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Southern Route -- October 13, 2002 - November 30, 2002

Highlights

* Driving through Georgetown, South Carolina, just as a tornado was touching down. When we heard about the destruction, Dana thanked her lucky stars that we’d escaped harm’s way, while Will was sorry that we were unwitting travelers, since he would have stopped to help, or at least given away all the Gloucester t-shirts we have stashed in the back of the Subaru. Our revised travel protocol now requires an hourly interruption of our John Mayer CD for a local news report.

Charleston, South Carolina – Island Living in the Low Country

* Cornell Zinck’s Night — Visiting our college friends Pete & Jill Denk, who live just over the bridge from Isle of Palms. This week, Jill and Pete chaired the first ever gathering of Charleston Cornellians for International Zinck’s night in Charleston. It was a wonderful event, on a rooftop terrace overlooking Downtown Charleston and the Cooper River at sunset with blues playing and a fine gathering of Cornellians going back as far as the class of ’47.

* Folly Cove Visits Folly Beach — Visiting Dana’s brother Joe, and his girlfriend Debbie H., who live in a tree house in a palm tree grove on this Island the locals proclaim to be the "Edge of America". Many thanks to Joe and Debbie for a great funky island atmosphere, great surfing, and the eclectic mix of local haunts.

* Weekly Retreat Parade at The Citadel — Standing at attention at the Citadel’s Friday Retreat Parade, which doubles as a pretty fancy southern social event. About 1,600 cadets marched, fired, bagpiped, saluted, shouted their way across the Citadel’s exercise fields in front of stands and seats filled to capacity with retired generals, local socialites, high school ROTC battalions, tourists and at least 2 world travelers. Really quite an event, complete with cannons and air force flybys. Later, we watched all the blonde girlfriends wait outside the barracks for the upperclassmen taking weekend leave, while the freshman "knobs" were forced to run around campus with supply sacks in their arms, packs on their backs, and upperclassmen screaming in their ears to "pick it up, knob!"

WAIST DEEP THOUGHTS
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Some of the worldly wisdom we’ve acquired through our travels so far:

* On Popular Culture:

We acquired an old Palm Pilot from our friend Bob, who introduced us to the most-downloaded Palm Pilot program, The Palma Sutra. It occurred to us that every single contortionist’s act in the Cirque Du Soleil was taken directly from the Palma Sutra. Coincidence? We think not. The Cirque could not be reached for comment.

* On Friendship:

We swam in a tidal-pool on the beach in Wilmington, N.C. with Will’s 6-year old cousin Sam. The conversation during our leisurely dip went something like this:

Sammy: "I have to pee. But you know…it’s ok just to pee in your bathing suit, because it soaks right through."
Dana: "But then we’d have to swim in pee."
Sammy: "It’s ok to swim in your own pee."
Dana: "But then I have to swim in your pee."
Sammy: "It’s ok to swim in your friend’s pee."

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"I noticed you’ve been missing a lot of work lately"
"I wouldn’t say that I’ve been missing it, Bob." -- Office Space

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