Georgetown, SC to Thomasville, GA
After a solid six hours of sleep we were underway at around 8:00 this morning. Our goal was to hit Charleston last night but we succumbed to exhaustion and stopped in Georgetown, SC to catch up on a week's worth of e-mail, update the blog and regroup from our first leg.We continued south on Highway 17 through Charleston stopping only long enough to replenish our supplies of batteries and saline solution and were off to Savannah. We gassed the Land Rover, fed the girls and walked the dog and debated the next stage of the drive. The logical course was to continue south on Interstate 95 to Jacksonville and then head west on Interstate 10 but, as we like to take the road less traveled, we continued on 95 only long enough to cross the Brunswick River so Abi and I could take in the sight of this beautiful suspension bridge we had watched being constructed in an episode of Megastructures, the largest suspension bridge in the United States, then turned west into the rural interior of Georgia.
There is much to be appreciated in a desolate stretch of highway off the beaten path. Georgia State Highway 52 carried us south along the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge to Florida Highway 2 which skirts the Osceola Nature Reserve, carrying us back into Georgia across the Suwwannee River past the Stephen C. Foster State Park, the composer of that famous old song about that famous old river. We stopped for cold drinks and a little conversation with folks at Sissy's Convenience Store in Fargo, GA then raced twilight to reach the Comfort Inn here in Thomasville, GA.
We were able to get here early enough to afford the girls a swim in the hotel pool... a much needed break from the heat and 400 miles of road. While traveling Blue Highways may not offer the speed of the Interstates, it does give you a chance to appreciate the beauty of the region and take a little time to chat with the locals. I found myself truly absorbing the atmosphere of the pines and swamps, opting to jam the local Classic Rock station featuring a Six Pack of Southern Rock, a format I usually eschew but was magically attracted to as it seemed such a perfect soundtrack for the drive.
While I have been trying to focus on the drive and the work to come once we arrive in Patzcuaro I haven't been able to totally break away from my CNN habit. Sitting here, watching more bombs fall on Beirut and anticipating the Tel Aviv reprisal, I can't help but be saddened by the pointless destruction to lives, property and stability. I can't help but wonder what would happen if both Bush and Ahmadinijad would get on the phone and tell their respective proxies to knock it off now or forever be cut off from funding. If only these two, supposedly deeply religious men would actually practice the peaceful tenets of their respective faiths and fight for peace and use their power to put an immediate end to the death and destruction. I cannot help but wonder what Jesus and Muhammad would think of these two very powerful men who profess such deep, abiding faith and yet play out their power game at the cost of Isreali and Lebanese lives.
I'll ponder that as our course carries us through Biloxi, Gulfport and New Orleans tomorrow, still ravaged by the devastation of Hurricane Katrina almost a year ago, and wonder what our world would be like if we took human life as seriously as our leaders take their quest for power.
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