As we have relatives in Georgia so it was effectively our home base. We have already travelled quite a bit in Georgia one way or another. Like all the Southern States in July/Aug it is hot and sticky, green and lush, sunny with amazing thunderstorms and heavy downpours in the evenings. Athens (biggest town in the area) has already had 60 days with the temperatures above 90F / 32C this year and on the 4th August the 60+ year old record was broken with temperatures reaching 102F / 39C. We have had a couple of showers and a few cooler days (35C : ) but walking the town without getting a heat induced headache seems unlikely.
Athens is a special little town and fairly rare in the US… imagine Woodbridge with a huge rambling University campus (old for US) stretched down the middle of it and 30,000+ students with a thriving art and music scene that gave us REM and the B52’s among others… lots of eclectic shops selling all manner of stuff… lots of restaurants a couple of theatres and numerous hip bars (student heaven) and even a 100% vegetarian restaurant. You quickly get a feel for why it is regularly voted one of the top 10 places people want to live in the US. We only really got to appreciate how special it is after seeing what the rest of the US has to offer. That is a bit unfair… as most university towns worldwide seem to manifest the same sort of vibe. Rex, our 2nd cousin and his hugely pregnant wife Lacey (press ganged into being the non drinking driver – poor girl) took us out on the town. It included ‘the Grit’ (the 100% vegetarian restaurant – very nice) and loads of bars which meant that the following day was to say the least a little slow for us old folks. If you like party towns this is definitely one for you.
Lots of the little towns have faded away as the interstates bypassed the garage / general store and big chain (identical) malls and superstores took over. Some, normally the ones with history remain to give a flavour of the real South. The elegant and often huge antebellum style houses (ante bellum - Latin meaning ‘before the war’) with their wide, shady verandas, high ceilings, slow fans, tall windows with wide shutters and massive columns at the entrance instantly make you think… ‘Gone with Wind’
Talking about films, ‘Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café’ anyone? If you remember the film you may remember the café. Well although it was sort of built from an old rundown / closed antique store for the film the café it is still there serving Southern cooking (Fried!) and a major dose of nostalgia including homemade lemonade served in a jam jar (another Southern thing). We had the fried green tomatoes (very good), okra (fried) and bread with peach cobbler to follow. A bit heavy but it did mean that we had a very leisurely walk around this tiny spec of a town (Juliette, Georgia) which was literally brought back from the dead as the setting for the film.
Today, over 20years later it continues to survive, living primarily off people like us who go out of their way to visit the café. One thing that has surprised us is that when you travel the US like we did you realise just how much of the US history, culture and geography the average UK person will have absorbed from watching US movies. If the Chinese ever want to invade the US all they have to do is watch a few Hollywood blockbusters and they will have everything they need. A Chinese invasion is unlikely as they have already defeated the USA. Get your head around this one… the Chinese have bought and continue to buy over 60% of the growing US debt mountain to stabilise the US economy so that the US can continue to consume more and more Chinese goods. The debt buy up is not because it is good for the US but because it is essential for China’s continued and relentless march to be the number one economy. Looking at the US from the inside out it is a bit sad to think that we may have witnessed the end of USA as the dominant force it has been for all our lives. Sophie’s (HAPPY 10th BIRTHDAY : ) children may need to speak mandarin to get finance jobs… or any job :)
We visited numerous little Southern towns and lots of them around the Athens, Georgia area but our favourite has to be Washington (every state in the US has a Washington : ) This town has a perfect little town square and more old antebellum houses than anywhere else in Georgia. Many of the old big houses in other towns were burnt by one side or the other during the Civil War. This well preserved town has a quiet, laid back feel and any tourism that is on offer here blends seamlessly with the life of the town although you don’t see many people walking in this part of the world. Not surprising really, as it was 38C when we were attempting the full circuit of the walking tour. The leaflet says it can be walked or driven… mad dogs and Englishmen? As soon as people know that you are English we now get an update on the riots and anarchy. To be honest we fully expect to be able to see London in flames as we enter Irish airspace… we preferred questions about the royal wedding. After nearly a year with very limited exposure to any form of media you begin to consider that maybe ignorance is bliss and to wonder just how much TV and newspapers actually promote a self fulfilling prophecy. Much of the rural south are God fearing, Obama hating Republicans and they think the President is trying to take the US down a UK like socialist road (free health care, free education for all etc). We occasionally got a feeling that the considerable interest in UK woes stems from a combination of morbid curiosity, lack of humour and paranoia – if you had a dark streak in you, you could have some real fun here.
One of the most taxing bits of the journey was always going to be selling the RV. It was hard for several reasons. Firstly we didn’t really want to sell her (Jennie) as she had been our home and sole means of transport for the last 11 months and you know what moving house is like. Practically selling her was always going to be about timing and we should have started a couple of weeks earlier. We advertised on all the web sites (CraigsList, eBay etc) and as it got closer to the time for us to come home we resorted to turning the RV into a 30ft long advert – difficult to miss and then finally parking her in the busiest superstore car park at the weekend in Athens for an open house session to sweat it out.
Fun or what? If you can imagine being in your car for 5 hours in the Tesco’s car park with no air conditioning in 37C then sweat it out we did. As with most things in life selling it was always going to be a combination of perspiration and luck – as we write we are still waiting for the luck bit.
Most of our time in Athens has been spent parked at our cousins Julie and David’s RV lot at the Bulldog Park. The Bulldogs are the local Athens College American Football team. The facilities are pure luxury and it has a full hook up and we are virtually alone here. During the season (Sept – Dec) this place turns into one giant tailgate (sort of a party in / on wheels) on home game weekends... with free shuttles back and forwards to the game so you can enjoy a drink. Our fallback plan (Thank You Julie and David) is to leave the RV here to maximise its exposure and sell it. Plan C ?... well that includes another trip to the USA.
GO DAWGS!
aaa aaa aaa AAAAAAA!
AUF! AUF! AUF! AUF!!!
Sorry, but you have to had been there to begin to get this one.
Some of our likes and dislikes, as they quickly come to mind:-
We liked:
Home style Ice Cream (real cream), Peanuts, Georgia peaches and Florida Oranges, Brownie cake mix (amazing), Key Lime Pie, Corn chips, Fig rolls, Cinnamon Bread (on the BBQ), Super size marshmallows (these are huge – BBQ), Julies cocktails, Dairy Queen Blizzard (pot of ice cream… small size is too much… large is a killer) most US coffee, Chilli flavoured chocolate (fantastic with strong coffee and much better than it sounds).
We disliked:
Trucks and truck drivers – mad, US baked beans (in gravy), most bread (too sweet often with honey etc) Overdose of cinnamon (on everything especially anything apple), Fried and battered food (especially down South) Fast food (but to be fair we didn’t eat in them so based on a very small sample, 3 : ) Biting insects, Lipton’s tea (oh no it’s not!) Veggie soya stuff (processed slime), additives in things (taste OK but bread that is still fresh after a month, cake that never dries out or milk that keeps for weeks?… me thinks something is rotten in the state of Denmark? (but not America : ) Too much road side advertising - it makes your head ache after a day’s driving, Den being called a lady once too many times (4 so far), train whistles blowing through the night.
We have had a great time with our family here in Georgia. Southern hospitality is well documented and they have all been fantastic and welcomed us with open arms. Although none of them actually have access to our blog – observation and English ‘wit’ can be a double edged sword - we can’t thank them enough.
There will be one final wrap-up blog but that may have to wait until we are back in the UK.
Take Care
Den and Jane X
We are on our last leg back to Washington DC and home.
Question is - Will we ever fit back into our old lives?
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