Merry Christmas from Tifton, GA

A Merry Victorian Christmas from Tifton, GA. This is the heart of the farm country. Peter Pan Peanut Butter is just up the road. Cotton bales are in the fields or waiting at the gin. We spent Saturday at the Agrirama, which is an agricultural living museum. On the grounds they have many tools used in the 1850 years. On this special event local volunteers were dressed in period dress, working at various jobs.

We watched the cane being ground to make a sugar syrup to cook into taffy candy. The typesetter has been working at that press for 65 years. Miss Eunice and her fluffy dog entered the dog look alike contest. She was a piece of work. Had been a teacher for years, and was still sharp as a tack.

Count your blessing that you have a microwave, not a wood stove. The ladies did a fine job with the biscuits and taffy. It was a fun day, and we’re happy to share it.

Happy Holidays.

Victorian Christmas in Tifton, GA

Waycross, GA and Obediah's Okefenokee

Takes very little to keep me amused these days. We’re parked in Tifton, GA in the middle of an old pecan orchard. I look a little like a feeding duck as I glean the fallen pecans. They are such a treat for us, and free!

Wow, we had rain yesterday. I didn’t move out of the trailer. The day before we drove over to Waycross and the Okefenokee Swamp. Had always read about it, and by darn there really is such a place. Pogo even still lives there. Only mom and I are old enough to remember Pogo.

We visited Obediah’s old farm stead. He settled there in the early 1800’s and raised 20 children. I’m thinking he would have fit right in in Idaho. Raised cattle and sold them to the army. Now it has bear, alligators, deer, ostrich, fox, ducks, geese, etc. etc. etc. They have a menagerie. Quite an undertaking to feed all those critters.

Read that in town on the Baptist Retirement Home lawn was the 2nd largest Oak tree in GA., so I had to go see it. About 500 years old, and the span is about 150’. Really a beautiful tree.

On our way to Tifton we stopped for lunch at a little restaurant in a very little town. Advertised as being the “best food in town”. And it was. This is the best way to get a feel of a place. Filled with cammo shirt, capped, logger types, and I could barely understand a word they said. Very strong southern accents.

Do you all know that we are now encouraged to wear red on Fridays? Woops, I forgot today. Oh well, there is something going around on the internet here in the South, to show our support of the troops we should wear red. Of course GA colors for their football team are red too. So there’s a lot of red and cammo.

Tomorrow we are going to the Victorian Christmas Celebration at the Agrirama. They are having a cane grinding party and cooking syrup in an open kettle, samples, candy pulling, story telling and “The TAMS”, “Be Young, Be Foolish, Be Happy”, sounds good to me.

Sunday we’ll be off to Florida, more from there.

Charleston, SC Area

November 28th we started down Hwy 17 toward Charleston. Stopped at the Hampton/Rutledge Plantation. Had an excellent tour and explanation of this area and how the slaves brought the knowledge of raising rice. They also did all the work of digging, diking and leveling 1000’s of acres of land so a few whites could get rich. The rivers were diked and flooded the land, then when the rice plants were started they would open the gates and let the water out. Another Gullah craft brought over were the sweet grass baskets woven with palmetto strips. Hard to resist buying one, I know how much work goes into each.

Charleston, much more here than we were expecting. The downtown Market, the Battery, a walled fortification that tries to keep the storms away from the lovely old mansions. A very active downtown area, mall stores, but not in a mall. Drove over the brand new bridge to Mt. Pleasant and toured Fort Moultrie, across from Ft. Sumter. Lots of Revolutionary and Civil War history.

On the last day of November we divided to see the things we were most interested in. Ross went to Patriots Point, the Naval & Maritime Museum. He skipped the Yorktown tour since he had toured the Lexington last year and they are sister aircraft carriers. He took tons of pictures and met and spoke with two gentlemen who had served on the ship, now in their 90’s.

I did the old downtown area. The weather was so nice in the mid high 60’s sunny, no humidity. Picked one old restored mansion out of a list of 5 or 6. There are so many gorgeous homes, lots of restoration, the “old painted ladies” look wonderful.

Drove across Charleston Bay to James Island. More beautiful neighborhoods. At the far eastern end there is a National Oceanic Research Station to the west on Ft. Johnston Road we stumbled upon St James County Park. Three miles of it decorated with Christmas lights and a very nice campground we wish we would have stayed in. Would highly recommend it if you’re ever in Charleston.

We could have spent many more days here but decided to keep moving south while the weather was still gorgeous. On December 1st we drove to Beaufort (beau like in beautiful I read). That is how they pronounce it in SC, probably different in NC. We’re in a wonderful State Park on Hunting Island. We were able to snag a spot right on the ocean. No wind, sunny, 65 degrees. I’m loving it. This is the Gullah Country that Pat Conroy wrote about in his books. Many of the descendants of the original slaves still live in this area. The Loggerhead turtles lay their eggs here in the spring. I keep looking for flocks of migrating birds, but so far nothing.

We continue to watch the weather and stay ahead of most storms. To be continued…..