Road Trip Home

We left Savannah bone weary and sore footed.  Driving toward Myrtle Beach, I spotted this gas station/grocery store/home.

It is on a main highway, but still, out in the middle of nowhere.  I wonder how they make enough to keep it going.    Not a customer in site.

Being a northern transplant, this was not a sight I had ever seen. 

So on to Myrtle Beach we went.  Murrell's Inlet, Surfside Beach, and on we drove, passing Seafood Buffet after Seafood Buffet... $19.99 - 2 for $29.99 , etc. 

Planet Hollywood - Myrtle Beach... Are they closed?  Where are the cars.  Ok, it is Wednesday.  Maybe that's it.

Hard Rock... hmmmm... not many cars is there?

By now it was about 5pm and I was hungry.  We had not had much of a lunch and I wanted seafood darn it.  We put a buffet address into the Garmin and off we went...only to find it closed. And so was the next one, and the next one.  Open Thursday, Friday and Saturday....This was Wednesday.My stomach was grumbling and so was I. Okay, let's just go check in to the hotel.  The attendant graciously told us, go down the road, Captain George's Seafood Buffet is open.  Yay!!

We found it easily enough and there were cars in the parking lot. 

In we went.

This was the first of, I believe, 6 islands of food.  It looked like a Vegas Buffet.  OUr very nice hostess seated us and said these fateful words, " Our buffet is $31.00"  each.   Why Terry looked at me for direction I don't know. To me, there wads no question.  I headed straight for the King Crab.   He  went for everything else.

I have never had blue crab.  I don't know how to crack it or haow to eat it, so a very nice waiter came over with one to show me.  I learned it is a lot of work for very little meat.  He did say it is alot more fun with beer and friends.  Okay.

I don't know what to do with these guys either.  I'm not good with food that stiff has their heads attached.  Cut the head off of my fish too.  I don't want the whole lobster... just the tail please.

                                         I love steamed oysters, but these were raw.  I can't do raw.

                                   Love at first sight.... Crab and shrimp, only because there was no lobster.

There was also all kinds of fish, chicken, pork and desserts.  Oh, yes.  My husband has a sweet tooth.  I saw on his plate alone, German chocolate cake, cheesecake, baklava, banana pudding and chocolate pudding.   I have that "off" button that tells my brain, you are full... stop.   Terry doesn't and he admits he doesn't.

So, as we sat  there, with tea and coffee, the waitress came over with our bill.  Terry looked at me, took big breath and said, very quietly "I'm gonna throw up."   The mother in me took over.  I said, very lovingly, " Get out of here.  Go outside. Go! now!"   My first thought was not that he was sick.  It was you are not going to do that in a dining room.  Get out of here!  

He slowly stood up... actually, he was afraid to move, but he said once he was moving he felt much better.  So he's not allowed to go to buffets anymore.

These buildings are in Swansboro,  close to Jacksonville, N.C. and we're almost home.

Whenever I see these old gas station ? store? buildings, I think of the movie " Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe."  I wonder what kind of life it had.

Bonaventure Cemetery

The residence of Bonaventure began in 1762.  It was a 600 acre estate located about 3 1/2 miles from the Savannah colony.   The first Bonaventure Plantation burned in 1771.  It was soon replaced with a brick structure. The second house burned somewhere between 1803 and 1817.   The "story" about it says that when the fire started, the owner was having a dinner party.  He was informed by house staff they needed to vacate.  He then asked his guests to pick up the table/ or their wine glasses and proceed onto the lawn where they continued with their party while watching the fire.  Somehow, I doubt this.  The property was sold 1846 to establish a cemetery.

Angel on the gate post.

Bonaventure has long been known for the massive live oaks with the arched limbs, covered in moss.  Many are over 250 years old, having been planted by the second owner.

                                                                 Little Gracie Watson

"Little Gracie Watson was born in 1883, the only child of her parents. Her father was manager of the Pulaski House, one of Savannah's leading hotels, where the beautiful and charming little girl was a favorite with the guests. Two days before Easter, in April 1889, Gracie died of pneumonia at the age of six. In 1890, when the rising sculptor, John Walz, moved to Savannah, he carved from a photograph this life-sized, delicately detailed marble statue, which for almost a century has captured the interest of all passersby." From About.com

Gracie, some say, can still be seen as a blue orb, moving about the upper floor of the bank that replaced her home.  Because police kept getting calls that someone was in the building, the currant owners have installed a pink light so Gracie's blue orb can't be seen.

The bank from our Ghost Walk.

 When the cemetery first opened, some Savannah citizens had their deceased relatives relocated from other burials spots to be interred here.  As time went on, it became a game of keeping up with the Jones on which family had the biggest and most impressive statues.  There was a statute passed that only graves purchased before 1943 can have more than one monument. 

You're right if you are a fan of  Midnight in the garden of Good and Evil,   that this is the cemetery featured in the both the book and the movie and where "that statue" used to live.   

The 50 inch tall " Bird Girl", who had been standing for nearly 50 years, drew such  attention after the book and the movie it was moved to the Telfair  Museum of Art.

The Wilmington River flows by  the back of the cemetery.  Some say this is the river Johnny Mercer had in mind when he wrote "Moon River".   He's here too, resting along with other family members. He also wrote "Old Black Magic", "Come Rain or Come Shine",  "In the Cool, Cool, Cool, of the Evening" and my favorite, "Days of Wine and Roses"

We were here about 90 minutes.  There were few people milling about. A couple of others, like me, taking pictures.  The trees are enormous and covered in moss. To me, it is so picturesque.  It was also very quiet, very haunting, and very beautiful.