Monday, July 5, 2010

Leaving Georgia

Yesterday, in honor of this great nation's birth, we visited Fort Pulaski. The taking of this fort by union troops and their rifled cannons proved to be the end of brick fortifications in North America. Apparently there are still rifled shells (think bullet, not round shot) embedded in the brick walls. When we arrived at the fort a baseball game, 19th century style, was in full fourth of July swing. Grown men in Union uniforms played with...a group of young children. I think the adults were letting the children win.

After viewing the fort we jumped on the bikes and went for a long bike ride along the bull river, stopping from time to time to do some serious calisthenics. At the end of the trail, we came across a kind of shrine; we aren't sure to what, but hikers, bikers, boaters and walkers left little notes behind on whatever they could find. I'm not sure what distinguished some of these monuments from piles of garbage, but I'm no expert in monumentation.

By the time we got back to our car, we were both very sunburned and very hungry, so we fired up the GPS and punched in AJ's Dockside Restaurant (stickers for which had been posted at a number of places on the shrine). This place had come recommended to us by some friends of mine, and didn't disappoint (of course as hungry as we were it would have been hard to disappoint us). After scarfing down a chicken sandwich (over-cooked) and a crab burger (delicious) we drove back to our hotel, grabbed Rebecca's fancy camera and headed out to the beach to capture some photos of the 4th of July festivities.

The beach was packed. Hundreds of people with a staggering array of portable beach structures had built a little city on the sand. Kids shot back and forth in the surf on skim-boards; gangs of teenagers, bronzed in the sun, walked about oggling each other and gnawing at their braces; a mediocre rock band played Steve Miller band tunes in the Gazebo on the pier. Gallons and gallons of Budlight was consumed inside an ecclectic collection of koozies (which many people here actually carry around with them, pulling them out to keep their beers cooled at lunch). Rebecca just got back from the beach and said that the cleaning crew is hard at work, and that the mess out there isn't that bad.

We have now used and thrown out maps from DC/MD/VA, and North and South Carolina. Today we will tear through the map of Georgia on our way to Enterprise, AL. We will cross the 1,000 mile mark on our journey during the drive, probably somewhere in central Georgia.

3 comments:

  1. Please bring me a tar ball from some beach.

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  2. Are you planning to visit the affected beaches? Having grown up in Panama City, FL, it would be just too painful for me to see the white sand streaked with ugly oil.

    This is almost as exciting as the Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay!

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  3. Quite fun to watch your travels this way-hope your stay in Alabama is as full of interest and fun. You did, however, miss the fabulous Capitol Hill July 4th Parade!!! Cheers and love- Mom of R

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