Savannah!

Yes, Virginia, there is a Savannah, and our trip finally came off without a hitch.

Friday dawned bright and clear, and I was up and out of bed by 6. I was very excited to get moving, but I also had to pay a visit to DMV, and dealing with any sort of bureaucracy strikes fear in my heart akin only to a visit to the doctor or dentist. The registration on the car was due and the General and I needed to finally change our addresses on our ID's/licenses and voter registrations to become official residents of Stafford County.

It went very smoothly. We went early enough that we were 3rd in line when they opened and we were able to conduct all transactions very smoothly. The doors opened at 8am and we were on our way, munching on breakfast and hitting I95 by 8:40. Awesome.

I hadn't planned to stop much except for lunch and gas, but the J*R store was advertising that they had a discount book section, so I made a little stop in North Carolina to see what they had. I was moderately disappointed--I'd been to the place before and known what it was about, but frankly, they probably should not have touted themselves as a discount book warehouse. I still did pretty well, I got 3 books on CD, unabridged, plus a paperback for $23. Awesome. We got some gas and moved on.

The General and I started gabbing and it turned out he'd never been to South of the Border. Well, heck, you've got to go at least once! So we stopped in for lunch. This was even more disappointing than J*R. The place has really gone downhill since I was there as a kid, and I was so disappointed. Still, the General got to experience it and eat some hot dogs, so we were happy.

Back on the road, I was racing the GPS. It informed me when we left in the morning that we'd arrive in Georgia somewhere in the neighborhood of 5:30, and with our 2 stops it was pretty much still looking that way. Still, I love racing the thing and proving it wrong, so happily, we arrived at the appointed meeting place at 5:05 and I called the Glecks to let them know we were going to wait for them in the coffee shop. I had the world's best drink there, it was a frozen hot chocolate, but it wasn't watery or nasty, it was flat out delicious. I'm seriously debating how I can make the drive again just for that drink.

So, we sat and read the local newspaper's crime beat, which was HILARIOUS. I'll post some gems later. And then the Glecks arrived. Magic. We met the Glecks. WOO HOO! :-) So we loaded up the cars and headed to dinner to meet up with Annette who'd been driving around waiting for us all to arrive. We had dinner and went back to the Gleck Family Compound to settle in, get to know each other better, and finally collapse.

I know I'm on vacation when I sleep past 7am, and I slept till 9:30. That was awesome. I was so happy pappy dappy. I felt so good. We had plans for the day to take the Old Savannah Trolley Tour, and got the unlimited on/off pass and were on our way. I was so excited to see Savannah, and what a treat, Talmadge and Sera had plans for us to dine at an English pub for lunch. Oh yeah!



The tour was great--we saw some really cool stuff, like the park where Tom Hanks sat as Forrest Gump and waited for the bus to see Jenny, the first women's hospital, a creepy hospital where they used to do autopsies on the sly, beautiful homes, and of course, the Juliette Low house where the founder of the Girl Scouts lived.



We took a very nice tour there and I did a little shopping in the gift shop--nothing major, a couple of patches, a pin, and a Christmas ornament.

Then we walked a bit and Sera, The General and I hit a chocolate shop. Mmmmmm! Then we walked up to where Paula Deen's restaurant was and I took pictures so I could prove to the Dumpling I had at least seen the place. We hopped back on the trolley and saw the rest of the town from the comfort of our little car, and it was so beautiful out--sunny and in the 70's. Gorgeous. It was so, so nice to be outside and see the sun, what a boost to the old spirit suffering the mid-winter-blah's.

After all the busy-ness of sightseeing, it was time for some much needed refreshment, and so we headed to Johnny Harris's, a gorgeous restaurant straight out of the 30's. Unfortunately, Annette was not feeling so well, so the rest of us ate and then we headed home so she could get some rest. Fortunately, after a few, she was feeling better and we were able to sit up late gabbing, until I almost fell asleep and decided bedtime was the better option.

Sunday, I slept in again, and dozed off and on all morning till about 10:00, when I got up and showered. We went to Zaxby's for lunch, which was a great chicken place that the General was swooning over. Then we went back to the house to watch a movie, swap CD's and relax till it was time to leave for supper at a local place, Carey Hillards. Again, delicious food, and fortunately Annette was feeling so much better, that we were happy together before Team Kosior headed for the hills.

After supper, we said our sad goodbyes and invited everyone for GleckFest Part Deux in Fredericksburg sometime, which I fervently hope will happen. The General and I crossed the border and picked up my dad's fireworks at the FIREWORKS SUPERMARKET, where a lady took pity on the General and gave us free "fish" fireworks, which of course, kicks ass.

We drove to beautiful Dunn, NC, where we got a room for the night, and then in the morning, got the world's worst breakfast at the world's worst BK. Seriously, we hauled it down 95 dumping our drinks out the window and wound up drinking Mountain Dew. Yeah, great breakfast drink. However, Talmadge has turned the General on to the possibility of the "Fountain Mountain Dew" as the General calls it, the "Fountain Dew" as Talmadge calls it, and there's no turning back.

We got home before 11:30, despite the GPS's insistence that we would not get home till 12:10 (hehehe). We opened up all the windows, checked on the great hulking beast that was once our bunny (he was fed very well by two boys in our absence and was none too pleased to see us!), ordered some pizza, and I was able to take a shower and a nap before leaving for my book club.

It was a great trip, just long enough to get to know each other and be sure that we didn't hate each other, not so long we got sick of each other. I'll close with a couple of more pictures from our journeys out and about. THANK YOU, GLECKFESTERS! :-) See you again soon!