The GA Pig

Driving down the Georgia coast is B-R-U-T-A-L BRUTALLLLLLLLL, and Tim is the #1 driver for getting us through the endless expanse without going totally insane.

About 30 miles before the Florida border, we saw a sign for the GA Pig - Real Pit Barbecue and we obvi had to check it out. It's basically a house in a field next to the gas station off the interstate.







We were unsure what to order, and although we were basically the only people in there, the woman at the counter tried to brusquely hustle us through. We settled on the rib dinner as a snack for the two of us (and Freddie)



Notice what we thought were pancakes on first glance are actually flattened hamburger buns. Awesome.

I wish we could tell you to drop everything and drive to Middle of Nowhere, GA to partake in these bombass ribs, but we can't. It could have been that it was too hot, or we weren't hungry, or it was an off hour for the restaurant, but they just weren't that great. A ton of sauce, mostly dried out meat, a strange can of Sprite that already tasted watered down, and lackluster coleslaw and potato salad were a let down for us. Boo urns.

You can definitely see that they are used to a lot of business though, and if we ever found ourselves in the area again, we would probably try to stop in on a busy Saturday evening or something. Disappointed by the food, we still loved the handpainted pig decor.

Savannah, GA

We drove from Charleston to Savannah in the late afternoon. I had a meeting the next day with Mr. George Perez, Associate Director of the furniture program at SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design). The person I pay to be my friend and PR agent, Gabbi Anastasio (designmouth.org), has helped to set up meetings for me at various retailers, galleries, museums, and in this case art schools all over the country in order to shake hands with people and show off my new collection of furniture. It's our hope that face-to-face meetings with the people who make it possible for me to have a career will give me a "leg up in the industry," as they say... Anyway, it's because of this meeting that Savannah would mark our first hotel splurge of the trip. I was looking pretty haggard with a scruffy beard and a couple day old layer of sweat still glistening on my forehead.

We stayed at the Thunderbird Inn. A super cute refurbished 60s motor inn. On first glance it might look a bit sketchy, but it was the total opposite. We were psyched to be there. We did not get a chance to try the moon pies, however. :( That night we had a mediocre dinner on the river with all the other tourists. Everything looked cute, but, as is usually the case in these situations, I couldn't shake the feeling we were eating a scam meal for dumbo tourists like us.

The next day we woke up to Gabbi's text telling me the meeting with Mr. Perez would be in a little over an hour. Ok. See ya later beard, stop pouting Freddie we know you wanted to live here forever and never see the van again, bye bye Thunderbird. We jetted across town, I had my meeting, Michelle studied in the heating up in the morning sun van. The SCAD furniture program has amaaaaaaazing facilities and George was super nice to talk to for an hour or so. I didn't get to meet any students, but the work that was out in the lobby was pretty solid. I was overall really impressed with what they had going on, made me want to go to grad school. On George's recommendation we parked at the south end of Forcyth Park and the historic district of Savannah and just started walking. It was silly hot out but the shade of big trees with the spanish moss hanging kept it tolerable.

Freddie chased squirrels off the leash and could not have been happier.

Then! We had lunch at Zunzi's. Gaaahhhhh! Soooo good! My guess is the South African guy slinging hummus that day was the owner. We ordered something called "Oliver's Lunch" and it was GD incredible. It was smoked sausage and chicken on a bed of mashed potatoes covered in the most amazing secret sauce ever. We also got a plate of hummus, so delicious, and some rooibos tea, also spectacular. No, it wasn't fried chicken or biscuits or grits or whatever other soul food we're "supposed" to have eaten at Mrs. Wilkes, but I wouldn't have traded this really simple but amazing meal for anything else in Savannah. I don't think. Bellies full and tea refilled, we loaded into the van once again and decided to drive out to Tybee Island. We didn't manage any photos on Tybee. We were extremely cranky. The A/C in our van is a bit...temperamental. The engine had heated up enough sitting out in the sun so that it just did not want to kick on. We got to the beach, sweating like Georgia pigs already, and decided it was just too damn hot out to not have an umbrella. We were also bummed to find no dogs were allowed on the beach. Before Michelle and I got in a misdirected argument about nothing, I pulled the van down a side street with some parking for the beach. The lifeguards were off to the south, so we suited up, jammed Freddie in a canvas bag and marched North. When we got far enough away I scooped Freddie up, then continued our trek straight into the ocean. Freddie was panting like a maniac so I told him this was for his own good and dragged him to his salty nightmare. He absolutely hated every second. I was trying to help him avoid the small shore break, but he was climbing and clawing up my chest leaving a few good marks on me and Michelle. We laughed and laughed, though Freddie found none of this funny. Saturated, spiteful, and ugly (a wet Freddie is an awful thing to look at, he resembles an underfed swamp rat and we do not claim ownership when he's in this state) we rescued him from the awful situation we put him in in the first place, made our way back to the van, and started our long hot drive to Orlando.

