Day VIII: SC and GA

Charleston, SC

"10:10am July 22, 2008

Today was quite eventful, I'd say. Mango woke me up at around 4am with his usual "I'm licking your face so you can wake up and let me out." I grumbled my usual grumble, let him out, and immediately fell back asleep. Bea and I had flipped a gift card (no coins were readily accessible) for the big mattress. She flipped, I won. It was great and spacious for Mango and I. Next time it's Bea's turn to get the big bed.

After Mango's usual middle-of-the-night pee he can't go to sleep right away. He just loves making out with my face and jumping all over my body. I personally enjoy a good night's sleep, so I've developed a tactic to getting him settled down. I grab him and force him to be the little spoon until he stops struggling. Usually he konks out after he's gotten all the wiggles and jitterbugs out. His other internet alarm clock wakes us both up at around 9:30am. Nothing can calm him down after he's up the second time- not even the aforementioned "capture and pin down" method. This is when I shower.. and he watches. He hates not being in the bathroom with me even when I'm in the shower. The door usually gets all scratched up and since I'm not at the liberty to scratch up my host's bathroom door, he gets to join me in the loo. Every couple of minutes or so he sticks his little Chihuahua head into the shower to make sure I'm still there. Crazy dog.

We all had cereal for breakfast, went to the store for energy drinks (for the drive to New Orleans- 10 hours), and came back to Eggy the Great Dane, and Weezy the English Bulldog at Dane's ma's house. Eggy is great. He makes me want to adopt a Great Dane. He's just so mild mannered and personable. Weezy is a character. I make a darn good impression of her, hah! We were all kind of afraid she would accidentally hurt Mango since it's in a bulldog's nature to "play" with another dog by going for its throat and not letting go. No harm intended. So we decided to not take that chance and Weezy was either in the backyard, in his bed in the laundry room, or grunting about the house if Mango was in my arms.



Dane's mom Kathy is such a sweetheart. She's a massage therapist and has her own cute little office a couple minutes from her home. And guess what? She scheduled me and Bea for free massages at 1:30 and 2:30pm! I've never gotten a professional massage, but let me tell you- I will be getting more in the future if I can afford it. They're great. Kathy is great. I envy her, too. Imagine having a job where you're your own boss, and your job consists of making your clients feel AWESOME!

In the middle of the session she says "Honey, I'm going to need you to turn over on your stomach now" and I retorted with, "Kathy, will you marry me?" She laughed and said yes. Woohoo. Seriously though, people shell out the big bucks with good reason.

I went first, Bea went second. While Bea was getting her massage Dane and I wandered over to a Starbucks and got iced teas. I swear the barista looked exactly like that one awesome guy in the cake making show on the Food Network. Adorable. Starbucks.. I don't really know waht to make of it. Their drinks are overpriced, they're taking over every block in every city big or small, and they're taking business from independently owned coffee shops. They've pretty much embodied the essence of what any large company or chain strives for: controlled ubiquity.. if that's an appropriate/existing term. It does seem like they're trying to help out the poorer countries and artists by selling their albums. All ways to make more money, but.. ah. Stupid Industrial Revolution.

Anyways, back to the road trip. After Kathy's awesome massages we went to Whole Foods for lunch, and yes they have Whole Foods in the south. Healthy food is so delicious and filling in a good way. I started giggling uncontrollably halfway through the meal when Bea said "http-colon-backslash-backslash" incredibly fast. Trust me, it was hilarious. We wrote thank you cards for the folks, and then it was back to Dane's dad's house to pick up my toothbrush and say goodbye to Luda:

And finally, at around 7pm we started the trek to Savannah, GA.. only about a two hour drive, if that."


Savannah, GA

"Got to Savannah at around 9pm. It's dark. And hard to find. Honestly, we got lost getting into the city center AND getting out of the city center. Once we found the "happenin" area in downtown Savannah we parked and rode around on our bikes. It's cute, and has a nice feel. I'm beginning to think that the main shopping street is the same in all big cities. You have your GAP, your Banana Republic, Urban Outfitters, Starbucks x5, Ralph Lauren, Victoria's Secret.. etc, etc. I found some kids on carriage bikes sitting at a corner (waiting for tourists to taxi around the city), and asked them where we should ride. pretty much everything was closed except for bars. They told us to ride down Bull St. till we got to a fountain and then come back. No stopping, they said, unless we wanted to buy crack. Hah. Bull Street is chocked full of roundabouts with beautiful statues and churches. So we rode. The houses in Savannah are gorgeous! All of the trees beautifully frame the streets and the sky- lichen hanging like jewelry from their branches.

Most of the roads were paved, gave a few cobble-stoned side streets. Churches and mansions are at every corner it seems, and the architecture is like eye candy. Mmmm :). I followed a horse and carriage tour for a little bit and listened to the tour guide ramble and spit out her Savannah knowledge. We found this funny little health foods store/beer store/gas station/tourist store on the way back to the main shopping street. I got two postcards: one for Rob and one for the family. There's an alligator's face on it and it says "Greetings from Georgia." Hah! Oh, there was also a whole walk in refrigerator for customers stocked full of beer. I thought it was an opportune time to whip out the 'ol Captain Morgan stance:

Oh, Mango was in my bag this entire time. Afterwards it was gelato/sorbetto tasting and then back to the car. Ten hours to drive to New Orleans. We agreed to switch off every couple of hours, and Bea drove first. I slept for a couple hours, and then drove for 4 and a half hours. Yeayuhh. Bea got up, but only drove an hour and a half before she said she couldn't keep her eyes open. Not good for driving, soo.. she pulled to the side of the highway to sleep. During this I woke up and was getting freaked out because all the large trucks and semi's passing us on the highway sounded like they were going to hit us. The car was shaking and I just didn't feel like I was safe by any means. I mean, it's good that Bea knows her limits and knows when she shouldn't be driving, but I was also kind of annoyed, not going to lie.

I whipped out the half full energy drink and told Bea she could sleep and I'd drive. I don't know- I feel like I have control over my body to a certain extent. I cranked up Ludacris and whipped out the Oreos and the Atlas. Three hours later we were in Mississippi and it was raining. We rest-stopped it and Bea took over the last couple of hours to Slidell, LA. So really, it took about 10 and a half hours to get there. I mean, I was driving an average of 55mph to save on gas mileage during the nighttime stretch and still, it was a long way.

I called Beth once we got here and we met here at her workplace: the Honda Dealership in Slidell. Bethany Waddell is a friend of mine from a cruise I took to Alaska four years ago. It was an exciting reunion. Um, I guess that's the start of day IV.
So,
OUT- S and M."