Space Issues

I think we may be entering a new phase of our trip. Not surprisingly, a lot of other people already thought of bringing an RV to Florida for January and February! You need reservations, which we have had, but we got them late and were lucky to get them.  So now, for the first time, we have been staying in what I imagine may become very familiar kinds of places. We have been in some great Florida state campgrounds, but sometimes now we are in a different kind of campground, in which lots of camping vehicles are parked near one another, with just a picnic table and a grill separating one "house" from another. Those of you who have been to my house in Brookline will know that I should feel right at home. There is a big difference, though. I think it is too early to talk about "RV culture," but it is pretty noticeable that people in this situation do not act like people in cities, even though this is kind of a city environment. The minute you step outside, someone walking by says, "Massachusetts, eh?  How long have you been on the road?"  Or, "Need any help there with figuring that out?" ( To Bob, whatever he is doing with the trailer.) Or, "The Red Sox sure had a great year, didn't they?" My point is that it is a social way to live,  if you want it to be. My parents lived like this for a couple of years full time,  and seasonally for a long time, and they had friends all over the country.  When we tried to figure out whether to travel in a car and stay in motels, or get a BIG car and a trailer, part of the appeal of doing this was getting a feel for other places, and getting a feel for people who live in other places. I've got a feeling both of these things are going to happen in a way that is particular to this kind of travel, just because of proximity.

A "City Block"

Speaking of travel, we spent the whole yesterday today at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. It was pretty amazing!  I was surprised at how moving it was to see the actual objects that  had gone to space. It was TRULY mind boggling. It was inspirational! Some of the things we saw seemed bigger than anything I could imagine; and others, like the objects that had actually landed on, or drove around the real MOON, for God's sake, looked incredibly simple, and maybe even a little bit cheesy.  It was just an amazing experience, and pretty awe-inspiring. I recommend it if you ever have the chance.

It looks a little cheesy, but it landed on the moon!

Alan Shepard's space suit with moon dust on it

It's impossible to exagerate just how big this was- just look at Bob in the bottom of the frame.

On the third idea about space, I'm pretty stunned that Bob and I are managing to live in a pretty small space and haven't (yet) started to go crazy. Getting out of the trailer helps, and I'm happy and delighted (and maybe a little sheepish where my friends in Boston,  and other cold weather places are concerned) to announce that we have finally gotten WARM. It's lovely here, and we can ride our bikes and be outside, and remember why we left our friends and family behind to come on this adventure.

Florida doesn't seem exactly like my kind of place --lots of fast food, strip malls, and chain restaurants--not to mention gun stores--but I can see that it is slower and more relaxed than New England. We ARE slowing down. We are riding our bikes. We are cooking outside. We are warm! By the time we spend a week in Key West, we may be changed forever. I'll keep you posted.

Historical Places

We've been steeping ourselves in the history of the places we've been seeing. I was anxious to see St Augustine, Florida, because when you live in a place as old as Boston, knowing there are places in the US that are WAY older is pretty intriguing. St Augustine has been here since 1565, or 1513 if you count Ponce de Leon. It has been here as a possession of the Spanish (more than once), the French, the British, the Patriots (not-yet-the-USA),  the U.S., the Confederacy, the U.S.A.  I knew from reading the amazing book The Warmth of Many Suns by Isabelle Wilkerson that this also the site of the oldest town of free Blacks and former slaves, and had a rich African-American life before slavery came around.  So I've been anxious to see it.

All this really old stuff is here, but it mostly obscured by a kind of Disneyland-ish Oldest City amusement park. Well, that isn't fair to Disneyland, which, whatever kind of money-making enterprise it is, isn't cheesy. This is cheesy in that weird kind of Ye Olde Something  kind of way, but with the addition of lights and billboards. It has interpreters, like in Williamsburg or Plimouth, but it ends up more like a kind of like Las Vegas crossed with a history theme park. We did manage to see a wonderful exhibition about 450 years of African American history here in the Visitor Center. St Augustine played a pivotal role in the Civil Rights movement, and there were terrific artifacts in that exhibit, so it is worth trying to separate made-to-look-old from really old, and interesting from shlock.

