Savannah

At the beginning of April, Elisabeth and I felt the need to escape so we took a few days during her spring break and motored down to Savannah Georgia. Elisabeth promptly caught the crud and spent most of the first day sniffling and snoozing in the hotel room while I wandered around the historic district taking photos. You can't keep a good woman down and she wasn't going to miss the sightseeing. By the second day, fortified by cold medicine, she joined me and we toured the old city. Since we were staying on the edge of the historic district, I parked the car for two days and we took the trolley or walked everywhere.

The city was settled in 1733, and has survived the Revolutionary and the U.S. Civil War. There is history everywhere you turn. The original Savannah was built with 22 park-like squares where residents could gather to play or meet or celebrate. Filled with grand old oaks, Spanish Moss, gorgeous flowers and statutes depicting the city's historic figures, these pretty squares were the perfect place to park your butt after strolling around in the "already-too-warm-for-the-Canadian" heat. In one of those parks, Forest Gump parked his butt on a bench and told anyone that would listen that life was like a box of chocolates. A Gump look-alike boarded one of our trolley tours and entertained us for a block or so before he ran off lickety-split just like Forest did in the movie (run Forest run).

There are kick-ass ghost stories here. A big battle was fought in Savannah during the Revolutionary War and part of the city was built on the mass graves. According to the local tour guides, many of the old soldiers continue to roam the streets. There are plaintive ghosts, mean ghosts, comfortable companion ghosts - there is even an evil house or two.

Elisabeth and I toured the Sorrel-Weed House (we were greeted by a tour guide from Prince Albert Sask (picured here). In that cheesy TV show, the Ghost Hunters, TAPS examined this house and found evidence of paranormal activity including an EVP (sound measurement) of a voice in the Carriage House. According to the stories, the mistress of the house caught her husband with a slave woman in the Carriage House, went back to the main house and killed herself by jumping off a balcony into the courtyard. The husband was devastated and retreated to the house for a few weeks. Allegedly he sent a couple of thugs up to the slave's room in the Carriage House (photo on left) where they killed his former lover. That is the room where TAPS found the EVP. Elisabeth had her Droid with her (fancy-assed phone with internet) and called up this EVP while we were standing in the courtyard (photo below), outside of the room where it was recorded. I have to admit to a couple of tingles.

The evil Mercer House below, featured in the book and movie, "The Garden of Good and Evil," has allegedly killed a number of people.

And a ghost we found on the tour...

On the last night we stayed on Tybee Island in a beachside hotel, about 20 minutes from Savannah. We enjoyed wandering down the beach and venturing into the cool Atlantic waters. It was fun but I don't think we'll go back. Too touristy. Below is the view from our room.

The 500-Year Flood

I was talking with a media friend in Nashville, an hour west of here, who told me that she knew one of the 31 people who reportedly died in the 500-year flash flood. She said that she flew over Nashville after the storm and the destruction was unbelievable. The mayor estimates that Nashville could face more than $1 billion in structural damage, not counting the long-term costs of lost revenue. Even the iconic Grand Ole Opry House stage where we took Dad on a tour last summer sat under 2 feet of water at the peak of deadly floods. Hundreds of homes were devastated and businesses were wiped out. When it rains around here, it doesn't fool around. It is like gravity doubles and that can sometimes make driving down the interstate a life or death situation. The tornadoes should be coming along soon too. On the other hand, the azelias are beautiful. Welcome to springtime in Tennessee!




We were lucky in Cookeville. It poured like crazy last weekend and there was a little water damage around town but we got off easy. While I've never seen the pond so full, our house sits up on a slope out of harm's way. There was a small leak in the garage and our gravel driveway has some big ruts in it but that's about it.