From the East Wing, at Hilton Head Island, Ghosts of Savannah, Digging up Bones, Buying Pullets, and A Happy Repbulican Cat

Greeting to all and welcome to the second week of the mobile East Wing

When ya go to Hilton Head SC and don’t play golf, it’s like you’re in Las Vegas and not playing at least one slot machine. So me and John played the Royal Port Course. It was a fun time. Any time ya can play golf with your son, it’s a fun time.
The good thing ‘bout playing golf with John is we have equal skills in the game. I’m not saying we’re good, I’m not saying we’re bad, I’m just saying we’ve got equal skills at playing golf.

It was on the 4th hole when John hit the shot that qualifies him to be in the golf Hall of Fame. Not for distance, or accuracy, or hole in one, or anything like that. John hit himself on the top of the head as a direct result of his contact with the ball. The ball did not bounce off a tree or anything like that. It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen in my life, John struck the ball with his club. The golf ball went straight up, not at an angle, just straight up. So straight up it could have been launched by NASA.

One thing I’ll say for John, he immediately remembered that the laws of gravity would ultimately determine the direction of travel for the ole golf ball. He took safety measures to the best extent he could, he put his hands over his head. Gravity won over the balls attempt at orbit, and the ball also won, as the golf ball hit the only uncovered part of the top of John’s head. It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen on a golf course, but what I loved most of all was my son’s first comment, “That was a humbling experience” he said. I’m glad John plays golf with me, we have equal skills ya know.

Last Wednesday me and the she, Johnny and Jaime, got up early and went to Savannah for the day. We did the tourist thing. Road the trolleys, while touring the historical section of Savannah. The trolley system is kinda cool, for one flat fee, get on and off all day long, stop at any time just catch the next trolley.

The single most spectacular site of the whole day was the visit to Saint John the Baptist Catholic Church. This church has, in recent years, undergone a $12,000,000.00 renovation, and it shows. Saint John the Baptist has been likened to the Sistine Chapel made forever famous due to a really cool pain job by a fellow named Michelangelo.

Michelangelo already had a job when this church painting job opened up. He was invited to submit an example of his work to the Vatican for evaluation.

Michelangelo was so put out by the thought that anyone would have the nerve to ask him to submit example of this work for evaluation that he took a blank canvas, and with one single motion drew a circle. Sent the canvas to Rome. Those in charge of evaluating the works of current artists who had submitted stuff, dismissed
Michelangelo at first, until upon a closer look it was determined he had not only drew a circle on canvas, but upon measuring determined, that he had drawn a perfect circle with a single stroke of the brush. Based on the circle, Michelangelo was chosen to paint the church, then spent several years laying down on the job.

Michelangelo was one of those few people who can go through both life and history with just one name. Few can do that. Now Obama may, but it remains to be seen which side of history he will put him. I do know where Sophia the Republican Cat wants to put him, it has to do with continents not history, but that’s a different story.

Michelangelo did have a last name, it was Buonarroti. I think he used to hang out with the likes of Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael. Now these three guys were kinda jealous of each other, and probably each one thought they were better than the others, and just hung out together to make sure they always knew what the others were doing.

Almost forgot to tell ya, Michelangelo, besides that circle and church painting job made a really big statue of one of the good guys from the bible. David, made him 14 ft tall and no clothes on. Must have wanted him to be in warm places. It’s kinda cool to think that while Michelangelo was sculpturing that 14 ft David without britches, Leonardo de Vinci was painting the Mona Lisa with a dress, and the world was left never wondering about David but wondering ‘bout Mona Lisa.

Michelangelo was perhaps the greatest influence on western art in the last five centuries, Michelangelo was an Italian sculptor, architect, painter and poet in the period known as the High Renaissance. He is considered one of the great masters of European art. Michelangelo spent most of his working life in the service of the Catholic Church. He designed the dome of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. That’s the church the Pope uses, so I guess they wanted it to look nice.

Too bad we don’t have many, if any, Michelangelo’s around today, Lord knows we could use ‘em. But maybe just as well, ‘cause if we did, sure as shooting, we’d get a Statue Czar. But I think the church painting jobs would somehow be slipped under the table to that ACORN group.