All of this made me feel so grateful for New England, and especially for Boston. It is really good when a place is old without a big flashing sign proclaiming "Really Olde!!!" Boston might be stuffy in its way, but all that preservationist stuff means it is pretty dignified. When you go to see the Old North Bridge, guess what? It is old. It is a bridge. Maybe that one is because of the wonders of the National Park Service, now that I think of it. Here in St Augustine, the fort, Castillo de San Marcos, is a National Monument, and it wonderful. Whereas the "Fountain of Youth" is billed as a National Archeological Park, whatever that is, and has billboards every few yards and is cheesy beyond belief. It will come as no surprise to anyone that I think that sometimes government does things better than the free market does; but in this case, let's say three cheers for government enterprise, and another three for dignity, respect, and good taste.

A little perspective

Last night we were in Amelia Island, just across the border into Florida. Those of you that use Facebook saw the very nice beers we tried there. While we were sitting there, a man came in and asked if any local beer was brewed in town. It turned out that yes, there was a restaurant around the corner that brewed a bit of beer that could be consumed in the restaurant. All three of us scurried over there to see what it was all about. Unfortunately the beer was nothing to write home about, or keep a log about. But we had an interesting conversation with the man who asked. It turns out that he is some kind of beer geek. There is nothing weird about that in the world I live in, but here is what was weird: he had index cards in his pocket that were several inches thick. He has been writing down every beer he has tried, for more than ten years. When he hears about a beer from someone, he looks it up to find out if he has tried it, and what he thought when he tasted it.  Of course each of us who likes beer likes something quite specific. Bob likes a hoppier beer than I do; I like a maltier beer than Bob does. Bob's best beer is an IPA. My best beer is a Belgian white. I told this man that my favorite beer was Allagash White, which is brewed in Maine.  He took out his stack of cards and looked it up. He said yes, he had tried it several years ago. He had written down: good for "its type."  That was it for that conversation. I guess it's all a matter of perspective. We like what we like. But the idea that because I tried something ten years ago, or thought about it ten years ago, I'm all set? Doesn't seem like the right way to live. I like beer, and I think what I think. But I hope I don't go through life thinking that I've thought it all down, written it all out, and don't ever have to think about anything again.  Beer or otherwise.

A Western Easterner (or is it an Eastern Westerner?) Goes South

Charleston is just as charming as everyone says it is. It is beautiful and elegant and so full of contradictions. We have done quite a bit of walking around, and we took the well-known Gullah history tour of the city.  The bus driver told us so much interesting history about the city, and even though we were with him for more than two hours, there is obviously so much more to know. What a complicated city. It is so genteel here--and everyone seems very dressed up and well mannered compared to Boston--but for all its elegance, it is impossible for me not to think about slavery ALL THE TIME. This city was pretty much ground zero for the slave trade, and to see so many locations related to that history was stunning. Hearing about slave history, and how intertwined it is here in every building, was interesting and unsettling.  It was illuminating to hear someone who grew up here, as a direct descendant of those slaves, describe Charleston as such a wonderful place, and seem so at peace with how complicated it is. He even defended Strom Thurmond to someone on the bus, and said it was black voters who kept him in office more than white voters, because in his own way he improved life for South Carolina's Black citizens. My head was spinning. It is all obviously so much more complicated than a quick visitor can understand. 

My Bike in Charleston

A Porch in Charleston

We also went into Beaufort, which turned out to be also charming and beautiful. The sun finally came out and we finally had a day mild enough to ride our bikes, and it was a great way to explore this beautiful city. We saw the house that was used both for the movie Forrest Gump and also for The Big Chill. It's just a lovely city, and  was was pretty cool to be there.

Beaufort is Beautiful

 We also got a chance to go to St Helena Island, near Beaufort,  to visit the Penn Center, which is the unofficial cultural headquarters of the Gullah people. These people are directly descended from the African slaves who were brought to an area from around Wilmington North Carolina, down to Jacksonville Florida, and they still are a distinct people with their own heritage and dialect. The Penn Center is the site of the first school for freed slaves, and many generations of people were educated there and learned trades there. 

A Church on Saint Helena Island

We made a little side trip to Augusta, which was off our southern coastal path. We visited with a couple we had met several times in Boston. They are close friends of good friends of ours, and John is the brother of someone Bob used to work with, whom he admired greatly. We had such a wonderful visit with them, and it was an important piece of our education about how people live. John and Ann have six children, and eighteen grandchildren, and they all live within a five mile radius. All six of their kids,  and all six spouses, came to meet us, and the sixteen of us went out to dinner to celebrate Ann's birthday.  Their life is incredibly rich and filled with love. Like many of the people Bob has worked with at Healthcare for the Homeless, their lives are centered around their Catholic faith and their dedication to serve the poor.  We had some wonderful conversations that touched on many of the most profound questions of human life.  It was just an extraordinary visit, and well worth the zig-zag travel.  It is my hope that we can continue to follow the principle that the trip, while somewhat organized, should take us where our interests lead us, even if it doesn't always follow a plan...especially when it reveals something so rich about how people live.

