the Kennedy Space Center.

We headed north to take in October’s Bike Week in Daytona Beach. We found a few great biker bars where the people watching was astounding and the beers very large!

Florida was not going to hold our attention for the entire time- although Jean did enjoy the sun and got her daily dose of Florida sunshine. So, we decided to try a road-trip in the motorhome. 40 feet and 4 adults was close quarters- but we managed to make it work. We headed north to Charleston to give them a flavor of the historic and elegant south. We did the traditional walking tour of the historic district with a wonderfully proper Southern lady who explained the history and architecture of this gorgeous city. Then- we got on board with the “Black Tour” of Charleston. As we walked onto the packed bus, the 4 white folks were asked to “move to the back of the bus” accompanied by hoots of laughter from everyone. We knew it was going to be a great tour. We learned a whole other side of the city from this tour- hearing the stories of slave labor, slave uprisings, as well as a host of other things we didn’t know about the black culture. We were quite taken with the old wives tales that everyone contributed…especially the one about putting menstrual blood into dirty rice and serving it to your man to assure that he would be yours forever! Gordon’s going to think twice if Jean serves him dirty rice at home.

We finished off our tour with a stop at Martha Lou’s and had some of her famous fried chicken, cornbread and collard greens.

We ate our way through Charleston – from Martha Lou’s to Bowen’s Island to Poogan’s Porch to The Wreck…..shrimp and oysters and fried food with lots of wine and beer!

We got up on Sunday morning ready to head to Savannah….until we tried to pull the slide in- and it didn’t move. Fortunately, John the handy man and Gordon the engineer managed to figure out how to pull the slide in and we were on our way. Savannah really captured the beauty of the south and it got a slightly higher grade on sheer beauty by the Brits. We did the standard trolley tour and the mandatory viewing of “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.”

The time flew by- and we were saying goodbye to the Brits. The house seemed pretty empty without them!

Our first Road Trip

Our first real road trip- a full 8 hour drive to Atlanta. We found a campgrounds just outside Atlanta (not the most charming site, but very conveniently located). We had dinner with Shelley and her new beau, Frankie, at a local sports bar. It was great to see Shell again and the time was just too short.

One night and on the road again for another full day drive. We made it through Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky and southern Ohio. We had our first truck stop evening at the Pilot and had dinner at the “Awful Waffle”.. We passed by Bone Lick State Park which was just past Beaver Lick.

May 25 – 30, 2003 Charlotte, Michigan: The Spartan Rally
One more ½ day of driving and we made it to Charlotte, Michigan. Our first rally… We arrived a day early to find rows of motorhomes already parked and a line-up at the gates. Volunteers were handling the check-in and parking and it was a nightmare getting in. We finally got settled and immediately found a yellow pages to find the local ethnic restaurants. We headed to Lansing for our Mongolian Barbeque feast. We continued our evenings of ethnic foods all week- with Korean and Ethiopian. We never could convince Gerry and Sandy to try anything spicy- so we had one evening with them at a local hearty American food restaurant – topped off with a DQ blizzard!
The rally was great- the seminars, for the most part, were very informative. In between, we visited the vendor booths and bought all the latest miracle RV products. The Travel Supreme reps were there with two models for sale. We fell in love with the floor plan on one of their 2003 models and John tortured the sales rep to put together his best deal for us. We were seriously looking at it (well, quasi-seriously) and did some research on the TS. We met a couple with a Travel Supreme Select and they invited us in for a look-see. What a spectacular motorhome- 42” plasma screen TV, desk/vanity space in the bedroom, granite countertops, marble floors. It was stunning! John tortured Gerry with the idea that we might leave the "American Coach fold".

"Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil"

After an evening of running the numbers on the Charleston house, we came to the conclusion that, although we loved the house, it wouldn’t support our lifestyle. We decided that we really need a home with at least one dependency to cover our fixed costs and give us the freedom to travel. With the Charleston house, we would have required about 9 months of executive rental to cover our fixed costs- so we’d have a beautiful home, but wouldn’t be able to live in it ourselves.

