The Good Old South--Part 2

This is the second and final travel-a-long from down south in the US of A. When you last heard from our heroines JB and kj, they had left Greenville South Carolina and had driven across the state to the coastal island of Hilton Head. There they had checked into a Marriott Hotel and were greeted by a weather forecast of total complete rain for all of their remaining vacation days. They acted quickly in attitude and preparation: if it rains it's time to gallivant on the back roads and in the cities yet again.

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First they walked the beach anyway. Afterall, who in her/his right mind would ever pass up an Ocean? And then they walked the pool, which by the way, defied the weather gods and welcomed one full day of sun for jb and kj to lounge poolside, including three chilly dips in water that was colder than a pool should be. Sometimes JB and I are the only adults in the pool, along with 5-6 kids. We don't care.

Next stop: Savannah Georgia. Along the way, I continued to read Eat Pray Love outloud while JB drove.

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I kj totally fell in love with Savannah the moment we hit the city limits. I can't say why. A friend one told me cities have astrological signs, not just people. He said that's why certain people are happy in a city and other people aren't. If this is true, Savannah and I are compatible souls. Let it be said I did not see the outer city limits and I don't know about the quality of living for people without means. But what I saw, I really liked.

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We ended our time in Savannah with a New York Pizza from Vinny Van Go Go's. Since pizza is my favorite food, right up there with Enchilada Verde, I'd say the day was pretty close to perfect.






Next, Charleston. In my mind this was a larger Savannah, with the added attraction that it borders on the ocean. The one fact I can tell you is that Charleston is ranked as the most polite city in America. I can also tell you about porches.

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The south loves porches. Even the simpliest homes have them. In Charleston, what looks like the front door of the house is actually a door leading to the porch. My apologies that you will again have to twist to see what I mean, but really it's kind of worth the twist to see how the concept of southern doors and porches works.

People are always giving jb and I advice where to eat and what to see. So we arrived in Charleston with the name of the Haley Mills restaurant. It took us a couple of tries, but we figured out we were looking for the Mills Hotel, which turned out to be a stunning historic building and the best $ 8 lunch I've ever had (Shrimp and grits--I try to follow the 'when in Rome' rule....) . Aftwards I asked JB if she thought someone had told her about the Haley Mills as a joke. Straightfaced she said, "I don't think so.."

We drove back to Hilton Head, still reading outloud, and found this in our hotel room:

The accompanying note said "Your housekeeper".

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Last stop: Back to Greenville. We stayed downtown, which confirmed that Greenville is a clean, charming, growing, delightful, and well planned city. Main Street runs a couple of miles with all kinds of statues scattered about to sit beside, cuddle up with, even talk to if you must.

The Reddy River runs through downtown and through an urban park on Main Street that is just fantastic. Please remember I am there in the rain, but I can tell you this park is award winning. And I can tell you if you have a hankering to move to a very affordable city with a good mix of art and activity and good Southern manners, and where housing prices are bound to appreciate in the next few years, Greenville's your town. You have to be comfortable with the role of religion in the South--it seems there are more churches than department stores, but all in all JB and I liked everything we saw.

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On Saturday morning, JB and I returned the gold Chevy Impala with the shaky steering to Budget Rental and caught our flight heading home, where my garden awaits, the sky is finally blue, the air is finally warm and I still love deeply. No complaints. No wait, I have to complain because I enjoy it so much. I mean to say no major complaints. And for that I am very grateful.........