From Augusta we went back on our "path" to Savannah, where we visited people who are also connected to Healthcare for the Homeless. They live in the Boston area for six months and in Savannah for six months (I'll let you guess which six months where).  They are in love with Savannah, and they went out of their way to show us every corner. They live on an island, and they took us to other islands, every part of downtown, and everywhere else. We particularly enjoyed going to Bonaventure cemetery,  to the museums downtown, and to some great local restaurants. I think we had a better "overview" of the city than we would have had if we had been there on our own. It was remarkable for us, because it showed us a kind of elegant Southern living that we probably wouldn't have understood if we had been camping nearby. Each piece, and each visit, fills in a little bit more for me of the Southern Puzzle.

Bonaventure Cemetary

Bonventure

Today we are in Amelia Island, just exactly across the Florida border. Remember those pictures of the wild and beautiful island where JFK Jr got married? That is right across a little bit of water from here, and it is on the border between Georgia and Florida. We are in a state park, and it is quite simply one of the most beautiful campgrounds  we have ever seen. It may be the first of many instances in which Florida is different in reality than it is in my mind.

Bob bikes ahead on Ameila Island

I'm both a Westerner and an Easterner, but in neither place have I learned much about the "real" South.  I'm trying to stay open minded and open hearted, and hope after a few more weeks I hope  I'll have a little bit more of an understanding of what it's all about.
I'm sorry this is so long!  I'll have to try to figure out what's worth writing about and what isn't. Bear with me!


I'm thinking about each of our friends and family a lot... and hope you'll call or email sometimes!

xoxo
Sharon

The Trip Begins

We're traveling. We will be gone a long time.  People want to know what we're up to.  It seems right to try to write a little bit about our experience, but I've already figured out that finding time to write will be more difficult than I thought,  unless we have rainy days in a place we've already seen and nothing else we need to do.  An organizing principle is that in each place we are trying to figure out what people like to do, and what they like to eat, and try it out a little bit.  We both like beer, so we are trying to drink local craft beer when we can.  It would take far too long to describe everything we see and hear, so I will try to just capture a bit from what we have seen.  I can see already that I need to write more often or just make it shorter.


Some highlights so far:

We spent a couple of nights in Richmond with a friend of Bob's from college, such a long time ago. Almost 50 years!  Jim was one of the first African Americans to be allowed to attend UVA law school. (Apparently before that, Virginia paid the tuition of qualified black students to go to school somewhere else. Sheesh.) He later became an appellate court judge, and he had a lot of interesting stories about Virginia's history, and Richmond's in particular.  He worked as a civil rights attorney on a lot of the desegregation cases in that state.  One of the more interesting stories he told us was about the late 50's when there was a law that said the Governor of VA took oversight of any school district that was desegregating; the Governor then made the decision for Prince George County that rather than have them desegregate, there would be no school at all there... for SIX YEARS. All the schools were just closed.  Jim wasn't affected because his school was all Black; so not only did school continue, but he had great teachers, who had been trained at schools like Columbia, Yale and so on. They couldn't get other jobs so they came home to teach. His French teacher had been to the Sorbonne.  He said it was a strange time in this way; he was getting what was actually a great education, while many white students (and of course many other students) were getting no school at all. He said there is a whole generation of people from that part of the state who just stopped going to school at that point, and never went back.  Jim gave us a wonderful tour of Richmond, neighborhood by neighborhood. It was so interesting.

While we were staying there we went to Colonial Williamsburg. It was fascinating, but unfortunately it was cold and rainy and didn't show us its most charming self. While we were there we had dinner with someone I worked with in Concord a long time ago and hadn't seen in more than twenty years.

We took a very long drive down the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It was wild and beautiful and empty, and almost everything was closed down for the winter. It felt like an adventure to take the car with our trailer attached to it on two different ferries to keep going south.

We actually started sleeping in the trailer for the first time when we got to Charleston, because finally as we are getting farther south it is not quite so cold. It has still been in the 30's here overnight, so we're lookig forward to some more 'open air' sleeping, and eating outside, farther on down the road.