So, we were off to Savannah- The weather turned on us and it was pouring rain all morning. In the afternoon, we drove out to Savannah’s beach community, Tybee Island. It was a 40’s style beach community filled with a range of housing styles (mostly small and tacky) and a few restaurants. We stopped at the local crab shack for an overprice “thimble” of clam chowder. With high prices and an unheated dining room, we opted to dine at the Korean restaurant. It was wonderful to have spicy Korean food again.

The area around the KOA where we were staying was rural Georgia- lots of auto parts stores and churches (with signs like, “God answers kneemail”). All the men own brand new SUV trucks and like to start them up early in the morning and just let them idle a while.

We spent the day touring Savannah. We took a trolley tour (all three of us- although we had to keep Mija hidden under a map to try to stop the smells from wafting through the entire trolley). She was definitely ready for a bath.

Savannah is a simply beautiful city- maybe the most beautiful Historic District ever. The city was planned with a series of public squares filled with huge live oak trees and fountains. The feeling of neighborhood is spectacular. It reminded us of Boston’s South End. There is a lot of gentrification and also a lot of gorgeous unrestored homes.

We had lunch at Clary’s (featured in “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”). It was another hearty lunch. We took their famous bread pudding home for my birthday dessert. We rented “the” movie and had bread pudding for dinner. It was a wonderful birthday.

We spent the next day driving through the historic district and getting a better sense of the housing. We used the real estate guide to get a sense of the housing costs and found some beautiful properties. It was time to call a realtor to see if this city would make the list.

Armed with a book on Historic Savannah, we did another drive around seeing the areas outside the HD- the Victorian District (both the “Afro-Victorian” and “Gentro-Victorian” areas) and Ardsley Park (a kind of Cleveland Heights with beautiful squares). We stopped at two open houses on Jones Street. Jones Street is one of the most beautiful streets we’d ever seen. Rows of beautiful townhomes lined with live oak trees and brick streets. The first house was beautiful from the outside, but the inside was the work of a local Home Depot job –and it was horribly over-priced. The second house on East Jones was an interesting property. It had the feeling of our house in Boston when you walked in – with heart pine floors, very high ceilings, floor to ceiling windows in the living room and master bedroom, a beautiful backyard and a 2 car carport. It had been vacant for over a year and was definitely a property that we could tackle. We had a quick lunch on the riverfront at one of the many tourist restaurants. It’s the Quincy Market of Savannah- lots of tourist shops, bars and restaurants.

The next day, we dropped Mija off at “Spa Dog” for her day at the spa. We headed off to Celia Dunn Real Estate to meet with Celia herself. We had a 2 hour meeting with Celia. She was a local Savannah resident-and a huge supporter of renovation in the Historic District.

A few notes on real estate in Savannah:
Any modifications to the exterior have to be approved by the Historic Review Board (some can be made by the staff, some require a committee review.)
The rental market is primarily SCAD students (grad and under-grad) and young professionals.
Local industry is doing OK- there’s some talk of Daimler Chrysler building a plant. Otherwise, locally things are fairly stable- with the main industry of manufacturing (steel, tractor equipment, sugar, paper), banks and the port.
The Historic District is a real neighborhood where people know each other and look out for each other. Crime is a problem- primarily auto theft, but also assaults and home burglaries. Much of the violent crime is black on black, but there is a large ‘indigent’ population that increases the theft problem.
Property taxes are high- a rough estimate is 2% of the selling price of the house. There are both city and country taxes.

Something is nagging at us about this beautiful city. The local paper (which doesn’t seem to cover any national news, but is filled with local info) has been reporting on the high crime rate, the flight from the city (a 4% decline in 10 years), and the high taxes. The crime rate has placed Savannah in the top 10 of all metropolitan areas in the US. Security systems abound (along with ‘beware of dog’ signs). The local mayoral election is starting with one candidate declaring a war on crime as his first priority. There appears to be a general lack of leadership/vision in the city.

