The Palmetto Coast and Savannah

For a taste of the Old South, we headed to Savannah, Georgia for a few days of wandering. Savannah truly is as gorgeous as you would imagine, with street after street of fabulous old homes, city squares every few blocks with benches under the oaks (covered of course in Spanish moss, very hard to resist taking a ridiculous amount of photos of).



Rich maritime history abounds here, with stories of pirates, shipwrecks and Civil War marine battles on display in various museums. We visited one with an astounding collection of model ships and Dave may have found himself a new hobby building models. We are both enjoying learning about tall ships in anticipation of our tall ship adventure in June near Kingston, Ontario where we will be participating onboard for a one-week sail on a square-rigged tall ship. More on that later.

Going north from Savannah into South Carolina, we are following the Atlantic Coast, which is very different geographically from the Pacific. All along the southern Atlantic Coast are savannahs and marshs, the coast lined with palmettos, fan palm trees and pine forests. Today we are camped on the coast in the Francis Marion National Forest and had a chance to go for a fabulous trail run on the “Palmetto Trail” a 400 mile trail that runs along the coast of South Carolina and then through the state into the mountains.

Culturally, Georgia and South Carolina seem to be very much a part of the American Bible belt (we are judging this based on the number of churches that we pass (seems to be every 100 feet or so…as well as the large billboards everywhere advertising religion and pro-life sentiments).

Because of the lead up to the US election, it’s an interesting time to be in the states. Strangely, we haven’t seen much in the way yet of bumper stickers or lawn signs for any of the major candidates, although we have seen a disproportionate amount of signage for Ron Paul, a candidate who seems to have little actual support, but a knack for having signs posted near major highways.

Amidst the many bumper stickers we have noticed a few glimmering hopes for a different viewpoint. Here’s a few of our favourite bumper sightings:

49% of America agrees with 99% of the world.
Support our troops. We’ll need them to overthrow our government.
What if it really is all about the Hokey Pokey?

Okefenokee Swamp

Following a somewhat budget breaking time in New Orleans, we got back on the road, leaving Louisiana, but knowing we will definitely return (a trip with a week-long budget might be more appropriate – it’s hard not to eat out and pay for music in New Orleans…) We drove across five states in one day (this sounds impressive, but it only took us about 36 minutes to skirt the bottom of Alabama at the Gulf Coast), ending up in northern Florida for the night, having missed the park closure at the Georgia state park we were aiming for that evening. Providing evidence to changing weather patterns, during our one night in Florida it frosted!!! In Florida. The next day, we made it to southern Georgia, to a park that accesses the famed Okefenokee Swamp. Our first impression of Georgia in early March was that it was way cooler than we expected. Apparently they were having an unusual cold snap. We are adept at hitting cold snaps everywhere we go it seems.

Although in the last few weeks we have had ample opportunities to canoe in wetland/swamp areas, and have seen fabulous wildlife from a canoe, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity for a final swamp experience – the Okefenokee, the mystical swamp featured in myriad children’s stories and bad movies.


Black water and lily pads

We spent two half days paddling through the waterways of the swamp, and with black waters covered with lily pads and surrounded by cypress and oak trees dripping with Spanish moss, the Oke did not disappoint. On our second day, we counted 18 alligator sightings. And we’re pretty sure we didn’t double count. The slightly chilled weather also provided us with one extremely good benefit as we prepared to canoe the Okefenokee – fewer mosquitoes!



Just can't get enough 'gator pictures...

The Big Easy

We are currently in New Orleans! The food and the music are amazing. Dave is currently practicing on his new harmonica - our latest instrument purchase. Another violin would be too bulky, even for Moby. In the southern US, Moby (our minivan), which in Vancouver seemed absolutely humongous, often seems like quite a shrimp in comparison to the huge vehicles that are pretty standard down here (especially in Texas…)

New Orleans is famous for many things, including jazz, blues, Mardi Gras, Bourbon Street partying, Creole cuisine, ghosts, vampires, voodoo and nowadays, extreme weather. But with only a few days and a small budget Dave and I decided to focus on the musical side of the city. In the first few hours of our first day we happened upon a live set of an electric viola (so we thought) and a guitar accompaniment playing outside the French market area. The viola player was a genius, they were playing everything from more classic jazz to covering the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix, but with their own style and with much flair. We bought their CD on the street and went back the next day to hear some more, as we heard they were pretty much regulars on that corner. Turns out the viola was actually a hybrid violin/viola with a C string (5 strings total!) but with the fingering of a violin.