Seems it’s hard for even Michelangelo to get away from “Chicago Style Politics” ‘cause I don’t think he’d get along well with one of those Statue Czars. He’d have to draw another circle, and I understand he don’t draw those circles for just any Tom, Dick, or Obama.

Another interesting site on the tour of historic Savannah was a cemetery used from the early 1700’s to 1853. The Union Army used this sacred ground to pitch tents and make camp when they came to visit Savannah. Not only did they occupy the cemetery, they also desecrated many of the tomb stones in place. Many others they just busted them up with hammers or pushed them off their base. Examples of such desecration exist today. Dates of birth and death were changed on tomb stones. It seemed to me, that even the hell of war, could not justify such action on the part of the Union Army. They weren’t fighting those dead folks lying at that cemetery in the center of Savannah . (Damn Yankees)

Two very interesting grave sites stood out in my memory. The first being one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and the second being the great, great grandfather of Teddy Roosevelt. I’ve a friend who’s a big fan of Teddy Roosevelt. As I stood by that grave site, I thought of him, and how much he would enjoy seeing what I was looking at.

For lunch that day we went to the Pirate House, been there since 1754 and was the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson’s “TREASURY ISLAND” They say that many a drunken soul were whisked out of Pirate House through hidden tunnels and put on to sailing ships setting a block away on the Savannah River. By the time the ole boy woke up with a headache, it was way too late to get back to shore. Pirates seldom if ever volunteered for that line of work. As luck would have it, I met a pirate there at Pirate House, I asked him to say it, and he said Aaaarrrrgggghhhh! Gotta love that pirate talk.

After dark that Wednesday, we took the Ghost and Graveyard Tour, (just another way to get your money, and it works) It was fun. Didn’t see any ghost, just heard the ghost stories, but I could have told that. As a matter of fact, I’m thinking ‘bout coming home and documenting some “Ghostly Tails of Starke County Trails” and having my own Ghost & Graveyard Tours of Starke County. We got lots of old haints in Starke County. I’m sure ghosts abound throughout, it’s just a matter of digging up bones and telling the stories.

Did ya know that Savannah GA is the 4th largest container ship harbor in the country? Well don’t feel bad, ‘cause I didn’t either. I watched ship after ship move up the Savannah River. Ya can’t appreciate the size of those container ships till you’re within a stone’s throw, and I really do mean a stone’s throw to one of those things. I could a hit ‘em with a rock. I didn’t.

Tug boats with such grandiose names as Mighty Mouse, Mr. Push-a-Lot, Little Big Boy, and Bubba, nudge millions of tons of cargo and ships around the Savannah River as if they were feathers floating on the waters of time.

It’s Saturday morning and I’m coming home. Hate to say it but I miss the cold country, and yes I miss the Republican Cat and the 2girldogs. We’ve had so much fun visiting with my family, but all good thing must surly end.

For the last time, this morning we all go down to the sea side for the final visit to the ocean. The wind is blowing as I walk to the water’s edge. Me and the she walk hand in hand leaving foot prints on the sand, We take pictures, of me and she, of Johnny and Jaimie as they take pictures of me and she. I’m tempted to take off my shoes and walk one more time in the Ocean Atlantic but I don’t. With a little feeling of sadness I turn my back to the ocean and walk into the cold morning wind form the west. And so it is with Hilton Head Island and BobbyRay, we part company this 2nd day January 2010, but friends for life.

Now some three hours into the journey toward the East Wing, I wish I’d taken off my shoes and felt both sand and water one more time. It’s just not the same on the beaches of Lake Michigan, or the Bogus.

Spanish Moss hangs heavy in the Live Oak Trees this morning as we reverse our steps of last Sunday from Atlanta to Savannah. As we turn west at Savannah, I’m excited that this section of the trip is going to be in the daylight. Last Sunday night I wanted to see what was on the sides of the road, Today I’ll see.