We spent the afternoon with our realtor looking at properties in the Historic District. The range of properties and prices were stunning. We saw new construction (with elevator and carriage house) for $490K and town homes for $925K with no parking. We kept coming back to the house on East Jones and spent some time re-looking at the property. It could be beautiful and the block is spectacular. But, again, it’s too much, too soon.

Beaufort----
We took a day trip to Beaufort, SC to see if it was as beautiful as we remembered it from our last visit. It was truly charming. So charming in fact, that we called a realtor and spent the afternoon looking at housing in the historic district (Old Point) and the surrounding communities.

According to Judy, the realtor, about 70% of the buyers are coming from outside the area. About 1/3 are looking for anything on the water or with a water view. About 1/3 are looking for golf communities and the last 1/3 are looking for historic properties. The lower home market is going strong- largely due to low interest rates and the 2 military bases close to Beaufort. Over $300K, it’s a bit slower moving. There’s a large market for ST rentals, but very little availability. The real estate company rents a small cottage for $1200/month furnished. Most of the demand comes from people who are in town building and want to be close to the site, but don’t want to move their stuff. There’s also a market for military personnel coming in on temporary living allowances. They just opened Oaks Apartments- furnished two bedroom apartments rent for $1500/month. Judy expects appreciation at 10-15% on housing.

The housing in Old Point was lovely- we looked at a beautiful Victorian (needed some work, but it had a lovely feel- high ceilings, open rooms). It didn’t have parking and needed some structural work – and had been on the market for over a year. We also looked at several other properties downtown and one with a water view. While the views were lovely, the house was unimpressive - open floor plan with a in-ground pool and a guest apartment. It was priced at only $415K, but there were lots galore in the same area.

Sea Islands...
Content that we’d seen Savannah and surround well enough to count it in as a possibility, we headed south to the Sea Islands of Georgia. First, we stopped for lunch at the TA Truck Stop restaurant. For $4.99, we had a ½ pound hamburger with fries- enough food to feed a truck driver (or in our case, enough for the two of us and several meals for Mija) When we got to the the Sea Island area, we stopped in a state park with beautiful live oaks and no possibility of satellite reception. So, we tried the park down the road. While lacking in any atmosphere (most of the sites were water logged or filled with muck, we were able to find a relatively dry spot, got satellite reception and called it home for a few days.

We took a drive to Brunswick to track down a book store (limited, but it was a book store- which is hard to find in the south). Then we took a quick stop at the TA and FlyingJ Truck stops. The parking lots were filled with RV’s- most of them from Quebec- spending the night for free on their way to Florida. All the campgrounds and truck stops are filled with snowbirds making their way south before Christmas.

We did a tour of the Sea Islands – starting with Sea Island. We drove around the Cloisters, where John’s family vacationed when they were kids. It was definitely white man’s land. We asked one of the “help” for directions to the swimming pool. He rolled his eyes and said, “No sir, I don’t rightly know”

From there, we drove all around St Simon’s- a bastion of white money. The south is filled with white people with money living in enclaves (gated communities or named communities) while the poor whites live in run down homes or mobile homes- completely separated from the poor blacks.

Fleeing the white bread atmosphere of St Simons, we found the historic district of Brunswick. Completely surrounded by run-down black neighborhoods with a small buffer of white red-neck housing, it was several blocks of large, beautiful Victorian homes in various stages of renovation. The streets were lined with live oaks and it was truly lovely. (They had a unique real estate pitch- a drive by house description- just turn to 1610 on your AM dial and listen to a description of the house. ). On the way out of town, we drove through the historic downtown area- with too many ‘for rent” signs in the windows.

We drove north to Darien, hoping to find a small town with a historic district, but didn’t find much but an outlet mall and a few old houses. John says that the south is filled with “live oaks and dead brains”.

Jekyll Island...
Our last stop was at Jekyll Island. The island is owned by the State of Georgia and the scenery is spectacular. The island was originally the playground of the Rockefellers, Goodyears, etc. They built a huge private club and gorgeous “cottages” for their summer retreats. Now, the club is a hotel and the cottages are art galleries and inns. Surrounding the beautiful homes was a development of 60’s style brick ranch houses with the most amazing views of the Intracoastal Waterway.