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Published: August 5th 2008
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Locations: Columbia, SC; Savannah, Georgia; St. Mary's, Georgia; Cumberland island; Juliette, Georgia; Atlanta; and Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Wow, so I can't believe that it has already been five days since I left Columbia, SC. It was hard saying goodbye to my friends -- especially Sarah. Our last day went pretty nicely though as my roommie and our friend, Kristi headed over to IHOP for one last breakfast before going over to Coker. We gave our powerpoint presentations in a small lecture hall in the basement to a very quiet crowd of lab techs and biology professors. I of course was being stupid and sucked down a glass and a half of Sweet tea before the symposium started (and I was #4) so I had to pee like there was no tomorrow when my presentation started. The whole thing went by pretty quickly though and I stayed calm thanks to Sarah making funny faces at me. I answered my questions, said thank you, and then bolted down to the restroom. Around 3:30pm, I gave my roommie a hug as she ran off to catch her plane and when the whole thing was over, it was really sad to walk out of Coker.
After walking back to the room and finishing packing, I rode my bike one last time around the Horseshoe and over to get my car at Columbia Hall. After a grueling 45 minutes of packing my car during the most extreme heat of the day, I said goodbye to my other two roommies and hit the road -- destination: Savannah, GA. It was dark by the time I hit the KOA just out of Savannah so I didn't get to see much of this gorgeous city that competes with Charleston for "Best Southern Charm." I did get to see a gorgeous sunset on the right side of the road and a huge thunderstorm on the left (luckily, it was moving away from me very rapidly). I got into the KOA after closing time but found my Kabin and was happy that I hadn't decided to tent it or I would've spent the night in the rain.
During the night, I went out to the restroom and came back to see this huge cricket on a tree by the cabin, this HUGE swan diving down in the lake to get some food, and some birds that looked like juvenile
swans. They were kind of ugly. The next morning, I took a few pictures of the area that headed down to St. Mary's, Georgia to catch the ferry to Cumberland Island. I got out to the island around 12:20pm and walked as quickly as I could away from all of the other tourists. They were driving me crazy!
Cumberland island was by-far one of the coolest experiences ever. It is a National State Park and completely protected island with dirt roads, no cars or bikes allowed on the ferry, and the only way to stay on the island is to camp. I started the 4-mile loop by heading over to Dungeness, a large plantation that is now in ruins but is still gorgeous to see. Over there, I saw a lizard and some wild horses, but couldn't go inside because we're told there are rattlesnakes living in the ruins. So I kept walking along and headed to a couple of boardwalks to see the swampy areas. Over by the marshes, there were thousands of little crabs and the fish were so lively that looking out over the creek, all you saw were splashes and quick flashes of silver. The
other boardwalk was just surrounded by trees and provided a little safe haven instead of crawling over the sand. After another short walk over the sand, I finally made it to the beach and looked out over the water.
I still had a lot of time so I started walking up the beach in pursuit of shark teeth. I reached the next marker about a mile up the beach (by Sea Camp) without finding any teeth, but I did see a mermaid purse (AWESOME!!!). These purses are actually the egg casings for the chondrichthyes fish (aka, sharks, skates, and rays). I couldn't tell if there was anything in it so I left it on the beach. Ah, I should've collected it. Oh well. I also collected some amazing sand dollars, some HUGE shells, and ran into a few live jellies and a couple of live starfish. After taking a couple more pictures of the beach, I headed back to the foresty dome path to SeaCamp and was extremely glad that I hadn't decided to camp there for the night. The forest area was nice but when I saw a huge striped black spider with a leg span as big
as my hand, I felt every single hair stand up on my arms. I suffer from slight arachnophobia -- ok not slight, it's severe!! And then it felt like I was getting attacked by every single mosquito on the island because stupid me forgot insect repellent. I quickly walked the mile back through the woods down to the Dungeness docks (and only got 7 mosquito bites total even though I had at least 20 following me the whole way) and waited for the ferry to come back. I toured the little museum to see some history of the island, how it was inhabited by natives and then plantation owners lived there for awhile. Then I sat around and waited for the ferry, a little warm from that 4-mile loop from Dungeness to Sea Camp and back. Around 4:45, the ferry came back and I was headed back to St. Mary's, Georgia. After a quick stop for some food and gas, I headed back on the road and spent the night in Cordele, Georgia.
The next morning, as I drove down the interstate and finally made contact with my mother, I enjoyed the Georgia scenery even though it was starting
to get hot. By 11:30, I pulled off the interstate and headed 10 miles down the road to Juliette, Georgia, home of The Whistle Stop Cafe and the filming locations of Fried Green Tomatoes. Since I grew up watching the movies, adored Idgie, and had just read the novel by Fannie, I had to go stop in. Now I can honestly say that I have had Fried green tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. And as I was sitting there with my cup of coffee, the train even went by, blowing its horn for all to hear.
The rest of the day was spent getting stuck in bumper to bumper traffic in Atlanta (CRAZY!!), getting lost in Tuscaloosa from my mother's directions (hehe, she is forgiven though), and going to see my Papa with Grif. The past couple days in Alabama have been great as I've seen some of the family, bought some souvenirs, seen some of the sites, had some fried okra and catfish, and enjoyed some Alabama sweet tea. Tomorrow starts the beginning of my big roadtrip back to Idaho though. It's going to be fun. 3100 miles in 6 days. YAY!!!
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