It’s cotton !! Lots of cotton. When we first came upon the cotton fields, west of Savannah, I almost thought the snow of the cold country had come to Dixie. It didn’t, just balls of cotton everywhere. The cotton fields ran west some 40 miles or so and then the land gradually turned more hilly covered with pine trees. Now Interstate 16 is lined with pine trees on both sides. An undulating canyon of pine.

Somewhere between Macon and Atlanta we pull into a very non descript truck stop along the way, we go into a Wendy’s, it staffed by people who don’t give a damn ‘bout themselves or the customers, and I’m the latter. The quality of their personal appearance, work ethic, and final product just seems to add to the overall ambiance of the place. I never knew him personally, but I bet Dave Thomas would not have been pleased with the way his Wendy’s is being operated, out there, along the way.

One of the sideline joys of interstate travel is traffic jams. You’d think there’d never be traffic jams on the big roads. Not the case, right now I’m twenty miles from Atlanta and moving less than 20 mph. But all is not lost at this slow pace ya get to look things over. I see a pink Mary Kay Cadillac with licenses which read “Pink4me” I also see the left headlight of a 1989 Ford Pick Up Truck held in place with Duct Tape. Good stuff, that Duct Tape. It holds headlights when called upon to do so.

Atlanta on a Saturday Afternoon, the first Saturday Afternoon in 2010, is a pleasant drive thru, don’t know why but it is. This is the first time in a long time, no downtown traffic in Atlanta. Now maybe, they too are still so happy the Ohio State University won the Rose Bowl, they’re all home still celebrating. But there could also be other reasons for the low traffic volume in downtown Atlanta this day. Go Buckeyes!

Chattanooga, a neat word, I’m sure it means something in some long dead Indian language, but for today, it just means the big city on the Tennessee / Georgia State Line, with Nashville 120 miles in front of me. It’s gas & go just inside Tennessee and it’s north bond ‘n down. I don’t care what anybody says, I’m gona eat supper this evening at a Cracker Barrel, and after that, I’m gona buy me a new ceramic chicken.

I don’t think I told ya ‘bout my chickens, lots of chickens, big chickens, ceramic all and most have been purchased at Cracker Barrels across the country. One neat thing ‘bout buying ceramic chickens from different parts of the country, they all cluck in different dialects. Those Brooklyn Chickens ya gotta hear to believe.
Nashville nights are a lot different than Nashville days. Drive into the city lights and out without so much as stopping to say hello Nashville.

‘Bout a hundred miles south of Louisville while the road runs to the northeast, the moon rises in a cloudless sky. I always enjoy looking at the moon as it rises. The moon always looks much larger when it’s just over the horizon. We all sing “Back Home Again in Indiana” as we cross the Ohio River Bridge. It’s good to be back home again in Indiana. Half way to Indianapolis it’s gas & go. The Indiana capital at night looks much the same as Nashville TN except Indianapolis it’s flat and Nashville is not.

Forgot to tell ya, the Cracker Barrel was good. Got two blue and white ceramic chickens. Little chickens they are. I think they are pullets or something, they’re salt and pepper things. This is the first time I’ve had working chickens. All my other chickens are much like the 2girldogs, they just lay ‘round a lot. These may be democrat chickens like the 2girldogs.

As we come upon Lafayette, home of the Purdue Boiler Makers who did not win the Rose Bowl this year as did the Ohio State Buckeyes, It’s just a hop skip and jump to my beloved East Wing, a long hop but a hop none the less.

It’s good to be home in the East Wing, it’s 2:15AM Sunday Morning ,we left the sea side this yesterday at 9:00AM. It’s been both a long and fun day. What a trip!
The 2girldogs are so happy, Sophia the Republican Cat is laying on my shoulders, the white Angel is lying at my feet. The 1wife is asleep. It’s a cold, cold night in Indiana.

Thank you for riding along on my trip home today and yesterday, we’ll have to go again sometime.

Stay safe in Baghdad and Afghanistan

From the East Wing, At Hilton Head Island, Ghosts of Savannah, Digging up Bones, Buying Pullets, and A Happy Republican Cat
I wish you well,
BobbyRay