Weekly Update 12/4/2022
Lisa and Dave were still with me at the start of the seek. We did a few more things: Bonaventure (Lisa and Dave helped me put the winter flowers on John and Dessies’s sites), the Mighty Eighth, drinks at Rocks on the Roof, Leopold’s, and meeting Kay for supper at a new Mexican restaurant not far from me. I dropped them at the airport on Tuesday, and missed them immediately. I missed all my company: Allen, Lisa and Dave, and I doubt that I’ll even be seeing Kay so much. It was an amazing visit, and I’m so glad they all made that happen for me.
And then, back to my normal life. I did tours at DH, and attended book club at TLC. There was a lecture, but I didn’t go out that evening. I watched TNF because Dave and Lisa were kind enough to add me to their Prime membership while they were here. It was nice to watch the Bills, and nice to be able to sit in my recliner to do that. I also watched quite a bit of the World Cup.
This was the weekend of TLC tour to Milledgeville. It didn’t start well on Friday, as I got my times mixed up, and I was one hour late for the bus. Everyone else was waiting for me to show up. Luckily, the construction of I16 wasn’t bad, and we breezed right through that congestion and were able to make up time.
Our first stop after lunch was to the Old Governor’s Mansion. Milledgeville was the capital of Georgia from 1804 until 1868. The mansion was build in the 1830s and served as the residence for Georgia’s chief executives for over thirty years. When we visited, it was decorated for Christmas, and it was wonderful. The tree in the rotunda was so tall that I couldn’t even get a photo of the whole tree.
Following that guided tour, we walked to the Sally Ellis Davis House. Sally Davis was born in Baldwin County in the 1877 to an African American woman and a native Irishman. While she could easily have chosen to live her life as a daughter of privilege, Davis was responsible for educating hundreds of African American children despite the odds in a segregated South. Her home is preserved, and one room is set up to look like a school room where she would have taught.
We then checked into the hotel and had a little free time to rest up and get settled. We took our bus back into the city in the evening for dinner and to enjoy the First Friday festivities. The town Christmas tree was lit, we were offered cookies as we wandered the streets, and we had a chance to do a bit of shopping. The wait for a table at the Velvet Elvis restaurant was so long, we didn’t really have a lot of time to look around the town. That’s ok. - I don’t have much Christmas shopping I have to do anyway.
After a restful night at the Holiday Inn, we were up early and back on the bus for a ride to Andalusia Historic Site. Andalusia served as the home of famed American author Flannery O’Connor from 1951-1964, when she died at age 39 from Lupus. Today, the farm serves as a museum whose mission is to care for, collect, interpret, and exhibit items that illustrate the history of the site when it served as her residence. Many of the furniture and other items in the museum originally belonged to Flannery O’Connor and her mother when they lived there. To learn more about her writing, we toured the special collections library at the Georgia College, which is located in the town. They house her papers and first editions of her books. We also were able to join a discussion with two experts on the author and her works.
Before leaving the center of the town, we enjoyed a group lunch at a restaurant. I had a chance to get to know some of the other members of the tour (I really did not know any of them except Roger, our leader, and John, my former neighbor). Then we were back on the bus for a guided talking tour of the Central State Hospital. Founded in 1842, The Central State Hospital Campus has been one of Milledgevilles’s most well know and complex sites. It gained national recognition during the 1960s as the United States largest mental institution. Times change, and institutionalizing citizens with mental health issues is no longer the preferred treatment plan. Now, many of the buildings are boarded up.
Our drive back to Savannah on Saturday was uneventful. We arrived more than an hour ahead of schedule. I was glad to be able to enjoy this get away, and learn more about a historic city in Georgia.
One rather unnerving thing happened. As I was racing to get to the bus on Friday morning, a diagnostic light appeared on my car dashboard. I was late, so I really didn’t have time to think much about it. But I made an appointment online from the hotel room Friday night to have the car checked first thing Sunday morning. I thought it might have something to do with brake fluid, but when I had it checked, it seemed that a light bulb on one of my taillights had died. So, they replaced that, and I was safe to drive again. What I had expected to be an expensive brake job was a simple fix. Getting a light bulb changed is only $50.
Sunday night was the Davenport House Christmas party. I prepared my dates and bacon (the simplest dish to pass I could think of) and joined they people after the early games finished. I had my phone handy to watch Miami and KC, but I was home again before those games ended.
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