Click on the link to hear samples of their music.

For an evening of jazz we checked out the classic Preservation Hall. The Hall was opened over 40 years ago as a means to preserve the classic New Orleans style of big-band jazz, during a time when rock 'n' roll was overtaking the nation and locals down here wanted to ensure their music endured. The venue was tiny, no alcohol or any beverages were sold (though you could bring in a drink bought somewhere else, it’s very common to drink on the street here) and there weren’t even bathrooms!! We were seated on the floor pretty much in the shadow of the drums. Except for a slight ringing in the ear when the cymbal was played the show was amazing, 5 guys playing their hearts out, most of them looked like they had been playing jazz for decades. An excellent experience.

It’s been three years since Hurricane Katrina came through and surprisingly we’ve been hard-pressed to find much obvious evidence of flood damage. The city seems like business as usual. We spent a good amount of time walking around the French Quarter to check out the amazing diversity of architecture, influenced by the French, the Spanish, the West Indies and West Africa and all mixed into a gorgeous medley of styles.

We’re off to Georgia tomorrow, but we’ll definitely be back. Maybe for jazz fest…

Cajun Country

"Cajun" is actually an americanization of "Acadien," and seems to be used to refer to anything which has some roots in the transplanted french colonists who, after being forcibly deported from Acadia (now Nova Scotia) wound up in Louisiana. In some places the word "Creole" is also used, but that seems to have widely varying meanings depending on who you ask, and most seem to just use "Cajun." The French areas of southern Louisiana are also referred to as "Acadiana" and Lafayette is the central city of the region.

When most people hear the word Cajun they think food, and with good reason. The food in Lafayette is incredible. The best meal of the trip thus far (including South America) was definitely Megan’s blackened catfish with crawfish etouffee. If you can’t fly down to try it (worth the trip) you can get the recipe at http://prejeans.com.

On the way to our next campsite we paid a visit (paid homage?) to the Tobaasco factory on Avery Island. We learned a bit about Tobasco production, learned that after 150+ years it’s still very much a family business, and scored some hot and spicy Tobasco swag.

We drove to a state park near New Orleans with the intention of moving into a hotel after a day or two at the park, but the park ended up being so convenient that we just stayed. This was good for our budget, which was in for a bit of a beating over the next few days. We took one day of R&R at camp before heading into the Big Easy.



Dave finds a new use for a bit of old climbing rope

Canoeing Louisiana – Armadillos and more Alligators

After spending time in both Austin and Houston we were ready for some time away from cities. We crossed the border from Texas to Louisiana and instantly felt the difference. Travelling around from state to state, we’ve been given the opportunity to really notice the widespread differences between the states – it’s difficult to understand how such different cultures can be united as one country. However, we are looking forward to exploring the central and Maritime regions of Canada as well, to see if the same holds true in Canada.

We thought we’d drive through Louisiana in a day or so, stop at New Orleans along the way and maybe eat some gumbo… we’ve been here a week so far and haven’t even been to New Orleans yet! We started our stay here at a state park with miles of cypress tree swamps, covered with Spanish moss, filled with lilypads and bright green algae, teeming with birds and wildlife, including our new favourite, the alligator. We rented canoes for a day of paddling about and were rewarded with some of the most beautiful scenery yet on our trip. Not what I would have expected from a swamp!