Charleston, SC

After spending the night at Carolina Beach, it was time to hit the road again.

Our goal was to make Savannah by nighttime, which meant we needed to blast through South Carolina. But no worries, SC is a silly state anyways. (See: hiking the Appalachian Trail)

We got to Myrtle Beach and decided to take a short drive through town. We meandered through yet another beach town and when we got out, realized that we had just been in NORTH Myrtle Beach. Sigh. So we took a swing through Myrtle Beach proper and confirmed our suspicions that we had in fact missed Black Bike Week. Bummer.

No pictures from Myrtle Beach because it's not like we're trying to keep updated or anything, are we!? Oh wait, just this one picture of a car I liked, complete with spinners!



You never see awesome cars like this in New Hampshire.

Now it was back on old crumbums Route 17 to make it down the coast.

We passed through Charleston late in the afternoon on Memorial Day. There is a very distinct image I have when I think about old southern towns, and Charleston did not disappoint.





We parked in a charming downtown area and looked at all their cute shops and markets. We even bought some awesome wood blocks from Kapla that are basically wooden legos.

After a quick consultation with our buddy Yelp, we decided to check out a French place by the courthouse. I know it's a cliche thing, but I really really love Paris and the whole French food thing so I was pretty excited about it, and Gaulart - Maliclet did not disappoint.



I wish Freddie had someplace to stay so we could have eaten inside and had some Kir, but our take out cheese and pate plate and croque monsieur was still awesome.



After we were done, Tim decided to hit up G - M again for a hot dog. UHHHHHMAZINGGGGGG



Basically, this hot dog had us singing its praises in the streets of Charleston.

Happy and full of cheese, we wandered the back alleys and narrow streets of gorgeous historic Charleston, where they all still have gas lamps on the houses and it's all so charming I could barf. It was definitely a place we would go back to.

Wilmington and Carolina Beach

To exit the Outer Banks is no small task. The North Carolina coastline is nothing but inlets, peninsulas, and ferries, and our GPS (which we hate by the way) in fact led us to a ferry dock and instructed us to board. We were not the first touristy victims of this, however, as our predicament was immediately diagnosed by the ferry office staff the second Michelle stepped in. We got back on route 17, a road which would be our uninvited best friend all the way down to Florida, and decided we wanted to drive only as far as Wilmington that day. We arrived in the late afternoon, found a shady place to park and took a walk around downtown. Wilmington is super cute, we at first compared it to a southern Portsmouth but decided the homeless people made the place feel more like Portland, ME. I think it's the colonial thing with a southern...twist that Michelle and I liked: something we would like in the next couple cities we visited, as well.

I have an annoyingly persistent aversion to being "scammed." I'm not entirely sure where this came from or when, but it tends to steer Michelle and I away from signs on docks which read "$4 boat ride." I must have been tired or perhaps just in a good mood because we did, in fact, end up on a boat in the Wilmington harbor waiting for a 15 minute, $4 sail in one large-ish circle.

Oh, there's the U.S.S. Carolina, maybe we'll get a better view of that. Nope, time to circle back, this is as close as you're getting. We got what we paid for, lesson learned.

We don't have photos of this, which is surprising because 75% of our pictures so far are of food, but we had a great meal in Wilmington at a place called Circa 1922. We tried some of the charcuterie which was decent, but the shrimp and grits was amaaaaziiing. We're not the best judges of good grits as we're pretty inexperienced, but this bowl of southern slop was better than any I've ever had.

And on the already too long list of things we can't believe we missed, the Serpentarium. Closed. Bummer.

There's a surf/skate shop in town so I asked the young folks working there where they surf. They gave us directions to Carolina Beach and we took a ride down there to see if we could sleep by the ocean that night, assuming the area would be a state park at the end of a quiet road where we could avoid noisy crowds for a bit. No such luck. Carolina Beach is yet another tourist beach town with stores with names like Waves, Sunsations, and Eagles (that one's strange) all selling the same beach town garbage towels and hermit crabs. We felt very lucky to find a small parking lot right on the beach which was free overnight and came equipped with bathrooms and outdoor showers. As we always do we parked in the darkest corner of the lot. Then we put on our swimsuits, tucked away our shame, swallowed our pride and showered under the moonlight... and nearby terraces of vacation goers enjoying a late night beer. We once again had not showered in a few days, so although I was wearing surf trunks and we had to constantly pull on a chain to keep the water flowing, this Carolina Beach parking lot cleanse has easily made it into my top 5 showers of all time.

