sufficient

Further travels

Upon leaving the campground, we headed back east into Georgia. We drove through Eufaula, one of the most picturesque towns I've ever seen in the South. I've driven through Eufaula many times en route from Auburn to Tallahassee and because my grandmother was born and my great-grandparents are buried across the river in Georgetown, GA. This weekend, however, was the Eufaula Pilgramage. We noticed that many old homes were available for tours and saw signs for an art show and for tickets, so we parked and got out to walk around. Since we could not immediately locate the place to purchase tickets, we walked down the row of artist's booths, finally arriving at the Eufaula Lions Club trailer, set up to sell typical festival fare. In my politest voice, I asked the man if he could tell me what exactly was going on. He explained to me that this was the Eufaula Pilgrimage and that we could buy tickets down at the Presbyterian Church. I was rather dissatisfied with his explanation, as I read the signs indicating that it was the Eufaula Pilgrimage and my lack of understanding predicated my question. Similarly, he did not seem to understand how I could not know what the Pilgrimage was and why such a question would be necessary. I cannot recall a time when I have felt like more of an outsider in the South.

We headed back to the Presbyterian Church to find that tickets did not go on sale until noon. As it was 11:30, we decided to wait. That is, until we realized that it was 11:30 EDT and we were in Central Time. Alas, we drove on into Georgetown where they have built a new road that no longer winds past the home my grandmother was born in.

This time, St Georges Island state park in Florida was our destination. After a drive through the Apalachicola National Forest, we arrived around 5 and secured a campsite. Upon driving to our campsite, we found it to be occupied. Neither the rangers nor the campground host were particularly helpful, so I sat down with a book to await the return of the intruders while Kate made tea. They arrived around 5:45, explained the situation and assured me that they would be clearing out quickly, moving to the campsite across the road. I assumed "quicky" would mean about 5 minutes, so I rejoined Kate at the car and she drove around to our site to wait, tea in hand. After one of the women made her fourth trip across the road carrying supplies (this time, a microwave), we realized that we had disparate definitions of "quickly" and decided to put on our bathing suits. We also realized that we were parked right in front of someone else's campsite and they were staring intently at the proceedings.

Having changed into our suits, we were finally able to pull into our campsite about 6:30. The women were very apologetic and offered us 4 mangoes for our pains, which we of course took.

We rode our bikes to the beach, to find it high tide with wonderful warm water to splash and play in. Sadly, the beach faced east, so as it neared sunset we headed back to our campsite and to a part of the island that faced west. Armed with mangoes, we raced down a 2.5 mile trail, hoping to reach the end of the trail in time to see the sunset. Although the sun ducked behind the clouds and we missed it, I was able to revel in eating a mango straight out of the peel, dribbling its juices all over myself.

Labels: travel

posted by CP @ 3:55 PM 2 thoughts