As well as all the birds, we viewed one nice fat alligator sunning himself on a log (from a safe distance!) and a nutria, an animal we’d never heard of before. The nutria is very similar in appearance to a muskrat, kind of like a small beaver but with a rat-like tail. Nutrias are introduced species in Louisiana and so are generally reviled as pests. The government has developed a hunting season as well as a host of recipes to entice people to come on out and catch nutrias for food but the program has not been too successful. If you know what a muskrat looks like you’ll have an appreciation for why they aren’t exactly an appetizing looking creature…



Our canoeing adventure was so fun that we decided to repeat it at a park further south, in an area called the Atchafalaya Basin, a hugely important wetland area. Our canoeing skills were starting to improve by day two, the first day we went out had seen several tree-canoe head-on collisions (thankfully our speed was low) as well as a few unfortunate incidents with bank side shrubbery. Capsizing into a murky swamp that does in fact have a very healthy population of alligators was not appealing so we were glad to be canoeing smoothly. In the Atchafalaya we were lucky enough to see not one but about five baby alligators! They were sunning themselves on logs, minding their own business. Except for some phaffing about with our camera for the first group, we tried also to mind our own business and let them be, as if a boat glides too close, they would slip down and into the water. We met a wonderful and knowledgeable park ranger who explained a lot to us about the wetland environment, including that alligators are much less aggressive than people might think (they are apparently significantly less aggressive than crocodiles for example), and that they generally try their best to steer clear of humans.





In keeping with the “A” letter animals, we also had our first sighting with an armadillo at our campsite – Megan heard something rustling about at night next to our van and went to check it out. All she saw was a brown creature with a long tail and it’s head stuck in a hole in the ground. In the dark it looked like the hugest rat ever seen!! Eww. So she got the high-powered headlamp to check it out and found it had strange patterns. Dave got out to take a look and it lifted its head. An armadillo! Apparently armadillos eat worms and so spend their evening digging around all over looking for dinner. They have very poor eyesight so wasn’t bothered by the bright light we shone on it. The next day we saw about 10 armadillos, scuttling about the bushes.

Don’t Antagonize the Alligators

From Austin, we drove east towards Houston, we planned to visit the Johnson Space Center (of the ‘Houston, we have a problem' fame) but diverted slightly south to spend the night at a state park campground after we hit the early stages of Houston rush hour and realized we would never make the Space Center in time to enjoy it… So we ended up with the nice surprise of the Brazos Bend Park, set amidst wetlands (aka swamp!) and full of alligators!! We arrived with a few hours of daylight to spare so thought we’d go for a run around the lake/swamp area, maybe see an alligator bobbing in the water as we ran by. The landscape was exactly how you’d picture a swamp, with trees dripping with Spanish moss, the black water covered in algae. We ran and looked and looked for an alligator for about 15 minutes – finally we saw one, about 5 feet beside us on the trail, completely out of the water and about 10 feet long. We were so busy looking in the water that we didn’t even notice it until we were literally right beside! We kept running…





The next day we headed to the Johnson Space Centre, spending a full day exploring and learning all you ever wanted to know about what it’s like to live in space and what’s happening with space exploration these days.

Texas

After 90mph winds chased us out of the Guadalupe Mountains near Carlsbad we decided to head way south in search of some real hot weather. Big Bend National Park is right on the Mexican border, you could actually wade over to Mexico from near our campsite. We went for one nice long hike and a few short runs, but mostly we lazed around camp soaking up the heat. Our campsite was at a mere 1750 feet above sea level, so early February is smokin’ hot. We had our first solar showers of the trip and puttered about a bit doing some long-overdue van maintenance.




Then we were off to Austin to see Dave’s cousin Lindsay and her husband Scott. Austin has a very different feel than much of the rest of Texas that we had seen so far, lots of funky shops and restaurants and a fantastic live music scene. ‘Keep Austin Weird’ is the city slogan, found on t-shirts and coffee mugs everywhere you look. Lindsay took us out to sample some of the live music and it delivered with some well, kind-of-weird music! Megan got to spend some time with Lindsay looking through cookbooks and grocery shopping, a favourite activity from home that is pretty rare for this trip. Moby got to go to the car doctor and get a few things fixed, he feels much better. And we all got to hang out with Cooper and Belle, the lovely dogs of the house.