The Outer Banks, NC

It's a beautiful place and it doesn't need any help from Old Man Nostalgia, but the Outer Banks get it anyway as my family made vacations there somewhat of a summer tradition when I was growing up. I love this place. Michelle and I arrived on the Friday which would kick off Memorial Day Weekend. The traffic surprisingly did not make me want to put a brick on the gas pedal and blast our beloved home on wheels off a cliff, but the RV parks and campsites were compleeeeetely booked up with weekend patriots so we were just not gonna find a slot. We ended up pulling into the "Salvo Marina and Campgrounds." This name was not as official as we took it to be as the "marina" was one boat ramp and a couple slips and the "campgrounds" turned out to be not much more than a nice man's backyard. We handed him $20 as we pulled in and parked on a nice private peninsula of yard right on the sound. We were very happy. The map shows just how far out into nowhere we were. Our options for dinner were slim so we ended up at Uncle Pauly's drinking local beer and peeling steamed shrimp. Celtics/Magic were on the many tvs. We were happy again.

The next morning our goal was simple enough: go to the beach. The Outer Banks have little more to offer than beach in every direction, so this all seemed reasonable enough. Upon spotting some surfers parked on the opposite side of the road, I made a quick u-turn, overestimated the van's off-road abilities and got us good and stuck in the sand. To get your wheel this far sunk into the ground is not something that happens spontaneously. I refused to accept that Vanpira couldn't dig herself out of this jam so I leaned heavy on the gas until we could literally sink no further. Stupid tourists.

AAA winched us out of this one and we were grateful. We were stuck for a bit more than an hour... at the beach! Oh, boo-hoo! So, while we waited, all this happened:

First surf of the trip! The conditions were not ideal, but I paddled out and caught a few anyway.

Freddie you look insane.

After the big Winch-Out of 2010, we stopped at Brew Thru to pick up some t-shirts for my pops and some Weeping Radish, our new favorite coastal NC craft brew.

We went to Sonic!

And the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kitty Hawk. Actually pretty awesome, even having been here before. I didn't realize until this trip, though, that they were from Ohio not North Carolina. I don't think NC should be taking as much credit as they do. Get on that, Ohio! Take back man's conquest of the sky!

Williamsburg,VA - May 28

Even though we had been in Virginia Beach the night before, I told Tim we def had to go to Williamburg. I don't know why, maybe it was because of my American Girl doll that I had and all of her awesome doll accessories (Felicity and her four poster bed and cool clothes). So we headed in a northwesterly direction, broke the space time continuum, and soon arrived in ...

COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG!!!!!



It's this silly town that looks just like how it used to, with costumed people walking about and all sorts of colonial swag to buy. Don't get too excited, the costumed people aren't in character or anything :( :( :(

AND HERE'S WHERE I BLOW THE LID OFF OF THE WHOLE THING!!!!!! (sorry Colonial Williamsburg)

If you ever get the chance to go there, and you think the price of admission is a bit high... do yourself a favor and don't buy tickets. The whole town is open to the public, it's just places like the wigmaker and wheelwright that you have to have the ticket to enter. So if all you want to do hang out in a colonial setting, save yourself the 36 dollars.

Timmy is cranks cuz we paid full price!!

The rest of the town is pretty cute (the non colonial part), and they have delicious Virginia Ham biscuits!! Yeaaaaa!

Virginia Beach

Or: Part Two in a Series of Beach Towns

We stopped at a visitors center as soon as we crossed state lines, and immediately saw three things: a sign welcoming us to the south, a truck with a confederate flag front license plate, and this awesome pay phone.

It also immediately went from nice and temperate to hot and "I wanna kill myself" humid. Look how hot Freddie is

We kept on driving and crossed a gigantic bridge, of which we have been seeing many, and arrived in Virginia Beach.

At this point, we had not showered since the morning we left, making us three day stinky. Grooooosssss!

So we decided to break the bank and stay at a campground

It was adorable and kitschy, and most importantly had showers and a bathroom not attached to a Starbucks.

We had a delicious meal at Big Sam's where we demolished everything, even though we decided we liked New England Oysters better

Afterwards, we had a nice night in the van, complete with gas station wine out of plastic cups and the first episode of season 3 of Skins.